Taking as its centre piece a recently restored multi-panelled Dossale from Villa Verucchio depicting various scenes from Christ's Passion by Giovanni Baronzio - exhibited for the first time in its newly reassembled state - this small exhibition at the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica in Palazzo Barberini also offered several other gems from the 1300s from other lesser known artists working in Rimini in that period. In fact, my favourite room was the very first in the exhibition which focussed primarily on tiny devotional panels created in the main part for private alters such as Pietro da Rimini's 1330 pair of panels – The Resurrection and an exquisite Noli me tangere. Giuliano da Rimini's Byzantine-looking Head of Christ painted in c.1320 in Room II was also a fascinating fragment of what was once a much larger panel allowing us to view from close up the incisions in the inlaid halo and a tiny square of the painted background draperies decorated with abstract motifs.The exhibition is a preview of works which be housed in the soon to be opened (end of 2008 according to the gallery Web site) ground floor section of Palazzo Barberini dedicated to works from the twelfth to fifteenth centuries.
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