2023-11-26 04:00:00
Time.news – Reopens Guercino Civic Art Gallery Of Cent (Ferrara), which returns to open its doors to the public. A space of universal importance and value, given the presence of the largest collection of works by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, known as Guercino. A museum that was seriously affected by earthquake of 2012.
Once the construction site, which lasted about two years, was completed, today the official ribbon was cut with the President of the Region and Commissioner for post-earthquake reconstruction, Stefano Bonaccini, the mayor of Cento, Edoardo Accorsiand the regional councilor for Culture and Landscape, Mauro Felicori. Furthermore, until tomorrow, Sunday 26 November, events, meetings, exhibitions, historical re-enactments and workshops are scheduled to celebrate the return home of the works of the great Baroque artist.
The works, entrusted by the Municipality to the Bolognese studio Open Project, were carried out thanks to a financing of 2 million and 955 thousand euros of regional programming, through the commissioner structure, and a ministerial one of 989 thousand euros obtained through the 2021 Culture Fund which made it possible to create the museum layout and the new image of the museum.
“We are extremely proud to return to the Centese community and to the whole country a symbolic place of culture, a renovated international exhibition center that is safer but above all more functional than before”, commented President Bonaccini and Councilor Felicori, who spoke at the inauguration.
“The goal of making it a has been achieved most modern museum, a place where it is possible to admire important collections, as in this case, but which is something more than a collection: it is one communication machine, the place of rewarding learning experiences, a space of emotion as well as conservation. With the‘incredible concentration of works by Guercino present in its territory, Cento and its Art Gallery are a candidate to become the magnetic center of attraction of that ‘Guercino regional system’ that the Region intends to promote and support”.
In the renovated spaces you can admire them 16 altarpieces and paintings, 20 detached frescoes e 11 drawings by Guercinotogether with many other works by his students and followers (mainly from Cento and largely related to the painter) and by prestigious artists such as Scarsellino, Guido Reni, Ludovico Carracci, Matteo Loves, returned after being kept in the collection center of Sassuolo (Mo).
The art gallery owns the largest concentration in the world of the seventeenth-century artist’s worksincluding masterpieces such as The Chair of St. Peter, the Risen Christ Appears to the Mother, the Blessing Madonna and Child, and also thanks to loans from two important institutions such as the Cassa di Risparmio di Cento Foundation (nine works, including the first fresco by the young Guercino, who depicts the Madonna of Reggio, or the Madonna della Ghiara) and Credem Banca (six works, including the Mystical Marriage of Santa Caterina, a youthful masterpiece by the painter from Cento).
The scientific and exhibition itinerary 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 qualitatively most relevant works of the territory. The first floor is dedicated entirely to Guercino and his school, including the last two rooms dedicated to genre painting and portraiture in which there are significant examples of the workshop.
The interventions
The main structural interventions concerned the restoration and consolidation of earthquake damage at global and local levels and a general seismic improvement of the structure. This with the reinforcement and consolidation of the roof, the walls, the internal pillars and the portico, the floors, the damaged cornices and the renovation of the finishes. Interventions were carried out to remove the architectural barriers of the entire complex, with the aim of making the The building is completely accessible and adapted to current regulatory and set-up needs.
Finally, all the plant equipment was redesigned to achieve the best possible energy efficiency and the fire prevention compartmentation was increased, in accordance with the museum function of the complex.
The history of the building
The Civica Pinacoteca Il Guercino is located in the historic center of Cento, a few steps from the main square and in 2012, following the earthquake in Emilia, it was one of the most affected and damaged historic buildings. The art gallery was established in 1839 inside the Palazzo del Monte di Pietà.
Numerous works of art from various places of worship suppressed in the Napoleonic era were brought together here. In the following decades, other works were added to that first nucleus from acquisitions made by the Municipality, from private deposits and from public institutions. In the 1940s the exhibition spaces were expanded; Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti proceeded with a cataloging aimed at updating the attribution of the paintings based on the indications of contemporary artistic historiography.
The entry into the museum of part of the frescoes detached and transferred to canvas from the Pannini house dates back to that period, executed by Guercino and assistants from his workshop between 1615 and 1617, a gift from the Rosselli Del Turco family from Bologna who had entered in possession due to hereditary events.
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