From 18 May to 22 September 2024 the Civic Museums of Ancient Art in Bologna will host the exhibition Ludovico and Annibale Carracci. Ancient stories for two Bolognese fireplaces in the Michelangelo Poletti collection, curated by Angelo Mazza.

The exhibition, set up in the Sala Urbana of the Collezioni Comunali d’Arte at Palazzo d’Accursio, will open on Saturday 18 May 2024 at 6 pm. On the occasion of the European Museum Night and International Museum Day, the opening will be extraordinary until midnight.

At the centre of the exhibition will be two frescoes: ‘Alexander the Great and Thiades Set Persepolis on Fire’ by Ludovico Carracci and ‘The Death of Dido’ by Annibale Carracci, painted around 1592 for Palazzo Lucchini in Bologna. These works were detached from the wall and transferred to canvas to preserve them, and were later purchased by the entrepreneur Michelangelo Poletti to adorn the castle of San Martino in Soverzano.

Thanks to the generosity of the owner, the two frescoes are now on public display after a conservative restoration by Giovanni Giannelli and, together with the frescoes, other paintings by the Carraccis and their workshops from the Municipal Art Collections will also be presented.

Together with the exhibition, there will also be a publication edited by Angelo Mazza and Silvia Battistini, which narrates the history of the paintings, analysing their iconography and describing the most recent conservation interventions.

Musei Civici d’Arte Antica – Via Alessandro Manzoni, 4 – Bologna