The graphic work of Carlo Cattaneo
Passionate and omnivorous reader of the great classics of poetry, literature and thought, Cattaneo thought of the Salone della Casanatense as an ideal place to exhibit engravings and drawings inspired by his readings: a large noble space that welcomes and returns human knowledge, as well as work of “illustration” by Cattaneo welcomes the literary data, the word, the thought and returns its suggestion. Thus it was that in 1995 – with the frenetic calm and gentle impatience typical of the artist we soon learned to know – an exhibition with the telling title “Carlo Cattaneo: books and drawings” was quickly mounted, which exhibited together valuable editions and illustrations”: small and large sheets with drawings and engravings, signs, notes, twisted and exemplary writings, pre-texts or post-texts endowed with their own autonomous life, absolutely free from the function of visual gloss and yet, in an almost incomprehensible way, perfectly adhering to the spirit of those pages.
Marziale, Cervantes, Kierkegaard, Maupassant, Ovid, Poe, Sophocles, Aesop, Dante, Hoffmann, Leopardi, are just some of the names of the authors whose works were exhibited on the showcases of the monumental hall. At the end of the exhibition Cattaneo generously donated 18 drawings and engravings to the library (some of which were exhibited on that occasion), plus the dummy / collage of the exhibition poster that he had personally composed.