The masterpieces of 17th-century
painter Carlo Bononi - described as having Madonnas who cry real
tears and "colors mixed from liquified hearts" - are being
brought together for the first time in a large show from October
14 through January 7 in the exhibition spaces of the Palazzo
Diamanti in Ferrara.
The show, titled "Carlo Bononi: The Last Dreamer of the
Ferrarese School", is a celebration by Bononi's own city of the
painter of emotions and feelings, who was also an extraordinary
naturalist, a Mannerist in the mind, and among the precursors of
the Baroque in his style.
A recent critical study has brought Bononi and his work to
the level of other masters such as Guercino, Carracci and Guido
Reni.
Organized by the Ferrara Art Foundation and the Ferrara
Modern and Contemporary Art Galleries in collaboration with the
Ferrara Museums of Ancient Art, the exhibition has two
17th-century art experts as its curators: Giovanni Sassu and
Francesca Cappelletti.
They chose works that testify to the depth of an undisputed
master, who suddenly fell into the shadows and was forgotten.
The slow but determined critical review progressively brought
back to light the unique artist's ability to use painting as a
language where emotion and the intimate relationship between the
painted figures and their observers were made the focus.
In the dramatic years of religious conflicts, earthquakes and
plagues, Bonini used light and theatricality to become one of
the first Italian Baroque painters, as shown by the decoration
in Ferrara's Santa Maria in Vado Church.
Bononi's naturalist side is shown in works such as "Miracle of
Soriano" or "Guardian Angel", where it becomes evident that the
artist needed to bring religion into everyday life, placing the
figures of saints and madonnas in real and concretely
recognisable people.
Guido Reni, a few months after Bononi's death in 1632,
praised him as an "unordinary painter" with "great wisdom in
design and in the strength of colour".
One century later, Bononi attracted the attention of
travellers on the Grand Tour, from Charles Nicolas Cochin to
Goethe, who described Ferrara as "beautiful, large, but flat and
unpopulated" and appreciated Bononi's naturalist paintings.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
