Santa Giulia Museum, Brescia
Moretto, Romanino, Savoldo. 1512-1552
OCTOBER 18, 2024 – FEBRUARY 16, 2025
Last days to visit the exhibition closing on February 16th.
On Friday 14th, Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th February, on the occasion of Saints Faustino and Giovita, patrons of the city of Brescia and the last days of the exhibition, The Renaissance in Brescia. Moretto, Romanino, Savoldo. 1512-1552 will be open to the public until 10:00 pm.
“Eccentric. At times restless. Concrete as only the people of Brescia can be. Capable, however, of unpredictable, albeit subdued, poetic impulses. A Renaissance that celebrated women. That identified nature as a space of harmony and a source of possible development. That did not remain indifferent to the first ferments of religious reform. That was marked by an immense tragedy, and knew how to overcome it. A city that investigates its history and its identity and represents it through the great masterpieces of its greatest pictorial season. Moretto, Romanino and Savoldo are the extraordinary protagonists of an exhibition that puts the human soul on stage.”
Too often the Brescian Cinquecento with Moretto (c. 1498 – 1554), Romanino (1484/1487 – 1560) and Savoldo (c. 1480 – post 1548) has been described as an isolated episode, confined to the history of art: this project demonstrates something completely different, namely a result of facts, feelings and a context that links the history of men and women, politics, culture and religion to art. In particular, it demonstrates how and why painting achieved surprising results, becoming a precursor language of masters such as Moroni and Caravaggio, the basis of the extraordinary tradition of the so-called painting of reality.
The exhibition hosted at the Santa Giulia Museum, accompanied by a series of itineraries in the city, is proposed as an opportunity to immerse oneself in a historical period, understanding its artistic and human aspects. A journey through art, history, philosophy and religion that reveals a Renaissance that was able to celebrate women, that identified nature as a space of harmony and a source of possible development, that did not remain indifferent to the first ferments of religious reform and that was marked by an immense tragedy but was able to overcome it. It is the story of a city that investigates its history and its identity through the masterpieces of its greatest pictorial season.
The exhibition is made extraordinary by the presence of loans from some of the most important international institutions such as: MET in New York, National Gallery in Washington, Getty Museum in Los Angeles, as well as New Orleans, Allentown, National Gallery in London, Kunsthistorisches in Vienna and Szépművészeti in Budapest. From Italy: Pinacoteca di Brera, Castello Sforzesco, Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, Museo di Castelvecchio in Verona, Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte in Naples, together with loans from the Lombardy region and, on display, part of the heritage of Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo and the Diocese of Brescia which preserve some of the most important corpora of works by Moretto, Romanino and Savoldo.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue published by Skira with texts by Letizia Barozzi, Barbara Bettoni, Marco Bizzarrini, Roberta D’Adda, Marco Faini, Querciolo Mazzonis, Fabrizio Pagnoni, Ester Pietrobon, Alessandra Quaranta, Barbara Maria Savy, Elisabetta Selmi.
