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

Other Related posts on Art · 文化 · Kunst:
- Castello Estense, Palazzo Municipale and Duomo in Ferrara
- Visiting Four Universities in Austria and Italy
- Festive San Francisco City Hall and Opera House
- Art in the Streets of San Francisco

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

Other Related posts on Art · 文化 · Kunst:
- Castello Estense, Palazzo Municipale and Duomo in Ferrara
- My Favorite Artworks at Duomo, Padova (Padua), Italy
- My Favorite Sculptures at Museo dell'Opera del Duomo (Florence)
- My Favorite Paintings at Battistero, Padova (Padua), Italy
- My Favorite Works at Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Firenze, Italia
- My Favorite Reliefs in Franziskanerkirche, Graz

My Favorite Paintings at Palazzo D'Accursio (Palazzo Comunale), Bologna

The Palazzo D'Accursio (Palazzo Comunale) in Bologna hosted a large museum with amazing art collections.  Among numerous interesting works, I found two portraits most engaging.

One was "Ritratto di vecchino (Portrait of an Old Man)" by Jacopo Robusti, known as Tintoretto.  This portrait presented a robust old man with a striking set of abundant white beard, contrasting and echoing the black cap atop his broad forehead.  The unwavering, penetrating, yet not-unkind gaze of this old man told all we needed to know about this steadfast character - a general? a statesman? or a successful seafaring merchant?  Whoever he might have been, he commanded our respect. A sliver of outside world at the edge of the painting indicated his adventures beyond the serenity of old age.


Ritratto di vecchino, Jacopo Robusti, detto il Tintoretto (1518-1594)

My second favorite was "Suntto per la testa di Gian Galeazzo (Sketch of the Head of Gian Galeazzo)" by Bologna's native son, Pelagio Palagi, whose fluid rendition of the melancholic young man captured his intelligence and sensitivity tenderly and economically. Even in this perhaps unfinished state, this portrait was just as full-bodies as any extra layers of paints and varnish could provide.


Suntto per la testa di Gian Galeazzo, Pelagio Palagi (1775-1860)


My Favorite Museum Collection Series
>> My Favorite Museum Collection Series 122: My Favorite Artworks at Duomo in Ferrara, Italy
<< My Favorite Museum Collection Series 120: My Favorite Artworks at Basilica Santuario Santo Stefano, Bologna


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

Other Related posts on Art · 文化 · Kunst:
- Palazzo D'Accursio (Palazzo Comunale), Bologna
- My Favorite Artworks in Palazzo Ducale, Venezia (Doge Palace, Venice)
- My Favorite Artworks at Palazzo della Ragione, Padova (Padua), Italy
- Il palazzo dell'Archiginnasio, Bologna
- My Favorite Works at Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Firenze, Italia
- My Favorite Paintings at Battistero, Padova (Padua), Italy

My Favorite Artworks at Basilica Santuario Santo Stefano, Bologna

Basilica Santuario Santo Stefano, the oldest church in Bologna, was very atmospherically evocative and romantic, and the many unique artefacts in its often darkish chambers added much allure. 

The artwork left the strongest impression on me was a small plate of relief on the exterior of its nave, featuring three primitive looking figures with haloed heads resembling astronauts' in headgear, and  stiffly raised hands sending signals of warning or blessing. The central figure, the only seated one, held a commanding upright staff with a cross top, which dissected the plate into two uneven parts, lending some dynamism to this restrained tableau. These rigid figures, perhaps Jesus and his disciples, in their strange garbs, along with their enormous and somewhat stunned eyes, formed a society beyond our worldly reach.



My second favorite was a fresco painting of some wild or domestic animals accented with some scrolls, like an early day almanac, whose pale inviting atmosphere, coloration, and the wonderful sense of continuity and unity were particularly appealing.




My Favorite Museum Collection Series
>> My Favorite Museum Collection Series 121: My Favorite Paintings at Palazzo D'Accursio (Palazzo Comunale), Bologna
<< My Favorite Museum Collection Series 119: My Favorite Monuments at Il palazzo dell'Archiginnasio, Bologna

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

Other Related posts on Art · 文化 · Kunst:
- Basilica Santuario Santo Stefano, Bologna
- My Favorite Artworks at Palazzo della Ragione, Padova (Padua), Italy
- My Favorite Altar and Fresco at Barmherzigenkirche, Graz
- My Favorite Paintings at Basilica di Sant'Antonio, Padova (Padua), Italy
- My Favorite Artworks at Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute, Venezia
- My Favorite Frescoes at Santa Croce, Firenze
- My Favorite Artworks in San Pietro in Vincoli (Saint Peter in Chains), Roma

Featured Painting – “Forest Within” – When Reality Met Illusion

My 2005 oil painting Forest Within, currently showing at the McGuire Real Estate gallery in Berkeley as part of the “Crowded by Beauty” exhibit, is a play of optical illusion - the painting is a seemingly outdoor scene, yet the landscape is framed within a boxy confinement, and beams of light cast from behind and the shadows fall on the real or imaginary wall further enhances the blur of the boundary, where interior met exterior, reality met illusion.

 

Forest Within Oil on Canvas 24" x 30" Completed in 2005


Originally posted on matthewfelixsun.com

Other Related posts on Art · 文化 · Kunst:
- Featured Painting: The March of Time
- My Featured Painting "Minotaur"
- Featured Painting "Progression"
- Featured Painting "Liberation Road"
- My Featured Work - Portrait Painting "Grandma"
- Featured Oil Painting “Father and Son”

My Favorite Monuments at Il palazzo dell'Archiginnasio, Bologna

Il palazzo dell'Archiginnasio (The Palace of Archeology) in Bologna is a fantastical enclosed palatial building, whose corridors are adorned with numerous decorative emblems, all of them can be viewed as relief sculptures.



My favorite was a monument of a tower wrapped by a snake and topped by a huge cross. I didn't like stare at that animal and couldn't decipher the exact meaning of the symbol, other than it resembled a reverse caduceus; but it stood out in the pack.



My second favorite was a dark stele flanked by two semi-nude females at the base, and furthered augmented by some colorful small coats of arms in formation, and as a whole, they resembled fancy peahens.




My Favorite Museum Collection Series
>> My Favorite Museum Collection Series 120: My Favorite Artworks at Basilica Santuario Santo Stefano, Bologna
<< My Favorite Museum Collection Series 118: My Favorite Paintings at Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna, Italy

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

Other Related posts on Art · 文化 · Kunst:
- Il palazzo dell'Archiginnasio, Bologna
- Two Museums in Venice - Gallerie dell'Accademia & Collezione Peggy Guggenheim
- Vasari Frescoes and Michelangeo Sculpture - My Favorite Works at Palazzo Vecchio, Firenz
- My Favorite Artworks at Palazzo della Ragione, Padova (Padua), Italy
- My Favorite Altar and Fresco at Barmherzigenkirche, Graz
- My Favorite Frescos at Cappella degli Scrovegni in Padova (Padua)
- My Favorite Paintings in Palazzo Pubblico, Siena