Cento, 11 years after Emilia earthquake reopens Pinacoteca Civica, home of Guercino

Eleven years after the earthquake that struckEmilia in 2012, the Civic Art Gallery of Cento “il Guercino” finally reopens, which became uninhabitable after that date and required lengthy restoration work to become visitable again. The art gallery is therefore presented again to its public, with 120 works including paintings and sculptures, 46 drawings and 20 detached frescoes: the appointment for the inauguration is for Saturday, November 25. The public and art lovers will be able to admire 16 altarpieces and paintings, 20 detached frescoes and 11 drawings by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (Cento, 1591 - Bologna, 1666), known as Guercino, along with many other works by fine artists such as Scarsellino, Guido Reni, Ludovico Carracci, and Matteo Loves to name a few, returned to their home after being kept for so many years in the Sassuolo collection center, returning from time to time to be seen during exhibitions, such as the one held in Cento itself in 2019, which partly returned the artist’s works to the city.

Confirming itself as the museum venue with the highest concentration of Guercino’s works in the world, including masterpieces such as The Chair of St. Peter, The Risen Christ Appears to the Mother, and The Madonna and Blessing Child, and also thanks to loans from two important such as the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Cento (9 works, including the first fresco created by the young Guercino, which depicts the “Madonna of Reggio,” or the Madonna della Ghiara) and Credem Banca (6 works, including the Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine, an early masterpiece of the painter from Cento), the Civica Pinacoteca thus concludes a construction site that lasted about two years. The work, entrusted by the municipality to the Bologna-based Open Project studio, was made possible thanks to funding from the Delegate Commissioner for 2012 Earthquake Reconstruction Emilia Romagna Region in the amount of €2,955,000.00 and thanks to a ministerial contribution of €988,900.00 obtained through the Culture 2021 Fund, which made it possible to carry out the museum’s museum layout and new image.

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The scientific and exhibition itinerary, curated by the Culture Office of the Municipality of Cento, in particular by Lorenzo Lorenzini and Elena Bastelli, is studied on the two levels of the building: on the ground floor, with a chronological criterion, the historical and cultural fabric of the city is reconstructed based on the most qualitatively relevant works of the area. The second floor, on the other hand, is devoted entirely to Guercino and his school, including the last two rooms devoted to genre painting and portraiture in which there are significant examples of the workshop. This peculiarity will offer visitors the opportunity to perceive in one place the stylistic evolution not only of the master, but also of his pupils and collaborators.

In dialogue with the itinerary conceived by the curators, all the seismic improvement and museum set-up work was carried out by Open Project under the supervision of architect Beatrice Contri, Director of the Public Works Sector of the Municipality of Cento, and responsible for all phases of the bidding and contracting process.

The importance of this reopening has been supported not only by the Emilia Romagna Region, but also by the Municipality of Bologna, which just these days is celebrating the master of Baroque painting with several initiatives, not only in the city: from October 8 with the exhibition project Guercino and his pupils. Dalle “teste di carattere” ai ritratti curated by Silvia Battistini at the Collezioni Comunali d’Arte in Bologna; followed by the exhibition Guercino nello studio curated by Barbara Ghelfi and Raffaella Morselli from Oct. 28 at the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna; and finally, on Dec. 3 at the Pinacoteca “Graziano Campanini” - “Le Scuole” in Pieve di Cento, a small exhibition will open in which one of the fresco cycles of Casa Pannini, also painted by Guercino, will be on display. In addition to all this, there will be a series of permanent itineraries (“itineraries”) curated by Bologna Welcome and dedicated to the rediscovery of the master of the Emilian Baroque in his territory.

On the occasion of the reopening of the Pinacoteca, Cento will celebrate with a rich program of initiatives from Friday 24 through Sunday 26. To name a few: the screening of Giulia Giapponesi’s documentary Guercino. One on Cento; numerous concerts to discover places related to Guercino’s life and works; a day of studies curated by the International Study Center “Il Guercino,” which will feature talks by leading international scholars of the painter; the historical re-enactment of the 17th-century farmers’ market inspired by Guercino’s painting The Fair on the Old Rhine; educational workshops and more.

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It will also be possible to purchase at the Pinacoteca bookshop the Pinacoteca catalog, edited by Lorenzo Lorenzini with technical support from Silvana Editoriale, made possible thanks to the contribution of three local entities: Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Cento, Imprenditori Centesi per la Cultura and Amici della Pinacoteca.

Finally, with an eye to the future, on February 8, 2024, Cento will remember Guercino with a concert of Baroque music in the Basilica Collegiata di San Biagio. For the first time, the Book of Baptisms from the Parish Archive of San Biagio will be on display, with the original act of the baptism of Guercino (so nicknamed because of a severe squinting caused while still in swaddling clothes, by his own testimony, by a sudden fright), which took place on February 8, 1591 in the very church of San Biagio.

Cento, 11 years after Emilia earthquake reopens Pinacoteca Civica, home of Guercino

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