CARAVAGGIO IN MILAN

Eni takes Caravaggio to Milan

Eni was determined to succeed and has done so. The newly restored Conversion of Saul is finally in Milan. An extraordinary painting in the Odescalchi collection normally not on public view, the work can be seen by Milan residents and art lovers at Palazzo Marino, from 16 November to 14 December.

With this initiative, Eni offers Milan, a city with which historically it has a close relationship, art connoisseurs and the general public an opportunity for cultural enhancement.

Eni will be flanking the exhibition with a major public information programme targeting schools in particular.
Schools – Two mornings a week, for the duration of the exhibition, entry will be reserved for schools. During their visit, students will be accompanied by a museum specialist and an actor, who will explain the genesis and history of the painting; the actor will involve the public in an educational performance narrating the tempestuous life of Caravaggio.  
The public – Eni is supporting the exhibition with a series of important communication events to help people find out more about the painting and bring them closer to art. In the area around Palazzo Marino it has installed three multimedia totems running a quiz on the life and works of Caravaggio: for the best scores, Eni is offering 240 copies of the illustrated exhibition catalogue, with photographs of the painting and articles on its history and restoration. Meanwhile, the giant screen in Piazza Duomo will project images of the work and its transportation and installation at Palazzo Marino.  
Eni has also put up a website on the exhibition, accessible via the Eni website (at www.eni.it/cultura): the site will provide photographs and technical data on the painting, interviews with art experts, photographs of the press conference presenting the exhibition, as well as access to the Caravaggio quiz.
The exhibition site will also include a video where actor Neri Marcorè relates the history of the painting and a series of curious facts about the work, in a setting created with computer graphics. The video will also be available in DVD.

With this unique initiative, Eni reiterates its commitment to promoting and divulging artistic and cultural excellence. A value that, together with respect for the environment and the development of local communities and their traditions, is part of the company's genetic code and the basis for its interest in the art of every nation. One of the beliefs of Eni founder Enrico Mattei was that economic growth should go hand in hand with the social and cultural development of every country in which the company operates. This is the concept underlying the binomial "The culture of energy, the energy of culture" that Eni has upheld throughout its history, taking an active part in promoting the arts and music in Italy and around the world.

Today as in the past, Eni puts priority on maintaining active channels of communication with all external individuals and bodies who receive not only services, products and benefits from Eni operations, but also opinions, stimuli and reactions as citizens and institutions. This vision, together with Mattei's characteristic passion, strategic insight and innovation have enabled Eni to become one of the world's top oil companies. Listed on the stock exchanges in Milan and New York, Eni today is active in 70 countries and has 76,000 employees. All Eni men and women have a passion for challenges, continuous improvement and excellence and attribute fundamental importance to the individual, the environment and integrity. It is no coincidence that during 2007 Eni was admitted to the top sustainability indices, including the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (which this year named Eni as best performer in the Oil&Gas sector) and the FTSE 4 Good index.

These values and this common vision inspire the numerous cultural initiatives Eni supports and promotes.

Art to be discovered

With Eni an opportunity for Milan

Eni, Italy's largest company and engaged for more than fifty years in the energy sector, has undertaken a strategic challenge: to contribute, with a responsible approach, to the socio-cultural development of the areas and communities in which it operates. For a number of years Eni has adopted a new and more modern way of considering its relationship with the world of arts and culture, interpreting the transformation of society and people who increasingly look to businesses for an interlocutor to build relationships and as a partner in dialogue.
Today the world of industry cultivates and multiplies its contacts with the public, not merely to improve the quality of its products and services, but to expand a system of relationships and occasions that can contribute, in many different ways, to the growth of society. Alongside the search for events of great cultural interest, goes a search for broader participation.
Together with the promotion of cultural events, Eni has designed and realised initiatives that aim to produce benefits for the territories by assuming the role of mediator between the world of culture - with its  need to spread and communicate - and a wide-ranging public for which cost can often represent a very real obstacle to access. Considering the company as an instrument for social development is a concept that has driven our recent efforts in the field of culture and expresses the values and the philosophy of Eni.
It is in this sense, and in agreement with the city of Milan, that we have imagined and developed the possibility of giving the city the opportunity of admiring for a month an extraordinary work such as The Conversion of Saul by Caravaggio, a painting that is normally part of a private collection and therefore difficult to see. The display of the painting in the heart of the city, in the splendid Sala degli Alessi in Palazzo Marino, will offer visitors a sublime moment of contemplation as the painting is the sole protagonist of the event. A unique occasion for cultural growth for those who wish and have the interest to see this wonderful work of art up close and a new opportunity for Eni to underline a concept in which we deeply believe: the creation of cultural moments is never a cost, but always an investment.

The Caravaggio Odescalchi - Frames from a restoration

 

The complete works of Caravaggio

Biography

The Conversion of Saul

Milan, Palazzo Marino, Sala Alessi, Piazza della Scala
From 16 november to 14 december
Free entrance
The exhibition will be closed to the public on 6, 7, 8 December

Opening hours Every day from 09.30 am to 19.30 pm

On Thursday from 09.30 am to 22.30 pm

Info and reservation:

tel. 02 54277 open 24 hours
School and group reservation
tel. 02 6597979

School guided tours:

Every Tuesday and Thursday from 9.30 am to 11.30 am
Reservations are compulsory by calling the telephone number: 02 6597979
From Monday to Friday from 9 am to 1 pm and from 2 pm to 6 pm

5 days a week

Guided Tour

Guided tour service is available only by reservation for groups and organized by Ad artem by calling the telephone number 02 6597979
School guided and animated tours are free while seats last

Catalogue: SKIRA - on sale at Urban Center in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele