Giorgio Morandi's Debt to Old Masters Explored at Guggenheim Bilbao

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao has opened a major exhibition examining Giorgio Morandi's influences from Spanish, Bolognese, and French old masters. Titled "A Backward Glance. Giorgio Morandi and the Old Masters," the show runs until October 6, 2019. It features three sections juxtaposing Morandi's works with those of El Greco, Francisco de Zurbarán, Giuseppe Maria Crespi, Pietro Longhi, and Jean Siméon Chardin. The exhibition highlights how Morandi absorbed theatricality from Spanish Baroque, naturalism from 17th-century Italian painting, and intimacy from Chardin. Fifteen works by Morandi come from the Museo Morandi in Bologna: eight paintings (six still lifes and two flower pieces) and seven etchings. Additionally, five old master paintings from Morandi's personal collection—by Crespi, Longhi, and Jacopo Bassano—are normally kept at Casa Morandi in Bologna. The show aims to shed new light on Morandi's figurative art by tracing these historical connections.