Bologna's Pinacoteca Nazionale dedicates an exhibition to Guercino and his flourishing workshop

From October 28, 2023 to February 11, 2024, the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna presents Guercino in the Studio, an exhibition project dedicated to Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, the Guercino, and his flourishing workshop. Curated by Barbara Ghelfi and Raffaella Morselli, in collaboration with the museum staff, the exhibition aims to focus on the early stages of his activity, the reasons for the success of the workshop and the master’s relationship with his most trusted collaborators, with the goal of clarifying the professional, artistic and entrepreneurial dynamics that characterized his prolific work.

Around 30 works will be brought together for the occasion, including masterpieces by the master preserved at the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna, such as the Madonna del Passero (1615-1616), Saint Sebastian being cared for by Irene (1619), Saint William receiving the monastic habit (1620), and Saint Bruno adoring the Madonna and Child in Glory (1647). These will be joined by a number of targeted loans of works by Guercino and his collaborators, such as the Padre eterno col puttino, 1620, from the Strada Nuova Museums in Genoa, the 1619 Saint Sebastian from the National Gallery of the Marches, and Paolo Antonio Barbieri and Bartolomeo Gennari’s painting L’ortolana che conta le monete, from a private collection.

Also on display will be Libro dei conti (Book of Accounts), a particularly important volume for understanding Guercino’s work, on loan from the Archiginnasio Library in Bologna. In the volume all the works sold and their earnings were noted: it is therefore also a fundamental tool as an inventory of the production of the Cento master’s flourishing workshop.

Finally, visitors will be able to delve into the contents of the exhibition and knowledge of Guercino through a multimedia table where in-depth paths will be proposed, starting with the new findings from the diagnostic investigations conducted on the works in the Pinacoteca di Bologna by the Diagnostic Laboratory for Cultural Heritage of the Department of Cultural Heritage of the University of Bologna (Ravenna Campus) as part of the Guercino project. Beyond Color.

The exhibition is part of a set of initiatives that will extend from the city of Bologna to various places in the region and other important national museum venues. The renewed interest in the Bolognese and Emilian artistic tradition and in the figure of Guercino will lead several institutions this year to propose exhibitions and itineraries on the great master of Baroque painting, starting with the reopening of the Pinacoteca di Cento, named after the master, scheduled for November 2023.

Image: Guercino, Madonna del Passero, detail (1615-1616; oil on canvas, 78.5 x 58 cm; Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale)

Bologna's Pinacoteca Nazionale dedicates an exhibition to Guercino and his flourishing workshop

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