Gallerie Estensi
The Gallerie Estensi is a network of three museums and a library, bringing together the collective fruits of artistic production from Ferrara, Modena and Sassuolo in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. The galleries aim to preserve the historic heritage left by the influential House of Este, with a focus on relating their past to the local communities at each site.
The concept
The museum is dedicated to making art history accessible to all. The collections are perhaps most famous for their variety, touching each realm of the Liberal Arts from antiquity to the 18th century. This includes a large collection of Baroque oil paintings of Christian subject; perhaps one of the most extensive collections of Renaissance bronze medals and coins in Europe, a rare group of decorative musical instruments as well as frescoes, panel and oil paintings.
The museum want to be "a single and purposeful voice of a shared cultural identity."[1]
Galleria Estense
Established in 1854 by
Gathered by aristocratic collectors with multiple interests, the Este collections include a collection of paintings dating from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries, including a group from the Po Valley school of painting, various sculptures in marble and terracotta; a large number of high quality decorative objects which formed part of the furnishings in the various ducal residences, as well as collections of drawings, bronzes, majolica, medals, ivories and musical instruments. Among the works by famous artists are a Pietà by
Museo Lapidario Estense
The Estense Lapidary Museum was the first public museum established in Modena. Founded by Francis IV of Austria-Este, restored duke of Modena, on March 31, 1828, its birth was inspired by examples such as the Maffeiano Lapidary Museum of Verona (1738), or the Lapidary Gallery in the Chiaramonti Museum in the Vatican (1800-1823), but with an emphasis on civilians: aiming to glorify the past of the city from its Roman origins.
The initial nucleus consisted of some pieces already preserved in the Ducal Palace of Modena, acquired by the d'Estes from other antique collections or as excavation finds from the duchy territories of Brescello and Novellara. Right from the start, the citizens, together with the representatives of the clergy and the nobility, donated materials from their personal collections to make up the collection of the museum, which within a couple of years required a significant expansion, certified by the two commemorative epigraphs of its benefactors (from 1828 and 1830) still preserved today. Carlo Malmusi, directing curator, established the institution's guiding principles in 1830 as: "serv{ing} archeology", "for the memory of illustrious ancestors" with "finds from the Roman age." The catalogue immediately prompted an influx of antiques and sepulchral tombs which, until the late seventeenth century, had been placed in the churchyard near the southern side of Modena's cathedral or in other sacred buildings of Modena and Reggio Emilia. The practice of raising funerary monuments had already been established in the pre-humanist era, following the example of nearby Bologna, in memory of those citizens who had distinguished themselves above all in the fields of law and medicine.[3]
Biblioteca Estense Universitaria
Rich in ancient codices, musical scores, cartography, drawings, prints and exquisite illuminated manuscripts, The Estense library stands as a key player in the d’Este inheritance. Established around the same time as the Galleria Estense, it has been considered by some Italian scholars as one of the most important art-historical libraries in Europe, not least due to the sheer variety of subject-matter documented by its folios.[4] Works of exceptionally rare quality from the 4th century in Egypt to the 1930s, including the famed Bible of Borso d’Este, and the earliest attempts by the Ferrarese to map Catalan in the New World.[4]
The library has been coveted by the
Pinacoteca Nazionale (Ferrara)
The
Not to be confused with the
Arranged chronologically, the exhibition begins with a room dedicated to late
Palazzo Ducale (Sassuolo)
The Ducal Palace in
References
- ^ "Mission & Vision". www.gallerie-estensi.beniculturali.it. Retrieved 2019-07-24.
- ^ Casciu, Stefano (2015). La Galleria Estense. Modena: Franco Cosimo Panini.
- ^ Giordani, Nicoletta (2003). Museo Lapidario Estense. Modena: Edizioni Il Fiorino. pp. 5–23.
- ^ a b c Milano, Ernesto (1987). Biblioteca Estense di Modena. Firenze: Nardini Editore. pp. 13–245.
- ISBN 88-7779-292-2.
- ^ Gallerie Estensi, "Palazzo Ducale di Sassuolo App," Apple App Store, Vers.1.5 (May 2018)
External links