Crossing the corridors of the municipal library of Molfetta, lost in the beauty of the paintings of Francesco Solimena And Corrado Giaquinto, on display until June 16th, there is one element in particular that captures visitors’ attention. It is a panel that reproduces the image of an x-ray taken on a canvas. That x-ray highlights the “changes” made by Giaquinto to the face and position of Saint Anna while he was painting the canvas.
The Master’s objective was to give the right “position” and the right “expression” to the Madonna’s face. Which, as can be seen, is painted four times. Somehow the visitor manages to feel the emotional tension that pushed Giaquinto to correct himself.
The canvas, in the definitive version, can be admired, in the original, together with the other splendid works on display in the Fabbrica di San Domenico, in Molfetta.
The same one which, to date, was inaugurated on May 11th, has two thousand visitors with reservations lasting until June from schools and associations in the area.
Visitors, of all ages, come from all over the province with interesting tourist incursions. On display there are 23 oil paintings (including sketches and larger canvases) and an ink on paper “lent” from various private collections, mostly unpublished, by Giaquinto and his Neapolitan master Francesco Solimena. All works originally part of the Bonasia Collection. Created with the patronage of the Municipality of Molfetta, department of culture, the exhibition was developed, as an inaugural project, by “Partenope – Association for the diffusion of southern art” whose president, Professor Gaetano Mongelli, former professor of History of ‘Medieval and Modern Art at the Universities of Potenza and Bari, as well as an authentic witness of a lifelong personal and professional vocation to the figure of the master from Molfetta, took charge of the drafting of a rich catalog raisonné commenting on the paintings on display.
An original exhibition, an event that the Mayor Tommaso Minervini and the councilor for culture, Giacomo Rossiello, they presented as the prologue to the opening of the new art gallery in the former Palazzo Tributi on Corso Dante.
The exhibition, with free entry, can be visited every day, including holidays, until 16 June, from 10am to 1pm (last entry at 12.30pm) and from 5pm to 9pm (last entry at 8.30pm).
