Modena, landscapes by Giuseppe Zola are on display at BPER Banca Gallery

Paesi vaghissimi. Giuseppe Zola and Landscape Painting: from December 10, 2021 to March 13, 2022, at the exhibition spaces of La Galleria. Collection and Historical Archive of BPER Banca, in via Scudari 9 in Modena is the dossier exhibition dedicated to Giuseppe Zola (Brescia, 1672 - 1743), curated by Lucia Peruzzi. The painter (Brescia, 1672 - Ferrara, 1743) originally from Brescia and who came to Ferrara at a very young age, where he did all his work, is considered a master in landscape painting. He thus managed to carve out a significant position for himself among the Este bourgeoisie and nobility for whom he produced a considerable quantity of landscapes destined to embellish salons and galleries.

The exhibition’s itinerary is divided through eight canvases from the new headquarters of Ferrara’s Monte di Pietà, built in 1756. Following the merger by incorporation of Cassa di Risparmio di Ferrara into BPER Banca in 2017, these works and 24 other paintings by the same author became part of the banking group’s art collection, which to date includes more than a thousand masterpieces, from the 15th to the 20th century.

“Art has constantly grappled with the theme of nature,” writes curator Lucia Peruzzi, “in a continuous and complex change of point of view, and it has inevitably become intertwined with the way of seeing and interpreting the territory. But it is in the seventeenth century that nature, from a simple background, begins to assert its autonomy. And the arcadian, atmosphere-filled landscape of the eighteenth century, in its various declinations, is rooted in the landscapes of the previous century, from solemn and idealized, almost timeless visions to images of picturesque nature, charged with sentiment and suggestion. Zola starts from these dominant themes and reworks them with quotations ranging from Claude Lorrain to Salvator Rosa, in a chromatic quest mediated by knowledge of the works of Marco Ricci. In his paintings, alpine landscapes with rocks and waterfalls, ruined architecture and old peasant farmhouses alternate with more serene views of countryside lying along the banks of placid rivers, immersed in the silence of the veiled atmosphere of the noontide, with the blue of the sky and the purplish reflections of the mountains in the distance.”

“Every action we take,” says BPER Bank President Flavia Mazzarella, “produces an impact on the landscape around us and, more generally, on the environment. This is why BPER Bank is pursuing initiatives to contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), sustainability goals not only economic and environmental, but also social and cultural, of the 2030 Agenda, for the future well-being of people and territories. This new exhibition therefore has a twofold objective: to present the splendid core of Giuseppe Zola, a master of landscape painting, and to raise public awareness of the importance of preserving the wonders of the land.”

“The enhancement of the masterpieces of BPER Banca’s corporate collection,” writes Sabrina Bianchi, project manager, “is one of the main objectives that La Galleria. Collection and Historical Archive aims, together with the desire to contribute to the spread of a sustainable culture, open to all and integrated into people’s lives. ’Paesi vaghissimi’ transports the visitor on a visual journey in which the landscape is not just a backdrop, but is able to stimulate reflection on what human impact has determined over time.”

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog available on site with a critical text by curator Lucia Peruzzi, a text dedicated to gardens by Eraldo Antonini (a doctor of agronomy who has worked in the field of ornamental greenery, public and private, since 1995, formerly contract professor in the Faculty of Mathematical, Physical and Natural Sciences at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia where he taught Restoration, Restoration, Conservation and Reconstruction of Historic Gardens) and rich iconographic apparatus.

The exhibition will remain open Friday, Saturday, Sunday 10 a.m.-1 p.m. and 2 p.m.-6 p.m.; Christmas closing on weekends Dec. 24-26 and Dec. 31-Jan. 2. Free admission upon presentation of the reinforced Green pass. Guided tours, groups and special openings by appointment.

Modena, landscapes by Giuseppe Zola are on display at BPER Banca Gallery

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