From Sept. 6, 2025, to Jan. 6, 2026, the Bistolfi Civic Museum and Plaster Collection in Casale Monferrato is hosting the exhibition Pietro Francesco Guala, portraitist and painter between the sacred and the profane. From the Portraits of the Marquises Scarampi di Camino to the Works of the Civic Museum of Casale Monferrato, organized by the City of Casale Monferrato in collaboration with the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio for the provinces of Alessandria, Asti and Cuneo, and realized thanks to the support of the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation.
The exhibition project is dedicated to Pietro Francesco Guala (1698-1757), master of portraiture and sacred and secular painting, with a special focus on the prestigious cycle of portraits of the Marquises Scarampi di Camino. This is a corpus that survived dispersion, now owned by the Ministry of Culture and restored thanks to a complex intervention that saw the joint action of the Ministry, the Regional Secretariat for Piedmont, the ABAP Superintendency, the Carabinieri Unit for the Protection of Cultural Heritage in Turin and the “La Venaria Reale” Conservation and Restoration Center Foundation.
The series, consisting of 23 paintings depicting members of the family between the 14th and 18th centuries - 15 of which are on display in the exhibition - was probably commissioned by Marquis Paolo starting in 1738 and created by Guala to decorate the hall of the Camino castle. This nucleus dialogues with works already housed in the Pinacoteca del Museo Civico di Casale Monferrato, which holds 12 works by the Casale painter that entered the collection between 1911 and today thanks to donations, acquisitions and deposits. These include such masterpieces as The Judgement of Solomon, Judith with the Head of Holofernes and the sketch for The Defeat of the Albigensians, as well as other works from local churches, private collections and state deposits.
The exhibition also offers an opportunity to admire a new state acquisition, granted on deposit by the Ministry of Culture: Mars and Minerva, once placed as an overlay in the Sannazzaro Palace.
A further in-depth study concerns the Photographic Fund of the “Giovanni Canna” Civic Library, enhanced through a comparison of images of Camino Castle made by Francesco Negri in the early 20th century and more recent photographs by Giorgio Olivero of Piedmont.
As art historian Giovanni Romano recalled in 1998, on the occasion of the third centenary of Guala’s birth, “the pictorial activity of Pietro Francesco Guala ranges from Turin to Milan, from Vercelli to Asti, but only in Casale Monferrato can one truly realize the greatness and particular character of his personality.”
This is why the exhibition ideally extends throughout the city, offering a widespread itinerary that leads among places that hold significant works by the artist: the Church of San Domenico, with The Defeat of the Albigensians and other paintings with a religious theme; the Church of Santo Stefano, with its series of ovals depicting saints and evangelists; the Gozzani Municipal Palace in San Giorgio, with the frescoes of the famous “Guala Room”; and finally the Gozzani Palace in Treville, home of the Philharmonic Academy, with the vault of the staircase decorated with the Allegory of Olympus.
The Civic Museum is also organizing a series of guided tours by local tour guides, scheduled for Oct. 19, Nov. 16 and 30, and Dec. 7, departing from the museum at 3:30 p.m.
Accompanying the exhibition is a catalog, published by LineLab of Alessandria, consisting of 122 pages with reproductions of the works on display and texts by Claudio Bertolotto, Marianna Ferrero, Roberto Livraghi, Silvia Martinotti, Alessandra Montanera, Enrico Ricchiardi, Liliana ReyVarela, Elena Varvelli, and Maria Grazia Zenzani.
“This exhibition,” said the Mayor of Casale Monferrato, Emanuele Capra, “is not only an opportunity to admire masterpieces of great artistic value, but also a moment of recognition of the deep bond that Pietro Francesco Guala has with our city. The exhibition reinforces Casale Monferrato’s role as a center of reference for the knowledge and appreciation of its historical and cultural heritage, offering citizens and visitors an itinerary that unites museum, churches and palaces in a unique dialogue between art and territory.”
“The Superintendency,” adds the Superintendent of Alessandria, Asti and Cuneo Lisa Accurti, “as the last stage of the virtuous path undertaken with the recovery to the State of the Scarampi portraits, and aware of the unique opportunity to offer the rediscovered paintings - soon destined to ’return’ to their historic home in Camino - to public enjoyment, has strongly promoted this relevant cultural enhancement initiative; its value is amplified thanks to the possibility, offered by the Municipality and the Civic Museum of Casale, of contextualizing Guala’s portraits not only in reference to the author’s broader artistic parabola, but above all by ’positioning’ them within that ancient and happy Casale cultural season, which constituted for the painter ideal terrain for the development of his most representative production.”
The realization of the project was also made possible by the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation, which, in sharing its objectives, provided its valuable support.
The exhibition will be open to visitors according to the opening hours of the Museo Civico di Casale Monferrato and will be included in the price of the ordinary admission ticket.
Hours: Thursdays from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and midweek holidays from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
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| An exhibition in Casale Monferrato dedicated to Pietro Francesco Guala, portraitist and painter between the sacred and the profane |
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