Landscape with Magical Procession

An inscription above the arched gateway of the house dates this canvas to 1528. Out of that gate winds a strange parade. Men in bizarre costumes dance beside horned creatures, and a cart rolls behind a long-necked animal that a Borghese inventory of 1693 called a camel. The gallery links the scene to the festive processions that sometimes filled the streets of Ferrara. It also sees here one of the earliest Italian echoes of Hieronymus Bosch, whose paintings could be seen in the Grimani collection in Venice. The Roman prince Paolo Savelli probably gave the picture to Cardinal Scipione Borghese, and his inventory of 1610 calls it a picture with phantoms. Its painter is still debated. Old inventories named the Dossi, others proposed Girolamo da Carpi, and recent studies favour Garofalo, a name the museum keeps with a question mark.