Museo Civico Medievale

Amazon delivered today’s packages just before noon. That meant that we could go out and do something fun this afternoon.

Earlier this week, Mui stopped by the Welcome Bologna office on Piazza Maggiore to buy a Card Cultura for each of us. We learned about these cards when we were here last fall. €25 each for a card that is good for 12 months. It gives us free, unlimited admissions to several museums in the city and the metropolitan area. As well, there are a number of places where we get reduced admission to attractions and exhibits, cinemas and theaters, festivals and music seasons, and guided tours.

We got to use our cards for the first time today, saving €4 (65+ admission) to check out the Bologna’s Medieval Museum [MCM]. We each have €21 left now to break even. No worries; we’ll be ahead of the game soon enough.

Arriving at the museum, we stopped by the ticket office to show our cards and receive our free admission tickets. We then proceeded inside. As we moved through different parts of the museum, we were asked to show the ticket. I imagine they do this because anyone who enters the courtyard could sneak into parts of the museum easily enough.

The MCM is housed in what was once the Palazzo Ghisilardi, one of the most important buildings from the period between 1446-1506 … when the Bentivoglio family pretty much ruled Bologna as de facto lords and tyrants. The palazzo was later acquired by the Fava family … hence it is known also as the Palazzo Ghisilardi-Fava.

Exhibited at the museum are several private collections. The most important of these give visitors a sense of life in medieval Bologna. The eclectic collections are displayed in 24 rooms, artifacts ranging from sepulchral monuments to bronze sculptures, from illuminated texts to weaponry, from glassware to ivory marquetry boxes, from reliquaries to ceramics, and much more.

While the labels identifying the items are in Italian, in every room we found laminated info cards in English … identifying some of the highlights. For this first visit, we focused on those items. There’s still much to see, so I am sure we will return another day to browse more slowly.

While I was wrapping up at the museum, Mui went off to grab a coffee from a nearby café. While he was gone, I continued on to the first monographic Bartolomeo Cesi exhibition … “Paintings of Silence in the Age of the Carracci.” Part of the Jubilee 2025 program, the exhibit focuses on “… his unique, meditative approach to religious art, standing in contrast to the naturalism of the Carracci Brothers.”

The brochure describes Cesi as being well known in Academic circles … not so much amongst the general population. Certainly, had we not visited the Farnese Chapel at Palazzo d’Accursio last fall and gone into the antechamber, we would not have been familiar with his name either.

This particular exhibit is rather small … just 30 pieces … from monumental altarpieces to paintings, portraits, and drawings. They date to the period between the 16th and 17th centuries. I was a little disappointed that there were no frescos, but it was interesting to see Cesi’s paintings and understand why efforts are underway to restore his role in Bologna’s artistic history.

Time for lunch …Læs mere