My Favorite Paintings at Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna, Italy

Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna

The Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna (National Gallery of Bologna) boasts a vast array of paintings dating from 13th through 18th century, such as this glorious "Jesus Christ and the Good Thief" by Titian and his assistants. 


Gesù Cristo e il buon ladrone (Jesus Christ and the Good Thief), Tiziano Vecellio e aiuti (Titian and aid), c 1563

Yet, my favorite paintings in Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna are two panels from mid-15th century.  The circa 1435 piece "Paradiso e Inferno", a portal-shaped pentagon, presented a clearly contrasted two realms: colorful and buoyant paradise and somber and grim inferno.  In the middle of the pediment, haloed by red aureole, Virgin Mary, Jesus and the God formed an "eye", surrounded and supported further by numerous similarly radiant saints, in very decorative formations, which also attempted to observe rules of perspectives. The bottom third of the painting was more sparsely populated, dominated by an oversized demon, who was devouring condemned, directly below a serenading angel underneath the "eye", while other lost souls, scattered in earth trenches, being tortured and tormented by black-winged demons, systematically, methodically, and devoid of melodrama.


Paradiso e Inferno, Maestro dell'Avicenna, c 1435

My second favorite was also an allegorical piece, titled "Triumph of Fame, Triumph of Time", another 15th century piece with symmetrical composition.  The most striking aspect of the painting was its vivid colors - brilliant red, sensuous pink, and heavenly azzurro, accented by bone white figures of the Triumph and the stallions drawing her Apollonian chariot.

On the left half of the painting, many crowned personalities converged towards her - personifications of the tributes from Fame; the mirroring right side was populated by similar grandees representing different sectors of society, all in their venerable ages - the tributes from Time.

This painting was very visually enchanting and its enigmatic nature added more to its allure.


Trionlo della Fama, Trionlo della Tempo (Triumph of Fame, Triumph of Time), Zanobi di Benedetto di Caroccio degli Strozzi, c 1440-45


My Favorite Museum Collection Series
>> My Favorite Museum Collection Series 119: My Favorite Monuments at Il palazzo dell'Archiginnasio, Bologna
<< My Favorite Museum Collection Series 117: My Favorite Sculptures at Legambiente Bologna & Emilia Romagna, Italy

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

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My Favorite Sculptures at Legambiente Bologna & Emilia Romagna, Italy

Italian City Bologna itself is like an open museum, full of sculptures and monuments of distinction. I was quite impressed by several groups of sculptures around Legambiente Bologna & Emilia Romagna, an old city portal and the surrounding park.



The two mirroring bronze relief sculptures at the base of the gate impressed with their incredible beautiful lines and their economic way of presenting something deeply disturbing and touching.





Inside the park, there were some marble high reliefs and one of them was particularly striking due to its unbridled dynamism of the figures, in contrast to the classical composition and austere patterns of the sea shell backdrop.




My Favorite Museum Collection Series
>> My Favorite Museum Collection Series 118: My Favorite Paintings at Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna, Italy

<< My Favorite Museum Collection Series 116: My Favorite Artworks at San Giacomo Maggiore, Bologna

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

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My Favorite Artworks at San Giacomo Maggiore, Bologna

The richness and depth of artworks in numerous Italian churches, large or small, are astounding. Basilica di San Giacomo Maggiore in Bologna was just one of those enchanted me in my 2012 trip to Italy.


Basilica di San Giacomo Maggiore, Bologna

I was very taken by one of its murals, depicting enthroned Virgin Mary, flanked by several martyr saints, underneath a pediment of resurrected Jesus.  The Virgin and most of the saints were in vivid blue and red colors, contrasting strongly to the paleness of Saint Sebastien and Jesus.


Basilica di San Giacomo Maggiore

I also like very much a relief depicting a beheading scene - dramatic yet restrained, and much more moving because of that.


Basilica di San Giacomo Maggiore

My Favorite Museum Collection Series
>> My Favorite Museum Collection Series 117: My Favorite Sculptures at Legambiente Bologna & Emilia Romagna, Italy
<< My Favorite Museum Collection Series 115: My Favorite Artworks at Palazzo della Ragione, Padova (Padua), Italy

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

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"Crowded by Beauty" Exhibit at McGuire Real Estate, Berkeley

McGuire Real Estate at Elmwood, Berkeley, continues its effort to support local artists, with its new eight-person show, "Crowded by Beauty", including works in a multitude of mediums: sculpture, acrylics, ceramics, watercolor, oil and photography. The featured artists are Philip Hall, Matthew Felix Sun, Camila Valdez, Jill McLennan, Deborah Schilling, Sarah Whitecotton, Judy Wiener, and Susan Erickson.



Four paintings of mine were included in the exhibitions are Forest Within, Birches, Net, and One Fine Day, all played a bit of optical illusion, with a bit twist of psychology.


Forest Within & Birches




Net & One Fine Day



There were many interesting artworks and it was a thrill for me to be in their company.







The turn out was quite wonderful. The place was indeed crowded by beauty.











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Featured Painting: The March of Time

My recent oil painting The March of Time was a chromatic piece, masking details with broad strokes, employing repetitive patterns to emphasis the underlying messages, and exploring the deep emotions with subtle tonal variation. The painting depicted a wasted land - wreckage of houses in various degree of decay, scattered around a no-man’s land in spots where they once proudly stood but barely hanging on with ineffective supports of crutches and buttresses. This wasteland was the product of ruthless time, as manifested in the title; yet, it was hard not to think what humans, who once built and occupied those now abandoned structure, had contributed to this vast span of ruin.

 

The March of Time
Oil on Canvas
24" x 30"
Completed in 2016

Originally posted on matthewfelixsun.com

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My Favorite Artworks at Palazzo della Ragione, Padova (Padua), Italy

The gracefully proportioned Palazzo della Ragione in Padova (Padua), Italy, was a unique building, which was not only enormous in dimensions, but functions uniquely as a market place in its lower level, and a civic center on the top tier.

The most outlandish thing, and my favorite, was a huge wooden horse, basked in blue light (or was it painted blue?). According to Padovaincoming.it,

"the big wooden horse kept in Palazzo della Ragione was ordered by Annibale Capodilista in 1466: it was one of the big machines - and the only one that has survived - made for an extraordinary celebration that was organized in Padua, in the squares Piazza dei Signori and Piazza del Capitanio. The parade saw the participation of all the people in town, and of more people who had been attracted to town for this exceptional event." [Source: Padovaincoming.it]

Apparently, Padova artists and civic leaders were the vanguard of flashy blockbuster installations almost mandated in today's art markets.  Cynicism aside, the horse was indeed eye-catching and exhilarating.





On the four walls of this gigantic hall, surrounding and contrasting the blue horse, were a series of marvelous allegorical frescoes, all in wonderfully aged colors, subtle and harmonious.  Collectively, they were my second favorite there.



My Favorite Museum Collection Series
>> My Favorite Museum Collection Series 116: My Favorite Artworks at San Giacomo Maggiore, Bologna

<< My Favorite Museum Collection Series 114: My Favorite Artworks at Duomo, Padova (Padua), Italy

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

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- Famed Palaces and Houses (Ca') in Venice
- Two Museums in Venice - Gallerie dell'Accademia & Collezione Peggy Guggenheim
- Magical Piazza San Marco in Venice
- Castello Estense, Palazzo Municipale and Duomo in Ferrara
- My Favorite Sculptures at Museo dell'Opera del Duomo (Florence)
- Vasari Frescoes and Michelangeo Sculpture - My Favorite Works at Palazzo Vecchio, Firenz