# Bologna brings long-stored Seicento paintings back into view Canonical article: https://arthistory.news/news/bologna-brings-long-stored-seicento-paintings-back-into-view-dec63d61-8819-4e25-b2f0-0a4aa55471f4 By ArtHistory.News Published: 2026-10-14T09:47:39.792Z An outgoing Artemisia Gentileschi loan has opened a space for two less familiar paintings at Bologna’s Pinacoteca Nazionale. From 13 October, two depictions of Saint John the Baptist, one by Michele Desubleo and the other by Flaminio Torri and Simone Cantarini, return to public view after many years in storage. The display explores the nude in seventeenth-century Bologna, placing the paintings opposite Cantarini’s Saint Jerome, Giovanni Lanfranco’s Samson and Baciccio’s Abel. Director Luigi Gallo sees the grouping as an opportunity to examine how Guido Reni’s ideal of beauty developed through a closer engagement with nature. Desubleo offers a particularly interesting route into that story. Born in Maubeuge in 1602, the Flemish painter trained in Rome alongside his stepbrother Nicolas Régnier before joining Reni’s workshop. His career connects northern European painting with the artistic worlds of Rome and Bologna, complicating any narrowly local account of the Bolognese school. His Saint John has been restored by the Laboratorio Ottorino Nonfarmale with support from Alfasigma. It is now the only work representing Desubleo in the museum’s display. A lecture on its history and restoration follows on 10 November at 5pm. The space became available through the loan of Artemisia’s Susanna and the Elders to Artemisia Gentileschi a Firenze, at Florence’s Museo degli Innocenti from 21 October 2026 to 4 April 2027. For visitors, the attraction is the chance to make comparisons previously prevented by storage. For the museum, it is a useful demonstration of how an outgoing loan can become an occasion to reconsider what deserves a place on the walls. ## Illustrations Michele Desubleo 'St John' \(detail\) Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna [Image source](). ## Sources ## Related records - [Michele Desubleo]() - [Simone Cantarini]() - [Flaminio Torri]() Please cite the canonical article URL above. Image credits and reproduction rights remain with their respective holders.