The Enigma of the Smile

This exhibition project, which is of exceptional scientific and cultural significance, forms part of the prestigious series Encountering the masterpiece, an initiative designed to offer an innovative reinterpretation of the great masters of art history. The exhibition is the result of a collaborative partnership between the Mandralisca Cultural Foundation ETS e Palazzo Madama - Turin Museum of Ancient Art. The event offers an extraordinary and entirely unprecedented opportunity on the cultural scene: to bring two of the greatest masterpieces of the European Renaissance portraiture, both created by the master’s ingenious hand Antonello da Messina.

At the heart of the exhibition lies a comparison between two iconic works, each possessing a mysterious allure and a penetrating expressiveness that has never ceased to fascinate and intrigue scholars and visitors alike: the enigma of their iconic smile. The famous “Portrait of a Man” originating from Cefalù, kept at the Mandralisca Museum and universally known to the general public as the’Unknown sailor, is placed alongside and displayed in the presence of the “Portrait of a Man” part of the permanent collections of Palazzo Madama, historically known as Portrait of Trivulzio. This close encounter provides an opportunity to analyse the Sicilian artist’s extraordinary painting technique, which blends the meticulous rendering of the Flemish painting with the monumentality and sense of space of the Italian Renaissance.