RAVO // an awsome project by andrea ravo mattoni

Sala Emilia

The first two works in this room are by Guido Reni, one the foremost painters of the 1600s in Italy, who was trained in Caraccis’ school. The third work is by Annibale Caracci himself. According to an anecdote Annibale, guessing what great talent Reni was endowed with, advises his cousin Ludovico not to teach Reni too much because one day the latter will make him “sigh”.
Gaetano Gandolfi is a Bologna painter with strong ties to the capital of Emilia Romagna, where he created most of his work. Sebastiano Ricci, originally from Veneto, worked in Bologna, Parma and Piacenza and created a series of paintings for Palazzo Farnese in Piacenza. And the presence in this room of the painting by Carlo Francesco Nuvolone, a Lombard painter, is due to the fact that the painting is kept at Palazzo Farnese itself.

Works in the works


1. Annibale Caracci, The baptism of Christ (detail). In opposition to the sterile results of the late Mannerism, Caracci set for himself the goal of recuperating the great tradition of the Italian painting of the 1500s, achieving an original summary of the various schools. This work was created around 1585.


2. Carlo Francesco Nuvolone, The purification. Carlo Francesco Nuvolone, like his brother Giuseppe Nuvolone, was a representative of the Lombard school of the 17th century. This 1645 painting is kept in the picture gallery at Palazzo Farnese in Piacenza.


3. Guido Reni, David and Goliath. Influenced by Flemish painters, keen on the works of Raphael and Durer, he trains at the Accademia degli Incamminati founded by Caracci. This work, among the most representative of his, is kept at the Louvre.


4. Guido Reni, St. Cecilia. This painting was created in 1606, at a time when Reni, having left Bologna, lived in Rome. The painting is kept at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, USA.


5. Sebastiano Ricci, Paolo III approves the project for Piacenza Castle. From 1687 to 1688 the artist decorated the apartments of Duchess Farnese, in the palazzo by the same name in Piacenza, creating a series of oil paintings that show the splendor of Paolo III; this one shows him while he gives his approval and observes favorably the plan of Piacenza’s castle, built in 1547.


6. Gaetano Gandolfi, Ulysses and Circe. Gandolfi was born on 31st August 1734 in San Matteo della Decima. This painting shows a famous event in the Odyssey: the moment after the encounter between Ulysses and Circe, when the Homeric hero’s companions start turning into pigs, while Ulysses is saved by Mercury.