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Palazzo della Banca d’ Italia
Palazzo della Banca d’Italia crowns this small piazza. Built between 1870-1880 by the architect A.Cipolla it boasts one of Bologna’s most beautifully decorated and colourful porticoes.
These paintings were completed by Gaetano Lodi between 1862-1865 and represented for Lodi his first important commission. There are 25 vaults in total of which 15 are on the Piazza Cavour side and the remaining 11 on this side of Via Farini.
Lodi was said to have picked up on this style of figurative neo-renaissance art as a consequence of national unity which began to sweep the country.
He abandoned the earlier styles from the 1500’s that he had studied and therefore dedicated himself to painting in a ‘rafaellesque’ style which was rich in griffons, centaurs, raceme, garlands, grotesque masks and birds.
Lodi began work in 1862 but only finished in 1865 due to a period when he was called up for military duty. In order to glorify Italian unity every vault of each portico illustrates four sections that in turn represent a separate story: an episode from ancient times until the modern times, explorations and geographic discoveries, civilization, nature, the story of Bologna and the history of heraldic shields.
This side on Piazza Cavour – at the entrance of the bank – was also the location of a parish church called Sant’Andrea degli Ansaldi. It was subsequently demolished in 1809.
Throughout the whole work of art there is one pastel colour that stands out. It’s called ‘Pompeian Red’ as was used by Lodi again to symbolise the idea of national unity.
During this period these paintings were thought to be so inspirational that students from the Accademia delle Belle Arti were sent here and made to study Lodi’s art work so they could learn about history but also appreciate a moral lesson about the value of their own culture.
References
Associazione Cultura e Arte del ‘700, Quattro Passi Nel Tempo – itinerari storici e artistici in Bologna, p.54-55.
Giuseppe Sassatelli, Cristiana Morigi Govi, Jacopo Ortalli, Francesca Bocchi, Atlante Storico Delle Città Italiane Emilia Romagna Bologna I, Bologna, 1996.
Tiziano Costa – Marco Poli, Conoscere Bologna, Bologna 2005, p199.
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