The Renaissance in Brescia

The exhibition The Renaissance in Brescia. Moretto, Romanino, Savoldo 1512-1552, curated by Roberta D'Adda, Filippo Piazza and Enrico Valseriati, is the leading exhibition event in the cultural programme of Fondazione Brescia Musei for autumn 2024,

In the halls, paintings by the great masters of Brescian painting - coming to Brescia from six American museums and important Italian and European collections, dialogue with rare and precious objects such as ancient musical instruments, suits of armour, tapestries and majolica plates, providing an evocative image of the thoughts, feelings, objects and characters that animated the life of the city.

While the work of Alessandro Bonvicino il Moretto, Girolamo Romanino and Giovanni Gerolamo Savoldo has been extensively explored over more than a century of studies, there has been a lack of a comprehensive account of Brescia's 16th century in its richness, complexity and, in some ways, contradictory nature.

The exhibition revolves around emblematic characters, such as Fortunato Martinengothe Brescian nobleman portrayed by Moretto in the painting in the National Gallery, Londonor as the bride and groom Gerolamo Martinengo and Eleonora Gonzaga for which lavish celebrations were organised, or even starring in a feminine revolution like Angela Merici. Poetry, nature, music, love, faith, desire, and research are at the centre of this unprecedented narrative for works, which begins with the evocation of the Sack of 1512, which brought Brescia to the attention of the whole of Europe.