Giacomo Ceruti. Portrait of Carlo Emanuele Massa
From 13 May 2022 to 18 September 2022
First of the four new events of PTM Andata/Ritorno scheduled from mid-May to the end of the year, the Portrait of Carlo Emanuele Massa, owned by the Cavallini-Sgarbi Foundation, enriches the new eighteenth-century path of the Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo, in particular the path dedicated to the painting of Giacomo Ceruti
The exhibition
From an idea of Vittorio Sgarbi
Curated by Roberta D’Adda
The loan of Portrait of Carlo Emanuele Massa adds an important piece in the narration around the work of Ceruti of which the Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo preserves the most significant corpus of works in the world: the most modern among the “painters of reality” – according to the happy definition of Roberto Longhi – links him to Moretto, Moroni, Lotto, Savoldo and Caravaggio. Famous for his pauperistic paintings, Ceruti was also sought after and refined portraitist, with a production that returns his prolific network of contacts woven over the long career and his, still not sufficiently recognized, ability to intercept the trends of European painting of the time.
Following some of the most significant members of the aristocracy of the time, Ceruti was in fact engaged in Venice, Milan, Padua, Piacenza, with a break in Tortona that the work of the Cavallini-Sgarbi Foundation allows to investigate with a new look. In the city of Piedmont Ceruti decorates the hall on the main floor of Palazzo Busseti and, around 1750, he made the portrait of Carlo Emanuele Massa, presented to the public for the first time on this occasion at the Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo in Brescia. Carlo Emanuele Massa was one of the most authoritative representatives of the Savoy government, trustee of King Carlo Emanuele III on the territory of the Piedmontese dominion: his portrait belongs to the mature phase of the painter, following the Venetian experience, in which Ceruti is open to new requests of a client of international taste, with amazing results in the mimetic rendering of faces and surfaces.
PTM Andata/Ritorno
PTM Andata e Ritorno is the project of Fondazione Brescia Musei that transforms the “departures” linked to loan applications into “arrivals” of guest works: an opportunity to welcome in the rooms of the new Pinacoteca masterpieces that dialogue with the permanent collection
The project is a preview of the great exhibition that Fondazione Brescia Musei will dedicate to Giacomo Ceruti in 2023, in the year in which Brescia and Bergamo will be Italian Capitals of Culture, an event that more than 35 years after the exhibition hosted at the Museum of Santa Giulia, which placed the artist at the attention of the general public, emphasizes the quality of the Pitocchetto within European painting.
Artworks
Portrait of Carlo Emanuele Massa, 1750 ca, oli on canvas, Cavallini-Sgarbi Foundation
Giacomo Ceruti known as Pitochetto
Portrait of Marina Cattaneo, 1740-1750 ca, oli on canvas
Giacomo Ceruti known as Pitochetto
Portrait of Laura Vitali, 1740 ca, oli on canvas
Giacomo Ceruti known as Pitochetto
Portrait of a Young Gentleman, 1760 ca, oil on canvas
Giacomo Ceruti known as Pitochetto
The Bravo, 1725 ca, oli on canvas, 2021, donated by the Galantino family
Giacomo Ceruti known as Pitochetto
