Museo Correr- Venice

October 15th, 2011

The Museo Correr is in the most famous place in Venice, S. Marco square, (which is actually the only real square of the city, while the other ones are called campo “field”),just in front of the amazing S.Marco’s Church.
The museum fills the Ala Napoleonica (The Napoleonic Wing) and the Procuratie nuove.
The Ala Napoleonica was built by Napoleon during his dominance in Italy (1806-1814), and replaced the ancient San Geminiano Church, which had been reconstructed by Jacopo Sansovino in the XVI century.

The museum offers artistic and historical tours relating to Venice:

the artistic ones can be seen in the luxurious Sale neoclassiche, which hold an impressive collection of works of the greatest sculptor of his age, Antonio Canova (1757-1822);
on the first floor of the Procuratie nuove the history and culture of the Republic of Venice is shown along twenty halls, divided into themes: the Doge, the sea, the weapons, everyday life, the trades, the festivities, the city games. Moreover on the second floor the Procuratie nuove hold an ancient art collections exhibition, which includes masterpieces of the Veneto region from the origin to the XVI century.

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The Archaeological Site of Piazza Armerina, Sicily

September 15th, 2011

In the heart of the island at the centre of the Mediterranean, Piazza Armerina is a gem of history and art exceptionally preserved and really worth the travel to central Sicily, in the province of Enna.

A linguistic island where a dialect original from northern Italy is spoken, Piazza Armerina is in the same way a rare example of wealth. Its merits draw upon both its Roman ruins, that of the world famous Villa del Casale, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and on the Baroque centre. Marked by a violent history of consecutive wars, pillages and complete destructions by invaders such as Vandals, Visigoths, Moors and Normans, Piazza, as it is familiarly called by its inhabitants, sees today lots of tourists coming to see the exceptional Roman excavations.

Do not miss the massive Baroque cathedral, reminiscent in parts of a previous Gothic church and including Byzantine elements such as icons, and the Palazzo Trigona, a wealthy house built in the 17th century as well. The town centre on the whole shows evident signs of valuable Baroque buildings that are worth a visit. After a stroll in this veritable fragment of past in the open air, a rich example of the Sicilian Baroque, a visit to the Roman Villa will leave you astonished. Built in the first quarter of the 4th century AD, it was probably the manor from where a large and wealthy agricultural estate was managed, and this is the reason for its simply dazzling mosaics and buildings such as the baths. Presumably in the 12th century, a landslide made the site unusable and forced inhabitants to move to nowadays Piazza. Rediscovered in the 20th century, it is now one of Italy’s prides in art.

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Pompeii Excavations

August 15th, 2011

As ancient as Rome itself, Pompeii is perhaps the Italian historic site best known abroad, and according to some figures, it is said to be the second most popular museum in the whole world.

Apart from debatable records, the Pompeii excavations certainly do have what most of modern museums and archaeological areas all around the world lack and cannot possibly acquire: an extensive, impressive, tangible presence of life. The sudden Vesuvius eruption of 79 AD famously described by Plinius, the Roman naturalist, actually froze – if we may say so – Pompeii and Herculaneum inhabitants while they were after they daily toils, sometimes in very bizarre poses, as they were staging a photograph.

Discovered in 1748 after the excavations commissioned by the then king of Naples, Charles I of Bourbon, Pompeii is today the oldest archaeological area open to the public and an immense ancient city. And it is still growing because of the excavations in progress that step by step do not stop unearthing priceless treasures of art such as paintings, frescoes, statues, and of course buildings such as the famous House of the Faun and the Forum.

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Brera Art Gallery, Milan

July 15th, 2011

One of the most famous portrait and art galleries in the world, as well as one of the most ancient, the Pinacoteca (picture gallery) of Brera is hosted by an lordly palace in Milan city centre. An annex to the Brera Fine Arts Academy, founded in 1776 by the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, it is home to some of the highest masterpieces of Italian painting, from the Renaissance to the late Nineteenth century.

Born as an institution where to teach and research at a higher level the fine arts of architecture, sculpture, and painting, the Academy soon began to acquire casts from artists, in order to have a collection where the students could measure their efforts. After the Treaty of Vienna, it managed to secure many specimens on their way back from France to the Peninsula, thanks to the reassignment of them to Italy in compensation for the art spoils and pillages Napoleonic troops had made in Italy.

This first collection was subsequently enlarged, and in 1882 the Academy and the Gallery were separated, due to the growing dimension of the latter. Nowadays, having celebrated its 200 years of running in 2009, the Pinacoteca is one the most important picture galleries in Italy, and, possibly, in the world. Among its artists, we can find Giovanni Bellini, Caravaggio (“The Supper in Emmaus”), Mantegna (“The Dead Christ”), and several paintings by Francesco Hayez, Bramante, Tiepolo, Guardi and Canaletto.

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The Egyptian Museum of Turin

June 15th, 2011

Somebody may not know that one of the most relevant collections of Egyptian art in the whole world is hosted in Turin at the Museo delle antitichità Egizie, better known as Museo Egizio (Egyptian Museum).

Founded in 1824 by king Charles Felix of Savoy, after the purchase of the fundamental collection accumulated in the course of years by Bernardino Drovetti, French General Consul at Cairo during and after the Napoleonic Wars at the turn of the century, it receives more than 500,000 visitors yearly.

Eventually expanded during Nineteenth-, and Twentieth-century successive additions, it is now second in the world as per number of finds held, and their quality. Champollion, the famous French decipherer of hieroglyphs, came to Turin to prove his theories in order to work on the huge collection of papyri owned by the museum, which also prides itself of being the first ever Egyptian Museum in history, being older than the Cairo one.

Some of the scenic temple statues, sarcophagi, and mummies, were move to a new wing with background and lighting designed by the famous Oscar-winning production designer Dante Ferretti.

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Accademia (Venice)

May 16th, 2011

Treasure among the many treasures of Venice, the Accademia is one of the most visited museums in Italy and, possibly, of the whole world. Collecting masterpieces dating back to the Middle Ages and up to the XIX century, this ancient School of Arts was first established in 1750 and re-founded in 1807 during the Napoleonic occupation of the city in the turbulent years following the Treaty of Campoformio, 1797, which marked the end of the Serenissima Repubblica of Venice.

Set in a fascinating context, the Accademia is located just opposite one of the four bridges on the Grand Canal, namely the Accademia Bridge, the only one still in wood. It houses works by world famous artists such as Canaletto, Carpaccio, Bellini, Mantegna, Giorgione, Antonello da Messina, Tiepolo, Tintoretto, Titian, Veronese, Vasari, and, last but not least, Leonardo da Vinci, whose most famed Vitruvian Man, the drawing showing the proportions of man inscribed in a circle and in a square, is kept here.

The building itself has a story worth a mention, being one of the oldest palaces in the city, not far from St Mark’s. Once the home of one of the six “Schools” in the city, the Scuola della Carità, its foundation year is almost surely 1343, with eventual additions by famed architects in the following centuries, one of them being Andrea Palladio, who designed the adjoining Convento dei Canonici Lateranensi, never fully completed. A precious stone set in a golden city.

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Italian Museums of Art

April 15th, 2011

It is variously said that Italy owns about 40 per cent or more of the whole world’s artistic heritage. This may be true, even though such an estimate is enormously difficult to do on precise figures, not existing scientifically catalogued data about art and art relevance.

But one cannot deny Italy has some of the most famous museums in the world, especially as regards ancient and modern art. On the side of the contemporary, Italy is rapidly catching up with the most avant-garde countries and its museums of modern art are growing from year to year and are certainly already competitive on level of interest and works exposed, also thanks to private foundations generously providing funds.

The most famous places to visit in Italy as museums have the remarkable characteristic of being works of art themselves, like the Uffizi in Florence, the very first modern museum in the world, set up to host the collections of the Medici family in the XVI century. And the Pompeii and Herculaneum excavations, a travel through time in genuine Roman cities dug out of the earth and brought back to life: not only a museum but a whole immersion in ancient life.

And what about the collections in Venice (Galleries of the Academy of Art, St Mark’s Basilica), Milan (Castle Sforzesco, Picture Gallery of Brera), Turin (Royal Palaces of the House of Savoy), and the innumerable in Rome and Naples? Just pick your choice among the Italian museums of art, and you can be sure you will not be disappointed.

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Contemporary Art in Italy

March 14th, 2011

Critics tend to consider as “contemporary” whatever produced from the Second World War period onwards, up until our days. But sculpture, painting, and architecture have been evolving a lot both in Italy and elsewhere, so it is quite and increasingly difficult to spot a common trend without appearing confusing.

Anyway, the most important artists in Italy are certainly, among sculptors, Marino Marini, Emilio Greco, Giovanni (Giò) and Arnaldo Pomodoro, and Pietro Cascella, who was specialized in monumental sculptures and when he died, in 2008, was one of the most famous stone artists in the world.

As for painting, notable are the names of Giorgio De Chirico and Giorgio Morandi, who starting out as Metaphysical travelled across many movements, Felice Casorati, Pietro Annigoni, Renato Guttuso, Lucio Fontana (the one of the “cuts”), Afro Basaldella, Alberto Burri (the one of the “burnings”), Piero Manzoni, along with the representatives of Arte Povera movement.

The more we approach our times, the more labelling becomes difficult and characterized only by a time span instead of a school of art. Post-modern theories are still controversial about what actually post-modern is, but there is accord about the features of irony and entangling concepts, that create works of art of any kind (in literature as in architecture, for example) expressly denying any firm conclusion, rather aiming at confusing spectators, listeners, and readers. Italian artists who can be fine representatives of these trends can include Mario Schifano, Sandro Chia, Francesco Clemente, Enzo Cucchi and Giulio Paolini.

The best specimens of Contemporary art in Italy and abroad, can be surely observed at the Venice Biennale, taking place every two years in Venice, and alternating art and architecture, while the famous Venice Film Festival, also organized by the Biennale foundation, takes place every year at Venice Lido.

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Modern Art in Italy

February 15th, 2011

Under the label of Modern Art theorists tend to include a wide range of movements active from around the 1860s to around 1970s. Its commencement is usually considered Edouard Manet‘s exhibition of the painting Le déjeuner sur l’herbe (“The Luncheon on the Grass”) in Paris in 1863. But a modern innovation in the use of colours was alive already in Florence in 1855, when the movement of Macchiaioli began its activity. The most prominent among them being Giovanni Fattori and Telemaco Signorini, their painting featured the use of “macchie” (colour blots) instead of lines as was commonly in use before.

Metaphysical painting is the most noticeable current of the fin de siècle period, with Giorgio De Chirico, Carlo Carrà, Giorgio Morandi and Filippo de Pisis as the most important painters whose works Dada and Surrealism will draw upon. Their art meant to explore the meaning of common objects out of their contexts, hence such outcomes as De Chirico’s famous “Metaphysical Squares”. Now their works are exhibited in the most famous museums around the world, and continue to influence modern works of art such as films and video-games with their airy architectures.

Last, but not least, movement we would like to remember among those characterizing Modern art in Italy, is the Futurism. Born as a literary movement in 1909, it soon spread to influence other fields such as painting, sculpture and architecture. Famous are the works by Boccioni, Carrà, Balla, Severini and Russolo, of the first Futurist period. From 1929 until 1938, it joined in the line of Surrealism and produced artists such as Ardengo Soffici and Ottone Rosai. It distinguished itself mostly for its strong criticism to established forms of art, theorizing freedom of movement for shapes in space, manly force, war, speed and the power of technology. They can be seen as among the founding father of post-modern art at a global scale.

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Baroque art in Italy

January 15th, 2011

Baroque is the term usually employed by art historians to refer to the period 1600-1750. As the style, the word itself has a controversial meaning whose origins are difficult to trace back. Its undisputed birthplace, though, is certainly seventeenth-century Rome.

Tradition has it as the typical counter-reformation style, cherished by the Roman Catholic Church. Recent findings, however, prove it was not so. In fact, it was also the style in vogue by the European courts of the time, thanks to its exuberant, theatrical features, as much as its famous magniloquence spreading across all surfaces and employing all materials. Rome was the centre of Baroque art in Italy and Europe thanks to popes Urban VIII and Alexander VII: their initiatives promoted urban centre renovation in a Baroque way thus amplifying the city’s architectural prestige.

The Italian Piazza (square), already a urban place at the centre of daily life, acquires in this age the grandeur that made it famous with monumental churches, palaces and pavings such as that of St Peter’s and Piazza Navona, by Bernini and Borromini respectively. Of note are also the magnificent city centre of Lecce, in Apulia, and the churches and palaces scattered throughout its province, as well as the whole Noto valley in southern Sicily, among the provinces of Catania, Ragusa and Syracuse with its centre in the town of Noto, all UNESCO WH Site.

As for painting, Baroque distinguishes itself for the radical changing of view with respect to Mannerism, aiming at stimulating not human intellect but rather strong emotions, involving an impact on gusto, fascination and seduction, captivating the beholder’s senses. Masters in this art were Caravaggio, Annibale Carracci, Correggio, Federico Barocci, and Guido Reni, whose works can be admired in various places in Rome and Naples, but remarkable for its detachment and severity is also the Lombard school promoted by the cardinals cousins Carlo and Federico Borromeo in Milan.

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