The Museo della Battaglia e di Anghiari is showcasing part of the vast Bagnobianchi Collection for the very first time, with graphic works stretching from German art with the Creation of Eve by Michael Wohlgemuth (Nuremberg, 1434 – 1519) in what is one of the most emblematic expressions of the Northern European tradition, juxtaposed with a splendid drawing of Adam and Eve by Albrecht Dürer (Nuremberg, 1471 – 1528) and with the same artist’simposing Sea Monster. The 18 works on display wind up with the celebrated Hasta la muerte by Francisco de Goya (Fuendetodos, 1746 – Bordeaux, 1828), Olympia by Edouard Manet (Paris, 1832–83) and Penelope by Max Klinger (Leipzig, 1857 – Großjena, 1920), not to mention a rare piece depicting Leda and the Swan in a Landscape after a lost work by Michelangelo Buonarroti. The exploration of the museum’s collections continues with a small panel depicting The Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine of Alexandria, thought to be a copy of the famous work by Correggio. Here the panel offers us almost a foretaste of the 17th style embodied in the Penitent Magdalen, which was thought for a very long time to be a work in the manner of Cristofano Allori but which has now finally been attributed in a brilliant study to Francesco Morosini. The Penitent Magdalen, recently restored with funding from SALPA through the Fondazione Lions and the Lions Club Valtiberina section, is an absolute discovery following the removal of the layers of varnish that had dulled the painted surface and partly concealed the artist’s signature.
