National art museum MUŻA has loaned Guido Reni’s painting “The Risen Christ embracing the Cross” for it to appear in an exhibition in Dante’s honour being held in Forlì, Italy. 

The exhibition, entitled Dante – La Visione dell’Arte, will run from April 1  to July 11 at the Musei San Domenico. It is being organised by the Uffizi Galleries and the Fondazione Cassa dei Risparmi of Forlì, in collaboration with the municipality of Forlì. 

The exhibition celebrates the grandeur of Italian poet, writer and philosopher Dante Alighieri and marks the seventh centenary of his death. Dante’s ties with Forlì stem from the fact that he took up residence there for more than a year after leaving Arezzo in the autumn of 1302. 

Reni's The Risen Christ embracing the Cross. Photo: Heritage Malta

The exhibition will be an artistic journey spanning nine centuries with some 300 selected masterpieces from the 13th to the 20th century, from Giotto, Filippino Lippi, Lorenzo Lotto, Michelangelo and Tintoretto, up to Boccioni and Casorati, and many other masters of the last century. 

Besides being an opportunity to commemorate Dante’s anniversary, the exhibition also intends to represent a symbol of redemption and rebirth for the world of art and the spirit of culture and civilisation that it represents. 

Reni’s masterpiece, completed in circa 1619, is a large oil on canvas measuring 228 x 138 centimetres, inspired by Michelangelo Buonarroti’s “Cristo Risorto” sculpture at the church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva in Rome. The painting was requested by the exhibition’s organisers because of its metaphorical representation of the relationship between art and Dante’s figure and literary works.

Heritage Malta CEO Noel Zammit said that beyond its great artistic value, the exhibition is also an opportunity for deeper collaboration among nations and entities. Heritage Malta welcomes such collaborations, which are another form of diplomacy, as they reap plenty of fruit and lead to further joint ventures in fields such as research.

“This is also an opportunity to exhibit the art in our national collection to foreign audiences,” Zammit said. 

MUŻA’s senior curator within Heritage Malta Kenneth Cassar, remarked that it was prestigious that the Uffizi Galleries shortlisted an artwork from the national collection at MUŻA to feature as one of the highlights of such an important exhibition.

“This further certifies that this artwork by Guido Reni, that once formed part of the Grand Master’s collection at the Palace, is indeed a masterpiece of international repute,” he said.