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Between water and wind
Between water and wind
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Between water and wind:

A model by Bernini

From 6 May to 6 November 2022

Estense Gallery

Estense Gallery

Largo Porta Sant'Agostino, 337, Modena

Closed now: open at 08:30

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An artwork by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the Rio della Plata, a preparatory model by the artist for the Fountain of the Four Rivers in Rome, will be on display at the Galleria Estense from May 6 to November 6, 2022, for the first time exhibited in a context that relocates Bernini in a territory, the Estense, where the great artist left traces of his absolute genius. The artwork, coming from the Galleria Giorgio Franchetti at Ca' D'Oro in Venice, will indeed be set up in Modena under the gaze of the portrait of Francesco I d'Este, the famous marble bust that Bernini sculpted almost simultaneously. A small but important event not to be missed by the museum's audience, also due to the presence in the Gallery of the analogous model by Antonio Raggi, a translation of thoughts and drawings by Bernini himself for the fountain in Sassuolo, which will help better understand the exceptional nature of this Roman Baroque incursion in Modena. The role of Duke Francesco stands out, who thanks to his charisma and his trust in the power of images, managed to conquer the greatest and most courted Italian artist of the early seventeenth century. Curated by Federico Fischetti, in collaboration with the Regional Directorate of Venetian Museums, the loan was granted on the occasion of the exhibition From Donatello to Alessandro Vittoria, 1450-1600. 150 years of sculpture in the Republic of Venice (Venice, Galleria Giorgio Franchetti at Ca' d'Oro, April 22 - October 30, 2022), where two important works from the Galleria Estense in Modena are also exhibited. On June 2, 1651, the Fountain of the Rivers was inaugurated in Rome. To contemporaries, it immediately appeared as a "miracle of the world" that condensed an exceptional surge of artistic, engineering, hydraulic, and figurative design. A colossal imperial age obelisk in balance on a windy cliff, together with the personifications of the four major rivers of the known continents: Danube for Europe, Nile for Africa, Ganges for Asia, and Rio della Plata for the Americas. Thus Pope Innocent X Pamphilj celebrated the universal vocation of the Catholic Church, but also himself as the architect of the rearrangement of Piazza Navona, a scenic setting for the new family palace with the adjoining mausoleum church of Sant'Agnese in Agone and the Innocenziano College.
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Largo Porta Sant'Agostino, 337, Modena, Italy

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Opening hours

opens - closes last entry
monday 24:00 - 24:00
tuesday 08:30 - 19:30
wednesday 08:30 - 19:30
thursday 08:30 - 19:30
friday 08:30 - 19:30
saturday 08:30 - 19:30
sunday 14:00 - 19:30

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