In uno dei luoghi più belli e suggestivi della capitale dell’arte italiana, patrimonio
dell’Unesco, nella Basilica di san Francesco, la fl uttuosa e fertile fantasia creativa
di Felice Nittolo ha creato per gli amanti del mosaico e della cultura una nuova e
autentica sorpresa. Nella cripta della Basilica, perennemente invasa dalle acque
freatiche, gli antichi frammenti del pavimento mosaicato che ricoprivano la parte
absidale si illuminano di una luce magica e suggestiva incidendo fortemente la
fantasia del visitatore che, come accadde a Jung, sembrano disorientarsi. Si tratta
di una forte impressione emotiva destinata a segnare per sempre chiunque la
veda. Felice Nittolo ha percorso anche lui questo itinerario artistico e mentale
testimoniando con le sue opere di aver pienamente raccolto l’eredità di un patrimonio
culturale che a Ravenna si è dipanato ininterrotto fi n dai primi secoli.
Le sue sfere di mosaico che galleggiano sull’acqua così limpida della cripta
sembrano sospese nell’aria creando un immediato collegamento tra il sopra e
il sotto tra il prima e dopo, costringendo il visitatore ad un salto continuo della
mente tra passato e presente. Si tratta di bellezze nascoste e quasi negate tipiche
di una città che preferisce nascondere gelosamente le sue luci e suoi rifl essi policromi
dei mosaici all’interno di severe mura di mattoni di cotto quasi a volerle
preservare dall’occhio distratto del volgo ignorante. “Città dei silenzi” e città della
Luce ma anche dell’acqua. Caputaquarum et caput-mundi, città aristocratica già
adulta e grande quando Roma non era ancora nata.
Nittolo con le sue fi gure geometriche ha saputo condensare tutti questi miti e
simboli facendoli calare in una realtà tutta nuova viva e palpitante. (R.B.)
Primo Festival
Internazionale
di Mosaico
Contemporaneo
FELICE NITTOLO
Water And Mosaic - Installation - 2009
CRYPT OF THE BASILICA OF SAN FRANCESCO, RAVENNA ITALY
10 OCTOBER  20 NOVEMBER 2009
In one of the most beautiful and evocative places in the capital of Italian art,
World Heritage of Unesco, in the Basilica of San Francesco, the tempestuous
and fertile creative imagination of Felice Nittolo has created for the lovers of
mosaics and culture a new and original surprise. In the crypt of the Basilica,
permanently immersed in water from the water table, the ancient fragments
of the mosaic fl ooring that covered the apse illuminate by a magical evocative
light the imagination of the visitor who, as in the case of Jung, seem to become
disorientated. A strong emotional impression is produced which aff ects those
who see it permanently. Felice Nittolo too has passed through this artistic and
mental itinerary confi rming that with his works he has absorbed fully the heritage
of a cultural patrimony which in Ravenna extends back through time to the fi rst
centuries AD. His mosaic spheres that fl oat on the incredibly clear waters of the
crypt seem suspended in the air, creating an immediate connection between
what is above and below, before and after, forcing the visitor to leap continually
between the past and the present. Things of beauty are hidden and their presence
almost denied, typical of a city that prefers to conceal jealously the lights
and refl ections of its polychrome mosaics inside austere plain brick walls almost
as if wanting to keep them away from the eyes of the ignorant masses. “A city
of silence” and city of light but also of water. Caputaquarum et caput-mundi, an
aristocratic city already adult and great when Rome had not yet been founded.
With his geometric fi gures Nittolo has been able to condense all these myths
and symbols, placing them in a new, live, palpitating reality. (R.B.)
Felice Nittolo. Born in Capriglia Irpina, but of Ravenna by virtue of his love of mosaics, he is one of the main
artists on the scene of contemporary mosaic art. He is a visiting professor at academies of art in Italy and
abroad. Researcher of new forms of expression in the fi eld of contemporary mosaics. In the course of his artistic
development over more than thirty years Nittolo has caught national and international attention with a series
of ideas which, if not breaking away completely, are highly provocative such as Arrhythmia (1984) and the
manifesto of the New Tradition (1992). Although defending the independence of the mosaic language has
intuitively understood the correspondence between mosaics and theatre, mosaics and music, mosaics and
poetry. The many personal exhibitions and shows include the international art fairs of Madrid, Bologna, Bari,
New York, Basle and Paris. He has also had numerous personal and collective exhibitions in various countries
throughout the world. Recent interest has led to the presentation of his work in personal exhibitions in Japan.
He has published numerous monograph catalogues of his own research. Also in 2005 he founded the niArt
gallery in Ravenna: a cultural centre and promoter of visula arts. www.felicenittolo.it