Introduction
Painted and sculpted portraits are one of the main features of the Collezioni Comunali d’Arte. They offer a significant clue to understand the complex history of the Bologna municipal heritage, made up of public patronages, donations and bequests.
Some portraits hang in the same room, some next to pictures depicting different subjects. Many of these emsebles have a great historical and artistic significance, like the portraits painted by Pelagio Palagi and the miniatures. Some sitters are alone, some are part of historical and religious scenes. We know the identity of some of them, while some are still unknown. Even in this case portraits are still very useful sources for history, costume and hairdressing, furnishing and heraldry. Among them stand many superb examples of 17th century official portraiture such as the Gonfaloniere by Artemisia Gentileschi, the Lady in pink attributed to Carlo Ceresa, the Lady in black by Carlo Francesco Nuvolone, all exhibited in room 1. Many portraits express the artist different feelings towards the sitter (psychological penetration, sympathy, fancy dressed portraits, irony) his will of showing off a social status (the portraits of the Collegio dei Nobili), the his objective visual analysis (Clemente Albéri), the his human sympathy on different levels (Crespi’s Cardinal Lambertini, or Francesco l’Ange Self Portrait). Sitters are portrayed according to an ample scale of typology: half figure, full length, official, state portrait, some of them are analytical depictions of clothing and accessories, some focus on the sitters attitude and features. The media employed by the artists are different, they vary from oil on canvas, panel or paper to sculpture in the round (carved marble, moulded terracotta or plaster). Visiting the museum it is difficult to appreciate them as part of a homogenous group and to understand their possible links across the rooms. We would like to make this possible today through a short virtual itinerary.
