Brescia Exhibition Draws Record Visitors, Showcasing Lombard Legacy
The Lombards have reclaimed Brescia. The first day of the exhibition, which will remain open at Santa Giulia until November 19, recorded attendance figures that exceeded even the most optimistic forecasts. It was possibly the result of extensive advertising, the interest generated by local and national media. In fact, yesterday morning, on the opening day of the event, a small queue even formed at the Santa Giulia museum ticket office for about twenty minutes. The flow of visitors was steady throughout the day. Over 1,200 tickets were sold, placing the exhibition immediately among the top in Italy. Many visitors were foreigners, especially Germans, tourists presumably on vacation at Lake Garda who did not want to miss what appears to be a major cultural event. The success also seems evident from the publishing standpoint: on Saturday, the inauguration day, more than 150 catalogs were sold; by midday yesterday, requests already exceeded thirty. An eagerly awaited exhibition, which explains the large presence of scholars and other visitors arriving yesterday from outside the province. Pavia, Trento, Novara, Milan: an exceptionally attentive and primarily knowledgeable audience who paused to admire the priceless manuscripts, the so-called “Lombard laws,” originating from prestigious libraries. Wonder and amazement. These are the feelings gathered along the journey. The exhibition at Santa Giulia overturns preconceptions and reveals behind-the-scenes insights: this is the secret of its charm, explains Mrs. Alda, 65, who arrived from Pavia (proudly emphasizing “Pavia Lombarda”), along with her two daughters and her husband. “It’s not true then that the Lombards were absolutely crude, savage, and undisciplined as I was always taught. Instead, they changed Italy.” She then elaborates on how tradition traces back to the Lombard period and Pavia the origin of the typical Easter dove cake.
The opinions of scholars and the works on display
An exhibition that recognizes the Lombards’ significant contribution to the construction of Carolingian Europe. An arrangement that highlights all the charm of this people. “It’s like flipping through a new page of history, the marvelous metamorphosis from barbarians to transmitters of classical civilization,” say two friendly and loquacious retired teachers who traveled by train from Novara for the occasion. “It’s a broad-ranging exhibition, featuring works from around the world; it’s unlikely to see all these pieces gathered in one place again. Which part of the show did we like most? The Byzantine icons from Sinai. Their realism and plasticity moved us.”
The exhibition is truly impressive: alongside mosaics, bronze and silver objects, and gemstones, stereovision animations and films on polarized glass are displayed. There is also a section housing over 300 coins from 170 museums worldwide. “Samples marked by time and irresistible allure. Unique in their history and iconography,” explains Marco, a financial advisor from Arco, near Trento, an avid numismatist, as he eagerly examines each tiny coin with a large magnifying glass mounted on the protective glass.
Alongside funerary furnishings and jewelry, another highlight of the exhibition is the priceless manuscripts and volumes from museums in Paris, London, Madrid, etc. Seemingly for experts, but capable of attracting everyone’s attention. Among the visitors is a young teacher from Sarnico, “surprised” to be translating Latin sentences from an eighth-century text for her husband: “I plan to bring my students here when school resumes. It’s a very interesting journey. I want my students to also see the actual sizes of the objects they study during the year in their textbooks.” Roberto Ragazzi