It’s been years in the making, but is now just a short week away. On Thursday 31 October, “Guercino: L’era Ludovisi a Roma” opens at the Scuderie del Quirinale. This blockbuster exhibition features 121 works by the painter Giovanni Francesco Barbieri aka Guercino (Cento 1591-Bologna 1666), gathered from almost 70 collections. The show is curated by Raffaella Morselli and Caterina Volpi (respectively Professor and Associate Professor in Art History at La Sapienza), and runs until Sunday 26 January 2025. It will be inaugurated by the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella.
Guercino’s ‘Moses’ (1618-1619) on the move, via ROMA atac. Credit: Valentina Moncada
Even the Ludovisi Mars makes an appearance. Credit: Roberto Serra
The theme of the show is certainly inspired. The short but unusually consequential papacy of Alessandro Ludovisi—who reigned from 9 February 1621 to 8 July 1623 as Gregory XV—marks a significant cultural moment in Rome. Already as a cardinal in Bologna, in 1617 Ludovisi received from Guercino four major oil on canvas paintings, including Susanna and the Elders (now in Madrid at the Prado) and Lot and His Daughters (now at El Escorial). In 1621, his young nephew, the newly-created cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi, purchased and started to redevelop a section of Rome’s Pincio hill that corresponded in good part to the ancient Gardens of Sallust. His vision was to create a dramatically landscaped urban villa, all within the ancient city walls, that could compete with the adjoining property of the Borghese family, employing Guercino’s artistry to make the most assertive dynastic claims.
Guercino, The Burial of Saint Petronilla. This large altarpiece was commissioned by Pope Gregory XV Ludovisi for S Peter’s Basilica, and was executed between 1621-1623. Now in the Capitoline Museums, Rome. Image: Google Arts & Culture.
For his new ‘Villa Ludovisi’, cardinal Ludovico quickly formed a large and eclectic collection of art. It was significant especially for its classical sculptures (many of which are exhibited today in Rome’s Palazzo Altemps museum), its hundreds of fine easel paintings (including at least a dozen by Guercino), and its newly commissioned mural paintings for the Casino dell’Aurora at the western edge of his Villa. Guercino’s artistic program for the Casino (especially the large Aurora and Fama ceilings), as well as his monumental 1623 altarpiece for S Peter’s Basilica, The Burial and Reception into Heaven of S Petronilla (now in the Musei Capitolini), must be counted as the two most important artistic commissions of the Ludovisi era in Rome.
Guercino’s ‘Pala della Ghiara’, Christ Crucified with the Virgin, Mary Magdalene, John the Evangelist, and Saint Prospero (1624-5), during its recent restoration in Reggio Emilia. Credit: Stefano Luppi / Il Giornale dell’Arte
Much of the press attention about the Scuderie event so far concerns the remarkable preparation for the exhibition of Guercino’s enormous (4m x 2.5m) Christ Crucified with the Virgin, Mary Magdalene, John the Evangelist, and Saint Prospero (1624-5). For 400 years, this work has been displayed at the Basilica of the Blessed Virgin of Ghiara, in the town of Reggio Emilia (halfway between Parma and Modena). The Scuderie del Quirinale sponsored the restoration efforts, which were undertaken in the Basilica itself. The painting was first placed in a custom containment structure, where it remained for two months inside a vacuum bubble where oxygen was replaced by nitrogen. The restorers then proceeded to remove residues and dust from the painted surface, as well as to consolidate fragile perimeter sections of the canvas, which in many places had been detached from the frame. One is positively itching to see the results.
On the ground floor of Rome’s Casino dell’Aurora, Guercino’s Night lunette, which breaks its frame by Agostino Tassi (1621). Collection †HSH Prince Nicolò and HSH Princess Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi.
Another of the centerpieces of the show will be a virtual reconstruction of Guercino’s Aurora ceiling (1621) in the Casino dell’Aurora, accompanied by all of the artist’s preparatory drawings for that work, loaned from the Courtauld Institute in London, Royal Library in Windsor, and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, among others. The images for the projection come from a November 2019 photographic campaign conducted by the Laboratorio diagnostico per i Beni Culturali of the University of Bologna at Ravenna in collaboration with Lumière Technology; the curator of this section is Barbara Ghelfi, Professor in that university’s Department of Cultural Heritage.
In 2022, a special edition of the journal Storia dell’Arte (157), featuring the work of 20 contributors, was devoted to the mural paintings of Guercino at the Casino dell’Aurora in Rome.
But there is more, much more. Starting Saturday 9 November and then through Sunday 26 January, the span of the show, there will be a special series of weekend and holiday openings of the Casino dell’Aurora of the Boncompagni Ludovisi, a little more than a kilometer north of the Scuderie. These are guided visits with art history experts to especially the Sala Aurora, with slots every 30 minutes (from 10:00 to 13:00 then 14:00 to 16:00). The Scuderie notes that “booking the guided tour…is linked to the purchase of the exhibition ticket”, and recommends visitors “to choose the guided tour of the Casino when purchasing the exhibition ticket because it will not be possible to do so subsequently” nor “directly at the Casino dell’Aurora.”
Video detailing the November 2019 photographic campaign conducted by the Laboratorio diagnostico per i Beni Culturali of the University of Bologna at Ravenna, by generous permission of HSH Princess Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi. Video credit: TC Brennan
In short, as the organizers explain, this major exhibition “aims to convey to the visitor the aesthetic atmosphere that marked the arrival of the Ludovisi family in Rome, accompanied by the entrance and the sensational success of Guercino, who contributed to the birth of a new triumph of color in painting.” It clearly is not to be missed. You can purchase tickets here.
T. Corey Brennan (with warm thanks to Pascal Cotte, Anthony Majanlahti and Valentina Moncada for exhibition updates)
HSH Princess Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi at the exhibition preview opening, 30 October 2024. Credit: Valentina Moncada
Top: video with highlights of show by Luigi Manfredi. Next above (two images and video): scenes from the preview opening, 30 October 2024. Credit: Pascal Cotte / Lumière Technology
Work on Guercino’s Aurora (1621) on the ground floor of the Casino dell’Aurora, during the November 2019 photographic campaign conducted by the Laboratorio diagnostico per i Beni Culturali of the University of Bologna at Ravenna with Lumière Technology, by generous permission of HSH Princess Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi. Image: TC Brennan
Archivio Digitale Boncompagni Ludovisi 
Leave a comment