The Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna will hold a major exhibition dedicated to the painter Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, known as Guercino. Centred on some of his most important paintings, the event will explore the various phases of his career, the success of his ‘family-run business’, and his relationships with his closest collaborators and clients. The overall aim is to shed light on the professional, artistic and entrepreneurial dynamics which characterised his prolific production.
La mostra è stata prorogata fino al 25 febbraio 2024.
Curated by Barbara Ghelfi and Raffaella Morselli in collaboration with the museum staff, the exhibition will open to the public on 28 October 2023. The display will be part of a series of initiatives which will extend beyond the city of Bologna to include various venues of the Region of Emilia-Romagna and involve other important national museums. In the context of renewed interest for the artistic traditions of Bologna and Emilia, this year and the next one will in fact see other institutions organise exhibitions and events focusing on the great master of Baroque painting, beginning with the reopening of the Pinacoteca di Cento, scheduled for November 2023.
The exhibition will feature feature some 20 works, including the masterpieces by Guercino Guercino held at the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna, such as the Madonna of the Sparrow (1615-1616), Saint Sebastian Cured by Saint Irene (1619), Saint William Receiving the Monastic Habit (1620) and the Madonna and Child in Glory with Saint Bruno (1647). These will be accompanied by other works by the artist and his collaborators on loan including theSelf-portrait from a private collection in Germany, the Eternal Father with a Little Angel, (1620) from the Musei di Strada Nuova in Genoa, the Saint Sebastian (1619) from the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, and theVegetable Seller Counting Her Coins, an exquisite collaborative effort between Guercino and his brother Paolo Antonio. The relationships between Guercino, his trusted assistants and his patrons will be examined in light of unpublished archival material which contributes to our understanding of the production systems of the master’s atelier.
In this regard, one of the highlights of the exhibition will be the display of the most useful tool for comprehending the operations of his studio, namely the Libro dei conti, the artist’s account book, which the Biblioteca dell’Archiginnasio of Bologna has generously made available for the occasion. Here are recorded sold paintings, names of clients and earnings: the Libro in fact constitutes a valuable inventory that gives us information about many of the works executed in Guercino’s thriving workshop.
Finally, visitors can learn more about the contents of the exhibition and the master’s painting techniques from the multimedia console, which offers in-depth looks at certain aspects of his production, beginning with the recent findings of diagnostic testing conducted on the works held by the Pinacoteca di Bologna. These analyses were performed by the diagnostic laboratory of the University of Bologna’s Department of Cultural Assets (Ravenna campus) in the context of the project ‘Guercino: Beyond Colour’.
GUERCINO IN HIS STUDIO
edited by Barbara Ghelfi and Raffaella Morselli
Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna
28 October 2023 – 25 February 2024