Autumn Equinox 2026

2026 / 128 PAGES. Language: English, Italian

FMR 19 celebrates the most bizarre and mysterious expressions of art, in which the deepest meanings lie concealed within fabulous tales and curious jests. Two pagan stories – that of Ariadne and Dionysus, and that of Diana and Actaeon – provide the inspiration for works whose full meaning is reserved for the initiated. A further strain of inspiration, albeit playfully revisited, animated the Accademia dei Facchini della Val di Blenio, the Renaissance cradle of an unconventional art. This same penchant for the bizarre underlies Bordalo Pinheiro’s ceramic art and Érik Desmazières’ etchings. The regular features explore a dreamlike work by Léon Spilliaert, a painted jest by Jan Steen, dreamy auctions and the dreams drawn by Milo Manara.

Available from Sep. 21

HORS D’ŒUVRE

“Rectangular Views” – Vertigo at the Spiral’s Edge
by Giovanni Mariotti

“Conjectures” – For Whom the Cittern Plunks?
by Giorgio Antei

“Auctions” – The Threepenny Gallery
by Simone Facchinetti

“Ephemera” – Miele’s Veil
by Pietro Mercogliano

THE THREAD OF A STORY, THE STORY OF A THREAD
by Gloria Fossi
For centuries, stories like that of Ariadne (first in Crete, later in Naxos), have provided the inspiration for stunning figurative works.

BORDALO PINHEIRO’S HORN OF PLENTY
by Giorgio Villani
photography Manfredi Gioacchini
The many-coloured and inventive world of the Portuguese ceramics master Bordalo Pinheiro.

RABISCH!
by Antonio Pepe
The Accademia dei Facchini della Val Di Blenio represents one of the lesser-known yet most fascinating chapters of Renaissance art history and school of thought.

THE HEROIC FRENZIES OF CASERTA
by Antonio Soldi
photography by Massimo Listri
The English landscape garden at the Royal Palace of Caserta hides many more secrets than its cool shadows let on.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF CURIOSITY
by Patrick Mauriès
Contemporary etcher Érik Desmazières offers a surprising reworking of the Wunderkammer and Cabinet de Curiosités subjects.

FMR No. 19

Autumn Equinox 2026