Giorgio Morandi and Luigi Ghirri at Palazzo Bentivoglio, Bologna

Palazzo Bentivoglio on Via del Borgo di San Pietro is one of Bologna’s most significant historic palaces and, since 2019, one of its most active contemporary art venues. The cellars — 16th-century vaulted spaces below the palazzo — have been converted into exhibition galleries that host shows drawing on the building’s own collection of ancient Emilian painting alongside international contemporary work. Among the most talked-about exhibitions staged here was Luigi Ghirri. Atelier Morandi — a dialogue between the still-life paintings of Giorgio Morandi and the photographic eye of Luigi Ghirri that placed two of Emilia-Romagna’s most important 20th-century artists in direct conversation.

Giorgio Morandi and Bologna

Giorgio Morandi (1890–1964) was born and spent almost his entire life in Bologna. He is best known for his still-life paintings — arrangements of bottles, vases, bowls, and boxes rendered in muted, closely related tones that emphasise form and light over narrative. His work is deceptively quiet: the same objects appear across hundreds of canvases over four decades, each arrangement slightly different, the surfaces shifting between opaque and translucent. The effect is meditative rather than decorative, and the paintings reward sustained looking in a way that reproductions rarely convey.

The largest and most important permanent collection of his work is at the Museo Morandi, housed within MAMbo (Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna) at Via Don Minzoni 14. The collection — over 250 paintings, watercolours, drawings, and etchings — was donated to the city by his sister Maria Teresa Morandi. For visitors making a journey to Bologna with an interest in 20th-century Italian art, MAMbo’s Morandi rooms are the essential starting point.

Luigi Ghirri and the Atelier Morandi Exhibition

Luigi Ghirri (1943–1992) was a photographer from Emilia-Romagna — born in Scandiano, near Reggio Emilia — who became one of the most influential Italian photographers of the 20th century. His images of Italian landscapes, towns, and everyday objects share something with Morandi’s painting: both artists found the extraordinary in the ordinary, both worked with light and stillness, and both were deeply rooted in the landscape and visual culture of the Po Valley.

The Atelier Morandi exhibition brought together Ghirri’s photographs of Morandi’s studio and the objects that appear in his paintings alongside the paintings themselves. Ghirri photographed the atelier in the early 1990s, shortly before his own death — the images document the bottles, the dust, the light through the studio window. Seeing Ghirri’s photographs alongside Morandi’s canvases created a triangular relationship between painter, photographer, and viewer that neither body of work achieves alone.

About Palazzo Bentivoglio

The palace was the seat of the Bentivoglio family, who ruled Bologna as lords from 1401 until 1506, when Pope Julius II drove them from the city. The building on Via del Borgo di San Pietro is one of the surviving remnants of the family’s presence in Bologna — most of their original palace was destroyed after their expulsion. The 16th-century cellars, now the main exhibition spaces, are among the most atmospheric gallery environments in the city.

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• Address: Via del Borgo di San Pietro 1, 40126 Bologna
• Exhibitions: rotating programme — check palazzobentivoglio.org for current shows
• Hours: vary by exhibition
• Contact: [email protected] / +39 333 8071127

For a broader overview of art museums in Bologna and what else to do in the city, see our guide to things to do in Bologna. The city also has a dedicated guide to Bologna’s art museums covering MAMbo, Palazzo Pepoli, and the city’s other major collections.