Sixteenth-century Emilia by Bertoja and Mirola on display at the Labyrinth of Fontanellato

From April 6 to July 28, 2019, the Labirinto della Masone in Fontanellato (Parma) is hosting the exhibition La Maniera emiliana. Bertoja, Mirola, from Parma to the Courts of Europe, an exhibition entirely dedicated to two masters of the second half of the 16th century in Emilia, Jacopo Zanguidi, known as Bertoja (Parma, 1544 - 1573), and Girolamo Mirola (Bologna, 1530/35 - Parma, 1570). Curated by Maria Cristina Chiusa, the exhibition, organized in collaboration with the Louvre, displays for the first time together almost all the known works of the two artists: it consists of about seventy works (not only paintings but also drawings and studies for frescoes), arriving from the Louvre, the British Museum, the Uffizi, the Albertina in Vienna, the National Gallery of Parma and other important museums.

The exhibition aims to reread the extraordinary pictorial civilization that followed the Renaissance in the 16th century and brought about a revolution in iconography, rules and pictorial customs in Emilia, Lazio, Italy and the courts of Europe. Bertoja and Mirola were in fact in the retinue of the Farnese family: in Parma in the service of Ottavio, for whom they frescoed the Palazzo del Giardino (i.e., Ducal Palace), which also fascinated Giorgio Vasari. Bertoja was then hired by Grand Cardinal Alessandro Farnese to paint the famous frescoes in the Farnese Palaces in Rome and Caprarola. This important page of the last “manner” determined important entanglements with artists and patrons even outside Italy, in France and other countries beyond the Alps.

The Fontanellato exhibition then devotes ample space to drawing, an art in which Bertoja and Mirola excelled: the many drawings gathered at the Labirinto della Masone offer a significant sampling of anatomical studies, sacred and profane figures and landscapes: a sophisticated universe, heir to the best of the Renaissance. The exhibition is accompanied by a volume published by Franco Maria Ricci, where full-page images of the works will accompany the contributions of the members of the scientific committee headed by Pierre Rosenberg (Président d’honneur of the Musée du Louvre) and composed of an international core of specialists in sixteenth-century art, including Dominique Cordellier, David Ekserdjian, Marzia Faietti, Sonia Cavicchioli, Achim Gnann, and Maria Grazia Bernardini.

The Emilian Manner. Bertoja, Mirola, from Parma to the Courts of Europe can be visited during the Labirinto’s opening hours: daily except Tuesdays from 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. (last admission at 6 p.m.). Tickets: full 18 euros, reduced group 15 euros (at least 15 people), reduced (for under 26, FMR Card holders, university students and school groups) 12 euros, reduced children between 6 and 12 years old 10 euros, free for children under 6 and disabled (accompanying person enters with full ticket), conventioned (FAI, TCI, Italia Nostra, ICOM) 15 euros. For all info visit the Labirinto della Masone website.

Sixteenth-century Emilia by Bertoja and Mirola on display at the Labyrinth of Fontanellato

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