Exhibition curated by Michele Maccherini, Luca Pezzuto, Simonetta Prosperi Valenti, and Federica Zalabra. Organized by the National Museum of Abruzzo in collaboration with the University of L’Aquila and the Carispaq Foundation.
The exhibition dedicated to Giulio Cesare (1582-1627) and Francesco Bedeschini (1626-1699), father and son, 17th-century painters from L’Aquila, organized by the National Museum of Abruzzo in collaboration with the University of L’Aquila and the Carispaq Foundation, open to the public from December 1, 2023, to March 3, 2024, at the MuNDA. It can be considered a black-and-white look at 17th-century Central Italy, explored from a decentralized yet distinctive perspective.
It begins with a small, refined exhibition on Julius Caesar alone, held in Cologne in 2014, which established the fame of this artist among a vast audience. It then expands with the opportunity to compare the drawings of the artist from L’Aquila with his paintings, and finally extends its scope, through his son Francesco, to the entire 17th century.
This is the first monographic event in Italy dedicated to the two artists and, following a multi-year research project shared by the organizers, it explores key themes of 17th-century Abruzzo culture: the artistic influences that reached the slopes of the Gran Sasso from Florence and Rome, first Counter-Reformation art, then ornamental design and Baroque invention.
These are the cultural themes promoted by this family of painters who dominated the scene in L’Aquila, the city where their founder descended in the entourage of Margaret of Austria (1572) from the dominions of Parma and Piacenza. A look through approximately 70 works, some in black and white, because the exhibition mainly features drawings and prints, but also paintings, majolica, and documents.
For the occasion, the National Museum of Abruzzo has restored four large works kept in the deposits: St. James the Greater, Our Lady of the Rosary, St. Trophimus of Arles, Portrait of Agathon I, and has acquired the drawing Madonna del Carmine with Saints, executed by Giulio Cesare in brown ink wash and traces of black and red pencil, constructed through the characteristic technique of assembling sheet clippings.
The exhibition aims to highlight, on the one hand, the “cut & paste” technique, a sort of cut-and-paste technique that involves designing graphic designs by juxtaposing drawn paper cutouts, a technique developed primarily in Tuscany as a pentimento, which in Giulio Cesare becomes pure invention, a collage.
On the other, the exhibition highlights the role of his son Francesco, a well-rounded Baroque artist, inventor, architect, theater director, and statesman, who has given us, through numerous sheets and studies—few compared to the 131 booklets and albums cited in his will and now lost—a vision of a city that was swept away by the terrible earthquake of 1703.
The loans are of international caliber, with works coming from major museums in London, Munich, Berlin, but also from Rome, Parma, and of course Abruzzo.
