Updated exposition of Italian painting of the 17th–18th centuries

Venue: Main building (Volkhonka, 12), hall 17.

An updated exposition of Italian painting of the 17th – 18th centuries has opened in the Main Building of the Pushkin Museum, which includes 34 paintings and two sculptures. Among the works presented in hall 17 are works that were exhibited earlier, but were not included in the reorganized exhibition of hall 9, as well as paintings from the museum’s storerooms, presented to the public for the first time in a long time.

For the first time, visitors will be able to see together six compositions by Bernardo Bellotto, nephew of Giovanni Antonio Canal (Canaletto), which belong to two famous series - views of Dresden and Pirna and views of Rome. Of the four compositions with views of Dresden and Pirna, only two were previously exhibited - “View of the Old Market in Dresden” and “View of Pirna with the Sonnenstein Fortress”; now they have added "Market Square in Pirna" and "View of Pirna from the Sonnenstein Fortress". The canvases of the artist from this series, stored in the Pushkin Museum, were made by Bellotto during his work in Dresden (between 1747 and 1755) commissioned by Count Heinrich von Brühl, the first minister at the court of King August III of Poland of Saxony. The compositions "View of the Roman Forum" and "Piazza Rotunda with a view of the Pantheon" were written by Bellotto in the late period of his work, when he worked in Warsaw.

For the first time, all the works of Giovanni Paolo Panini, who worked in Rome in the 18th century, stored in the Pushkin Museum, are presented to the public for the first time. He was the first to introduce fashion in Europe for compositions depicting ancient ruins with figures. In the renovated exposition of hall 17 you can see five works of the artist. Among them are View of the Forum in Rome, the famous painting Benedict XIV Visiting the Trevi Fountain, as well as two compositions depicting the interiors of Roman basilicas: Interior View of the Church of San Paolo Fuori le Mura in Rome and Interior View of the Church of San Giovanni in Laterano in Rome". Separately, it is worth noting the painting “Ruins with figures. The Sermon of the Apostle”, which is exhibited for the first time. The picturesque surface was covered with a thick layer of darkened varnish, so the work until recently was in storage, but a little over a year ago the painting was restored, and now she again appeared before the viewer. Two paintings by Panini on the subject of the prediction of the birth of Christ by the Sibyl are on display in room 9 on the first floor.

Another surprise for the audience is the painting “Landscape with a Hermit” by the outstanding Genoese artist Alessandro Magnasco, written by him in collaboration with Antonio Francesco Peruzzini. The work was acquired in the collection of the Pushkin Museum in 2011 and included in the permanent exhibition for the first time. The canvas “Carnival” by Giuseppe Bonito, a Neapolitan artist of the 18th century, who gained fame thanks to his paintings on genre subjects, returned to the halls. The picturesque works in the hall are complemented by two marble busts by Giovanni Battista Fogini, depicting representatives of the family of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany and executed around 1685 - “Portrait of Vittoria della Rovere” and “Portrait of Leopoldo Medici”.