The northern town of Alba is hosting a major exhibit showcasing pieces from the collection of one of the 20th century's most influential art critics and historians, Roberto Longhi.
The exhibition features 71 artworks offering a panorama of Italy's most important artists over the last eight centuries.
Longhi (1890-1970) was internationally renowned for his studies on a number of Italian artists, such as Piero della Francesca and Caravaggio, whose reputations he helped revive in the 20th century.
He was an art history professor at Florence University, the editor of an art periodical, an exhibit curator and a prolific writer.
However, he also amassed an extensive array of precious paintings during his life, which he eventually bequeathed "to the good of future generations", and which are the focus of the show at the Ferrara Foundation in Longhi's birthtown of Alba.
Entitled 'Dal Duecento a Caravaggio a Morandi' (From the 1200s to Caravaggio to Morandi), the paintings are exhibited chronologically and divided into eight sections.
The first section focuses on art from the 13th and 14th centuries, highlighting Longhi's work on extending the interest of art historians from their traditional focus on Florence and Siena.
In addition to work by a Rimini artist, Pietro da Rimini, Longhi's collection also included paintings by a trio from Bologna, Simone dei Crocifissi, Vitale da Bologna and Jacopo di Paolo.
Moving on to the 1400s and 1500s, the collection draws out the lively cultural interchange between different parts of Italy at the time. This is evidenced by paintings by the Neapolitan Antonio Colantonio, Antonello da Messina's teacher, who blended the artistic styles of the Mediterranean and Flanders.
From this same era, paintings by Antonio Borgognone and Bernardino Butinone illustrate Lombardy culture during the era of the Renaissance Sforza family, while those by Defendente Ferrari show developments in Piedmont at the time.
The 16th-century section highlights Longhi's fascination with several artists from the Po area who broke with traditional form, and whom the art critic described as "eccentric". The works on show include Christ with Madonna and St. Joseph by Amico Gasperini, Boy With Basket of Flowers by Dosso Dossi, and Two Dominican Saints by Lorenzo Lotto.
However, the section devoted to the 1600s is the one likely to attract most attention, with some of the most valuable pieces of the collection.
On display here are Caravaggio's renowned Boy Bitten By A Lizard, Guido Reni's Madonna with Child and the Young St John the Baptist, as well as paintings by Battistello Caracciolo, Mattia Preti, Carlo Saraceni and Matthias Storner.
The 18th century selection features Portrait of a Gentlewoman by Pietro Longhi, Pilgrim by Giacomo Ceruti, Fantesca by Gasparre Traversi, and Portait of a Youth by Fra Galgario.
The last section looks at Longhi's fascination with contemporary art, including pieces by some of Italy's best known 20th-century artists, with whom he became good friends: Carlo Carra', Filippo De Pisis and Giorgio Morandi.
The exhibition runs until February 10.
