Success for Renaissance in Ferrara: over 70 thousand visitors to Palazzo dei Diamanti

Public and critical success for the exhibition Renaissance in Ferrara. Ercole de’ Roberti and Lorenzo Costa, which was held from February 18 to June 19 in Ferrara’s Palazzo dei Diamanti, curated by Vittorio Sgarbi and Michele Danieli and directed by Pietro Di Natale ( our review here, interview with Vittorio Sgarbi here). The exhibition recorded 70,229 admissions in 122 days , moreover reopening the doors of Palazzo dei Diamanti, whose exhibition spaces have been rethought, renovated and expanded after a complex restoration and redevelopment of the building and its garden.

The exhibition offered the chance to admire 120 works from museums and collections around the world and provided a unique opportunity to discover, or rediscover, the art of two great painters from Ferrara and the dazzling richness of the Este Renaissance. For four months, their works were placed side by side with those of such noble masters as Mantegna, Cosmè Tura, Niccolò dell’Arca, and Marco Zoppo, as well as other artists contemporary to them, such as Antonio da Crevalcore, Guido Mazzoni, Boccaccio Boccaccino, Francesco Francia, and Perugino. The exhibition was organized by the Ferrara Arte Foundation and the Art Museum Service of the Municipality of Ferrara in collaboration with the Directorate General for Museums and the Directorate General for Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape of the Ministry of Culture, under the patronage of the Ministry of Culture and the Emilia-Romagna Region, and with the support of Versalis and BPER Banca.

Of the more than 70,000 admissions, a total of 30,610 tickets were sold in advance, while the remainder were purchased at the Palazzo dei Diamanti ticket office. The satisfaction questionnaires show that 77% came to Ferrara specifically to visit the exhibition, and the presence of foreign visitors increased (5.15% of respondents). Schools also liked the exhibition very much: there were 312 classes in the exhibition for a total of 7,050 students involved (including 3,301 from Ferrara), a significant increase over previous exhibitions. The integrated ticket option (single ticket to visit both the exhibition and the Pinacoteca Nazionale) was chosen by 4,107 people. The new bookshop at the Palazzo dei Diamanti and the items on offer were highly appreciated: one out of every 29 visitors bought the exhibition catalog for a total of 2,434 copies sold, while 4,479 guidebooks were sold (1 out of every 16 visitors).

Renaissance in Ferrara received the Quirinal medal from President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella and was a major media success with reviews in major newspapers both at home and abroad, and a total of more than 1,000 issues in the press and reports on TV and radio.

Visiting Palazzo dei Diamanti were, among others, Anna Maria Bernini, minister of university and research, and Jon Landau, Bruce Springsteen’s historic manager, Annalena Benini (new director of the Turin International Book Fair), and a host of actors, including Michele Placido, Massimo Lopez and Tullio Solenghi, Valter Malosti and Federico Castelluccio.

“Renaissance in Ferrara has shown the centrality of Ferrara art in the world, and has done so with a monumental operation that pays homage to Roberto Longhi’s Officina Ferrarese, also celebrated with a plaque dedicated to him at the Palazzo dei Diamanti,” says Mayor Alan Fabbri. “Confirming the value and scope of this operation is the prestigious medal of the President of the Republic and the appreciations that have also come internationally. The exhibition also marked the reopening of the ’new’ Palazzo dei Diamanti, with a bookshop, a multipurpose hall, cafeteria, and an indoor Renaissance-inspired garden: it is the start of a new phase, in continuity with a great history. Thanks to Vittorio Sgarbi, Michele Danieli, Councillor Marco Gulinelli, all the staff of Ferrara Arte and the City’s art museum service, and the staff who worked day and night to offer the public the best visiting experience, with many extraordinary openings, thus enhancing the opportunities to enjoy Ferrara masterpieces now found in museums halfway around the world.”

“In the numbers there is proof of the success with the public, both national and international, of an exhibition realized with territorial forces that has positioned itself among the biggest exhibition events in Italy in this 2023,” stresses Culture Councillor Marco Gulinelli. “Credit to the intuition of Vittorio Sgarbi and Michele Danieli, credit to the great teamwork carried out by the City Council and the Ferrara Arte Foundation and the work of the staff assigned to access, halls, ticketing and security. Renaissance in Ferrara was also an opportunity to ’test’ the perfect machine of the Palazzo dei Diamanti, reopened in February after a substantial intervention that has fully restored its magnificence and is showing the general public the full potential of the largest Renaissance palace in northern Italy.”

“The appreciation and enthusiasm that the general public, insiders and the press, including the international press, have shown in the past four months unequivocally confirm the goodness of an exhibition project that was in many ways difficult and extremely challenging on the organizational level,” comments Pietro Di Natale, director of the Ferrara Arte Foundation. “The many copies sold of the nimble guidebook and the highly informed catalog indicate that visitors are eager to learn more about extraordinary but still-or, rather, until now-little-known artists, such as Ercole de’ Roberti and Lorenzo Costa, who, as their masterpieces brought together at the Palazzo dei Diamanti have shown, lived their time as absolute protagonists, placing themselves among the main personalities of the Renaissance in northern Italy. All this entices us to continue along the path of study and enhancement of the great Old Masters of the Ferrara school planned for the coming years: an ambitious project, strongly supported by the city administration, which will be realized, as it was for the recently completed exhibition, thanks to the choral work of the professionals who make up the close-knit team of Ferrara Arte that I have the honor of directing.”

“The first of the great exhibitions on the ’Renaissance in Ferrara’ has delighted and excited everyone who has seen it, for the importance of the loans of works from every museum in the world, with the resurrection of two sublime artists and the confirmation of the greatness of Ferrara painting,” says Ferrara Arte Foundation President, Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Culture and curator Vittorio Sgarbi, who anticipates: “We are working hard on upcoming exhibitions on the 16th century and Mannerism in Ferrara.”

“We are honored to have brought these magnificent works back to Ferrara. The enthusiastic collaboration of so many Italian and foreign Museums has demonstrated the goodness of our project, which at the beginning seemed really ambitious. I thank Ferrara Arte and the whole city of Ferrara for having succeeded in translating it into reality,” is the comment of curator Michele Danieli.

Success for Renaissance in Ferrara: over 70 thousand visitors to Palazzo dei Diamanti

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