This large panel by Marco Palmezzano, Melozzo's "dear pupil" and master of perspective vision, was made for the church of the Santissima Annunziata of the Carmelite Fathers' Forlì convent and in 1867 it became part of the collection of the Civic Art Gallery of Forlì. Here Palmezzano uses the traditional iconography of the Annunciation, setting the scene as a theatrical performance. The work is characterized by a strong monumental breath that harmonizes with a vivid and bright chromatism, mindful of the experience of the great Venetian masters, such as Giovanni Bellini, Cima da Conegliano and Bartolomeo Montagna.

Texts: Lorenza Montanari, Martina Neri - Museums Unit of the Municipality of Forlì

The two panels by Beato Angelico depicting the Nativity and the Oration in the Garden formed a small altar with two or three doors and were donated to the city of Forlì by the Forlì abbot Melchiorre Missirini, secretary of Antonio Canova. In the painting of the "Nativity" or "Nativity Scene" the scene is outlined by the painter with a few essential elements. The Virgin and Saint Joseph are in the attitude of adoring the Child, lying naked on the ground on golden straw. In the hut you can see the ox and the donkey. On the roof, nine small angels are intent on dancing joyfully, while a tenth angel flies into the night sky to announce the good news to the shepherds.

Texts: Lorenza Montanari, Martina Neri - Museums Unit of the Municipality of Forlì

The two panels by Beato Angelico depicting the Nativity and the Oration in the Garden formed a small altar with two or three doors and were donated to the city of Forlì by the Forlì abbot Melchiorre Missirini, secretary of Antonio Canova.

In this panel, Christ is represented kneeling intent on praying with clasped hands, detached from the three sleeping apostles. The characters are represented following Masaccio's shapes and models, in an internal balance of figures and spaces placed in areas of land and vegetation and architectural wings .

Texts: Lorenza Montanari, Martina Neri - Museums Unit of the Municipality of Forlì

Among the masterpieces kept in the Civic Art Gallery of Forlì we find the monumental painting by Giovanni Fattori, "Buoi al Carro (The red cart)", created in 1885. The scene is dominated by a peasant woman who urges two white oxen to advance, yoked to a red wagon full of hay. The painting was donated by the engineer of Forlì origin Giuseppe Pedriali to the Art Gallery of the City of Forlì, together with his entire art collection.

In the painting, despite the spatial width, the wings of trees concentrate the vision and the dynamism of the action at the center of the canvas. The peasant woman, unbalanced in holding the reins, appears hidden in the half-light as if not to interfere with the vital nucleus of the work (Baboni, 2008).

Texts: Lorenza Montanari, Martina Neri - Museums Unit of the Municipality of Forlì

This painting, which had been lost for nearly two centuries, reappeared in an auction in London in the early 19th century. The work in 2005 was acquired by the Municipality of Forlì and is now preserved in the civic art gallery. The work, characterized by a strong sensuality, is an example of intellectual and refined painting.

The figure of Astrology is very similar to the Cleopatre, Lucrezie and Maddalene that Cagnacci painted in the years he spent in Venice and Vienna. The images, of very strong impact, are characterized by a strong naturalism with the use of a clear and very sharp light (G. Viroli, 2008). The woman has her gaze turned towards the viewer and with her left hand she leans on a celestial globe with the depictions of the constellations. In the scene there is also the volume De 'coeli e de' moti , alluding to the scientific disputes relating to the study of celestial phenomena born in the wake of the Galilean discoveries (Battistini, 2004).

Texts: Lorenza Montanari, Martina Neri - Museums Unit of the Municipality of Forlì

The small work was probably painted by Vitale da Bologna, an important painter of the fourteenth century from Emilia. According to tradition, Blessed Marcolino (1317-1397) was accompanied by this sacred image in his works of charity and in his attempts to restore peace among the noble families of Forlì, fighting for control of the city.

The work is so commonly known as Madonna della Pace and, at the time of the Second World War, the people of Forlì gathered in front of it to ask for protection for their loved ones in war and for the end of the conflict. The painting became part of the Forlì Art Gallery in 2013, thanks to the important deposit granted by the Dominican Order.

Texts: Lorenza Montanari, Martina Neri - Museums Unit of the Municipality of Forlì

The “Christ and the Adulteress” by the Genoese painter Alessandro Magnasco is part of the Pedriali Collection of the Civic Art Gallery of Forlì. The work is perhaps to be considered performed in collaboration with the Lombard painter Clemente Spera, who specializes in architecture and ruins.

These architectural scenarios, often in ruinous abandonment, and the landscapes with imaginative woods are often the backdrop to the lively figures with which Magnasco populates his pictorial world. The figures are represented here in movement, while they bend and curve, as if animated by a sense of agitation, which gives a strong dynamism to the whole composition.

Texts: Lorenza Montanari, Martina Neri - Museums Unit of the Municipality of Forlì

The work was the sepulchral urn of Blessed Marcolino and was once located inside the church of San Giacomo Apostolo of the Dominican convent of Forlì. With the subversive laws of the Kingdom of Italy, the ark was acquired in the collections of the civic art gallery, while the remains of the Blessed were moved to the Cathedral, where today they are venerated in an urn in the chapel dedicated to Sant'Anna.

The urn is dated to 1458 and is only partially the work of Antonio Rossellino. The figurines of the Annunciation, Temperance, Justice and the angels on the sarcophagus are attributable to him, while other parts could belong to the hand of his brother Giovanni.

Texts: Lorenza Montanari, Martina Neri - Museums Unit of the Municipality of Forlì

This fresco was painted by Marco Palmezzano on the wall of the apse of the church annexed to the convent of Santa Maria della Torre (or della Ripa) in Forlì, around 1492. The work is fundamental for reconstructing the painter's artistic events, both because documents the ways and influences of his first activity, both because it remains the only testimony of the Forlì in the field of fresco. In this work Palmezzano refers to the fresco by Melozzo degli Ambrogi with the Entry of Christ into Jerusalem from the Sacristy of Loreto, both for the spatial layout, created with a very high vanishing point, and for the round arch delimited by the two lateral pilasters decorated with candelabra and braid motifs. In the painting the Melozzesque references blend with the evident Umbrian inspiration, in particular Peruginesque, recognizable in the very high cross and in the softened expressions and in the attitudes strongly characterized by the beautiful figures (Togni, 2016).

Texts: Lorenza Montanari, Martina Neri - Museums Unit of the Municipality of Forlì

This beautiful still life with a Caravaggesque flavor has reached the Civic Art Gallery of Forlì thanks to the legacy of Count Pietro Guarini. Initially referred to Paolo Antonio Barbieri, brother of Guercino, specialized in paintings of flowers, fruit and animals, it was then attributed to Guido Cagnacci. It is one of the most discussed "still lifes" in the history of art, whose authorship cannot be said to be convincingly concluded yet. Some experts, studying the botanical species represented in this painting (iris, white and purple gladioli, "stars of Bethlehem"), were able to affirm that the contemporaneity of the flowering and the consistency of the dimensions of the different flowers suggest that it may be one of the few cases of work created by the artist by copying the model from life (Signorini and Pacini, 2009; Benati, 2010).

Texts: Lorenza Montanari, Martina Neri - Museums Unit of the Municipality of Forlì

In 1850 the work was donated to the Forlì Art Gallery by Count Carlo Cignani, descendant of the Bolognese painter of the same name who lived and worked in Forlì. The female figure portrayed, according to local tradition, is to be recognized in the legendary Lady of Forlì, Caterina Sforza, although there are no historical sources or internal data to support this hypothesis. She is a woman with naturalistic and at the same time idealized features. The face is serene, noble and with regular features. The lady is depicted in front of a red velarium, intent on arranging some jasmine in a small vase, a symbol of marital fidelity. The work was probably commissioned as an engagement or wedding painting.

Texts: Lorenza Montanari, Martina Neri - Museum Unit of the Municipality of Forlì