IL VOLTO DI DIO ( ENG)

The Face of God. The Face of Man

The exhibition, structured in five thematic sections — Revelation, Gift, Journey, Waiting, and Resurrection — offers a path that intertwines art, faith, and devotion.

The works, coming from several towns of the diocese — Palma di Montechiaro, Racalmuto, Lucca Sicula, Casteltermini, Sciacca, Sambuca di Sicilia, Santa Margherita di Belice, and Santo Stefano Quisquina — were created between the 17th and the 19th centuries for personal devotion and for the liturgical life of Christian communities. Today they continue to speak to the heart of the contemporary viewer, renewing, through beauty, the proclamation of Easter.

Through the paintings of artists connected with the Agrigento area, such as Domenico Provenzani, Padre Fedele da Sambuca, Tommaso Rossi, and Federico Panepinto, the exhibition itinerary spans different phases of local figurative production.

In these works, devotional tradition, the expressive power of popular piety, and attention to the artistic languages of their time coexist, revealing a heritage that is not only a memory of the past but also a living expression of the faith of a community.

The spiritual focal point of the exhibition is the copy of the Holy Shroud, a relic that came into contact with the slab of the Holy Sepulchre, preserved in the Cathedral of Agrigento. The accompaniment of Gregorian chant contributes to creating an atmosphere of meditation and prayer.

The mystery of Easter is the heart of the Christian faith, the center of the Church’s life, and the reason for salvation in Jesus Christ.
The Gospel narratives of the Passion, Death, and Resurrection have inspired artists throughout the centuries, giving rise to masterpieces of sacred art capable of making visible the most intense moments in the history of redemption.

This exhibition invites visitors to contemplate the Paschal mystery through works preserved in the territory of the Diocese of Agrigento, tracing a thematic path that places at its center the figure of Christ and the profound meaning of his Passover. The Last Supper, the Garden of Olives, the Condemnation to Death, the Ecce Homo, Veronica, the Way of the Cross, the Crucifixion, Death, and the Resurrection represent the most significant moments in the life of Christ and, at the same time, in the history of humanity. These are the mysteries that the Church contemplates during the seasons of Lent and Easter, the culmination of the liturgical year.

The works recount the mystery of the kenosis of Jesus who, by taking on the condition of a servant, empties himself of his divine glory and, in the frailty of mortal flesh, makes visible the face of the invisible God. In that face the Christian paradox is revealed: the Almighty who entrusts himself to weakness, the Eternal who enters into time, the Lord of life who passes through death.

That face tells of the Risen One: a glorious body, still marked by the wounds of the Passion, transfigured by the light of the Resurrection, yet still tangible, recognizable, and close. It is the face in which every man and woman can reread their own story, fragmented by sin and bound by the ties of death, yet restored by grace that renews the divine likeness, reflecting the image of the new Adam.

The works of art help express the theology and spirituality of the seasons of Lent and Easter. They were created for liturgy and devotion, to accompany the prayer of the people of God. They do not merely translate the biblical narrative into images, but invite reflection on the great themes of human existence: sacrifice, redemption, suffering, hope, and renewal.

This dialogue between images leads every visitor—not only the believer—to confront the profound meaning of the encounter with Christ, dead and risen.

The scenes of the Easter Triduum, from the Last Supper to the Resurrection, recall and illuminate one another and extend into the fifty days of Easter joy. The exhibition concludes with the copy of the Shroud preserved in the Cathedral and a multimedia table connected to the “Avvolti” project of the Shroud of Turin, offering an immersive experience between history and faith and allowing visitors to explore more deeply the meaning of the Shroud.

The complete series of fourteen small paintings depicting the Stations of the Cross belongs to the Mother Church of Santa Maria Maddalena in Sciacca. It is a work executed with calligraphic virtuosity and great expressive power. Despite their small size, the scenes of the Passion lose none of their intensity and reveal the hand of a highly talented artist.

The author can clearly be identified as Tommaso Rossi (Rome, 1778 – Sciacca, 1862), who in 1829 created the frescoes on the vault of the Mother Church of Sciacca. Tommaso Rossi is the most renowned representative of the last generation of artists who, from the seventeenth century onward, gave rise to the great pictorial season of Sciacca.

Following the death of his celebrated father, Mariano Rossi, in 1807, the painter moved from Rome to Sciacca. Through his intense artistic activity throughout the eastern part of the province of Agrigento, he contributed to shaping a classicizing imagery in religious iconography, often inspired by subjects already developed by his father.

In addition to the Stations of the Cross in Sciacca, he produced another, larger series for the Church of Sant’Agostino in Caltabellotta. On the theme of Christ’s Passion, he also painted two remarkable Deposition scenes: one for the Church of San Michele in Sambuca di Sicilia and another in Menfi, the latter copied from the one in Sciacca that Mariano Rossi had painted in 1768 for the Church of Santa Lucia.

The thirteenth Station of the Cross, depicting the Deposition, is inspired by that earlier work and was executed by the artist in several versions, including the one on the vault of the same Mother Church and another painting belonging to the collection of Cavaliere Francesco Scaglione.

The fourteen scenes are strongly influenced by the style of Mariano Rossi, particularly in the depiction of female figures and historical characters such as soldiers and centurions, rendered with echoes of classical imagery. More generally, the sketch-like quality encouraged by the small size of the canvases brings this work very close to Mariano’s preparatory sketches (such as the Assumption of the Virgin sketch exhibited at the MUDIA in Sciacca).

The narrative intention is fully achieved through highly expressive features, as seen for example in Christ in the Tomb, in the scenes of the Falls, and in the Encounter with Veronica.

The series was restored by Gaetano Alagna in 2024 as part of a project by the Superintendence of Agrigento, funded by the Department of Cultural Heritage and Sicilian Identity.

Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Sicily was an extraordinary artistic laboratory, where local traditions and continental influences intertwined in often surprising ways. Alongside the Palermo scene—dominated by the splendour of the Rococo style of Vito D’Anna—artists less well known, yet no less significant, were active in central and southern Sicily.

Domenico Provenzani, Padre Fedele da San Biagio, Tommaso Rossi, and Federico Panepinto thus assumed the role of cultural mediators between the great European artistic centres—Rome, Naples, and Palermo—and the communities of the Sicilian hinterland.

The distinctive features of Domenico Provenzani’s painting lie in his personal use of colour, his human and naturalistic realism, and his scenographic and harmonious arrangement of figures and colours in space. Padre Fedele is remembered not only as a painter of remarkable cultural stature, but also as a distinguished intellectual and historian. In 1788 he published in Palermo Dialoghi familiari sopra la pittura difesa ed esaltata, in which he asserted the existence of an autonomous Sicilian school of painting, while recognizing its close dependence on the Roman academic tradition.

Tommaso Rossi, thanks to his father, grew up in one of the most vibrant artistic environments in Europe, shaped within the orbit of Roman Neoclassicism.

This peripheral vitality, however, had its roots in an earlier pictorial tradition. Among the most significant figures of that period was Pietro D’Asaro (1579–1647), also known as the Monocle of Racalmuto, a painter who was able to combine the legacy of Late Mannerism with naturalistic suggestions derived from Caravaggesque painting that had spread throughout southern Italy.

Linked to this line of continuity is also the figure of Antonio Capizzi, active between the late seventeenth century and the early decades of the eighteenth century and connected with the inland centres of the Agrigento area and the Sicani Mountains. His works testify to the existence of a network of artists and workshops that ensured the transmission of figurative models across generations.

The artists featured in this exhibition brought updated artistic languages and vibrant sensibilities to the towns of the Agrigento hinterland and to the churches of the Sicani Mountains, engaging in dialogue with the great artistic movements of their time, from the Late Baroque to Neoclassicism.

What remains of this heritage is a treasure that still awaits full recognition and appreciation: a precious testimony to the cultural life of a land that has always known how to make art a universal language.

Domenico Provenzani

(Palma di Montechiaro, 1736–1794)

His father Calogero, remembered as a skilled woodcarver and painter, gave him his first artistic training. Orphaned at an early age, he was supported by Prince Ferdinando Tomasi di Lampedusa, who encouraged his education.

Around 1750 Provenzani moved to Palermo, where he completed his artistic formation by working in the workshops of Gaspare Serenario and above all Vito D'Anna, one of the leading figures of eighteenth-century Sicilian painting. From these masters he absorbed the language of the Late Baroque and a taste for large, dynamic compositions.

After returning to central-southern Sicily, he developed an intense artistic activity, working for churches and convents in many towns, including Agrigento, Licata, Naro, and Mussomeli. His production is almost entirely devoted to sacred painting: altarpieces, devotional canvases, and decorative cycles depicting episodes from the lives of Christ, the Virgin, and the saints.

His style is distinguished by lively colour, expressive figures, and a naturalistic sensitivity that brings religious scenes closer to the human experience of the faithful. Provenzani died on 29 January 1794 in his hometown of Palma di Montechiaro, leaving a substantial body of work that testifies to the spread of Late Baroque pictorial culture in eighteenth-century Sicily.

Padre Fedele da San Biagio

(San Biagio Platani, 1717 – Palermo, 1801)

Born Matteo Sebastiano Tirrito, he was a Capuchin friar, painter, preacher, and author of religious texts active during the eighteenth century.

After entering the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, he combined religious life with intense artistic activity. Trained in Palermo, he further perfected his painting in Rome, where he came into contact with important masters of the time.

In 1744 he wrote Dialoghi sopra la pittura, a fundamental text of eighteenth-century art theory. His painting belongs to the artistic climate of the Sicilian Late Baroque and is characterized by a clear and devotional language, intended to accompany prayer and the religious instruction of the faithful.

Numerous works are preserved in the Mother Church of Casteltermini, where he produced important canvases between the mid and late eighteenth century. Padre Fedele also played a significant role in the formation of other religious artists and in the dissemination of art within Capuchin convents. His activity demonstrates how convents in the eighteenth century functioned as centers of cultural and artistic production, where painting became a tool of evangelization and spiritual meditation.

Today he remains one of the most important Sicilian Capuchin painters of the eighteenth century.

Tommaso Rossi

(Rome, 1778 – Sciacca, 1862)

The son and pupil of Mariano Rossi (Sciacca, 1731 – Rome, 1807), one of the leading Italian painters of the second half of the eighteenth century, Tommaso spent his youth in Rome, where his father had lived for many years. He remained in the capital until the age of twenty-two, developing a visual culture shaped by the artistic environment and prestigious commissions surrounding his father.

Closely connected to the unmistakable artistic style of Mariano Rossi, Tommaso did not inherit his father’s extraordinary genius but belonged to the last generation of followers of the so-called “School of Sciacca,” together with painters such as Giuseppe Sabella and Giuseppe Cammarano.

Through his father he absorbed the atmosphere of grand Baroque decoration, assimilating its characteristics while gradually moving toward the stylistic principles of Neoclassicism, sometimes approaching the manner of artists such as Elia Interguglielmi.

Although he remained close to the chromatic palette and physiognomic types of his father, his work often shows greater rigidity and does not always achieve the same fluidity of brushwork or the dynamic classicizing spirit that characterized Mariano’s painting.

Among his most successful works are the frescoes on the vault of the Mother Church of Sciacca and the paintings in the Church of Purgatorio in the same town.

Federico Panepinto

(Santo Stefano Quisquina, 1809 – 1872)

After completing his studies at the Royal University of Palermo (the Accademia dell’Ignudo), he was awarded a gold medal as the best figure draftsman.

He attended the studio of Giuseppe Patanía, one of the leading artists of Sicilian Neoclassicism, and further specialized at the Royal Museum of Naples, a city he would visit again later in his career.

He served, at various times, as a teacher in the secondary school of his hometown. Family chronicles also record his revolutionary—or at least anti-Bourbon—sympathies. Despite this, he successfully balanced his civic convictions with the many commissions he received from ecclesiastical institutions and confraternities in towns such as Santo Stefano Quisquina, Bivona, Alessandria della Rocca, Casteltermini, Cammarata, Chiusa Sclafani, and Roccapalumba.

His most recognizable stylistic hallmark is a clearly Neoclassical approach. His work reveals a technically refined and somewhat solitary artistic research, aimed at renewing the artistic mentality of a conservative patronage still strongly attached to the fading Late Baroque tradition.

Panepinto’s Neoclassical experiments subtly reflect a modern vision connected with the emancipation from the ancien régime—a vision that in Sicily resonated with the anti-Bourbon statute of 1812, the abolition of feudal privileges, and the attempts to remove the Bourbons from the rule of the island.