Guercino: beyond color
The aim of the research project, inaugurated with a conference held in Cento in May 2017, is the execution of a wide campaign of scientific analyses designed to complete and extend the technical data on the paintings by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri known as Guercino (1591-1666), one of the most important painters of the Emilian Baroque painting, and his workshop, with particular attention to Benedetto and Cesare Gennari. The purpose is to create the first scientific mapping of the paintings preserved in Cento, Piacenza, Parma, Bologna, Genoa, Rimini and Rome. Important public institutions and several private collectors have joined the project, by authorising the Conservation Science Laboratory to perform non-invasive and micro-invasive analyses on their artworks. For the first time in a systematic way, an organic view of Guercino's oeuvre is achieved by comparing the technical data with the historical and artistic research. Currently, as for other important artists of the seventeenth century, excluding the case of Caravaggio, there is no a catalogue raisonné of his works and in this vacuum of studies the activity of the Diagnostic Laboratory for Cultural Heritage is inserted which investigates the figure, the corpus and the painting technique of the artist through scientific analyzes. The project, in collaboration with Lumière Technology, has the support of all the institutions involved and of the International study centre Il Guercino of Cento. The application of the project also helps the team to fine-tune the best practice protocol to support the authentication of paintings developed by the Conservation Science Laboratory.
The project is financed by funds from the Diagnostic Laboratory, pertaining to the Diagnostics & Art research line and deriving from R_PRIV - Projects with third party funds, tariff and liberal contributions, ACT_PR - Third party contracts from private funds, SPP_PR - Tariff contracts from private funds, CNTR_LB_PR - Liberal contributions from private funds, and with the participation of Lumière Technology.
Connected PhD project: Il “catalogue raisonné” come processo giuridico di autenticazione. Il caso di Benedetto Gennari il Giovane. (November 2019 – tutor Ghelfi Barbara).
Research fellowship connected to the project: "Treatise, documentary sources and scientific analysis for the study of Guercino's painting technique and Baroque painting" (May 2020 up to now – tutor Ghelfi Barbara)
Cultural Agreement - Lumière Technology (n.80/2019 prot.n.1323): https://beniculturali.unibo.it/it/dipartimento/accordi-e-collaborazioni
Research group: Ghelfi Barbara (associate professor, Unibo), Vandini Mariangela (associate professor, Unibo), Matteucci Chiara (senior graduated technician, Unibo), Apicella Salvatore Andrea (Lumière Technology, Paris), Cataldo Martina (scholar fellow, Unibo), Cotte Pascal (Lumière Technology, Paris), Stenta Pasquale (PhD student, Unibo), Tarantola Gaia (Unibo), Stone David (University of Delaware, USA), Benati Daniele (professor, Unibo), Kryshtall Ivàn (Museum of Christian culture, St. Petersburg), Garzia Giuseppe (assistant professor, Unibo), Rizzà Laura (adjunct professor, Unibo), Bevilacqua Fabio (adjunct professor, Unibo), Brennan Corey (Rutgers University, USA), Thistlewood Jevon (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford), Francesca Curti (art historian).