The Fondazione Giorgio Cini collections contain numerous drawings for illusory architecture:\u00a0projects, sketches, ideas, modelli, copies, and bozzetti for engravings, related to various genres\u00a0of ornamentation, quadratura, and stage design. Most of them are works characterising the collection\u00a0of the composer and collector Antonio Certani. Accounting for the largest number of\u00a0drawings in the Institute of Art History Drawings and Prints Cabinet, the Certani Collection\u00a0consists of thousands of sheets mainly from the Bolognese and Emilian school of the 16th to the\u00a019th century. In a game of truth and fiction, the illusory architecture\u00a0painted by the virtuoso artists introduces the viewer into a simulated,\u00a0metamorphic space, which, transfigured, seduces the eye and captures\u00a0the mind in a play of mirrors and \u201cingenious deceptions\u201d, capable\u00a0of transforming \u201cany old hovel… into a palace\u201d (Roberto Longhi).<\/p>\n
Among the artists represented in the collection, there are specialists\u00a0in this particular craft who were often also skilled in architectural\u00a0design, such as Agostino Mitelli, Angelo Michele Colonna and the\u00a0principal members of the Bibiena family, a well-known dynasty of\u00a0scenographers and architects. Alongside the quadratura drawings, the\u00a0collection also contains numerous drawings of ornamentation and\u00a0decoration, including the fascinating group of five hundred drawings\u00a0attributed to the Manifattura Aldrovandi, the English-style ceramics\u00a0factory founded in Bologna in 1794-1795 by Count Carlo Filippo\u00a0Aldrovandi; the factory mainly produced earthen pottery and tableware.
\nAnother of the most significant groups brings together sketches,\u00a0ideas and designs for stage sets, with hundreds of valuable drawings\u00a0documenting the genre of Bolognese scenography in the Baroque and
\nNeoclassical ages: among the largest, most significant collections are\u00a0two groups attributed to the Bibiena and the skilful Antonio Basoli.<\/p>\n
The exhibition presents a selection of the most beautiful and representative pieces taken from\u00a0these collections. the aim is to offer examples and illustrate ways of thinking on architectural\u00a0drawing as a conceptual and design stage for painted architecture. At the same time, the exhibition\u00a0documents some of the developments of the Bolognese school and tradition, which, in\u00a0terms of continuity, variety and quality of results achieved, can very eectively represent the\u00a0evolution of a genre that was popular in Italian and European art in the 17th and 18th centuries. The first section will explore the development of quadratura and illusory architecture,
\nwith examples of drawings for the temporary architecture of triumphal arches, funeral stage\u00a0sets, and celebratory decorations. Ample space will also be given over to stage architecture as\u00a0well as drawings pertaining to ornamentation and models for the decorative arts, linked to\u00a0illusionistic architecture by the special relationship created with the faux building.<\/p>\n
The last section, in a dialectical relationship with rest of the itinerary, will offer some examples\u00a0of architectural projects (with elevations, axonometric drawings and plans) for buildings\u00a0that were actually constructed, mainly in the Neoclassical age, when the relationships\u00a0between architectural design, revival of the antique, and utopia were particularly fecund. Also\u00a0on show, alongside the designs by Bolognese architects referring to specific types, such as the\u00a0villa, public building, and garden pavilion, there are some superb watercolour illustrative plates\u00a0(also preserved in the Fondazione Giorgio Cini) by Giacomo Quarenghi, architect to Empress\u00a0Catherine the Great, particularly active in the construction of Neoclassical Saint Petersburg.<\/p>\n
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