From April 3 to June 28, 2026 The BPER Gallery in Modena is hosting the exhibition La virtù e la grazia. Figures of Women in Baroque Painting, curated by Lucia Peruzzi and realized under the patronage of the Municipality of Modena. The exhibition brings together a significant selection of 17th-century paintings from the BPER Group collection and important institutional loans.
It presents a thematic itinerary dedicated to the central role of women in Baroque painting. Saints, virgins and martyrs coexist with biblical heroines, deities from classical mythology, seductive figures and moral allegories. This variety of representations testifies to how in the seventeenth century the female figure assumes a position of absolute prominence, becoming the protagonist of visual narratives that reflect the religious tensions, ethical dilemmas, passions and social transformations of the Counter-Reformation era.
Five thematic sections weave together different dimensions, such as devotion, myth, power and sentiment, relating works by numerous artists of the period. These include Guido Cagnacci, Ludovico Carracci, Rutilio Manetti, Domenico Piola, Sisto Badalocchio, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, Bartolomeo Manfredi, Alessandro Tiarini, and Valerio Castello. Their works dialogue with paintings from the Museo Civico di Modena, the Biblioteca Estense and private collections. From penitent saints to the protagonists of the Old Testament, from the violated nymphs of mythology to the female figures of Jerusalem Delivered, the exhibition aims to restore the intensity of an artistic season that uses the female body and presence as exemplum virtutis and as a powerful means of emotional involvement. In the spectacular setting of Baroque painting, gesture, expression and body movement become instruments of meditation and theater of the affections.
The tour concludes with a section devoted toAllegory, considered one of the most representative expressions of seventeenth-century aesthetics: images designed to amaze and at the same time admonish, in which sensitive beauty is transformed into an ethical and moral message.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog published by Sagep Editori, which includes essays by curator Lucia Peruzzi and a contribution by Elena Fumagalli.
The exhibition is part of the wider cultural program promoted by BPER Banca, which through La Galleria BPER supports the enhancement of artistic heritage as an opportunity for dialogue with the territory and as a form of public restitution of its collections. The exhibition also continues the path started with ARTalk, a series of meetings dedicated to in-depth historical-artistic study and discussion with scholars and professionals in the field.
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| The virtue and grace of women in Baroque painting: at the BPER Gallery in Modena, an exhibition on the theme |
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