An exhibition in Bologna recounts the bond between the masters of Felsine painting and the literati of the time

From November 16, 2024 to February 16, 2025, the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna will host the exhibition La favola di Atalanta. Guido Reni and the Poets, curated by Giulia Iseppi, Raffaella Morselli and Maria Luisa Pacelli, in the Salone degli Incamminati. The exhibition is part of the series of studies dedicated to Guido Reni, continuing the recent exhibitions at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, the Galleria Borghese in Rome and the Museo del Prado in Madrid, which have restored a new perspective on the work of the seventeenth-century Bolognese master.

Guido Reni’s works at the Pinacoteca di Bologna will dialogue with paintings, engravings and printed volumes, highlighting the deep connection between the masters of Felsina painting and the literati of the time, whose verses contributed to the fame of the works of artists such as Guido Reni, Artemisia Gentileschi, Lavinia Fontana, and the Carracci. An emblematic example is Reni’s Strage degli Innocenti, whose fortune among contemporaries was sealed by Giovan Battista Marino ’s poetic description in the Galeria of 1620.

The exhibition aims not only to restore an overall reading of a cultural phenomenon relevant to the history of Bologna, but also to disseminate the results of recent studies and enhance the Pinacoteca’s collection.

In the exhibition itinerary, the works of protagonists of the Bologna art scene between the 16th and 17th centuries-from Ludovico and Agostino Carracci to Guido Reni, Lavinia Fontana and Artemisia Gentileschi-are interwoven with the poetic production of Andrea Barbazza, Cesare Rinaldi and Giovan Battista Marino, who were contemporaries and friends of the artists. Thus will emerge a network of relationships and exchanges that animated the cultural context of Bologna at the time, characterized by the city’s academies, particularly that of the Gelati, as the new discoveries presented here also document.

The exhibition, sponsored by the Ministry of Culture with the patronage of the Emilia-Romagna Region, Metropolitan City and Municipality of Bologna, is supported by Profilati Spa, Confcommercio-Ascom Metropolitan City of Bologna, Federalberghi Bologna, and Boutique Hotel Il Guercino. Concurrently, a rich program of activities will offer animated tours and workshops for schools and families, thematic tours and in-depth studies for adults, as well as an independently accessible educational area within the exhibition itinerary.

Hours: Tuesday through Sunday and holidays from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Closed Mondays.

Image: Guido Reni, Hippomenes and Athalanta (1618-1619; oil on canvas, 206 x 279 cm; Madrid, Museo del Prado)

An exhibition in Bologna recounts the bond between the masters of Felsine painting and the literati of the time

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