#CAPRAI4LOVE NEW EDITION Sagrantino Re Migrante
The wine symbol of integration and social responsibility
The project #CAPRAI4LOVEin the wake of the honour of Officer of Merit of the Italian Republic awarded to Marco Caprai on 20 March for its commitment to the integration of refugees seeking asylum, this year will be dedicated the restoration, in collaboration with the Municipality of Bevagna, of the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Constantinople, a religious landmark strongly linked to the values of welcome and integration.
"Since its first edition in 2013," explains Marco Caprai, CEO of the Arnaldo Caprai winery, "the #CAPRAI4LOVE project has become an integral and tangible part of the philosophy of the Arnaldo Caprai winery, a tool that expresses the company's vision and ongoing commitment to the culture of the territory as a key element of sustainability. With this new edition of #CAPRAI4LOVE, we once again want to return a social dividend to the community, also made up of migrants, in which we live, and to seal an extraordinary honour that President Mattarella wished to award me for our commitment to helping refugees from Caritas in Foligno and beyond to enter the world of work and society in general: to date, we have given over 200 asylum seekers a job, starting in 2016".
#CAPRAI4LOVE
The new edition of #CAPRAI4LOVE will be presented on 14 April at 11.30 a.m. at Vinitaly, Hall 7 Stand B6: speakers will include Prof. Attilio Scienza, the President of the Umbria Region Donatella Tesei, the Mayor of Bevagna Annarita Falsacappa and journalist Carlo Cambi. The bottle of Montefalco Sagrantino Docg vintage 2020 dedicated to this initiative will be signed by Luigi Frappi, painter of the Umbrian territory. The print run will be 2000 bottles and the price to the public will be 40 euro (also available in the winery's online shop at www.arnaldocaprai.it/. Frappi's work depicts the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Constantinople in Bevagna against the backdrop of the typical Umbrian landscape, with its bucolic and romantic flavour, at times of yesteryear.
The restoration and conservation of the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Constantinople of Bevagna will be realised in collaboration with the Municipality of Bevagna, owner of the property. "We immediately welcomed Marco Caprai's proposal with enthusiasm: to bring back to his
The ancient splendour of this religious property with its strong symbolic significance is a source of pride for us, just as we are proud of the honour received by the patron of the Arnaldo Caprai farm for the welcome work he has perpetrated in recent years towards many refugees who have found asylum in our area. An admirable activity that we hope will be an example for many other realities and for the entire citizenry,' he says. the Mayor of Bevagna, Annarita Falsacappa.
La Blessed Virgin Mary of Constantinople is known first and foremost as the 'Madonna who came from the sea', a 'refugee' in short, like the many migrants who land in our country and whose lives are not in danger, for this, it is symbolic.
Various are the iconographic declinations of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Constantinople: that of the church in Bevagna is an 'Odigitria' Madonna, a term meaning 'she who shows the way' (to the migrants, pilgrims and travellers), a name given to an ancient icon of the Virgin Mary that the wife of Emperor Theodosius II is said to have found in Jerusalem and taken to Constantinople, soon becoming one of the major objects of worship. The church - located to the south-east of the built-up area of Bevagna, in the locality of Madonna di Costantinopoli, at the intersection of Via Dei Molini and Via Arquata - is municipal property. It is a small building at the crossroads of the most ancient routes that led from the Tower of Montefalco towards the Arquata hill or towards the built-up area of Bevagna, a garrison of more ancient foundation (with a layout that can be dated back to the 13th century) that was then totally modified in the second half of the 16th century. Built from the beginning on a private initiative and not linked to a particular religious order nor administered by the diocesan administration, already in a rural context, it owes its new dedication to the presence of a small community of peasants and workers employed in the surrounding farms and coming from Slavic regions. Being a roadside garrison, the iconographic choice for the devotional theme also serves as a point of reference for pilgrimage routes and travellers, with the portrait of the Virgin with her arm raised pointing to the Child carried on her lap, but also facing towards Montefalco.
Let us not forget, however, that one of the oldest appellations of Our Lady is her being "starfish", beacon of seafarers, as sung in a poem in seven unrhymed quatrains of very ancient composition and widespread since the 6th century. In that song, the mother of Jesus is associated as a shining cloud (star) reassuringly silhouetted on the horizon of those travelling in search of hope and a future. One need only think of the Mediterranean Sea, a crossroads in the history of Christianity, as the archetypal place of those who crossed those waters, repeating that very prayer and litany in the most tragic moments. Moreover, even Pope Francis, in his Prayer to Lampedusa (first pastoral journey, 8 July 2013) had recited, addressing the Virgin Mary: "Protectress of migrants and itinerants, assist with motherly care the men, women and children forced to flee their lands in search of a future and hope".
ABOUT THE ARTIST LUIGI FRAPPI
Luigi Frappi (Foligno, 4 August 1938) is an Italian painter known for being first among the founders of the 'New Italian manner' movement of the 1980s and then among the founders of the 'Revivalism' of the early 2000s. Of him the art critic Italo Tomassoni says: 'The interest that Luigi Frappi had focused on landscape until 1998, now shifts to still life. The message has not changed. Just as with vedute he represented a landscape that no longer exists and sang of its nostalgia, with still life he evokes the death of nature. The approach remains the same: to distance himself from the defeatist prohibition of relating to the classical schemes of vision, leaving painting free to deftly measure itself with the game of representation and resemblance using the memory of the ancients
not as an archaeological find but as a possibility of language that is always alive and relevant. If, in this perspective, Luigi Frappi did not distance himself from the all-modern phobia of measuring himself with art history and did not activate the short circuit with what his idea of art provides his hand with every time he sets out to paint, his painting would be nothing more than an unfolding of the explorations he has long conducted on the side of natural vision. Instead, it seems evident that his peculiar datum is to produce a figure that is topical because it is founded on the persistence of memory, regardless of the dualisms reality - fantasy, true - false, ancient - modern. The exploration of distance (chronological distance, stylistic distance, linguistic distance) supports the register of those who do not want to be complicit in the general homologation and confusion of art with the other commodity-objects of life. Those who also focus on the evolutionism of forms are necessarily governed by a dialectical and 'progressive' principle, irreconcilable with those who instead think that painting is the consequence of an origi-nary drive, founded on the identical and therefore always the same and always different. Whether he paints shimmering sardines or moon grapes, dark pearls or mussels, sweet oranges, lemons or flaming watermelons like volcanoes, Luigi Frappi creates first-hand figures that come from afar but function in the present. His representations are neither prisoners of memory nor utopia but live in the rapid intuition of a memory that becomes experience, so modern as to seem ancient and so ancient as to seem modern, so ideal as to seem true and so true as to seem ideal. Re-establishing an understanding with the continuity of life, Luigi frappi shows how the practice of painting is still animated by a long-term will and on this duration aims to recover the plots of a non-ephemeral reality on which the elites of those who still believe in style find themselves and which the great-grandchildren of the historical avant-gardes and post-modern cynicism ignore or have certainly lost".
ABOUT THE CHURCH OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY OF CONSTANTINOPLE IN BEVAGNA
The sacred places dedicated to Our Lady of Constantinople are of great interest as a continuation of the cult of the Constantinopolitan Odigitria. As mentioned, they are particularly widespread in Central and Southern Italy, where ethnic minorities from the other side of the Adriatic were often present: this is the case of this small church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary of Constantinople, in the municipality of Bevagna.
The church - located to the south-east of the built-up area of Bevagna, in the locality of Madonna di Costantinopoli, at the intersection of Via Teverone and Via Arquata - is municipal property, identifiable in the N.C.T. / N.C.E.U. at F. 41/46 (but without cadastral entity), located near the land owned by Baldoni identified in the N.C.T. at F. 46 part 7.
The exterior has the typical appearance of a votive building, with a double-pitched gabled roof with a load-bearing structure of wooden beams and rafters and terracotta tiles with a roof covering of tiles and under-roof tiles (a recently renovated structure). The unadorned façade has two small windows on the sides that allow pilgrims to venerate the image even if the church is closed. The apse has a rectilinear cut, shaped by a simple extrados niche.
Above the door reads the inscription:
D. O. M.
ECCLESIAM HANC B.V.M. COSTANTINOPOLITANAE IOANNES DE GREGORIIS FAMILIAE DE BENEDICTIS DONO DEDIT THEODORUS DE BENEDICTIS MEVANAS I.V.D.
PROTHONOT APLICUS
PRIOR INSIGNIS COLLEG. TAE S. LAURENTII HISPELLI
ET SACRAE INQUISIT.NIS EIUSDEM LOCI VICARIUS BENEFACTORI SUO GRATI ANIMI POSUIT A.D. MDCLX
"To God Most High / This Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Constantinople
Giovanni De Gregori gave as a gift to the De Benedetti family.
Teodoro De Benedetti bevanate (I.V.D.) Apostolic Protonotary Prior of the distinguished
Collegiate Church of S. Lorenzo di Spello and Vicar of the Sacred Inquisition of the same place, he gratefully submitted to his benefactor in the year of our Lord 1660'.
The interior has a single hall structure, with the altar leaning against the back wall. Signs of a persistent devotion are still recognisable, despite the condition of widespread deterioration of the surface and load-bearing masonry.
On the altar wall, in a niche of simple workmanship, one can read the fragments of the fresco depicting the Madonna of Constantinople with Child; much of the drapery has been lost, but the faces of the two main figures remain visible, of which one can appreciate the delicate features of the oriental-style headdresses and the substantial correspondence, in poses and expressions, with the portraits reproduced in the aforementioned works by Spacca.
The finishes are extremely simple, in keeping with the typology of the rural building: the entrance portal has straight lintel and no exhibits, the small windows have no frames and are only fitted with wrought iron grilles, the floor - dry laid and directly against the ground - is in terracotta bricks laid in regular rows, the walls are completed with lime plaster and paint (the sacrificial layers, now severely degraded due to capillary rising damp from below and rainwater infiltration from above, reveal mixed sandstone and brickwork).
ABOUT #CAPRAI4LOVE
#CAPRAI4LOVE 2013 celebrated the extraordinary recovery of the missive that Benozzo Gozzoli wrote and sent from Montefalco in 1452 to inform one of the most powerful families of the time of his decision to renounce an important assignment in Florence because he was engaged in the
completion of the cycle of frescoes in the Church of San Francesco. A historical testimony of love that offers Montefalco, Umbria and the general public a unique opportunity to admire the manuscript in the very place where it was produced. The letter was about to go up for auction, and the '#Caprai4love' project, an initiative also promoted by the Montefalco Academy for History, Art and Local Culture, the Municipality of Montefalco, the Montefalco Consortium, the Sagrantino Wine Road and the Museum of St. Francis of Montefalco, raised the funds to buy it and bring it back. The medium used was, as in subsequent editions, a special edition of Montefalco Sagrantino by 'Arnaldo Caprai' and a bracelet of the famous 'Cruciani' brand, where bunches of grapes were married to a red Sagrantino heart.
#CAPRAI4LOVE 2015 continued the project with the presentation of the autograph letter of 27 June 1452, and was enriched by the exceptional loan from the Vatican Museums of the 'Madonna and Child between St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Alexandria' by the
Beato Angelico, dated 1435, on display at the San Francesco museum complex from 4 April to 4 May 2014. The purchase of the precious manuscript and the exhibition of the painting were made possible thanks to the fund-raising initiative that involved Cruciani Spa, Unicredit, and local companies and associations that have signed a memorandum of understanding for the realisation of the project.
#CAPRAI4LOVE 2017 it is the turn of the 'Great Franciscans' painted by Benozzo Gozzoli to shine again thanks to an innovative promotional campaign that brought together today's 'influencers' and three great 'historical influencers' of Italian culture. The project was aimed at restoring part of the frescoes in the apse of the Church Museum of St. Francis painted by Benozzo Gozzoli, and in particular the part depicting the 'Great Franciscans': Francesco Petrarca (laureatus Petrarca - omnium virtutum monarca), Dante Alighieri (theologus dantes - nullius dogmatis expers) and Giotto di Bondone (pictorum eximius - iottus fondamentum et lux). Three great personalities who, in the words of art critic Philippe Daverio, "can be considered our 'historical sponsors', the 'influencers' of their era, so our task is to recover them and restore the painting to its original splendour". The project involved the production and marketing of a series of six limited edition bottles of Montefalco Sagrantino DOCG Vigna del Lago 2012 Arnaldo Caprai, the proceeds from the sale of which were donated to the Municipality of Montefalco for the restoration of the 'Great Franciscans'. The distribution of the bottles took place through online sales with the support of @coccodj, @DIavolo, @LiaCeli, @matteograndi, @insopportabile and @Iddio, among the most followed Twitter "influencers" who spread the project hashtag #CAPRAI4LOVE on social networks.
new project financed by the sale of three limited edition bottles of Montefalco Sagrantino DOCG
sold with labels reproducing images of the Franciscan Greats Petrarch, Dante and Giotto reinterpreted by a contemporary artist, Canadian Rick Rojnic. The proceeds of the project will be used to finance the restoration of the wooden arch in the Museum of
St. Francis, another key element in the enhancement of this important cultural site.
#CAPRAI4LOVE 2019
'For us sustainability,' says Marco Caprai, 'means exalting all our values, from nature to culture, from society to work, from business to the landscape, in a harmonious whole that is based on the utmost valorisation of the territory and the community in which we operate. After all, it is Montefalco and its community that give us Sagrantino, and we to Montefalco and the community must return a dividend
social'.
