11 CASA CORDATI (BARGA/ TUSCANY)

A surprising discovery

Not far from Lucca in Tuscany the small village of Barga is conveniently located on the hill top of a steep dome-shaped mountain range. Above the medieval town centre towers a large Cathedral.
Below the Cathedral narrow streets wind  through the village. Bright sunlight rarely reaches down to the streets. For cars it is almost impossible to find a way through the narrow curves and bendings. This is the domain of small three-wheeled pick-up trucks, whose approximation is already announced from far by the noisy rattling of their two-stroke engines. When passing by they leave behind a powerfully stinking blue gas plume which remains in the air and dissolves only very reluctantly.

All of a sudden a surprising sound like opera singing fills the air. Following the sound of the voice one ends up in front of a wide wooden entrance door of a small city palace.

The door swings open and a hand written sign sends the visitor upstairs through a narrow stairway into the first floor. Now several deep bass voices accompanied by piano become more clearly distinguishable. To his  great surprise the visitor finds himself amid the run-down dwellings of a former noble house. Now it had been remodeled to a small but cozy museum.

 

Bruno Cordati

The house was once inhabited by Bruno Cordati, a painter and great son of the city of Barga. Cordati never attained major importance beyond its closer homeland, but its pictorial language is absolutely stunning. Amazingly his paintings hang partly unframed on the walls, from which the plaster crumbles, or they were just put on chairs, washstands or on the floor    

Compared to the quality of the pictures the run-down place of exhibition appears rather inadequate. This is even more true for the way the pictures are presented. Only a brief look at a few paintings is sufficient to ascertain that Bruno Cordati is a painter of category.

 
Casa Cordati as cultural center

When approaching the small room from where the sound of piano and voices originated a corpulent Maestro is sitting in front of his instrument singing with a deep bass voice an opera aria, probably from Puccini, who had lived and worked in close proximity. Then two young singers join in and take over singing with full strength. One of them had not even discarded his huge backpack.

The scenery seems to be truly remarkable, somehow unreal, particularly since none of the three singers takes any notice of the visitors who have discretely stepped closer breathlessly listening to the music for a while in the tiny room.

Bruno Cordati - the artistic work

The art exhibition comprises about fifty paintings that represent only a small fraction of Cordati's entire work. In my view the portraits are particularly attractive, showing smooth and nearly inconsequential scenes from everyday life of simple people within their natural environments, without any pathos, but full of intrinsic beauty, elegance and nobility.