Rome (EFE).- For the first time in two centuries, the Borghese Gallery in Rome, one of the most prominent museums in the Italian capital, has brought together five of the ten friezes inspired by the myth of Aeneas with which the painter Dosso Dossi decorated the imposing ducal palace of Ferrara (northern Italy).
From April 4 to June 11, the museum will exhibit the collection of paintings with which Dossi illustrated the challenges overcome by the classical hero Aeneas, such as his journey to the underworld, the attack of the harpies, or the founding of a city. in present-day Sicily (southern Italy).
Temporary loans from the Prado Museum, the Louvre in Abu Dhabi and the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC have allowed these works to return to Italy for this unprecedented exhibition.
Until now, only two of the ten canvases produced by the Renaissance painter between 1518 and 1520, whose original function was to embellish a room in the palace of Duke Alfonso de Este, praising the qualities of the good ruler in one of the rooms, had been able to meet in the same room. the moments of maximum splendor of the city of Ferrara.
“The paintings are a somewhat allegorical, even political representation of the virtues of a leader who, through extreme difficulties, great willpower and good sense, respect for the will and the entrusted task, managed to fulfill his commitment with much sacrifice” , indicated to EFE the curator of the sample Marina Minozzi.
The friezes of Aeneas, symbol of the Renaissance
According to Minozzi, these works were part of “one of the most important ensembles of the Renaissance”: “They decorated the upper part of the extraordinary Alabaster Room of the ducal palace in Ferrara. Under these canvases were the famous Bacchanalia by Titian, works by Giovanni Bellini and Dossi himself.
A space that lasted for a short time since, when Pope Clement VIII incorporated the city of Ferrara into the papal domain at the end of the 16th century, many of the paintings by Titian, Bellini and Dossi were taken to Rome, where they ended up in hands of Cardinal Scipio Borghese.
Later, the ten friezes of the myth of Aeneas traveled from Rome to Madrid in the 19th century, after the painter José de Madrazo, former director of the Prado Museum in Madrid, bought the works for his personal collection, although soon after unity of the pictorial ensemble was broken.
Dosso’s paintings in the Prado, Louvre and the National Galler
After their arrival in the Iberian Peninsula, the ten paintings began to travel around the world and their link as a whole was forgotten for decades, in which the trace of three of the friezes was lost.
Since then, only two of the paintings had been brought together in the same space and the rest remained scattered throughout the halls of institutions such as the Prado Museum, the Louvre in Abu Dhabi, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, which have temporarily ceded the works to the same Borghese Gallery that in the past was the home of this group.
“Dosso’s paintings stand out for inserting within the same canvas several episodes that happened in different places and for the humanity that his characters exude. These works reflect expressive men and sensitivity without losing the importance of the epic story”, commented the curator.
