TRA ARTE E SCIENZA 2022-2023
Queste opere sono state create a tema da Silvia Patrono per il Museo di Medicina in Padova, MUSME. In questi lavori i personaggi della medicina e scienza patavina vengono rappresentati con elementi che caratterizzano i loro studi e trasportati in un mondo immaginario, in uno spazio senza tempo dove l'energie del passato, presente e futuro si uniscono e le ricereche diventano un'unico motore di sincronie intellettive che viaggiano in una medesima direzione.
Ancient presences
Oil on canvas, 2022, cm 140 x 70
CONDUCT YOUR PROJECTS WITH STRENGTH AND DETERMINATION, EVEN WHEN FACING ADVERSITIES. THE ENERGY OF PAST RESEARCHES AND DISCOVERIES IS PASSED ON, CHERISHED IN THE PRESENT AND MADE ANEW TO REALIZE THE PROJECTS OF THE FUTURE.
Silvia Patrono
Strong, ancient statues, solid presences, protect and support us; next, contemporary figures feel and bear the energy of what happened in the past.
Thinking about Pietro d’Abano, astral influences
Philosopher, astrologist, physician 1250-1316
Oil on canvas, 2023, cm 150 x 100
Two young contemporaries lies quietly and next to their primary organs are depicted the correspondent zodiacal signs.
Following ancient beliefs and Pietro d’Abano theories medicine was thought to be part of astrology and alchemy.
The male figure on the right rests his head on a skull, representing the uncertainty of life, held by a column and by bygones heads, representing the traditions and the past.
The young girl, instead, reclines her head upon medical writings, dreaming of future projects.
Andrea Vesalio, with the skull and treatise. Physician, anatomist 1514-1564
Oil on canvas, 2023, cm 150 x 100
Work donated to the Musme, Museum of Medicine in Padua to remain in the permanent collection
Andrea Vesalio writes the first Anatomy treatise, with the anatomical tables made by the German painter Juan Stephan Von Calcar, who lived in Italy between 1510 and 1545.
The physician holds in one hand his studies and in the other a skeleton. Around him curious bystanders are watching him work. They are young contemporaries, they will hold dear and perpetuate the effort and energy of the Master.
The skeleton, reinterpreted on an illustrated table, ponders on what it used to be lying on a golden sphere, symbol of harmony and balance, below which are Vesalio’s writings and the treatise De Humani corporis fabrica.
Delicate origami-shaped figures symbolize dreams.
Prospero Alpini and the botanical garden dream, Physician, botanist 1553-1616
Oil on canvas, 2023, cm 150 x 100
The Physician walks holding l'HORTUS DEI SEMPLICI, stylised into a geometrical figure: a circle introducing the form of the Garden. Inside the circle the coffee plant, imported by Alpini in Italy from Egypt in 1570, and the Goethe palm, the oldest plant of the garden.
Behind him a contemporary woman has her head between her hands, to represent the pain that the physician will heal with his studies about medicinal plants.
On the background ancient statues are the past that is still present and shows us the way to follow.
Galileo Galilei and the Tripod Telescope. Looking for Jupiter’s satellites
Physicist, astronomer, philosopher, mathematician father of the scientific method 1564- 1642
Oil on canvas, 2023, cm 150 x 100
Galileo Galilei is on the left, beside him some contemporary students. He holds some papers symbolising his research and looks at the sky.
In the foreground the armillary sphere and the tripod telescope represent his discoveries and studies.
Galileo passes on his teaching to present students, same as he did in the past when he held his lectures from the pulpit in the Sala dei Quaranta in the Palazzo Bo.
The youngsters carry on their arms projects and studies to be made in the future, drawn like origami, title blocks and books.
Suspended researches
Oil on canvas, 2023, cm 120 x 80
In the foreground a young medicine student lies his hand on the skeleton represented in Juan Stephan Von Calcar’s tables and repeats the same gesture his master Andrea Vasalio made centuries before. This indicates the repetition of the same actions through time and the importance of looking back to learn important lessons.
In the background a woman wears a feathery hat, as an image of the future, while in the sky some origami shaped birds recall dreams, researches, thoughts which are suspended and are still to materialise.