In La Spezia over 5000 visitors in less than five months for the exhibition “Pieter Brueghel the Younger. The Crucifixion of Castelnuovo Magra. Restoration and comparisons” 

In La Spezia over 5000 visitors in less than five months for the exhibition “Pieter Brueghel the Younger. The Crucifixion of Castelnuovo Magra. Restoration and comparisons".

Spice. Over 5000 visitors in less than five months for the exhibition “Pieter Brueghel the Younger. The Crucifixion of Castelnuovo Magra. Restoration and comparisons” at the Amedeo Lia Civic Museum curated by Valentina Tonini of the ABAP Superintendence of Genoa and La Spezia e Martina Avogrado ABAP Superintendence of Savona and Imperia.

“An exhibition appreciated and enjoyed by many visitors – declares the Mayor of La Spezia Pierluigi Peracchini - which achieved great success. We are very satisfied that the "Amedeo Lia" Civic Museum, in addition to the rich and valuable permanent collection, hosts temporary exhibitions capable of attracting such a vast interest from the public from all over the world and offers related initiatives that explore it in depth from many aspects. The studies carried out on the paintings of Pieter Brueghel the Younger were also of great importance and prestige, further testifying to the broad cultural value of our Museum. The renewed agreement with the Lia family for free loan for use of the works present, in fact, has started a new course for the Lia Museum with a view to valorisation at a national and international level and this exhibition, which many others will happen, it was the first that fits into this new path.”

The exhibition, with important and foreign loans, was accompanied by a rich calendar of events, guided tours of Flemish art history, interdisciplinary visits between the history and philosophy of the seventeenth century, references to the Lia civic collection, aperitifs in English, workshops for children and specific meetings on the history of the painting from Castelnuovo Magra, its troubled history and its restoration.

During the exhibition, they were performed in-depth studies on the paintings of Pieter Brueghel the Younger Through the Infrared reflectography with equipment made available by the Laboratory for multispectral analyzes of the Department of Italian Studies, Romance Studies, Antiques, Arts and Entertainment of the University of Genoa. The aim of the investigation was to analyze the presence of a preparatory drawing beneath the pictorial layers, the so-called underdrawing, in the version of the Crucifixion by Peter Brueghel the Younger from the church of Saint-Severin in Paris and in the painting by the same author depicting the Climb to the Calvary of the Estensi Galleries in Modena.

The paintings of Peter Brueghel the Younger they also aroused the interest of German journalists who were in the area, thus offering the opportunity to publicize the name of our Museum well beyond national borders.

The exhibition.

“Pieter Brueghel the Younger. The Crucifixion of Castelnuovo Magra. Restoration and comparisons” is edited by Rossana Vitiello with the collaboration of Andrea Marmori, Valentina Tonini and Martina Avogadro, whose installation is curated by Emanuele Martera.

At the show, as well as significant works by the artist, the extraordinary painting by is on display Peter Brueghel the Younger (Brussels 1564 – Antwerp 1638) depicting the Crucifixion, with the aim of enhancing the work at the end of the long restoration carried out in the laboratory of Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the metropolitan city of Genoa and the province of La Spezia, in collaboration with l'University of Genoa regarding diagnostic investigations.

A significant occasion that allowed the light to be turned on again on this Flemish masterpiece, which arrived in the church of Santa Maria Maddalena of Castelnuovo Magra in 1890 and whose recent history is dotted with dramatic events, including thefts and attempted thefts, which have highlighted, once again, the importance of protection and prevention activities for our cultural heritage. This Crucifixion, unique in Italy, is part of the number of replicas of a lost prototype of which there are around twenty versions, which propose the same subject with some variations, all carried out within the scope of the Brueghel's workshop and stored at several international museums.

The exhibition features the Crucifixion of the church of Saint Séverin of Paris which allows a comparison never made before, iconographic and stylistic, between two examples of this subject, while the Ascent of Christ to Mount Calvary in the Estensi Galleries of Modena testifies to the success of this theme already at the end of the sixteenth century. The figures taken from the peasant context that participate in the religious subject are also continuously found in other works of the workshop Pieter Bruegel linked to genre painting, as demonstrated in the exhibition The San Giorgio festival coming from National Museum of Pisa.

The exhibition is promoted by the Municipality of La Spezia with the patronage of Liguria Region, the Superintendency of Archaeological Fine Arts and Landscape for the Metropolitan City of Genoa and the Province of La Spezia, the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage and was created with the contribution of the Carispezia Foundation for the restoration intervention in the of the 2021 Open Call in favor of the Parish of Santa Maria Maddalena in Castelnuovo Magra and the support of Coop Liguria.

Works on display:

Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Crucifixion, oil on panel, Parish of Santa Maria Maddalena, Castelnuovo Magra (SP)
Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Christ's ascent to Mount Calvary, end of century XVI, Modena, Estensi Galleries
Pieter Brueghel the Younger, The San Giorgio festival, Pisa, National Museum of the Royal Palace
Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Crucifixion, Paris, Eglise Saint-Séverin