Michelini photo archive by Genus Bononiae Collections
Exhibition at Palazzo Pepoli in “Your Museum” room
Who is not thinking today about the desired holidays after a year of intense work or study? If you are curious to know who were the Bolognese going on vacation at the beginning of the last century and which destinations were the preferred ones, we invite you to visit the small but significant exhibition in the Museum of the History of Bologna, Palazzo Pepoli’s “Your museum” room. The exhibition gives the visitor a deepen knowledge of the high bourgeois society which had spread the tourism in Italy too.
Giuseppe Michelini (Bologna, 1873-1951) stands out in this exhibition with a dual role: as the author of the photographs and as the protagonist of a story that, being personal, is much more like a diary which reflects an entire era. All the portraits show families and friends who spend their holidays by the sea, in the seemingly far Appennino and in the smallholdings at the villa of Crevalcore.
The seaside settings are Riccione and Cattolica. Some laid back figures are represented by the cottage, some others by the tent: men playing and women, so elegant, with huge hats to protect them from the burning sun, sewing or looking after their house, children accompanied by nannies playing on the sand. The trips through the mountains on the still unfinished roads are considered as the way to live an adventurous experience. The wealth of Michelini’s photos comes from the Crevalcore’s surrounding fields, and the Michelini family are aware of it. That is why they enjoy staying in the countryside for long periods and organising the trips with the family and friends.
The images of Giuseppe Michelini reflect a significant perfectionism, a high quality and a rare richness of detail. In fact, even after one hundred years, they can still offer the viewer the pleasure to “read” a true tale. The story of a unique time that came to a definitive end when the First World War began.