Cesare Masini

(Bologna , 1812 - 1891)

Oil painting on canvas

cm. 150x200

Cesare Masini is considered by critics to be the greatest of the Bolognese historical painters of the nineteenth century. With an academic education, he never failed in this initial education, actively using also from a critical theoretical point of view in the defense of early academicism any contamination, romantic or purist (and later naturalist) he was. Awarded several times in the competitions that were regularly held at the Accademia Clementina, in 1833 he won the "small prize" of Curland with a first version of Petrarca, a canvas praised by critics; in 1936 he won the «grand prize» for painting with The meeting of the somms pontiff Leo which, a few years later, in Rome, aroused such admiration that the public force was forced to intervene to disperse the large crowd that gathered in front of it. Masini arrived in the capital in 1839 at the invitation of the Duchess of Sagan, the recognitions continue with the election as a member of the Academy of Virtuosi al Pantheon (Bgo) and the career progresses with the appointment as president and professor of painting of the Academy of fine arts Pietro Vannucci of Perugia, positions he held from 1842 to 1845. And in Perugia, which goes on display in 1845, the large canvas Petrarca on his way to Monterico, of which, according to specialist criticism, until today unfortunately the traces: read what Anna Chiar Fontana writes for the biography entry in the Treccani Encyclopedia (Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, vol. 71, year 2008): «At the Umbrian Academy today only archival papers relating to his nomination and to the exam topics proposed to the students: unfortunately, no trace of the paintings Petrarca traveling to the Monterivo charterhouse, The defeated Syrians try to save their lives (aB41 and Dalinda liberated by Rinaldo, presented by M. at the Perugian exhibition of 1842 together with Dante the ambassador and with the Death of the Carraresi". The scholar takes up here in full what was complained about in the fact sheet drawn up by Alessandra Borgogelli on the occasion of the exhibition held at the Galleri d'Arte Moderna in Bologna entitled From the Academy to truth, Painting in Balogna before and after TUrity (exhibition catalogue, 1983). The painter's biography then records, in relation to an exhibition held in 1851 in Odessa, the publication of another painting referring to Petrarca, today known to critics as Petrarca in uraggio per S, Giacomo di Compostella, also a canvas - scholars still point out - lost. However, regarding this supposed second painting, it is worth considering the fact that no trip to Santiago de Compostela is recorded in Petrarch's life, while the only episode relating to this topic is his meeting, along the itinerary towards Monterivo, with the pilgrims who go to the Spanish sanctuary, with the largest of whom the poet stays to talk.