Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo welcomes the works of Gigola and Bezzuoli

Less than a month after the closing of the major exhibition The Renaissance in Brescia. Moretto, Romanino, Savoldo. 1512 - 1552, the Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo starts again from March 11, 2025 with a new exhibition proposal that enhances ancient art, thanks to the collaboration between the Municipality of Brescia, the Brescia Musei Foundation and theAteneo di Scienze, Lettere e Arti di Brescia. The new event, which is part of the PTM program Andata e Ritorno, features two neoclassical masterpieces: Two Socratic Scenes by Giovanni Battista Gigola (Brescia, 1767 - Tremezzo, 1841) and The Birth of Venus by Giuseppe Bezzuoli (Florence, 1784 - 1855).

The initiative is part of the format devised by Brescia Musei, which transforms departures related to loans into arrivals of works of great value, thus giving visitors the opportunity to see masterpieces that dialogue with the permanent Collection of the Pinacoteca. Over the years, this format has enabled the museum to host works by artists of international caliber, such as Diego Velázquez, Giacomo Ceruti, and Lorenzo Lotto. Through Jan. 9, 2026, the two works on display will offer a new perspective on the themes covered by the museum’s collection.

The works on display have been recently restored and will be accompanied by two free notebooks that delve into the specifics of the works, edited by Fernando Mazzocca for Two Socratic Scenes and Roberta D’Adda for The Birth of Venus. Maria Repossi’s graphic design also oversaw the visual identity of this exhibition, which emphasizes the historical and cultural value of the works.

The return of the works of Gigola and Bezzuoli.

Giovanni Battista Gigola, an 18th-century Brescian artist, was a leading figure in Italian Neoclassicism. The two miniatures in the exhibition, Two Socratic Scenes, are among his most significant works. Created during his stay in Rome, these works represent a fusion of the artist’s academic training and the influences he received from the Roman academies of the time. The miniatures, both inspired by episodes from the life of Socrates, are characterized by the refined use of colors and glazed tones, which lend volume and depth to the figures depicted. In particular, the scene dedicated to Agathon’s Convite with Alcibiades crowning Socrates, derived from a drawing by Asmus Jacob Carstens, is an example of the latter’s influence on Gigola, combining the German artist’s visionary approach with the Brescian miniaturist’s chromatic sensibility.

The second miniature on display depicts Socrates rebuking Alcibiades caught in the gynaeceum. The two scenes are an expression of a theme dear to neoclassical artists, that of the dialogue between master and disciple, and show Gigola’s acquisition of classical poetics, reworked through his sensitivity and innovative techniques. Gigola’s works were the subject of a delicate restoration that restored their full legibility. The restoration involved both the pictorial surfaces and the antique frames, restoring the original beauty of the works. The intervention was conducted by Licia Zorzella, Carla Valzelli and Elisabetta Mosconi, whose work revealed all the artist’s technical expertise.

Bezzuoli and the connection with Paolo Tosio

Giuseppe Bezzuoli’s The Birth of Venus is also an excellent example of Italian Neoclassicism. The painting, which was initially cited as Galatea in historical inventories, is closely linked to the history of Brescian collecting and the patronage of Paolo Tosio, founder of the Pinacoteca. In 1818, Bezzuoli sent the Brescian count a version of Raphael’s School of Athens, but along with it he also delivered The Birth of Venus, a work that would help solidify his reputation. The composition recalls Raphael’s famous Triumph of Galatea , with the figure of the goddess Venus emerging from the shell, surrounded by tritons and cherubs. However, unlike the vividness of Raphael’s model, Bezzuoli gives his Venus a cooler light and a bright color scheme reminiscent of the French painting style of the time. The refinement of details, such as the coral branch that the triton holds out to the goddess, demonstrates the artist’s ability to treat classical themes with a refined and innovative visual language.

A further enhancement of Brescian heritage.

The PTM Andata e Ritorno exhibition is also an opportunity to further explore the history of Brescia’s artistic heritage. The two works on display are part of a larger project to enhance the city’s heritage, promoted by the Fondazione Brescia Musei in collaboration with the Ateneo di Scienze, Lettere e Arti di Brescia. The latter received in 1857 the gift of Giovanni Battista Gigola’s works, which had been kept by artist Angelo Inganni. Gigola’s miniatures have long been the subject of exchanges and transfers of ownership with the Brescia Civic Museums, and are now on public display after a long period of conservation in storage. In addition, Fondazione Brescia Musei recently renewed its deposit agreement with the University of Brescia, which received 46 works from the Tosio Collection for safekeeping, confirming the strong collaboration between local institutions for the enhancement of the city’s historical and cultural heritage.

On the occasion of the exhibition, Fondazione Brescia Musei also organized a bimonthly meeting of the Lunch at the Museum with... project, which provides short guided tours during the lunch break at the different museum venues. The next meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, March 12, will be dedicated precisely to the works of Gigola and Bezzuoli, offering visitors a unique opportunity to discover these two masterpieces of Neoclassicism during an alternative and fascinating lunch break.

“It is with pleasure,” says Francesco Tomasini, Brescia Municipality Councilor with responsibility for Cultural Activities, “that we return today to present a new appointment of the successful format that Fondazione Brescia Musei has created to enhance the works of our Civic Collections: after last year’s appointment that featured a painting by Mantegna, we are now presenting three works that have a profound significance in the very construction of Count Tosio’s collection and help us grasp the sensitivity he had in being a respectful and generous patron of artists, to whom he never failed to provide support. The PTM Andata e Ritorno project once again allows us to rediscover our heritage, which we can now admire in the halls of this extraordinary palace, a precious casket that holds our artistic heritage.”

"With the new edition of the Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo Andata e Ritorno format that we are presenting today actually inaugurates the 2025 exhibition season of Fondazione Brescia Musei," says Francesca Bazoli, president of Fondazione Brescia Musei. “Confirmed again this year is the great centrality of the civic heritage, the subject of contini restorations and temporary exhibitions, so that our public can constantly reflect on the history and richness of its Civic Collections. The high-profile artistic curatorship, represented by such outstanding scientific resources as the external one of Professor Fernando Mazzocca, whom I thank, or internal forces such as conservator Roberta D’Adda, allows the building of bridges of study and research essential to the constant maintenance of our heritage, tangible and intangible. Finally, the collaboration with the Institute of the University of Brescia consolidates the presence of Brescia Musei as a bridge institution between the Administration and the city’s cultural scene, which proves to be of the highest order on this occasion as well.”

“Continuing in the fruitful collaboration that the Athenaeum of Brescia has undertaken with the Brescia Musei Foundation since 2018,” says Sergio Onger, President Athenaeum of Brescia Academy of Sciences Letters and Arts, "and which has seen the realization of numerous initiatives (suffice it to mention here the exhibitions held in Palazzo Tosio Dante and Napoleon. Founding Myths in Early Nineteenth-Century Brescian Culture in 2021 and Luigi Basiletti and the Ancient in 2023) we gladly collaborated on the exhibition curated by Fernando Mazzocca entitled Giovanni Battista Gigola. Two Socratic Scenes. These are two works given in 1857 by Angelo Inganni to the Athenaeum from Gigola’s widow, Amalia Bertera, who had remarried Inganni. Today’s press conference is also an opportunity to make public the loan agreement recently signed with Fondazione Brescia Musei. With this we have formalized the presence in Palazzo Tosio of the 39 works of art that had been transferred here in 2018, on the occasion of the setting up of the house museum, the six paintings by Luigi Basiletti, which arrived following the 2023 exhibition, and the oil on canvas, also by Basiletti, View of the vicinity of Pozzuoli, which will arrive soon to complete the arrangement of the first room in the east wing, entirely dedicated to Luigi Basiletti, as it was in the first arrangement of the Pinacoteca in Palazzo Tosio in 1851. The Athenaeum hopes that after the exhibition in the Pinacoteca the two Socratic scenes by Giovanni Battista Gigola can be added to the artist’s other works housed in the alcove of Palazzo Tosio.

Practical information

Hours:

Until May 31 and Oct. 1 to Jan. 9, 2026: Tuesday - Sunday, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. (last admission 5:15 p.m.) - June 1 to Sept. 30: Tuesday Sunday, 10 a.m. - 7 p.m. (last admission 6:15 p.m.)

Tickets:

Full € 15.00

Reduced over 65 and concessionary € 12.00

Reduced groups € 10.00

Reduced under 26, special publics and combined exhibition € 8.00

Reduced schools € 4.50

Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo welcomes the works of Gigola and Bezzuoli

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