3201 - Ferrara XI


The Palazzo dei Diamanti is one of the most famous buildings in Ferrara, arguably the most beautiful, if for nothing than the pureness of its architectural style. It’s a Renaissance masterpiece of highest rank. The building got its name due to the peculiar surface of its walls.

Today the palace houses the permanent National Gallery of Art as well as frequent guest exhibitions.

When we were there, we saw an exhibition about the rise of Barcelona up to the May Days during the Spanish Civil War, as reflected in the works of Picasso and Gaudí. You can certainly call it contrieved, as so many exhibitions are.

It shows mostly unrelated pieces of art, brought together only by an artificial context. Still, as an exhbition of that kind it was nevertheless well done, giving a lot of interesting information about the time, its people and the reasons for social tension and civil unrest. After all, the Golden Age of Barcelona was not golden for everyone.