The Gallery reopened its doors after a complex renovation that renewed the exhibition setup and allowed the spaces to be brought up to standard, particularly the Tapestry Room, according to conservation and microclimatic criteria. Today it is possible to admire the exceptional collection of eighteen tapestries displayed in its entirety. The refurbished and expanded exhibition route aims to enhance the precious art collections preserved here, rich in important paintings including works by Gian Paolo Panini, Domenico Viani, Zenone Veronese, Giovan Battista Lenardi, numerous other genre paintings, sacred subject works, and history paintings. The visit has been enriched with two new sections: one exhibiting the oldest and most precious Alberoni vestments and the one preserving the sculptures. There is also a biographical section dedicated to Cardinal Alberoni, where objects, clothes, and furnishings of the high prelate provide a picture of his life, customs, and tastes of the time. The College, which has existed since the last century as a charitable institution with the functions of a seminary, was established by Cardinal Giulio Alberoni (1664-1752) for the education of poor clerics and opened in 1751 in the ancient San Lazzaro Hospital. Here a portion of the cardinal’s collections, a key figure in Farnese politics and architect, as the ducal representative at the Spanish court (1714-1719), of the marriage between Philip V and Elisabeth Farnese, is exhibited. In 1802 the meteorological observatory was founded; in 1874 the astronomical observatory and the seismic cabinet were added, with a data archive since 1922. Among the art objects, coming from the Alberoni collections already kept in Roman palaces and the Piacenza residence, are important works by Antonello da Messina (Ecce Homo), Dughet, Cerquozzi, Courtois, Mola, Reni, Giordano, Gaulli, Solimena, Ceruti, Pannini, Ferrari, as well as a collection of Flemish paintings by Bouts, Provost, Mabuse, de Blés, which is unique in our region. Equally precious in local collecting is the collection of Flemish tapestries divided into three series: the Priam series (15th century), woven on the occasion of the marriage of Maximilian of Austria with Mary of Burgundy; the Aeneas and Dido series (17th century), after cartoons by Gian Francesco Romanelli; the Alexander the Great series (17th century), after cartoons by Jacob Jordaens. Among the sacred goldsmith works, the monstrance with precious stones by Piacenza native Angelo Spinazzi (1761), author of reliquaries and other liturgical objects kept in the Charitable Institution, stands out. In addition to the art collections, the College houses the library, rich in precious volumes, the archive with the Alberoni fund, as well as the equipment of the physics and natural sciences cabinets, the latter formed from collections donated to the College in 1810 by Father Zaccaria from Piacenza of the Franciscan Minor order.
Information on Alberoni Gallery
Via Emilia Parmense, 67,
29121 Piacenza (Piacenza)
0523577011
info@collegioalberoni.it
Source: MIBACT
