The figure of Luigi Rovati. Genesis of the sculpture by Giuseppe Ducrot

The new exhibition in the Pavilion displays models and a video, illustrating the creative process behind the white Carrara marble sculpture that greets visitors at the entrance of the Foundation. The work is dedicated to the figure of Professor Luigi Rovati (1928 – 2019), appointed Knight of Labour and Knight of the Grand Cross of Merit of the Italian Republic.

As the founder of Rotta Research Laboratorium in 1961, Luigi Rovati led this forerunner of today’s biotech industry to become a story of international success in the research and development of new pharmaceuticals, and one of the most important multinational pharmaceutical manufacturers in Italy. His keen appreciation for history, archaeology and research keeps remains the inspiration for the Foundation named after him, which cultivates his ideas across an ideal continuum of art and science.

The inspiration and the creation of the sculpture are described by Flaminio Gualdoni in the text that accompanies the exhibition: “Here, the work in question is the Luigi Rovati portrait created for the Fondazione Luigi Rovati. A life-sized work made of Carrara marble, the statue stands at the same sight level as its viewers, avoiding the restrictive rhetoric of the pedestal. The work fits in with its context, a neoclassical building where the imposing figure of the physician, researcher, pharmaceutical entrepreneur and all-round humanist is celebrated not as a past glory but as the creator of an enduring present. […] The full figure forsakes any hint of excessive sinuosity, establishing a solid, balanced gravitas which focuses on the face and the marked, unembellished representation of the features. Ultimately, as Ducrot indicates “statuary is an art that is seen, but not seen”, as everything occurs in the face”.

Giuseppe Ducrot
The figure of Luigi Rovati

Genesis of the sculpture by Giuseppe Ducrot

Pavilion
November 9th 2022 - March 26th 2023
Free entry