Il convento dell’Osservanza, built by the Observant Friars Minor in 1403, the first seat of the Franciscan reform in Bologna, is annexed to the church of S. Paolo in Monte, rebuilt in neoclassical forms by V. Vannini in 1828. The complex houses the Missionary Museum of Chinese Art, opened to the public in 1964 and restructured in 1996, which displays ethnographic materials collected by the Franciscan Friars Minor of the Emilia province operating in Africa and the Far East, particularly in China, and the Museum of the Observance. The latter, inaugurated in 2003, preserves precious examples of sacred art belonging to the Friars Minor. Important paintings by C. Bononi, E. Sirani, G. Cavedoni, G. and U. Gandolfi, A. Crespi, and F. Pedrini are kept. The Chinese culture between the late 19th and early 20th centuries is well documented: alongside artifacts of higher historical-artistic value, including a series of bronze statuettes with Buddhist subjects or rare examples of small wooden sculptures from Hunan, the collection includes everyday items, clothing, embroidered silks, tapestries, paintings, and objects belonging to the missionary friars. The collection is completed with artifacts from Oceania and Central Africa, from which musical instruments and ivories come. A section of the Museum of the Observance is dedicated to objects of conventual life and archaeological finds discovered during excavation works carried out near the convent. Among the artistic heritage, notable are the panel of the “Crucifixion” by Orazio di Jacopo, the terracotta sculpture of “Saint Onuphrius carried by angels” by Gaetano Gandolfi, some liturgical goldsmith works, and the miniatures by the Bolognese Nicolò di Giacomo dating back to the 14th century.
Information about the Missionary Museum of Chinese Art and the Museum of the Observance
Via dell’Osservanza, 88,
40121 Bologna (Bologna)
051580597
frati.osservanza@libero.it
Source: MIBACT
