The genius of Francesco Francia, master of the Emilian Renaissance, on display in Bologna

From March 24 to June 24, 2018, the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna is the site of an exhibition dedicated to Francesco Raibolini known as il Francia (Bologna, c. 1450 - 1517), a great genius of the Emilian Renaissance, and about whom it is said he stopped painting after seeing Raphael ’s Saint Cecilia (preserved right at the Pinacoteca Nazionale) and feeling outdone by the young Urbino. But anecdotes aside, Francesco Francia was one of the great protagonists of the transitional season between the 15th and 16th centuries: a leading painter in the Bentivoglio seignory, he trained as a goldsmith, and probably got to know Perugino in person, by whose lesson he was in any case strongly influenced.

It is precisely his activity as a goldsmith that is the focus of the exhibition, entitled The Genius of Francesco Francia. A goldsmith painter in Renaissance Bologna and curated by Mario Scalini and Elena Rossoni, respectively director of the Polo Museale dell’Emilia Romagna and director of the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna, a museum that houses the most important nucleus of Francia’s works, with notable masterpieces such as the Pala Bentivoglio, the Pala dei Manzuoli, the Pala Felicini and the Pala Scappi. Francia’s activity as a goldsmith was extolled by Giorgio Vasari and, we read in the presentation of the exhibition, “saw him as a protagonist of the mint of Bologna for which he produced numerous coin coin mintings, but his workshop, as emerges from the documents, produced a wide variety of artifacts, some of which have been lost, including paci, coins, medals, miniatures, jewelry, designs for stained glass windows, as well as the best-known frescoes and paintings on wood.”

The exhibition aims to highlight the artist’s production by comparing works preserved in the permanent collection of the Pinacoteca with artifacts related to the goldsmith and medal production of his flourishing workshop. There is also space for graphics, with drawings by the artist and prints from the workshop made by Marcantonio Raimondi (Molinella, c. 1480 - Bologna, 1534), one of his best-known pupils.

You can visit the exhibition during the opening hours of the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna: Tuesday through Sunday from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. (Monday is the closing day; the ticket office closes half an hour earlier). Museum and exhibition tickets (which also allow access to the Palazzo Pepoli Campogrande collections): full 7 euros, reduced 3 euros for young people between 18 and 25 years old, free for under 18, holders of the Bologna Metropolitan Museums Card, tour guides and interpreters in practice, ministry staff, ICOM members, groups and groups of students from public and private schools of the European Union accompanied by their teachers, students of MiBACT schools (Central Institute for Restoration, Opificio delle Pietre Dure, School for Mosaic Restoration), students and teachers of the Academies of Fine Arts or degrees in architecture, conservation of cultural heritage, science of education or letters and philosophy with an archaeological or art-historical focus, high school art history teachers, journalists, researchers for study purposes, and for all every first Sunday of the month. Catalog published by Marsilio.

Image: Francesco Francia, Pala Bentivoglio, detail (1498-1499; oil on panel, 234 x 193 cm; Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale)

The genius of Francesco Francia, master of the Emilian Renaissance, on display in Bologna

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