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

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Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna

Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna (National Gallery of Bologna), situated in a quite understated building, housed a "wide collection of Emilian paintings from the 13th to the 18th century, and and other fundamental works by artists who were in some way related to the city." [wikipedia]


Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna



To me, the most impressive works were those medieval icons - flat, gilded, intensely colored, archaic, strange and in a sense, almost startlingly modern.  Below are the highlights from those collections of the early works:


Croce di pinta con la Madonna orante fra due angeli, san francesco e sant'Elena, Maestro dei Crocefissi Francescani, c 1254


Il Gotico






San Giacomo alla battaglia di Clavijo, Pseudo Jacopino, 1315-20


Sotire di Cristo e santi,Maestro di San Nicolò degli Albari, c 1320, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna


Crocifissione di Cristo. [in basso] Sepoltura di Cristo e Discesa al Limbo. Santi Francesco, Caterina, Bartolomeo e Chiara, Baronzio Giovanni, c 1330


San Giorgio libera la principassa, c 1330-35, Vitale degli Equi detto Vitale da Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna


Rilievo tattile dell'opera di San Giorgio libera la principassa,Vitale da Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna


Polittico con la Dormitio Virginis e l'Incoronazione della Vergine, Pseudo Jacopino, 1330-35


Polittico con la Presentazione al Tempio e la Pietà, Pseudo Jacopino, 1330-35


Arcangelo Gabriele e Vergine annunziata, c 1350-55, Simone di Filippo detto dei Crocefissi


Madonna col Bambino, angeli e il donatore Giovanni da Piacenza, de' Crocefissi, c 1378


Anconetta, Simone di Filippoo detto dei Crocefissi, c 1390-95


Sant'Ubaldo Vescovo (l), Pietà (r), Maestro di San Verecondo, 1415-30


Paradiso e Inferno, Maestro dell'Avicenna, c 1435


Trionfo della Fama, Trionfo della Tempo, Zanobi di Benedetto di Caroccio degli Strozzi, c 1440-45


Polittico, Vivarini Antonio, Vivarini Bartolomeo, 1450


Madonna in trono col bambino fra i Santi Girolamo e Petronio, [In alto] l'Annunciazione fra i santi Stefano, Domenico, Francesco e Agostino, Lianori Pietro, 1453

The following examples demonstrated a markedly changed styles - coloration was less intense, more in-line with the Renaissance, so was the modulation of the figures, more naturalistic and less flatly stylized:


[in alto] Cristo morto fra la Madonna e S. Giovanni, Maestro della Pala dei Muratori, c 1476; Madonna col Bambino in trono e i Santi Claudio, Castorio, Martino e Girolamo, , Maestro della Pala dei Murato


San Michele Arcangelo, Roberti Ercole de', 1470-80



These frescoes and paintings below again, affirmed the decided departure from medieval art and the figures, compositions became quite familiar to the eyes accustomed to Renaissance paintings and one sensed the influences and traffic of ideas and techniques from those titans such as Lippi, Botticelli, and Bellini:


Volto di Maria piangente, Roberti Ercole de', XV Secolo


Gli affreschi di Mezzaratta, Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna


Sette scene dalla vita di Giuseppe (top), Jacopo del Biondo (q) - Maestro del Pozzo, 15th Century


Ritratto di Ludovico Bolognini, Maestro della pala dei Muratori (q), c 1480-85


San Petronio fra i Santi Domenico e Francesco, Costa Lorenzo, 1502


Madonna col Bambino, Palmezzano Marco, 1506-13


Affreschi staccati da palazzo Torfanini, Alcina riceve Ruggero nel suo castello (l), Niccolò dell'Abate, c 1548-50


Affreschi staccati da palazzo Torfanini, Ruggero volge lo scudo contro la flotta di Alcina (l), Niccolò dell'Abate, c 1548-50; Battaglia fra la flotta di Logistilla e quella di Alcina (r), Niccolò dell'Abate

With the advance of Titian and El Greco, the paintings reached its apex in their expressivity in the naturalistic style:


Gesù Cristo e il buon ladrone, Tiziano Vecellio e aiuti, c 1563


Ultima Cena, Theotokòpulos Domenico detto El Greco, 1564-70

Then, we moved on to mannerism - not necessarily a negative term.  I appreciate the delicate figure drawings and the intensely contrasted yet wonderfully harmonious colors.  Though, more staring at them in a group for a long period could be a challenge - I got saturated more easily by these stylization:


Madonna col Bambino in gloria e i Santi Naborre, Felice, Francesco, Chiara, Giovanni Battista, Maria Maddalena e Caterina, Samacchini Orazio, c 1570


Flagellazione di Cristo, Calvaert Denis, c 1575


Bambino giacente nella Culla, Fontana Lavinia, c 1583


Adorazione dei pastori, Procaccini Camillo, 1584


Annunciazione, Faccini Pietro, c 1600

18th Century was a mixed bag.  One of my favorite portrait below, was absolutely remarkable and its modernity was an anomaly amongst the French school of grand tableaux of the neoclassical male nudes:


Ritratto di gentildonna (la Madre), Reni Guido, c 1615-42


Abele morto, Giovanni Battista Gaulli detto il Baciccia/Baciccio (8 May 1639 – 2 April 1709)


Sansone vittorioso, Reni Guido, XVII Secolo


Philoctete nell’isola di Lemnos, Barry James, 1770

And the final two examples were almost the forerunner of the French Impressionism and it was a relief to be comforted by these, after those flawless yet immobile and lifeless fleshes above.


Scena di genere con tre figure, Burrini Giovanni Antonio, 1685-90


Scena di fattoria, Crespi Giuseppe Maria, c 1710-15


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- San Giorgio Maggiore, Il Redentore, Scuola e Chise Grande di San Rocco, Venezia
- Magical Piazza San Marco in Venice
- Magnificent Churches in Vienna
- My Favorite Frescoes at Santa Croce, Firenze
- My Favorite Art Works at Santa Maria Novella, Firenze
- My Favorite Artworks at Museo di San Marco, Firenze
- My Favorite Artworks at Cappelle Medicee, San Lorenzo, Firenze
- My Favorite Works at Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Firenze, Italia

Label: Italy, Austria and Italy Trip 2012