Marcello Fogolino: an exhibition celebrates the "cursed painter"

A bizarre and whimsical figure, and in some ways assimilable to the cliché of the “cursed painter,” that of Marcello Fogolino (Vicenza, c. 1482-88- c. 1559), an artist with a stormy past that altered his reputation: convicted of the murder of a barber along with his brother, banished from the Venetian Republic, and converted into a spy for the Serenissima to barter a safe-conduct in exchange for military information, Fogolino was, however, also a leading painter in the Renaissance between Trentino and Veneto. Thus, an exhibition celebrating his figure opens at the Buonconsiglio Castle in Trento, following others already dedicated to the other great artists who frescoed the castle, Girolamo ROmanino and Dosso DOssi. In fact, Fogolino was also active in the Buonconsiglio building site.

The exhibition is entitled Order and Bizarre. The Renaissance of Marcello Fogolino, runs from July 8 to November 5, 2017, and tells the story of an artist who, during his forced stay in Trentino, managed to become an artist of the highest order, so much so that he became court painter to Prince-Bishop Bernardo Cles and then to the latter’s successor, Cristoforo Madruzzo. A pupil of Bartolomeo Montagna in Vicenza, the city of which he was a native, Fogolino proposed a style of painting that was first Bellinian and then Titianesque, but which also looked to other experiences (such as that of Romanino). The exhibition in Trento will display works that trace Fogolino’s entire career and also give an account of his many commissions, which also ranged outside the region (he also worked for the bishop of Ascoli Piceno, whom he met in Trento). From the early altarpieces he made for churches in Vicenza to the sumptuous works he painted for the court of Trent, without neglecting the frescoes of the “Magno Palazzo” of the Buonconsiglio Castle and not even his graphic work (several engravings on display), an integral part of the exhibition, the exhibition will include important loans from illustrious European museums (there will also be a Madonna and Child from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, never exhibited in Italy).

The exhibition is curated by Giovanni Carlo Federico Villa (director of the Civic Museums of Vicenza), Laura Dal Prà (director of the Buonconsiglio Castle) and Marina Botteri (curator of the Castle Museum). Hours: daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Closed Mondays (but open on holidays, and open July 17, 24, 31 and all Mondays in August). Tickets: 10 euros full price, 8 euros reduced. Reduction provided for those who show up with a ticket for the exhibition Travels and Encounters of a Forgotten Artist. The Renaissance of Francesco Verla. Info at www.buonconsiglio.it.

Image: Marcello Fogolino, Madonna and Child Enthroned among Saints Catherine, Francis, John the Baptist, Mary Magdalene, Anthony of Padua, John the Evangelist (1510-1520; oil on canvas, 266 x 195 cm)

Marcello Fogolino: an exhibition celebrates the "cursed painter"

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