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The Key

Moden Art

18 December 2020

Photo credit: ModenArt

The great artists of the past, from Michelangelo to Leonardo Da Vinci, learned their trade in the workshops of the Masters – already established artists who needed shop boys. The vast majority handed down their craft in this way. There is, however, a form of art in which artists hand beat aluminium sheet panels on cushions made from truck tarps filled with sand, creating magnificent automobiles intended for racing – and not only – that risks being lost forever. The magnificent panel beaters of Scaglietti, Fantuzzi, Gran Sport and many others, true and authentic artists, no longer have students. The Modenese tradition which gave rise to countless Ferrari, Maserati and Stanguellini masterpieces but also the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe and De Tomaso, is no longer training young aspiring artists and the old masters are leaving the scene forever. The Key 2020 explores this world and presents the man from France who, with passion and sheer commitment, aims to turn this trade into an art museum. Jean Marc Borel has gathered together the last few remaining master coachbuilders in his workshop in Campogalliano and has commissioned them to recreate the bodywork of some the most famous cars of the past using wooden bucks and, more importantly, the “filoni” wires that are specific to the Modena school of coach building, so that they can be put on permanent display in a museum. In the meantime, he has organised a magnificent exhibition in Modena in a converted church that illustrates just how much the baroque architecture and furnishings pair delightfully with the slender silhouettes of the bare aluminium shapes. A wonderful story worth discovering. 

The entire history of the Ferrari 250 GTO in a single image: from right to left the first prototype nicknamed “papera” (duck), the 1962 GTO and finally the 1964 GTO. Below the iron wires, used as a jigs to verify the aluminium panels after they were beatenThe entire history of the Ferrari 250 GTO in a single image: from right to left the first prototype nicknamed “papera” (duck), the 1962 GTO and finally the 1964 GTO. Below the iron wires, used as a jigs to verify the aluminium panels after they were beaten
A view of the ModenArt exhibition, in the centre the Ferrari 750 Monza jig, half of which is made in wood, the other using the “filoni” iron wire technique. On the right, the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe model, 5 of which were made by the Modenese panel beaters
As they were: a photograph from the 1960s showing the production of the Ferrari 250 GTO at Carrozzeria Scaglietti
As they are: a worker from that period who has become a master today, during the creation of the GTO wire frame
For the exhibition, the Modenese masters also recreated the bodywork of the GTO prototype that served for testing and was lost. The differences with the far-less tapered rear and lack of the characteristic spoiler are very clear