Savings bank "gems" from the 17th and 18th centuries are on display in Lucca

From Oct. 3 to Nov. 1, the “Mezzanine” of the Ragghianti Foundation in Lucca is hosting the exhibition Beauty. Belonging. Identity. ’Gems’ from the art collection of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca, a selection of artworks from the banking foundation in Lucca, held as part of the 2020 edition of Invito a palazzo, the annual event promoted by ABI and ACRI, which every first Saturday in October opens the historic headquarters of banks and foundations of banking origin in Italian cities. Since the CRL Foundation’s headquarters cannot open to the public this year due to anti-Covid restrictions, the Foundation itself has decided to make what it calls a “small gift to the city,” by offering an exhibition of its best works of art, open, with free admission, during the weekends of October.

In the exhibition, it will be possible to admire some important pieces of Lucca painting between the 17th and 18th centuries, together with a unique “out of the program,” a Renaissance sculpture, namely the Madonna del Latte by Matteo Civitali, autonomous in this exhibition both for the technique adopted and, as anticipated, for the historical period to which it belongs, a remarkable exemplar of the Lucchese reverberations of the Florentine humanistic and Renaissance epics.

There are eight canvases on display: a Pietro Ricchi of great elegance, a delicate portrait of Stefano Tofanelli, the collection’s latest acquisition, and again Antonio Franchi and Girolamo Scaglia, in an interesting comparison of their Allegories of Music, and Giovan Domenico Lombardi’s intriguing Guess. Prized pieces in the exhibition are then Pompeo Batoni’s Portrait of Sir Charles Watson, splendid in the garish yellow of his robes, accompanied by an excellent copy from a work by the master representing The Allegory of Painting. The exhibition concludes with another interesting work by Lombardi, whose Death of Virginia brings to life a tragic scene populated by characters who interpret drama, movement and sensuality with theatricality.

The Foundation also points out that, with the exception of two portraits with a male subject, the protagonists are women: almost a coincidence that allows for a journey through the many ways of addressing and proposing the female figure throughout four centuries of history.

The exhibition opens on Fridays from 3 to 7 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 to 7 p.m. Admission is free.

Image: Giovanni Domenico Lombardi, The Soothsayer

Savings bank "gems" from the 17th and 18th centuries are on display in Lucca

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