MASTERPIECES OF THE BOLOGNESE SCHOOL
[BOLOGNA.]
Delle oggetti di belle arti nel famoso Tempio di S. Paolo in Bologna e delle vicissitudini di esso brevi notizie.
Bologna, ‘nella stamperia di San Tommaso d’Aquino’, 1831.
8vo, pp. 14, [2]; title and final leaf within typographic woodcut borders, woodcut ornament to final leaf; light spotting throughout, but a good copy in later printed patterned paper wrappers.
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Delle oggetti di belle arti nel famoso Tempio di S. Paolo in Bologna e delle vicissitudini di esso brevi notizie.
First edition of this detailed description of the Baroque masterpieces in the church of San Paolo Maggiore (or San Paolo Decollato) in Bologna, among them works by Guercino and Cavedoni.
Funded by Prince Virgilio Spada (1596–1662) and his brother Cardinal Bernardino Spada (1594–1661), the church of San Paolo was designed by the celebrated architect Giovanni Ambrogio Magenta (or Mazenta, 1565–1635) and the façade by Ercole Fiche. The paintings within, heavily influenced by the Bolognese school of Ludovico Carracci (cousin of Annibale and Agostino Carracci) who produced the Paradise in the second chapel, include Guercino’s St Gregory showing God the Father to the Souls in Purgatory, Cavedoni’s Nativity and Adoration of the Magi, and a scene of the Agony in the Garden by Giovanni Andrea Donducci, called Mastelletta.
The present text is a definitive guide to the art and architecture within the basilica, moving through its nine chapels (five of which with noble Bolognese patronage), followed by a comprehensive history of the church.
We find only one copy outside Italy, at the Kungliga Biblioteket in Sweden; no copies in the UK or US. A second edition was printed in 1839.
