A new space for hosting temporary exhibitions opened at Palazzo Barberini on 16 December, with a major show dedicated to Guercino, a leading figure in Italian 17th-century painting.
The additional 1,000-sqm on the ground floor now makes Palazzo Barberini the second-largest venue in the Roman museum circuit after Palazzo Venezia. Part of the area was occupied by the Circolo degli Ufficiali for decades until the military were finally evicted in 2006 after years of litigation.
Born in 1591 in the town of Cento in the Emilia region of northern Italy, as a boy Giovanni Francesco Barbieri became known as “Guercino”, meaning “squinter”, because he was cross-eyed, and two of the paintings exhibited in Palazzo Barberini bear the artist’s real name.
The exhibition comprises works held in museums and collections in Rome and Cento and the 36 masterpieces on show offer an overview of the artist’s long career, highlighting the evolution from his early works until his death in 1666.
Included in the exhibition are some of the artist’s frescos, transferred onto fibreglass, and displayed alongside enormous works such as “St Peter receives the keys from Christ”, painted in 1618.
The show is curated by Rossella Vodret, the superintendent of the state museum complex of the city of Rome, and Fausto Gozzi, director of the Pinacoteca Civica of Cento.
The exhibition was a tribute to the Anglo-Irish art expert Sir Denis Mahon, who dedicated much of his 100 years to studying the work of Guercino. Mahon (1910-2011) is regarded as one of the foremost scholars and collectors of his generation, and just before his death he donated his substantial archives to the National Gallery of Ireland.
The Guercino exhibition runs from 16 December to 29 April 2012.
Palazzo Barberini, Via delle Quattro Fontane 13, tel. 064824184. Tues-Sun 08.30-19.30.
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