Ferrara - Finestre sull'Arte

Restless renaissance and viaticum padani, from Brescia to Ferrara

In recent decades, historians have declined some historical categories in the plural. Thus the monolithic and imperious Renaissance, with a capital letter, has begun to break down into multiple renaissances, where the adjective regionalist has gained...
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When art in the Renaissance was also political propaganda: Garofalo's masterpiece

It is an episode in the history of the Renaissance perhaps not known to many, but certainly the Battle of Polesella can be counted among the most singular ones, and not only because in the aftermath of this Ferrara military feat, events ensued that l...
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An intense journey among the great and forgotten of the 16th century in Ferrara. What the exhibition at the Palazzo dei Diamanti looks like

If we were to accompany Jacob Burckhardt on his visits to the galleries of Rome and listen to him as he pauses to describe the pieces that most and best captured his interest, we would most likely derive sharp adjectives from them, suitable for defin...
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If Jupiter paints butterflies: the magical painting by Dosso Dossi

Dosso Dossi had a boundless imagination: his whimsical, versatile, ingenious, imaginative flair is among the most celebrated in the history of art, and few in his era could come close to his visionary imagination. A myth, a literary text, a biblical ...
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Ferrara's chained bear: possible hypotheses about its meaning

Beyond the attributive proposals and the possible destination of the panels, the fierce chained bear in the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Ferrara remains an extremely eloquent and fascinating element, whose enigmatic nature sums up the mystery that still s...
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A major exhibition on the 16th century in Ferrara, at the Palazzo dei Diamanti

In Ferrara, Palazzo dei Diamanti is hosting a major new exhibition in the series dedicated to the Ferrara Renaissance. It is entitled The Sixteenth Century in Ferrara. Mazzolino, Ortolano, Garofalo, Dosso and is curated by Vittorio Sgarbi and Michele...
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Why is there a bear chained to the palace of a Renaissance city?

A chained bear, tied to the facade of an elegant marble building. Standing upright on its hind legs, aggressive, in the act of attacking. The snout of the animal that is unhappy with that condition, with the chain that holds him there, attached to th...
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When a box set is a Wunderkammer wonder. What the Mirabilia Estensi exhibition in Ferrara looks like.

The record belongs to Julius von Schlosser, a distinguished pioneer of the Viennese school of art history: he was the first to take an interest, and to do so with a systematic measure, in the historiated caskets produced in the fifteenth century by t...
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