From 8 October to 26 November 2023, the Collezioni Comunali d’Arte in Bologna, located in Piazza Maggiore, will host an exhibition dedicated to the painter Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, Guercino, and his pupils. The exhibition focuses on the transition from ‘heads of character’ to actual portraits through the display of multiple works.
The transition from Guercino’s heads of character to portraits of his pupils in Bologna
Guercino, a famous painter who lived between the 16th and 17th centuries, was the creator of heads of character, typical faces that were used mainly in religious or profane compositions, through a study from the life of a model to take poses and expressions from it. His pupils, the brothers Cesare and Benedetto Gennari, on the other hand, delved into the art of portraiture, which differs from the previous one in that the subjects depicted are specific, thanks to the details of clothing and hairstyles as well as their placement in precise temporal space.