Pietro Francesco Guala

The Bistolfi Civic Museum and Plaster Collection in Casale Monferrato hosts a major exhibition dedicated to Pietro Francesco Guala (1698-1757), a painter from Casale known for his ability to combine portraiture, sacred and secular painting. The heart of the exhibition is the precious cycle of 23 portraits of the Marquises Scarampi di Camino, of which 15 are on display, a work of rare formal and symbolic cohesion, created for the hall of Camino Castle. This corpus, recently restored thanks to an articulate institutional intervention, is presented for the first time in a museum setting.

The works dialogue with the paintings by the Guala already present in the permanent collection of the Art Gallery, including The Judgement of Solomon, Judith with the head of Holofernes and the sketch for The defeat of the Albigensiansas well as a new canvas Mars and Minervarecently acquired by the state. The exhibition also extends beyond the museum: a urban route leads visitors to emblematic locations where other works by the artist are preserved, such as the Church of San Domenico, the Church of St Stephen and the Gozzani Palaces.

The offer is completed by monthly guided tours and a 122-page cataloguewhich brings together critical contributions and images of the works. An exhibition that is an authentic tribute to Guala's role in the artistic history of Piedmont and Casale Monferrato in particular.