Private Guercino at the Fortress of Bard. An exhibition gathers works from 17th-century picture galleries and collections

The Aosta-Bologna artistic axis is renewed: after Guido Reni’s Strage degli Innocenti moved to the Regional Archaeological Museum in Aosta last year before returning to the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna after a trip that took it to France, this year another artist from Emilia is a protagonist in the region. In fact, the Fortress of Bard is hosting the exhibition Il Guercino. Works from 17th-century picture galleries and collections, from April 5 to June 30, 2019. Curated by the director of the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna, Elena Rossoni, and scholar Luisa Berretti, the exhibition, dedicated to Giovanni Francesco Barbieri known as Guercino (Cento, 1591 - Bologna, 1666), brings together paintings made by the painter from Cento for private clients.

Fifty-four works on display tell the story of the private Guercino, including highly innovative paintings ranging from the early stages of his career to his maturity, and those instead devoted to the more composed classicism of his later years. The works deal from time to time with religious, mythological, and literary subjects, and are of different formats and sizes. The exhibition is also completed by a number of drawings, works that the artist had kept with him and that he kept personally, partly because they were needed as the basis for his works, or those of his workshop. The artist thus returns as the protagonist of a monographic exhibition after the important exhibition in Piacenza in 2017(here is our review).

The exhibition is open daily, except Mondays (except for April 29, when the Fortress of Bard will be regularly open), from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturdays, Sundays and holidays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tickets: full 10 euros, concessions 8 euros, children aged 6 to 18 and schoolchildren 5 euros. Media partner RMC Radio Monte Carlo. For more information see the Fortress of Bard website.

Image: Guercino, Saul and David (1646; oil on canvas, 147 x 220 cm; Rome, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica)

Private Guercino at the Fortress of Bard. An exhibition gathers works from 17th-century picture galleries and collections

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