Pietro Paltronieri, known as “il Mirandolese” (Mirandola, Modena 1673 - Bologna 1741) Vittorio Maria Bigari (Bologna, 1692 - 1776)
Seven Paintings with Scenes of Ruins, 1724/1733
provenance: Cardinal Pompeo Aldrovandi Collection; acquired by the city
of Bologna, 2001
First inclusion in a permanent museum exhibit
These seven temperas were created in the 18th century for Palazzo
Aldrovandi (later known as Palazzo Montanari), a Bolognese noble
residence, and remained there until the acquisition from the Council of
Bologna in 2001.
The biographer Marcello Oretti (1714-1787) first referenced these
paintings and dated them to the first decades of the 18th century. In
his biography of Pietro Paltronieri known as “Il
Mirandolese”, a native of Mirandola who settled in Bologna,
he mentioned the “many large tempera landscapes”.
Between 1724 and 1733 “Il Mirandolese” painted this
series together with Vittorio Maria Bigari, who contributed by painting
the figures. Dates can be found on two of the seven canvasses together
with Bigari's signature on the sixth painting of the series. Bigari was
the official artist of the Aldrovandi family and spent years working on
decorative cycles, considered very important for the history of
Bolognese art as well as for the city itself. He also decorated the
Aldrovandi's Chapel in the church of San Petronio.
Both artists were employed by Cardinal Pompeo Aldrovandi (1668-1752),
the eminent Bolognese prelate. After being elected cardinal in 1734,
under the papacy of Innocence XII, Cardinal Aldrovandi began to
transform his family palace, located in strada Galliera, into a modern
residence.
This new dwelling was influenced by the most famous and luxurious
French models, the palaces of Luxemburg and Versailles. A patron of the
arts and a collector, Cardinal Aldrovandi loved to surround himself
with celebrated Bolognese intellectuals and artists.
During his stay at the Papal Court, from 1708 to 1718, he had also come
into contact with the Roman Arcadian cultural circle. The first decades
of the 18th century saw Bologna's triumph of large-scale interior
decorations for palaces and villas. Following a trend that began to
emerge in those years in France, England and Italy, the quadratura
(illusionistic ceiling decoration) technique expanded to incorporate
classical architectural elements, which were usually depicted as
imaginary ruins.
In the Aldrovandi temperas the predominant theme is ancient ruins with
a constant comparison between the past and the present.
The monuments of ancient Rome and of the Middle Ages evoke a longed
past, a history upon which time and nature have wrought their
destructive work.
Scattered human figures roam through these ancient ruins, stopping here
and there to converse.
Crumbled temples, urns, bas-reliefs, broken columns, statues bearing
shields and slabs, etched with indecipherable writings, are depicted
with an incessant reference to archeology, an anticipation of
Piranesi’s work.
These paintings are strongly related to the theatrical scenery and
lateral perspective typical of the Bibiena family. They are influenced
by classical and naturalistic traditional landscape painting while at
the same time they evoke a modern pre-romantic style.
The acquisition of these works to the Collezioni Comunali reflects more
than just a simple, though significant, expansion of the
museum’s patrimony. This complete series is also very
important for Bologna's history and art and contributes to a new link
to the local landscape painting by Vincenzo Martinelli and Giuseppe
Valiani at the end of the 18th century (room 16).
