Raid at the table: from the ancient to design

by C.M.

I am in Turin to follow a rugby match and, as this takes place in the evening, I decided to stay in town. At the station exit I take a taxi to get to the hotel and the taxi driver, very kind, explains the way I have to do to walk the next morning, to the Egyptian Museum which I promise myself to see … He says: “So, turn right and go straight on, after the traffic lights that you will cross on the right you will see Piazza San Carlo, you crosses it on the left and find another road; you take it and fifty meters you are to the Egyptian.”

Too bad he has forgotten to tell me that, before arriving at the traffic light, always on the left and a hundred meters, I would have seen from the corner of Piazza Castello… I crossed it under a pouring rain and no umbrella and I enter in Palazzo Madama. (Of course, I will not tell you of the problems with cabinets that do not open, and because of them I had to call the staff, and that after this I became their “friend”!). Between a mishap and the other I began to visit the rooms, wonderful, culminating with the exhibition Time Table. At the table during the centuries when, lacing up the theme of the Expo, Palazzo Madama has organized this trip that starts from the Middle Ages and reaches up to the twentieth century. The theme “Feeding the Planet” is seen by a comfortable chair placed around a sumptuously decked table, on which are arranged the dishes that change in time and according to their geographical origin.

It welcomes you… from behind, the Carubina of Mence (1550), by Romano Alberti called “The Black from Borgo Sansepolcro,” which seems to be monitoring the movements of the visitor. The elegance of this statue of birch wood is so breathtaking perfect and, with those wearing red boots and nothing else, creates a surreal atmosphere.

Of course I am attracted, immediately, from a display case containing porcelain with geometric designs and colored on white base, with clean and sinuous forms. Are part of a dinnerware designer Gio Ponti (1967) that has created images using the circle and its changes, the cutouts of the same that, overlapping, to become for the eye flowers, leaves and turning them, defining variants with a clean cut with no burr. At Time Table you can see, until October 18, even everyday items related to the period “of decking” as, specifically, the radio TS522 or the Portable TV ALGOL 3Di Brionvega.

After the visit, after the rain, I entered in the Royal Palace… the Egyptian Museum? See you next time.

Cover: Neri Alberti from Sansepolcro, Carubina of Mence, 1559, painted wood