On 25 September at 18:00 the Fondazione Mudima in Milan will host the presentation of the book Le anguille di Leonardo di Luigi Ballerini, with introduction by Giovanni Bonoldi. The book, published by Marsilio in the Library series, examines a particular little discussion of the Last Supper: the presence of eels on the table painted by Leonardo da Vinci.
The observation raises historical and cultural issues, since the consumption of this food was subject to restrictions in some religious and social contexts. The author uses this detail as a starting point for an investigation that touches gastronomic aspects, Renaissance custom and relations between art and Christian symbolism. The work also reconstructs the historical context of Florentine humanism of the fifteenth century, when a new approach to pleasure and conviviality was consolidated, reinterpreting the classical tradition.
In addition to iconographic analysis, the book devotes space to the complex history of the Upper Room, from the long phase of realization to the subsequent restorations, to the episodes of damage and personality visits that contributed to its critical fortune. There is a reconstruction that interweaves artistic research, a chronicle of conservation and cultural perspectives.
Luigi Ballerini, born in Milan in 1940 and professor of modern and contemporary Italian literature at the University of California in Los Angeles, is a poet, essayist and translator. He translated in Italian works by Herman Melville, Gertrude Stein and other American authors, and is author of numerous volumes of poetry and criticism. Among his most recent works, the translation of Benito Cereno published in 2016.
L’articolo Le anguille di Leonardo di Luigi Ballerini proviene da IlNewyorkese.
