My Favorite Paintings at Pinacoteca Nazionale di Ferrara, Italy

Pinacoteca Nazionale (National Gallery) di Ferrara, also known as Palazzo dei Diamanti, named for its rusticated façade of diamond spikes, impressed with effortless elegance of the building and its collections.



The first striking piece greeted visitors was an "Assunzione di Santa Maria Maddalena" by Maestro della Maddalena Assunta.



The highly stylized landscape was an idealized world, where animals, plants, and humans mingled together in harmony. The low vantage point and the receding flat landscape helped to generate a visceral sense of witnessing Saint Mary flying up. Hovering just above the ground, the pious and still youthful Mary, borne by several cherubim and greeted by a pair of angels with enormous wings, though delicate and even fragile, commended attention through her centered position, contorted pose, and brilliant bloody red drapery. The small V-shaped hills framing the base of the painting, also added the sense of uplifting.  


Assunzione di Santa Maria Maddalena, Maestro della Maddalena Assunta


I was also very moved by another Mary painting - Madonna col Bambino, which featured the tender Mary and a very trusting and adorable baby Jesus, engaging in silent and intimate communion, demonstrating the palpable love and trust between the mother and the baby. A touching sweetness permeated the painting, yet the painting never fell to the level of saccharine; the sweetness was manifested in the simplicity of these figures, their most natural exhibition of pure emotions, and the delicate and harmonious hues of pink, rose, and blue, all artfully woven together.


Madonna col Bambino,  Sebastiano Filippi  detto Bastianino


My Favorite Museum Collection Series
>> My Favorite Museum Collection Series 126: My Favorite Paintings at Liaoning Provincial Museum, Shenyang, China

<< My Favorite Museum Collection Series 124: My Favorite Sculptures at Palazzo Municipale in Ferrara, Italy

List of My Favorite Artworks in the Museums I've Visited

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My Favorite Paintings at Castello Estense, Ferrara, Italy

The formidable and somewhat gloomy fortress, Castello Estense in Ferrara, Italy was surprisingly  airy and even cheesy inside.

Such as this whimsical ceiling painting, one of many, depicting carousing nude men and cherubim, who, despite in the drunken stage, allowed their stances and gestures to be regulated by some tidy order.  Their pale flash tone worked really well against the elegant background of blue and pink walls and windows of a building façade, thus introduced another dimension of order and regulation.  Finally, the fantastic drawn floral borders on milky colored background firmly planted this hedonistic scene in a florid paradise.





Opposite to that ceiling painting's festive atmosphere,  a triptych of grisaille frescoes in a courtyard depicted some serious and highly-placed personalities, was all somberness and world-weary.  Despite the lacking colors, or because of that, these "veiled" paintings were memorably atmospheric and evocative. 






My Favorite Museum Collection Series
>> My Favorite Museum Collection Series 125: My Favorite Paintings at Pinacoteca Nazionale di Ferrara, Italy
<< My Favorite Museum Collection Series 123: My Favorite Sculptures at Palazzo Municipale in Ferrara, Italy

List of My Favorite Artworks in the Museums I've Visited

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My Favorite Sculptures at Palazzo Municipale in Ferrara, Italy

During my brief day trip to Italian city Ferrara, I admired two bronze sculptures on top of the arch entrance to its Palazzo Municipale (City Hall) — Arco del Volto del cavallo (Arch of Horse Front).



On the left, there was the seated statesman Duca Borso d'Este & Marchese Niccolo III d'Este and on the right, equestrian sculpture of Marchese Niccolo III d'Este. 



Of these two equally impressive sculptures, the more flamboyant equestrian made more immediate impressions.



The overt masculinity and grandeur was reflected with his insolent expression, his immobile pose, and his easy on the schlepping charger. The silhouette of the powerful horse and the rider was as solid as a mountain, as if nothing could challenge and stop his marching supremacy.


Marchese Niccolo III d'Este



The seated Duca Borso d'Este, on the contrary, was all self-confident serenity, radiating innate strength, as if so confident of his divine invested power that he needed no military poses and trappings to uphold his control over his domain.


Duca Borso d'Este




My Favorite Museum Collection Series
>> My Favorite Museum Collection Series 124: My Favorite Paintings at Castello Estense, Ferrara, Italy
<< My Favorite Museum Collection Series 122: My Favorite Artworks at Duomo in Ferrara, Italy

List of My Favorite Artworks in the Museums I've Visited

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My Favorite Artworks at Duomo in Ferrara, Italy

My brief excursion from Bologna to Ferrara led me to the wonderful Duomo, whose distinct façade of triple gables immediately brought me to a purified world of classicism.





True to the expectation, my favorite sculpture inside was a sculpture of a bishop (and a saint?) standing in a niche with minimal decoration.  The most striking feature was the resolute and clean lines of the soaring figure, reminiscent the works of the great Bernini, such as his masterpiece of "Ecstasy of Saint Teresa", though much less florid and baroque.



I also really liked a fresco of Saint Michael of similar narrow shape. The interplay of ethereally pale blue and pink hues was wonderfully subtle and satisfying, forming and contrasting the saint, who, even engaged in battle, never lost his balance and grace.  Utterly enchanting.




My Favorite Museum Collection Series
>> My Favorite Museum Collection Series 123: My Favorite Sculptures at Palazzo Municipale in Ferrara, Italy
<< My Favorite Museum Collection Series 121: My Favorite Paintings at Palazzo D'Accursio (Palazzo Comunale), Bologna

List of My Favorite Artworks in the Museums I've Visited

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Pinacoteca Nazionale di Ferrara and the Rest of Ferrara

After Castello and Duomo, the other main attraction in Ferrara was its city wall.  From the description of its being a walled city, I planned to have a casual stroll atop the city wall but I realized once there that Ferrara's size far exceeded my expectation and to do so would take hours.  A bicycle ride might be more feasible but it might still be too challenging; besides, I also realized then that not all sections of the wall were well preserved enough accommodate a continuous walk or ride through.  We decided on a section which was mostly ruins simply because it was in the directions we were heading to.  But it was quite a wonderful sight nevertheless.




Ruin of City Wall, Ferrara


Old City Wall

~~~~~~~~~~

Ferrara's main art museum, Pinacoteca Nazionale di Ferrara, was housed inside Palazzo dei Diamanti, which obviously got its name from its studded façade.


Pinacoteca Nazionale di Ferrara (Palazzo dei Diamanti)





The collections were mostly religious paintings, ranging from 16 through 18th century.  Of which, the older, more medieval works affected me more, for their strangeness and touching naïveté.  Some pale or faded frescoes were exceptional beautiful as well.


Staircase and Assunzione di Santa Maria Maddalena, Maestro della Maddalena Assunta, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Ferrara


San Giorgio, Maestro attivo a Ferrara nella prima metà del XV secolo


Madonna col bambino fra due vasi di rose, Ercole Roberti (l),  San Sebastiano, Vicino da Ferrara (r)


Madonn in trono col Bambino, Maestro dagli occhi spalancati (l), Gesta, il cattivo ladrone (particolare di Crocefissione), Maestro dell'Agosto (?) (m), San Petronio, Ercole Roberti (r)




Arcangelo Gabriele annunciante Stigmate di San Francesco, Natività, Lotta di San Giorgio col drago, Pittore ferrarese o romagnolo (?)






San Giovanni Battista, Maestro di Figline, Palazzo Diamanti


Natività , adorazione dei magi, Maestro dell'Adorazione di Ferrara


San Cristofore (l), San Sebastiano (r), Maestro Ferrarese


La musa Urania, La musa Erato (r), Pittore attrivo a Ferrara


Giudizio di San Maurelio (l), Martirio di San Maurelio (l), Cosmè Tura


Ritratto di tre devoti, Baldassarre d'Este


Annunciazione, Viola da Ferrara




Santa Barbara, Santa Lucia, Scuola tedesca, Meister des Hausbuchs (?)


Madonna col Bambino, san Giovannino e un angelo, Biagio d'Antonio




Due Vedute di città, Girolamo Marchesi detto Girolamo da Cotignola (?)


Conversione di san Romano, Battesimo di san Romano, Sebastiano Filippi detto Bastianino

 
Madonna col Bambino, Sebastiano Filippi detto Bastianino


La Circoncisione, Sebastiano Filippi detoo Bastianino


Perseo e Andromeda, Bernardino Cesari (?) (left) and Angelo custode, Carlo Bononi (right)


Due guerrieri, Pietro Muttoni, detto Pietro Della Vecchia, attribuito (top), Lanzichenecco (bottom left), Davide, Giuseppe Caletti (r), Pietro Muttoni, detto Pietro Della Vecchia


San Sebastiano, Francesco Zaganelli (left) and Santa Caterina, Girolamo Sellari detto Girolamo da Carpi (right)


Tobiolo e l'Arcangelo Raffaele, Girolamo da Carpi


San Luigi IX di Francia, Girolamo da Carpi


San Paolo apostolo, Domenico Panetti (?)


Allegoria di Sant'Agostino come Maestro dell'Ordine (fascimile del disegno a tempera su carta), Girolamo Domenichini


Allegoria di Sant'Agostino come Maestro dell'Ordine (fascimile del disegno a tempera su carta), Girolamo Domenichini


Allegoria di Sant'Agostino come Maestro dell'Ordine (fascimile del disegno a tempera su carta), Girolamo Domenichini


L'Antico e il Nuovo Testamento, Benvenuto Tisi detto Garofalo







Sapiente con compasso e globo (Atlante ?), Giovanni Francesco Luteri detto Dosso Dossi


Storie di Costantino e di papa Silvestro, Benvenuto Tisi detto Garofalo


Polittico Costabili, Benvenuto Tisi, detto il Garofalo, Giovanni Luteri, detto Dosso Dossi

~~~~~~~~~~

The rest of Ferrara continued to offer endless visual pleasures, including Palazzo Massari which was another main museum but was closed for the time being. 




Palazzo Massari















By the time children left their schools, this museum city suddenly became much more alive and we had a peep of the people in Ferrara, young and old.









This blog concludes my report of our wonderful Austria and Italy Trip in October 2012.


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Label: Italy, Austria and Italy Trip 2012