On the occasion of its 40th anniversary in 1985, theFriends of the Cremona Museum Association announces the donation to the Ala Ponzone Museum of the Portrait of Marchesa Rosalia Cavalcabò by Enrico Scuri (Bergamo, 1806 - 1884), which was officially presented to the public last Sept. 19. The work will be on display until Oct. 19 in the museum’s Hall of Columns, flanked by Giuseppe Diotti ’s Kiss of Judas from a private donation.
The Portrait depicts Rosalia Guidi di Bagno, daughter of Mantuan marquis Ferdinando Carlo Guidi di Bagno (1776-1845) and Bianca Luzzago (1790-1868). The year of birth of the noblewoman is unknown; she went to marry Marquis Agostino Cavalcabò (1811-1889) and died prematurely in 1847, leaving her husband, then 36, with two girls: one born in 1844 and the other the following year. According to the memoirs of Selene, the artist’s daughter, the portrait - executed post mortem - was paid thirty zecchini and a replica was immediately made.
The work is distinguished by an almost transcendent rigor, typical of cold Scurian purism, here, however, influenced by the subject’s loss of vitality. The prototype is still in Cremona’s Palazzo Cavalcabò, while the replica, probably intended for the Marquis Guidi as a memorial to the deceased, had disappeared: so much so that in Renzo Mangili’s 2002 Scurian monograph it was mentioned only on the basis of Selene Scuri’s testimony and classified among the missing works. Recently reappearing on the antiquarian market, the canvas has now become part of the Ala Ponzone Picture Gallery ’s collections thanks to a gift from the Friends of the Cremona Museum.
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| Portrait of Marchesa Rosalia Cavalcabò by Enrico Scuri donated to Ala Ponzone Museum in Cremona |
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