Bologna, masterpieces of wooden sculpture from Romanesque to 13th century on display at Museo Civico Medievale

From November 23, 2019 to March 8, 2020, the Museo Civico Medievale in Bologna is hosting the exhibition Imago splendida. Masterpieces of Wooden Sculpture in Bologna from the Romanesque to the 13th century, curated by Massimo Medica and Luca Mor. The review aims to be an important opportunity for reconnaissance on wooden sculpture produced between the 12th and 13th centuries, conducted following in-depth philological and documentary research that allows us to set a new stage toward understanding the reference models in the figurative context of Bologna in the early Middle Ages: in fact, wooden works preserved from that period are rare, given the perishability of the material and the progressive transformation of images as aesthetic canons changed. The focus of the exhibition, in particular, is on the wooden sculpture produced at the time in Bologna: the exhibition comes almost two decades after the exhibition Duecento. Forms and Colors of the Middle Ages in Bologna (from 2000), as part of which there was a section representing sacred space through works on Bolognese sacred iconography.

The exhibition, set up in the Sala del Lapidario, sees a main nucleus composed of the most representative works remaining in the city among those produced between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries: these are three carved crosses of monumental proportions, belonging to the iconographic variant of Christus Triumphans, or Christ conquering death, which for the first time are exceptionally brought together. These were crosses that, in medieval churches, were placed on the wall partition, and had the function of marking a clearer division between the presbyterial area reserved for the clergy and the nave accessible to the laity.

These are the Crucifix preserved in the Collezioni Comunali d’Arte in Bologna (remounted during the 14th century on a 13th-century cross painted by Simone dei Crocifissi), the still little-known Crucifix from the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Bologna, and, finally, the Crucifix that has come to the art collection of the Giorgio Cini Foundation in Venice. The close comparison of the three works makes it possible to assess similarities and divergences on the level of formal and technical syntax: from this comparison is raised the hypothesis of an unpublished attribution to a single workshop, probably from the South Tyrolean Alpine area, the so-called Master of the Cini Crucifix, in a period between 1270 and 1280.

As an external supplement to the exhibition, in an ideal itinerary spread throughout the city, one should also consider the majestic carved Crucifixion located in St. Peter’s Cathedral, whose reconstruction on the ancient pier is elaborated in the exhibition through a 3D video by Fabio Massaccesi and CINECA, in collaboration with SAME Architecture.

Compared to the limited number of surviving thirteenth-century carved crucifixes, those painted with the same iconography as Christus Triumphans turn out to be documented in Bologna by a variety of examples, almost all of which can be linked to a strictly Mendicant, and especially Franciscan, context. Moreover, a comparison between the two productions, the sculptural and the pictorial, is proposed thanks to the exhibition of a painted Cross, with two figures of Dolenti, attributed to a Jungian painter, datable to the seventh decade of the 13th century. The author of the work, which came to the Collezioni Comunali d’Arte from a nineteenth-century location in the Certosa of Bologna, shows that he knew and reinterpreted, albeit in a totally personal declination, the later models of Giunta Pisano, beginning with the great Crucifixion of the church of San Domenico designed in view of the consecration that took place in 1251 and soon became a reference for the various artists and miniaturists who worked for the mendicant orders.

Building on the research initiated in 2003 by a critical contribution by Luca Mor, the network of homogeneous stylistic relationships that the exhibition traces is made more clearly legible by the diagnostic data on the carvings, obtained from restoration work on two of the works on display. For the Crucifix placed in the right aisle of the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, which has just reopened after being closed due to the extensive damage caused by the earthquake in 2012, the intervention conducted by Ottorino Nonfarmale and Giovanni Giannelli was specially planned and financed by the Municipality of Bologna in view of the present exhibition occasion. On the other hand, the conservation action carried out on the precarious state of the Crucifix purchased by Count Vittorio Cini, originally placed in the vestibule in front of the Palladian refectory of the Convent of San Giorgio Maggiore, dates back to 2011, which, in fact, finds at the Museo Civico Medievale di Bologna its first occasion of adequate exhibition enhancement.

In addition to disclosing restoration data and delving into the theme of liturgical space in Bologna between the 12th and 13th centuries, the exhibition itinerary also allows us to measure in detail the highly original effects of the Gothic renaissance on the genre of wooden plastic in relation to the precious arts, which in the city experienced an extraordinary intensity of circulation. The dialogue between the techniques is witnessed by the presence of precious illuminated manuscripts and refined liturgical objects, partly preserved in the museum’s collection and partly on loan from Biblioteca Palatina in Parma, Palazzo Madama - Museo Civico d’Arte Antica in Turin, Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice, Museo Diocesano Tridentino in Trento and Museo Diocesano in Padua. If, on the one hand, the innovative solutions recurring in these artifacts show how widespread was the influence of illuminated texts and art objects imported from the transalpine areas, on the other hand, the echo of suggestions of the Tuscan artistic lesson should be acknowledged, which, precisely in Bologna, manifested episodes of absolute importance such as the famous marble Ark of San Domenico, executed for the church of the same name by Nicola Pisano and helpers between 1264 and 1267. It can be assumed that such a masterpiece should not have left even the Master of the Cini Crucifix insensible. According to the conservation clues that emerged with the restoration of the eponymous work, he must in fact have established himself not long afterwards as the author of one of the proofs that emerges as among the most interesting and luminous of the thirteenth century in Bologna.

The exhibition, promoted by the Musei Civici d’Arte Antica | Istituzione Bologna Musei in collaboration with the Curia Arcivescovile of Bologna and the Giorgio Cini Foundation of Venice, and under the patronage of Alma Mater Studiorum - Department of the Arts, benefits from the technical sponsorship of Cineca, Oasi Allestimenti, Radio Sata, SAME architecture.Special thanks to Silvana Editoriale for the technical sponsorship of the catalog, which consists of a rich iconographic apparatus, worksheets and critical contributions by Luca Mor, Massimo Medica, Fabio Massaccesi, Silvia Battistini and Manlio Leo Mezzacasa. Opening hours: Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Closed on weekdays, Christmas and New Year’s Mondays. Tickets: full 6 euros, reduced 3 euros. Free with Card Musei Metropolitani Bologna and every first Sunday of the month. Catalog by Silvana Editoriale. For info visit the Bologna Musei website.

Pictured: a photo of the exhibition. Ph. Credit Giorgio Bianchi

Bologna, masterpieces of wooden sculpture from Romanesque to 13th century on display at Museo Civico Medievale

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