Guercino in Piacenza
An extraordinary exhibition celebrates Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (Cento, 1591 – Bologna, 1666), also known as Guercino. The exhibition is currently running in Piacenza until 4 June, 2017.
Hosted in the Ducal Chapel in Palazzo Farnese, a selection of Guercino’s works (both sacred and profane) reconstructs the career of the master, from his beginning in the town of Cento (near Ferrara), to the Rome of pope Gregory XV Ludovisi (1621-23), and then to Bologna, where Guercino settled his workshop in 1642. After the death of Guido Reni that year, Guercino took over his role as the city’s leading painter.
The Piacenza exhibition also offers the unique experience to climb up the inside of the Cathedral’s dome and to look closely at the Guercino frescoes, representing the images of the prophets and the Sibyls and episodes of Jesus’ childhood. The frescoes were painted between 1626 and 1627, when the artist was at the peak of his fame.
The exhibition is dedicated to Sir Denis Mahon, who helped promoting seventeenth-century Italian art, with particular attention to Guercino.
Further reading: Denis Mahon, Guercino: Master Painter of the Baroque, 1992.
Works by Guercino on display:
Et in Arcadia ego, 1618, oil on canvas (on loan from the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, Rome).
Death of Cleopatra, 1648, oil on canvas (on loan from the Musei di Strada Nuova, Genoa).
Susanna and the Elders, 1649-50, oil on canvas (on loan from the Galleria Nazionale, Parma).
Duomo of Piacenza, frescoes, 1626-1629.
Posted by Martina Bollini