A work by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the Rio della Plata, the artist's preparatory model for the Fountain of the Four Rivers in Rome, will be visible from 6 May to 6 November 2022 at the Estense Gallery, exhibited for the first time in a context that relocates Bernini in a territory, the Estense one, where the great artist left traces of his absolute genius. The work, coming from the Galleria Giorgio Franchetti at the Ca 'D'Oro in Venice, will in fact be set up in Modena under the gaze of the portrait of Francesco I d’Este, the famous marble bust that Bernini sculpted almost at the same time. A small but important event not to be missed for the museum public also due to the presence in the Gallery of the analogous model by Antonio Raggi, translation of Bernini's thoughts and drawings for the Sassuolo fountain, which will allow them to better understand the exceptional nature of this foray of Roman Baroque in Modena. The role of Duke Francesco stands out, thanks to his charisma and his confidence in the power of images, he managed to conquer the greatest and most courted Italian artist of the full seventeenth century.

Curated by Federico Fischetti, in collaboration with the Veneto Regional Museum Directorate, the loan was granted on the occasion of the exhibition From Donatello to Alessandro Vittoria, 1450-1600. 150 years of sculpture in the Republic of Venice (Venice, Galleria Giorgio Franchetti at the Ca 'd'Oro, 22 April - 30 October 2022), in which two important works from the Galleria Estense in Modena are also exhibited.

On 2 June 1651 the Fountain of the Rivers was inaugurated in Rome. To contemporaries it immediately appeared as a miracle of the world which condensed an exceptional impetus of artistic, engineering, hydraulic and figurative design. A colossal imperial age obelisk balanced on a windy cliff, together with the personifications of the four major rivers of the known continents: Danube for Europe, Nile for Africa, Ganges for Asia and Rio della Plata for the Americas. Thus Pope Innocent X Pamphilj celebrated the universal vocation of the Catholic Church, but also himself as the architect of the reorganization of Piazza Navona, the scenic location for the new family palace with the mausoleum church of Sant'Agnese in Agone and the Collegio Innocenziano attached to it.