The exhibition, which includes seventy works, most of which belong to the Poscio Collection, takes into account five centuries of portrait in the Vigezzo Valley, the importance of this tradition and the peculiar way in which it was transmitted until the great upheaval of the end of the nineteen century.

Carlo Fornara, born in Vigezzo at Prestinone, is one of the strongest masters of Italian Divisionism and his works dominate the Poscio Collection. The context in which he was formed and his lifelong pursuit of portraiture are the motivating factors of my curatorial choices and the exhibition's central theme.

The show, organized like a turned upside down tree meanders from the attic to the basement of the Medieval Palazzo De Rodis and illustrates four concepts in four sections tightly interrelated:

The origins of this portrait practice, taught in the Valley since the Sixteenth century and geared to provide the basis for success abroad.

The originality of Enrico Cavalli's teaching and the evolution of his talented pupils over three decades, between 1880 and 1910. Parallels with contemporary Italian portraiture.

Fornara Self-portraits from age twenty to the very end of his life.

The narration of his encounter with Segantini.

The itinerary ends, symbolically, with Fornara monumental painting Chiara Pace, emblem of the Poscio collection, painted between 1905-1906. By then, free from any desire to emulate Segantini's cosmic vision but having fully assimilated the possibilities of the master's divisionist technique, Fornara was able to translates the atmospheric light and spirit of his own Vigezzo universe, in powerful images, unquestionably his own.