How the great neoclassicist Giuseppe Bossi was inspired by Raphael: exhibition in Busto Arsizio

In Busto Arsizio, in the rooms of Palazzo Cicogna, the exhibition Giuseppe Bossi and Raphael kicks off until May 2, 2021. Works from Civic and Private Collections, curated by Silvio Mara, which tells the story of how Giuseppe Bossi (Busto Arsizio, 1777 - Milan, 1815), one of the leading Neoclassical painters, was fascinated by Raphael’s painting. In fact, the review aims to explore biographical moments and of Giuseppe Bossi’s artistic creation that are most affected by Raphael’s influence. Two aspects are privileged: the initial artistic formation with the fundamental stay in Rome and the mature reworking of some figurative themes inferred from the Urbino.

The exhibition represents Bustocco’s contribution to the widespread event Raphael. Guardians of Myth in Lombardy and is closely linked to the exhibition Giuseppe Bossi and Raphael at Castello Sforzesco: in fact, unpublished Bossian works from private collections and the Busto painter’s works held by the Civic Collections, as well as objects that belonged to him and have never before been exhibited, are on display at Palazzo Cicogna for the first time. The privately owned works in the exhibition are drawn from the Busto collection of Gian Carlo Carnaghi and the Turin collection of the Bossi heirs. Some have been loaned by Il Bulino antique prints.

“This is an artistic nucleus of great importance and beauty, connected to the exhibition set up at Castello Sforzesco, in collaboration with which it was born and developed, and which, through this extraordinary partnership, offers Busto an unprecedented and rare showcase,” says deputy mayor and councillor for Culture Manuela Maffioli. “A cultural operation made possible by the synergy with private collectors who have lent some of the works on display and with the sponsors, without whose contribution we would hardly have achieved such a result: to them, as well as to curator Silvio Mara, goes our gratitude.”

Giuseppe Bossi, born in Busto Arsizio in 1777, has always attracted the attention of Busto scholars and collectors, who since the early 20th century have recognized the value of his graphic and pictorial works, saving them from oblivion and dispersion. From a wealthy family, he was educated in schools of excellence such as the San Bartolomeo college of the Somaschi fathers in Merate and the Collegio Reale in Monza. He attended the Brera Academy for just under two years and in late 1795 decided that he would complete his education in Rome in direct contact with masterpieces of ancient art. Back in Milan he became, very young, in 1801, secretary of the Brera Academy, which he had attended as a student only a short time before. In this role until 1807 he profoundly marked the life of this institution with his reforms.

In the years to come, retired to private life but with duties of public importance, he produced a pictorial copy of Leonardo’s Last Supper and a much-appreciated volume. He attempted to start a special School of Painting, which, however, had an ephemeral life, but above all he amassed a superlative art collection (one remembers at least Mantegna’s Dead Christ) and a very rich library, both of which were dispersed after his death in 1815.

A video of a tour led by deputy mayor and curator Silvio Mara is available on the City of Busto Arsizio web TV. For information: museums office 0331 390352, museibusto@comune.bustoarsizio.va.it

Image: Giuseppe Bossi, Three Manly Figures Debating Around a Book (1806-1807; pencil, pen, ink and watercolor on white paper, 196 x 262 mm; Turin, Bossi Heirs Collection)

How the great neoclassicist Giuseppe Bossi was inspired by Raphael: exhibition in Busto Arsizio

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