Friday, January 31, 2014

BASILICA OF St. SABINA AT THE AVENTINE HILL

BASILICA S. SABINA
Begun by Peter of Illyria in 425 under Pope Celestine I (422/432) on a Titulus Sabinae maybe built in the house of a matron of the same name of the unlikely Umbrian saint martyr under Hadrian
It is the most perfect type of Christian basilica of the fifth century
Completed by Sixtus III (432/440)
Restored by Leo III (795/816)
Enriched by Eugene II (824/827)
RESTORATIONS: 1441, 1481, 1587 Domenico Fontana (1543/1607) on behalf of Pope Sixtus V Peretti (1585/90), 1643 Francesco Borromini (1599/1667), 1914/19 and 1936/37 Antonio Muñoz (1884/1960) who brought it to its original form by removing Fontana's overlays
In the SQUARE mask of St. Sabina" moved here in 1937 from the Roman Forum where it used to stand over the enormous granite basin now in front of the Palazzo del Quirinale
St. Dominic de Guzmán (1170/1221) lived and worked here
In the cloister there is a tree of sweet oranges, which according to tradition, St. Dominic brought from Spain. It is visible from the church through a hole in the wall, protected by glass, in front of the wooden portal. It is considered a miracolous tree because it has continued to bear fruits through other trees born from the original
Legend has it that the five candied oranges donated by St. Catherine to Pope Urban VI (1378/89) in 1379, had been taken by the saint from this plant
To the left of the front door there is a "Round black stone on a spiral column": this is called Lapis Diaboli, i.e., devil stone, because according to legend it was thrown by the devil against St. Dominic in prayer but it hit and shattered a marble slab covering the bones of several martyrs
In fact, the marble slab was broken by Domenico Fontana during the 1587 restoration to move the burial place of the martyrs. He threw away the pieces, later recovered and put back together, and now visible in the middle of the choir
ATRIUM
Portal frame with classical marble frame and sensational "Cypress wood doors" about 450:
Twenty-eight frames in relief (ten were lost) restored in 1836 with parallelism between Moses (the Law) and Christ (the Gospel). The "Crucifixion" with open eyes and without a halo is one of the first visual representations of the Crucifixion existing in the world
In the panel with the "Passage of the Red Sea" the restorer replaced the face of the pharaoh who drowned with that of Napoleon
COUNTER FAÇADE
Only remnant of the mosaics dating back to about 435 with the "Metric inscription" written using the beautiful monumental Philocalian capital font mentioning the Council of Ephesus in 431 maybe by Paulinus of Nola, flanked by two female figures representing the "Ecclesia ex Gentibus" (church of the Gentiles, not Jewish) and the "Ecclesia ex Circumcisione" (church of the Jewish)
The Philocalian capital font was devised by the calligrapher Furius Dyonisius Philocalus also author of the oldest Roman calendar of the Church, the Roman Chronograph of 354
TWENTY-FOUR MARBLE COLUMNS maybe from the nearby TEMPLE OF JUNO REGINA
On top and to the sides of the arches most precious "Frieze in opus sectile (inlaid marble)" fifth or sixth century
In the FLOOR "Tombstone of Brother Muñoz Zamora" who died in 1300
"Pillar" of the pre-existing building embedded in the wall 
CHAPEL OF St. HYACINTH
Vault "Triumph of St. Hyacinth" and walls "Stories of St. Hyacinth" Federico Zuccari (about 1542/1609)
On the altar "Virgin and St. Hyacinth" 1600 Lavinia Fontana (1552/1614)
FURTHER ON, IN THE RIGHT NAVE
"Tomb of Cardinal Auxia" 1484 by an artist of the school of Andrea Bregno (1418/1503)
APSE
"Christ on the mountain surrounded by the apostles" 1560 by Taddeo Zuccari (1529/66), restored in 1836 by Vincenzo Camuccini (1771/1844). It repeats the theme of the lost ancient mosaic
CHAPEL D'ELCI or CHAPEL OF St. CATHERINE
1671 G.B. Contini (1641/1723)
On the altar copy of "Madonna of the Rosary with St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Siena" 1643 by G.B. Salvi aka Sassoferrato (1609/85) now in the Dominican Museum
In the pendentives "Stories of St. Catherine" and in the vault "Triumph of St. Catherine" by Giovanni Odazzi (1663/1731)
ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS
In the area north of the church next to the garden remains have been found in cappellaccio stone of the SERVIAN WALLS of the half of the sixth century BC above which tufa stone boulders of Grotta Oscura were stacked when the walls were rebuilt in 378 BC
Both types of material are visible here and are archaeological evidence that can be attached to the written sources describing Rome in the sixth century BC as a huge city with a wall of 11 km (6.8 miles). The walls included an area of 4.26 km ² (1.6 square mile)

HOUSES OF THE FIRST LUZZATI COOPERATIVE

CASE DELLA PRIMA COOPERATIVA LUZZATI
1903/06 Vittorio Mascanzoni (1855/1906) for a cooperative of workers employed in industries active in those years, between Via Prenestina and Via Casilina 
Two-story terraced houses looking on Via Luigi Pianciani and also on the parallel Via Nino Bixio 
They were a novelty in residential building constructions in Rome 
"The area assigned to each member being limited, we designed to put the stairs in the front, so to avoid hallways and create space for all the rooms. The stairs in the front moreover gave rise to the decoration of the façades themselves by breaking the uniformity of the fine lines and distinguishing each group of four houses" (Vittorio Mascanzoni)

Thursday, January 30, 2014

GARDENS OF SALLUST

HORTI SALLUSTIANI
The Latin writer Gaius Crispus Sallust (86/35 BC) had his Horti (villa with gardens) built here in an area formerly belonging to Julius Caesar. Its gardens were among the largest and richest of the Roman world
On the death of the writer it became property of his nephew Quintus and later of Augustus (27 BC/14). Since then the gardens remained in the imperial property and were enlarged and embellished many times
Many emperors chose it as their temporary home, as an alternative to the official residence on the Palatine Hill. Vespasian (69/79) stayed here often and Nerva (96/98) died here. The hard fighting that led to the victory of Vespasian's army took place here in 69
Adrian (117/138) and Aurelian (270/275) did some large restorations. The latter in particular built a PORTICUS MILIARENSIS, probably a complex of porch, garden and stables, where he used to ride horses. Other restorations were made in the third century
When in 410 there was the sack of Rome by the Goths, led by Alaric, who came right from the Porta Salaria (Salaria Gate), the Villa suffered serious damage and was never rebuilt, as Procopius wrote in the sixth century
The building seen today used to look probably similar to Canopus of Hadrian's Villa in Tivoli: in the center of the square, 14 meters (46 feet) below the present level, the remains have been excavated, resting on the hill behind and connected to other poorly preserved remains of buildings
The main part was a LARGE CIRCULAR ROOM (11.21 m - 36.7 feet - in diameter and 13.28 m - 43.5 feet - high), covered by a dome divided into wedges alternatingly concave and flat, a very rare pattern, found only in the Serapeum of Hadrian's Villa. In the walls there are three niches on each side, two of which were open as passages for side rooms. The remaining niches were closed a few years later and covered with marble incrustation, which also covered the walls. The floor was made of marble too, while the cupola and upper walls were decorated with stucco
There is also a RECTANGULAR VESTIBULE and other rooms
From the Villa comes the Sallustian Obelisk, now in front of Trinità dei Monti on top of the Spanish Steps, and its granite pedestal, now in the gardens of Aracoeli on Capitoline Hill. In addition, the marble relief so-called "Ludovisi Throne" and the great female marble head called "Acrolito Ludovisi", both at the Palazzo Altemps, maybe from spoils of war held in the nearby TEMPLE OF VENUS ERYCINA

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

GARDENS OF LUCULLUS

HORTI LUCULLIANI
Villa built by Lucullus soon after the triumph over Mithridates celebrated in 63 BC
It was one of the largest villas in Rome, corresponding to the current church of Trinità dei Monti and the Spanish Steps on the Pincian Hill
Under the reign of Claudius (41/54) it became property of Valerius Asiaticus and in 46 BC it became imperial property when he was forced to commit suicide by Messalina, the unfaithful wife of Claudius
The Villa continued to be owned by Emperors at least until the time of Trajan (98/117) who maybe preferred the gardens of Sallust, located on the eastern part of the Pincian Hill
In the third century it was occupied by the noble family of the Acili, who in the fourth century gave it to the Pinci, from whom the present name of the hill came. Although they gave the name of the hill, little is known of this family
It was a complex similar to the Temple of Fortuna at Palestrina. At the top there was a round building, maybe a Temple of Fortuna
In the cellars of the convent of the Sacred Heart, there are SUBSTRUCTURES and under Palazzo Zuccari there is a large wall with semicircular niches, certainly a NYMPHEUM (fountain)

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

HECATOSTYLUM - 100 COLUMNS PORTICO

HECATOSTYLUM
Portico with one hundred columns, at the north end side of the portico of the Theatre of Pompey and the sacred area of Largo Argentina
The official name was maybe PORTICUS LENTULORUM from the Lentuli family (members of the family who followed Pompey were consuls in 57 and 49 BC or consuls in 18 BC) sponsors of the building
At the time of Alexander Severus (222/235) it was rebuilt as BASILICA ALEXANDRINA, maybe unfinished
Maybe inside there were the "Statues of the fourteen nations conquered by Pompey" by Coponius

Sunday, January 26, 2014

JANICULUM HILL

GIANICOLO
Dubbed the eighth hill and connected to the history of Rome just as much as the legendary seven hills
It is 82 m (270 feet) high
It is located on the right bank the Tiber, originally in Etruscan territory
The name of the hill in the tradition derives from the god Janus, who would have founded a town on the hill known by the name of Ianiculum. In reality, the name is in relation to this divinity on the Janiculum Hill there was only a chapel dedicated to his son Fons or Fontus
There was a small town (Pagus Ianiculensis) at the foot of the hill in the area corresponding to today's Piazza Mastai
It would have been occupied and annexed to Rome by Anco Marcio (640/616) who would have fortified it and connected to the city via the SUBLICIO BRIDGE on which the ancient road going through the hill and coming from Etruria used to pass; it later became the Via Aurelia
The original bridge was named Sublicio for the sublicae, planks of wood with which it was built, fixed by bronze nails. Horatius Cocles, according to legend, in 507 BC stopped the Etruscans on the bridge Sublicius and the Romans cut it behind him
The hill was not very much inhabited for the water shortage until the construction of the Trajan aqueduct
The Romans used to raise a flag on the Janiculum as a safety signal when the speeches were held in the Campus Martius outside the city walls
An area of the Janiculum Hill was covered with the sacred woods of the TEMPLE OF FURRINA near which Gaius Gracchus killed himself in 121 BC
Another area of worship, in a later period, was the SANTUARIO SIRIACO (Syrian Shrine) on the east slope of the hill, today Via Dandolo

The road winding from Via Garibaldi towards S. Pietro in Montorio was traced in the years 1865/68 by Federico Arcangeli and was lined with elm, locust, plane trees and melie azedarach

The PASSEGGIATA DEL GIANICOLO (Janiculum Esplanade) was opened in the years 1883/96. The stretch between the "Fontanone" of the Acqua Paola and Piazzale Garibaldi was inaugurated in 1884 and other large sections were opened to the public in 1887

Along the walking path of the hill there are “Eighty-four marble busts of Garibaldi's heroes” 1883/1949 made by various sculptors including:

 “Luigi Mercantini” beginning of 1900s by Ettore Ximenes (1855/1926)

“Angelo Tittoni” 1902 by Ettore Ferrari (1845/1929)

“Achille Sacchi” about 1908, “Eugenio Agneni” 1923 and “Giovanni Costa” 1926/27 by Giovanni Prini (1877/1958)

“Colomba Porzi Antonietti” 1910/11 by Giovanni Nicolini (1872/1956)

“Paolo Narducci” 1921, “Augusto Valenziani” about 1920 and “Raffaele Cadorna” 1923 by Publio Morbiducci (1889/1963)

Four busts represent foreigners fighting with Garibaldi: an Englishman, a Finn, a Hungarian and a Bulgarian
Under the Belvedere (viewpoint) of the Janiculum Hill every day since 1904 at 12 o'clock three soldiers load a cannon with blanks and fire a shot
The tradition dates back to Pius IX Mastai-Ferretti (1846/78) who instituted this service in 1846 to avoid confusion with time. Before firing from the Janiculum Hill, the cannon used to fire from Castel Sant'Angelo first and then from Monte Mario

SCIARRA GALLERY

GALLERIA SCIARRA
1885/86 Giulio De Angelis (1850/1906) for prince Maffeo Sciarra
"Giulio De Angelis, the most restless, the most curious and the most brave of the Roman architects of the period of king Humbert I, was not involved in the common taste in architecture at the end of the nineteenth century, not belonging to the official neo-sixteenth century style popular in his time, of which Gaetano Koch was the leading light. De Angelis had a personality that defied any classification: the relationship between art and industry was the recurring feature of his production" (Antonio Venditti) 
Frescos "Allegories and scenes of feminine virtues" 1886/88 Giuseppe Cellini who used the encaustic technique and had Roman rich ladies as models
It is effectively a celebration of the bourgeois class
Latin phrases of Virgil and Horace including "Not unaware of trouble I have learned to succor the unfortunate" from the Aeneid. The acronym CCS stands for Carolina Colonna Sciarra mother of Prince Sciarra and represented maybe as Domina in the fresco
In the area of the Gallery used to be the ancient PORTICUS VIPSANIA

Saturday, January 25, 2014

NATIONAL GALLERY OF MODERN ART (sixth part)


Masterpieces not included in the permanent exhibit and visible during temporary exhibits

“Continence of Scipio” 1811 by Vincenzo Camuccini (1771/1844)
“St. Stephen stoned and collected by pious men” 1853, “Portrait of a Lady” 1859 and “A useless repentance” 1851 by Bernardo Celentano (1835/63)
“The first moments of the Sicilian Vespers” 1852 and “Boniface VIII” Caetani (1294/1303) 1875 by Andrea Gastaldi (1826/89)
“In this work the painter, with a cultured recovery, resurrected the ancient technique of encaustic melted wax. (...) The vigorous papal theme, judged cryptic by some, was appreciated by Netti together with the painting's “violent and intense coloration, often risky, highly processed”, almost a relief” (Elena di Majo)
“Paolo and Francesca” about 1831 by Cosroe Dusi (1808/59)
“Atala” 1835 by Cesare Mussini (1804/79)
“Revenge of the Amidei” 1861 by Eleuterio Pagliano (1826/1903)
“Portrait of the engraver Giuseppe Girometti”, “Francis I in the studio of Benvenuto Cellini” 1839 and “Meeting Venus and Amphitrite” about 1854 by Francesco Podesti (1800/95)
“The Maggiolata” 1872 by Michele Rapisardi (1822/86)
“The funeral of Buondelmonte” 1860 by Saverio Altamura (1822/97)
“Bacchus and Ariadne” about 1840 by Natale Carta (1790/1884)
“The Coronation of Esther” 1840 by Vincenzo Morani (1809/1870)
“Charles VIII visiting Gian Galeazzo Sforza who's dying in the castle of Pavia” 1816/17 by Pelagio Pelagi (1775/1860)
“The death of Aldoino leader of the Goths” 1874 by Dario Querci (1831/1918)

“Portrait” about 1820 by Henry Raeburn (1756/1823)
“Leap of the young Albanian woman” 1833 by Filippo Agricola (1795/1857)
“Portrait of Victoria Caldonia” about 1830 by Franz Ludwig Catel (1778/1856)
“The Choir of the Capuchins” about 1820 by Vincenzo Chialli (1787/1840)
“Scene from Julius Caesar” 1861 by Pietro Gagliardi (1809/90)
“Portrait of Cardinal Vicar Count of Somaglia” 1786 by Gaspare Landi (1756/1830)
“Portrait of Ferdinand VII of Bourbon” about 1813 by Vicente López Portaña (1772/1850)
“Portrait of Cardinal Antonio Tosti” about 1839 by Francesco Coghetti (1801/75)
“View of Rome from Monte Mario” 1857 by Ippolito Caffi (1809/66)
“Academy of male nude” first decade of 1800 by unknown artist of the French school
Five small landscapes including “Forio in Ischia” 1878 and a “Study of Woman in Montemurlo” about 1862 by Vincenzo Cabianca (1827/1902)
“One can detect especially in the choice of colors and in the serene and rigorous brightness of the blue the proximity of ways and feel with Borrani and Sernesi, around the same time concentrated on the blinding light and on the broad essential spaces, almost abstract, of the Castiglioncello Farm” (Anna Villari)
Portraits bust “Daughter” 1859/62 by Hiram Powers (1805/73)
“Towards Ardea” and “Ripa Grande” 1848 by Nino Costa (1826/1903)
“Naked and lifeless young man” about 1853 Antonio Ciseri (1821/91) oil on framed cardboard
“In 1853, newly appointed young professor at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, Ciseri began work on the great altarpiece dedicated to the Martyrdom of the Maccabees, for the Florentine church of S. Felicita, winning work in Vienna in the Universal Exhibition of 1873. (...) Compared to the canvas, the cardboard has its variants not only in the position of the figure but also in a pictorial style of refined derivation from Ingres, (...) suggestions that will be partly lost in the final painting, completed when Ciseri began to approach new realistic and descriptive instances” (Anna Villari)
“Small dome at the Cascine” about 1860 by Raffaello Sernesi (1838/66)
“St. Catherine” 1888 by Alessandro Franchi (1838/1913)
Five paintings by Stefano Ussi (1822/1901): “Feast of Mohammed in Tangiers” 1879, “Arab Fantasia” about 1879, “Reception at the Italian Embassy in Morocco” about 1879, “The son of the Governor Ben Anda with the escort of honor” about 1879 and “The expulsion of the Duke of Athens” about 1900
“It is the most obvious result of the influence of Domenico Morelli, whose choral works are the heirs of the complex narrative structures of Romantic painting, but where personalities are characterized individually and acts directly represented in the objective demonstrative role in the story, rather than in the various ethical or sentimental reactions to it, in a strong emphasis on scenic verisimilitude” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)
“Camels in the royal estate of S. Rossore” about 1883 and “Houses of Pannocchio in Castiglioncello” about 1862 by Odoardo Borrani (1833/1905)
“Portrait of the girlfriend” 1863 by Pietro Saltini (1839/1908)
Sculptural group “Jenner inoculates the vaccine to his son” about 1878 by Giulio Monteverde
“In the absolute masterpiece by Monteverde the drama of the scientist-father who experiments on his son the smallpox vaccine, fought between the certainty of its discovery and the fear of harm to the child, could not but arouse strong emotions. It was the contrast between knowledge and belief, which was foreshadowed in the work, including the right to research and morality. Monteverde had focused the subject and had given a vivid image that strikes imagination and feelings. He was successful this time, with realistically essential language, focusing on the contrast between the darting nude of the unsuspecting child and the concentration of the father who is cutting into the tender flesh” (Francesco Locatelli)
“Sewers” 1865 by Domenico Induno (1815/78)
Two sketches of biblical scenes by Giovanni Carnovali (detto il Piccio) (1804/73)
“Silent love” 1870 by Tranquillo Cremona (1837/78)
“Bather” 1844 by Francesco Hayez (1791/1882)
He was able to be very successful with the moderate eroticism of this and other bathers, all having as a model the Bathsheba at the Bath of 1834
Two landscapes “At the source” about 1865 and “At the Fountain” about 1868 by Antonio Fontanesi (1818/82)
“The jester to the bed of his dying wife” 1863 by Guglielmo Stella (1828/88)
Three landscapes by Massimo D'Azeglio (1798/1886)
“His views were inserted in the noble tradition of seventeenth-century heroic landscape of Carracci and Domenichino. In his paintings literary and historical episodes are set in beautiful and majestic landscapes in which the small figures are immersed, almost surmounted by the scene” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)
“Vittorio Amedeo II in Carmagnola” 1863 and “The Marriage of Beatrice of Portugal” 1865/70 by Enrico Gamba (1831/83)
“The Valley of Pusino” 1874 by Vittorio Avondo (1836/1910)
“The Civic Guard comes out of the Ducal Palace on July 4, 1848” about 1849 by Luigi Bisi (1814/86)
About 300 paintings by Filippo Palizzi (1818/99) mainly of animals, landscapes and portraits of common people and soldiers, donated to the Gallery, one of the earlier groups of paintings to become part of the collection
Among the works: “Young girl at the source” 1856, “Ettore Fieramosca” 1856, “Shepherd on the grass” 1857, two paintings of “Filomena” 1864, “Plan of poppies, figurine of a little girl” and “Study of an excavation of Pompeii” 1864
“The paintings are organized by subject (costumes, animals, plants, landscapes, Renaissance subjects, genre scenes) to highlight Palizzi's research on the natural truth, the basis of his artistry” (Elena di Majo)
“The port of Venice” about 1890 and “The terrace” 1865/67 by Edoardo Dalbono (1841/1915)
“Dalbono studied in an environment of high artistic and cultural level among the most important currents of the Italian southern paintings styles, from 'paesismo' of Posillipo painters to the naturalism of Palazzi. (...) The painting depicts a portrait of middle-class family - perhaps the family of the painter himself - to which the intimacy of the scene in a setting of true Neapolitan urban tenements as well as the affectionate tone of the dedication give a particular flavor of near-photographic naturalness” (Elena di Majo)
Twelve paintings by Domenico Morelli (1826/1901):
"He expressed here his desire to sublimate form in an evanescent drafting of colors, to be interpreted as spiritual analogy of sacred subjects, now in line with the widespread symbolist trend. Morelli’s sacred paintings, having developed within the aesthetics of realism, in fact converted the attention given to naturalism to a kind of spiritualism intensely lived, either cultivating visions from the East or, as in this case, adhering to the poetic of moods" (Carlo Sisi – Catalogue of the exhibit Divina Bellezza)
“The monks (Good Friday)” 1880, “Embalming of Christ” 1868, “The body of St. Mary of Egypt found by the Angels” about 1875, “Self-portrait”, “Head of an angel” 1895, “Portrait of woman in red” about 1855, “Study of a figure” 1874, “Pater Noster (The Sermon on the Mountain)” about 1895, “Christ in the Desert” 1895, “Christ watches over the apostles” 1900 and the unfinished sketch “The triclinium after the orgy” about 1860
“The sketch documents the careful preparation of the subject, it helps to understand how important the rendition of light would have been in the painting; just as important as the archaeological truth in a trend of painting seen mainly as historical and natural truth” (Anna Maria Damigella)
Bronze bust “Domenico Morelli” about 1893 by Mario Rutelli (1859/1943)
Extremely sensual “The Bride of the Song of Songs” about 1865/70 by Alfonso Balzico (1825/1901)
“The Pompeian Girl” 1871 by Federico Maldarelli (1826/93)
“In formal choices of subjects, initially of religious kind, and, since the sixties, also of neopompeian and realist kind, Maldarelli remained anchored until his maturity to the neoclassical academic model of the finiteness and the punctilious accuracy of figures and objects represented. It was not so much reflected in the Naples area, where the unfinished style of Morelli was more appreciated, as much as beyond the Alps, connecting directly to the trend of the business of ‘pompiers’ painters inaugurated in France by Jean Leon Gérôme and being successful throughout Europe and North America” (Isabella Valente - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)
“Chatting in Piazza Piscinula” 1865 and “Atrium of St. Mary Major” about 1866 by Michele Cammarano (1835/1920)
“In the months he spent in Venice Cammarano painted some landscapes and views of the lagoon, with firm structures of lighting effects, and one of his masterpieces: Piazza S. Marco, an episode of virtuosity for its brilliant display of night effects, but also for being an authentic slice of life of bourgeois society of the time” (Osvaldo Ferrari - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)
“Greek chorus” 1875/77 by Francesco Netti (1832/94)
“The temple of Venus” 1876 by Giuseppe Sciuti (1834/1911)
“The notes of color - various shades of blue in the tunics with red flowers, notes of luminous white of which Sciuti had become a master learning from the lessons of Morelli - are the means to give vivacity, warmth and communicative power to the scene. (...) Stella described the inspiration of Sciuti from the ancient world as a “happy medium” between the epic Gérôme and the idyllic of Alma Tadema” (Anna Maria Damigella)
Three paintings by Gioacchino Toma (1836/91): “The orphan viaticum” 1877, “The guard at the foundling wheel” 1877, “The novel in the convent” 1888
“The weakling” about 1878 and “Portrait of Carlo Chiarandà” 1883 by Antonio Mancini (1852/1930)
“Head of a Woman” 1833 by Tommaso De Vivo (1790/1884)
“Plaster of Giordano Bruno” 1887 by Ettore Ferrari (1845/1929)
“Ferrari finished in 1887 the model of Giordano Bruno, which, cast in bronze, would be erected two years later in Campo de' Fiori, where the philosopher was burned at the stake on February 17, 1600. Monument par excellence of the Italian anticlericalism, feeding on the Garibaldi and republican tradition, in the fight against the “obscurantism” of the Church and for the freedom of thought, Giordano Bruno was the subject of bitter controversy” (Alessandra Imbellone)
Bronze statues of “Digger” 1883 and “Eulalia Christian” 1880 by Emilio Franceschi
“The Eulalia completely lacks any polemical or protest tone. Although the figure on the cross recalls the group Cum Spartaco Pugnavit by Ferrari or the Spartacus of 1873 by Louis Ernest Barrias, in this work of Franceschi drama is entirely absent. The grace and eroticism of the half-naked martyr was also noted by Cecioni, who wrote: 'Beautiful woman and beautiful drapery, she is not a true dead martyr (...) not even if she could have tried, she could have died in a more graceful attitude'“ (Stefania Frezzotti - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)
“The flight of Pope Eugene IV Coldumer (1431/47)” 1883 by Pio Joris (1843/1921)
Bronze portraits “Cecilia Metella” 1882 by Giulio Tadolini (1849/1918)
“Alexander VI Borgia (1492/1503) and the Venetian ambassador” 1883 Francesco Jacovacci (1838/1908)
“Oath of Brutus over the body of Lucretia” about 1884 by Jules-Emile Pichot
Bronze statue “From the passage of Veii” 1895 by Carlo Lorenzetti (1858/1945)
“Pier Damian and Countess Adelaide of Savoy” 1887 by Salvatore Postiglione (1861/1906), spectacular and mysterious subject masterfully presented as a gruesome and realistic dreamlike vision
Bronze statue of “Autumn” 1877 by Giovanni Battista Amendola (1848/87)
“Marina with fishing boats” about 1885 by Achille Vertunni (1826/97)
“Ruins of a world that was” about 1890 by Federico Cortese (1829/1913)
“The Rope Makers of Torre del Greco” 1883 by Antonino Leto (1844/1913)
“Acclaimed for his painting style rich of sudden short, strong strokes, with vibrant colors and full of light, characterized by dry and meaningful narrative even when he represented narrative anecdotes. His attention to the humble and simple people, in the tradition of Palizzi, aligned him to the latest trends in landscape painting, with an alert attention, as well as sympathetic, even though never pathetic, to the world of humble workers. He was indeed representing them with respect, as living witnesses of ancient traditions and vigor” (Anna Villari)
Two terracotta statues “The departure of the proscribed” 1882 and “The Return of the Soldier” 1882 by Costantino Barbella (1852/1925)
Statues “A surprise on the stairs” 1882 by Adriano Cecioni (1836/86)
“Summer Rain in Settignano” 1887 and “The Ghetto of Florence” 1882 by Telemaco Signorini (1835/1901)
“A reflection” 1887 by Filadelfo Simi (1849/1923)
“Also known as 'A reflection of Botticelli's art' for the obvious compositional and formal reference to the master of the Renaissance, the work transposes consciously in the genre painting style, the learned tradition of fifteenth-century Tuscany, in the wake of that pre-Raphaelite culture that in those years was being spread in the Roman cultural circles around Nino Costa” (Elena di Majo)
“Life and Death” 1895 and “An enlarged detail of Life and Death” 1895 by Arturo Viligiardi (1869/1936)
“The subject, chosen by Viligiardi himself, would be a symbolic representation of Life and Death through a contemporary realist scene, set in the Piazza del Duomo in San Gimignano (...), with careful adjustments of the point of view to narrow a perspective suitable for a close up of two antithetical realities, a funeral and a wedding, on two opposing staircases” (Anna Maria Damigella)
“The peddler” 1882 and “Dad is back” 1884 by Egisto Ferroni (1835/1912)
“View of the Arno River” about 1890 by Lorenzo Gelati (1824/95)
“Don Quixote and Sancho Panza” 1891 by Giovanni Fattori (1825/1908)
In this painting there is a beautiful alternation of light and shade in the dry and barren landscape where the gesture of the hero of Cervantes is drawn, tragic, foolish and grand at the same time
“December” 1883 and “The whistle of steam” 1884 by Adolfo Tommasi (1851/1933)
“Work emblematic of the artist's production of the eighties which, although linked to purely pictorial instances of 'Macchiaioli' genre, was gradually acknowledging humanitarian and social tensions in its narrative choices” (Matteo Lafranconi)
“Olive trees with farm girl and buffalos” about 1910 by Mario Puccini (1869/1920)
“Pass the procession” 1883 by Francesco Gioli (1846/1922)
“Autumn Evening” 1901 by Luigi Gioli (1854/1947)
“Seeding of wheat in Tuscany” 1882 and “Summer” 1896 by Niccolò Cannicci (1846/1906)
Extremely bright vision of women and children full of dazzling colors and reflections, almost a desire to exorcise with the purity of the sun the sad times that he had lived three years before, by imprisonment in the psychiatric hospital of Siena because of a nervous breakdown
“A pine forest in S. Rossore” 1875/77 by Giuseppe Benassai (1835/89)
“Waiting for the bride and groom” about 1883 and “El Liston” 1884 by Giacomo Favretto (1849/87)
“The female nude is a topic rare in Venetian painting of the nineteenth century and very rare in the Favretto's works. After the bath (...) is thus a significant work, whose success with critics and audiences has never failed. (...) The scene is an everyday one, colloquial. Favretto chooses soft intonation, lit by the bright timbres: the red scarf of the woman, the jacket with the color of lapis lazuli, the white cloths. (...) A learned work that shows a reached balance between study of the true and courtly ancestry of the image, derived from Titian” (Maura Picciau)
“The Hawser” 1909, “Autumn” 1914 and “The Old Fish Market” 1893 by Ettore Tito (1859/1941)
“In the Old Fish Market Tito's boldness of foreshortening and perspective, which approximates to figures almost enough to penetrate into the scene in tents fluttering like sails, manifested a profound new character: a slice of real life, a vivid realism” (Maura Picciau)
“Grand Canal” 1882 by Alberto Pasini (1826/99)
“The view by Pasini is appreciated for pictorial quality and elegance of the colors. On the left side and in shadow, the prospect of the building in perspective shifts the focus slightly to the right, where the sun illuminates the red buildings and red poles that are reflected on the water” (Maura Picciau)
“Chioggia” 1894 by Leonardo Bazzaro (1853/1937)
“The Word of God” 1885 by Mosè Bianchi (1840/1904)
In The Word of God there is a very interesting focus almost photographic of the woman in the foreground with a beautiful emphasis on the black color of her dress
“Grand Canal” 1888 by Guglielmo Ciardi (1842/1917)
“Caught in the act” 1884 by Angelo Dall’Oca Bianca (1858/1942)
“Moon on the tables of an inn” 1884 and “Effect of the moon” 1890 by Mario de Maria (1852/1924)
“Winter” 1890, “Rest” about 1891 and “Survivors” about 1914 by Pietro Fragiacomo (1856/1922)
“The breakfast of the gondolier” 1892 and “Wedding in Venice” 1897 by Alessandro Milesi (1856/1945)
“It is a minor Venice, but full of life, with a touch of Manzonian humanity. (...) Milesi is describing here his own world with involvement. Executed with a loose hand tuned to a dull palette in which the white dress of the bride becomes a focal point, the work reveals a complex architecture and dynamics made of cross-references colors and creative diagonals” (Maura Picciau)
“Return from fishing” about 1900 by Hendrik Willem Mesdag (1831/1915) celebrated Dutch landscape painter
“Sick child” 1889/93 by Medardo Rosso (1858/1928)
“Last Drops” 1898 by Andrea Tavernier (1858/1932)
“Painter from Piedmont pupil of Andrea Gastaldi, author of a landscape kind of painting thick and pasty, intensely bright and color-robust” (Matteo Lafranconi)
“In the evening” 1890 and “The prelude to the evening” 1897 by Bartolomeo Bezzi (1851/1923)
“High Biella (the procession of Fontanamora)” 1887, “Butcher with veal” 1881 and “Amsterdam” 1883 by Lorenzo Delleani (1840/1908)
“The returning from the chase” 1890 by Giovanni Battista Quadrone (1844/98)
“The scene is told with the narrative vein typical of illustrations. Virtuosity in the rendering of detail, which is the signature style of Quadrone, was often poorly tolerated by critics more favorable to impressionists painting, but it ensured a successful commercial use for the artist. Quadrone debuted with paintings of neo-gothic ambience at first and then 'neosettecentesco' (neo-1700s), but, in fact, he achieved fame only in the eighties with hunting scenes and similar subjects of gender, mostly small, painted using the tip of the brush with unmistakable, brilliant narrative flair” (Paola Lodola)
“The first to leave” 1884 by Stefano Bruzzi (1835/1911)
“The Lonely Statues” 1883 by Marco Calderini (1850/1941)
“Quiet” 1883 and “Monte Rosa” 1896 by Eugenio Gignous (1850/1906)
Bronze sculpture “The Plow” 1888 by Davide Calandra (1856/1915)
“Mommy” about 1908, “Self Portrait” 1911, “Butterflies” 1906, “Japanese Lilies” about 1906 and “Dahlias” 1910 by Gaetano Previati (1852/1920)
“Flowery meadows” 1900/03 by Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo (1868/1907)
“The orphan girls” 1883 by Nino Carnevali (1849/1912)
“Winking, without complexes, to the trendy European social depictions in an intimate and bourgeois low key, anecdotally descriptive also of the dramas, large and small, of a social class at the height of its historical parable” (Matteo Lafranconi)
“Vain” 1901 by Umberto Coromaldi (1870/1948)
“Portrait of a young girl” about 1890 and “Juliet's funeral” 1888 by Scipione Vannutelli (1834/94)
Juliet’s Funeral is almost a tableau that reminds of an opera stage setting and that seems to revive an updated detailed courtly scene typical of the International Gothic style
 “In the portrait, the identity of which is unknown, the color contrast of purple and black in clothes and in the original hat on the light green background of the marbled curtain adds a touch of elegance to the posing reflective girl, helping to define her superior social position but also to suggest her own rarefied world of melancholy” (Elena di Majo)
“A white cap” 1901 by Lino Selvatico (1872/1924)
“Sad Journey” 1883 by Raffaele Faccioli (1845/1916)
Statue “The Cricket” 1880 by Giovanni Biggi (1847/1913)
“Portrait of Maria Hardouin Duchess of Wales” 1890/91 by Giulio Aristide Sartorio (1860/1932)
“The awakening of dawn” 1913/14 by Adolfo De Carolis (1874/1928)
Pastel on cardboard “Portrait of Jane Morris” 1868/74 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828/82)
“The pastel portrays Jane Burden, wife of the painter William Morris. She became the subject for the artist of a tormented and obsessive erotic passion (...) as well as the prototype of the female image in most of his paintings. (...) A face unusual in England and not absolutely comparable to that of an English woman, but rather that of a Greek ionic woman” (Stefania Frezzotti)
Bronze group “Manufacturers” 1907 and marble sculptures “Dream of a little girl” about 1925 and “Little girl at the seaside” 1930 by Arturo Dazzi (1881/1966)
“The apparition of the Virgin to Sts. Francis and Bonaventure” 1882 by Luigi Serra (1846/88). He also painted the apse of S. Maria della Vittoria
“Serra combines in the Apparition a stately neo-fifteenth century composition with the embodiment of the figures, subject of a rigorous study from life. (...) In this careful investigation of the true Serra strove to replicate the beautiful Umbrian landscape with the outlined hill of Assisi in the background” (Elena di Majo)
Statue “Susanna” 1894 by Francesco Fabj-Altini (1830/1906)
Pupil of Adamo Tadolini and Pietro Tenerani, he was also the author of a mausoleum in S. Gregorio al Celio, of the statues above the entrance of the Verano Cemetery and of various sculptures in the Basilica of St. Paul
Marble bust “St. Francis” 1925 by Adolfo Wildt (1868/1931)
“In the emaciated face of St. Francis, with the head tilted down, one can detect, according to the stylistic features typical of the artist, his style of sacred art with references to the Middle ages” (Lidia Velani)
“Variations on midnight” 1908/09 by Luigi Conconi (1852/1917), magic vision halfway between dream and reality
“Morning Departure” 1899 by Luigi Selvatico (1871/1938)
“Equilibrium between the disruptive denunciation of social realism and a more subdued narrative of a minor Venice” (Matteo Lafranconi)
 “The Chopin Nocturne I Op. IX” about 1908 and “Ascension” 1911 by Vittorio Grassi (1878/1958)
Scultura “Ignara mali (Unaware of Evil)” 1893 by Adalberto Cencetti (1847/1907)
“Seclusion” 1904 by Umberto Prencipe (1879/1962)
“Idillius” 1882 and “Transport of a block of travertine” 1897 by Giuseppe Raggio (1823/1916)
“The harvest of almonds” 1885/88 by Alfredo Ricci (1864/89)
“The Bronze Age” by Franz von Stuck (1863/1928)
“On the door of the barn” 1910 by Anders Leonard Zorn (1860/1920)
In this extraordinary and extremely sensual nude the Swedish painter, one of the best European interpreters of the genre in the early twentieth century, engages in dazzling light effects
“The sprightly old man” about 1903 and “Irene” about 1910 by Ignacio Zuloaga y Zabaleta (1870/1945)
“While true to the introspective psychology and the imprint of his own most famous production, Zuloaga with this more intimate and pictorially less violent subject, moves away from the grim and exaggerated realism, often prone to the grotesque with which he had described types and scenes of a picturesque Spain in the process of dissolution” (Matteo Lafranconi)
“Moonlight” 1910/11 by Otto Valstad (1862/1950)
“Portrait of my sister” about 1914 by Elisabeth Chaplin (1890/1982)
“Reader” 1911 by Marta Stettler (1870/1945)
“The dew (the Roses)” about 1910 by Émile Claus (1849/1924)
“Tea in the morning” 1904 by Igor’ Emmanuilovič Grabar (1871/1960)
“Farmers of the Carpathian Mountains in the village church” 1909 by Wladislaw Jarocki (1879/1965)
“The Window” 1910 by Stanislav Julianovič Žukovskij (1873/1944)
“Visit of condolence” about 1910/11 by Christian Krohg (1852/1925)
“Portrait of his wife” 1905 by Konrad Kržižanovskij (1872/1922)
“The Pink Window” about 1908 by Henri Eugène Augustin Le Sidaner (1862/1939)
Very original symbolic subject with window view from inside and lit with a dim light allowing, however, a glimpse of the garden at dusk
“Country festival” about 1905/10 by Filipp Andreevič Maljavin (1869/1940)
“Patching Hungarian” 1906 by Iszák Perlmutter (1866/1932)
“Vagrants and Beggars” about 1900/10 by Ramon de Zubiaurre y Aguirrezabal (1882/1969)
“Pasture” 1906 by Heinrich Von Zugel (1850/1941)
“The hearth” 1910, “Mother” 1912, “Women at Night” 1926, “Roman Bull” 1936 and “Roman Carter” 1936 by Ferruccio Ferrazzi (1891/1978)
“Mother, like the paintings of his first fervent learning period, is dependent from a strong and symbolic tension influenced by Segantini and the Central European painting style, learned by the young painter from the school of Max Roeder, a German artist working in Rome” (Mario Quesada)
“The musicians” about 1905/10 by Raoul-Henry Dreyfus (1878/1965)
“Winter” about 1907 by Eugenio Laermans (1864/1940)
Extremely original painter and engraver born in Brussels where he also died. He used to paint clear and defined color areas in scenes with farmers solemn and grotesque at the same time
“Portrait of a Woman (summer night)” 1910, “Late” about 1910 and “Portrait of General Paolo Sodani” about 1916 by Camillo Innocenti (1871/1961)
“The fat and lean” 1899, “Outside Porta S. Giovanni” 1911 and “The lost” 1912 by Enrico Lionne (1865/1921), witty caricature artist, author of scenes set in popular contexts
“Can-Can” about 1911 by Giuseppe Cominetti (1882/1930)
“After the storm” about 1908/10 by Carlo Prada (1884/1961)
Pointillist painter who, in this work, paints wonderfully with ethereal layers of light and color-changing lawn and sky
Four paintings by Armando Spadini (1883/1925):
“In the study” 1909, “The breakfast (figures)” about 1911, “Portrait of Mrs. Teresa Mauri Nunes” about 1917 and “Children with Fan” about 1913
“The younger sister” 1911 by Plinio Nomellini (1866/1943), fascinating and mesmerizing family portrait ardently and vividly colored
Statue “Similia similibus” about 1913 by Eugenio Maccagnani (1852/1930)
Two marble busts: “Duchess of Genoa” about 1900 and “Princess Doria Pamphilj” about 1912 by Pietro Canonica (1869/1959)
He resumed styles of Tuscan Renaissance sculptors in the context of the beginning of 1900s when he was the protagonist in European sculptural portraiture, maybe cold, but always attentive to the psychology of the individuals portrayed
“Elderly Women” 1909 by Felice Casorati (1883/1963)
“The dead chestnut tree” 1908 by Llewellyn Lloyd (1879/1949)
“Winter Evening” 1906 by Frederick Cayley Robinson (1862/1927)
English artist who studied Pre-Raphaelite painters and updated them with his Symbolism
“Pink Veils. Portrait of light” 1922, “The idea arises” 1920, “Force Lines landscape + feeling of amethyst” 1918, “Futurlibecciata” 1919, “Futurrealtà” 1917 and by Giacomo Balla (1871/1958)
“Flowers” 1909 and “Susanna” about 1924 by Felice Carena (1879/1966)
Bronze sculpture “Buffaloes” about 1910 by Duilio Cambellotti (1876/1960)
Bronze sculpture “Portrait of a Woman” 1901 by Giovanni Prini (1877/1958)
Pencil drawing “Etude pour le chapeau soulier” about 1937 by Salvator Dalì (1904/89)
“Portrait of Antonio Mancini” about 1902 by John Singer Sargent (1856/1925)
Sargent was a great American painter born in Florence from parents who were U.S. citizens. He went for the first time in the U.S. only twenty years of age
Collection donated by the merchant and patron of Surrealist and Dada art Arturo Schwarz comprising over 470 works
“Level Crossing+Easter eggs” 1915 by Francesco Cangiullo (1884/1971)
“War-feast” 1925 and “Moon Prism” about 1931/32 by Fortunato Depero (1892/1960)
“Geographic Portrait of Marinetti” 1923 by Farfa (Vittorio Osvaldo Tommasini) (1881/1964)
Black and white photos “Naked Women”, paintings and sculpture including the plaster with net “Venus” 1937 by Man Ray (1890/1976) surrealist photographer from Philadelphia
“Reclining Nude” 1928 by John Armstrong (1893/1973)
“Le peintre et le temps” 1938 by André Masson (1896/1987)
“The face depicted, which allegorically refers to time, consisting of fruits and plants, is reminiscent of Arcimboldo's bucolic fantasies and the metamorphosis that is the leitmotif of the artist's work” (Maria Giuseppina di Monte)
“Solidification du fantôme” 1936 and “La chanoinesse noire” 1947 by Max Bucaille (1906/?)
Two untitled works from about 1930 and “Soap Bubble Set” about 1960 by Joseph Cornell (1903/1972)
“Forêt et soleil” about 1926 and “Object mobile reccomandé aux familles” 1970 by Max Ernst (1891/1976)
“The eye and the human spirit” 1930 by Alberto Martini (1876/1954)
Acrylic on canvas “Untitled” 1970 by the Spanish Eduardo Urculo (1938/2003)
“Chez la modiste” 1941 by Pierre Roy (1880/1950)
“Influenced by De Chirico, from 1919 Pierre Roy is dedicated to a personal interpretation of metaphysical poetry presenting in his paintings, in absurd juxtapositions, meticulously painted objects, with results close to trompe-l'œil. While participating in the twenties to some surrealist exhibitions, Roy will remain essentially alien to the activities of the movement” (Sabrina Spinazzè)
“Cleaning the Child” 1923 and “View of Concone” about 1926 by Ardengo Soffici (1879/1964)
“Ardengo Soffici passed through various avant-garde experiences, from futurism to cubism, becoming a fervent advocate and supporter of each movement, only to return, in the first post-war period, to the traditional positions for which, after all, his temperament, his healthily provincial attitude and his witty Tuscan humour had always felt a longing. (...) Cézanne, among the masters of Paris, was the one whose teaching has been the most fruitful for him, much to re-emerge from time to time in his best paintings” (Encilopedia Treccani)
“Nude” about 1927 and “The Family” 1930 by Mario Sironi (1885/1961)
“There are strong references to the twentieth-century poetry of the family seen as the core foundation of modern Italian society. Sironi style emerges rough and blunt, and reaches here the synthesis of the poetic message through compact shapes and an essential color range” (Mariastella Margozzi)
“Horses” 1927 and “Woman with Dog” 1938 by Carlo Carrà (1881/1966)
“Village” 1936, “Landscape” 1943, “Landscape with rustic house” about 1944 and “Still Life” 1946 by Giorgio Morandi (1890/1964)
“Village is placed in Morandi's activity after a moment of obvious tendency to distort the image and at the beginning of a fruitful period in which the artist takes up the theme of the landscape. The solid installation of these compositions, the rigorous balance between form and color underscore Morandi's desire to transcend the effects of naturalistic images and to join the representation of a vision remembered and intellectually purified” (Mariastella Margozzi)
“Portrait of Emilio Cecchi” 1916 by Leonetta Cecchi Pieraccini (1882/1977)
“Spring in Verona” about 1917 by Umberto Moggioli (1886/1919)
Marble sculpture “Spring Morning” about 1920 by Arrigo Minerbi (1881/1960)
“The Badiaccia” 1938, “Village with pergola” 1938 and “Priests” 1933 by Ottone Rosai (1895/1957)
“Autumn Campaign” about 1924 and “Road to Clusone” 1929 by Arturo Tosi (1871/1956)
“Landscape on the River Ema” 1927 by Raffaele De Grada (1885/1957)
“Land” 1924 by Anselmo Bucci (1887/1955)
Sculpture “Figure of a man lying (Siesta)” 1932 by Vitaliano Marchini (1888/1972)
Sculpture in terracotta “Sleeping Woman” about 1929 and terracotta portrait of “Lucosius” about 1935 by Marino Marini (1901/80)
“Apples on the Gazzetta del Popolo” about 1928 by Felice Casorati (1883/1963)
“I wish I could proclaim the sweetness of fixing on canvas ecstatic souls laying still, motionless and mute things, long looks, deep and clear thoughts, a life of joy and not of vertigo, a life of pain and not of anguish” (Felice Casorati)
“Waiting” 1934 by Cagnaccio di S. Pietro (Natale Scarpa) (1897/1946)
“The Tiber River” 1931 e “Portrait of a Woman” 1932 by Antonio Donghi (1897/1963)
“The Red House” 1923 by Roberto Melli (1885/1958)
“Masks” 1922 by Gian Emilio Malerba (1880/1926)
“In the painting there is still something of the formation of Malerba during Symbolism and the Secession of the beginning of the century, as the female figure dressed in black on the right, derived from Van Stuck, reveals. A taste for the theatrical masks of the commedia dell'arte, after the metaphysical precedent will enjoy much favor in the twenties in the Plastic Values, Magic Realism and Novecento (Twentieth century) movements” (Stefania Frezzotti)
“Sunday Reading” about 1926 by Achille Funi (1890/1972)
“Annunciation” 1927 by Bruno Croatto (1875/1948) beautiful luminosity effects in an introspective study of religious solemnity
“Figure in my studio” 1924 by Antonio Nardi (1888/1965)
He was a Venetian painter with an ever evolving style. He trained at the school of Alfredo Salvini and, after passing through the experiences of the Vienna Secession and the Magical Realism, ended up to paint in a soft, clear and richly chromatic style
“The Blast” 1924 and “Fattoressa of Anghiari” 1935 by Gianni Vagnetti (1897/1956)
“He was in 1927, one of the promoters of the group Novecento Toscano (Tuscan Twentieth Century). After his beginning following Armando Spadini's postmacchiaiolo style, he eventually developed a personal style with a meandering and dense tract often marked by intimate and clear notations of light. He created sets and costumes for the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (1937-53) and taught stage design at the Academy of Florence (1941-45)” (Enciclopedia Treccani)
“La Rusticana” about 1938 and “The Source” 1934 by Mario Broglio (1891/1948)
“Rest” 1930 and “The Dove” 1934 by Gisberto Ceracchini (1889/1982)
“The simplicity of religious feeling had found a natural expression in the archaic paintings of Ceracchini who from the forties will focus almost exclusively on sacred art and decoration of churches” (Stefania Frezzotti)
“Lake Trasimeno (the estuary)” 1934 by Riccardo Francalancia (1886/1965)
“The fishermen of the Holy Spirit” about 1924 by Ubaldo Oppi (1889/1942)
“Landscape classic” 1925 by Renato Paresce (1886/1937)
“Palisade” 1934 by Primo Sinopico (Raul De Chauren Corrias) (1889/1949)
“Bust of a Young Man” 1927 by Arturo Martini (1889/1947)
Drawing on paper “Scène bacchique au Minotaure” about 1933 by Pablo Picasso (1881/1973)
“Self-portrait in the Paris studio” 1934/35 and “Diana asleep” about 1933 by the brilliant Giorgio de Chirico (1888/1978)
“Still Life” about 1929 and “Naked Woman” about 1942 by Gino Severini (1883/1966)
“The artist, Matisse scholar, gives an eloquent interpretation here. The Nude, however, is not without cubist or neo-cubist inflections, resulting in a composition that sums up precisely the Matisse decorative style and the articulation of form” (Mario Ursino)
 “Noon colonial” 1936 by Pippo Oriani (1909/72)
“Mother and daughter” 1940 by Massimo Campigli (1895/1971)
“Still Life in a storm” 1938, “Still Life (September in Venice)” 1930, “Still life with bottle and glass” 1933 “River Seine, the autumn” 1934 by Filippo De Pisis (1896/1956)
“Lightning” 1921 by Anselmo Bucci (1887/1955). Snapshot of a chilling vision of industrial suburbs between the wars
“Inexhaustibly varied in its themes, often covered with a fine sense of irony, Bucci's painting is, as he liked to say, the search 'of the true halo of poetry'. 'I have never tried to lie in a style, but tell the truth in everyday language' he wrote” (Archimagazine)
“Girl reading (girl with open book)” about 1922 by Gino Rossi (1884/1947)
“Vice and virtue” 1934 by Mario Tozzi (1895/1978)
“It is certainly a classic example of the production of the painter who associates to the Novecento (Twentieth-century) style evident metaphysical and magical realism feelings” (Fabio Fabiola)
“Boy at Sea” 1934 by Francesco Messina (1900/95)
“Messina's realism reminiscent of old times is expressed in this work that portrays a young fisherman from Genoa, Galletto, in a compositive expression which refers to the Shepherd by Vincenzo Gemito, in the nervousness of the snappy forms of a Mediterranean teenager” (Livia Velani)
Bronze group “Affrico and Mensola” 1932/33 by Libero Andreotti (1875/1933)
“Descent of paratroopers (aeropainting parachute)” 1942 by Tullio Crali (1910/2000)
“Cosmic Motherhood” about 1942 by Enrico Prampolini (1894/1956)
“Peasant Woman” 1938 by Giuseppe Capogrossi (1900/72)
“Portrait” 1934 and “The Bride” 1934 by Emanuele Cavalli (1904/81)
“Rape of the Sabine Women” 1938 by Franco Gentilini (1909/81) almost impressionist, influenced by Renoir
“The storm” 1930 by Gianfilippo Usellini (1903/71)
“Portrait of Nino Bertoletti” about 1925/29 by Amerigo Bartoli Natinguerra (1890/1971)
 “Self Portrait” about 1945 by Carlo Levi (1902/75)
“Portrait of a Woman” 1932 by Giuseppe Capogrossi (1900/72)
“He joined in a European figurative form ideologically neutral which is accompanied by his influences from traditional Italian culture in the reference to the fifteenth century art and Piero Della Francesca” (Stefania Frezzotti)
Plaster sculpture “Girl dreaming” about 1946 and paintings “Portrait of Mario” about 1928 by Antonietta Raphaël Mafai (1895/1975)
“Portrait of Stefano” 1928 and “Still Life (Still Life with blackboard)” 1936 by Fausto Pirandello (1899/1975), son of the great writer Luigi Pirandello
“In this juvenile work portraying Stefano, elder brother of the artist, Pirandello already expresses that sense of unease and anxiety that will be later his prominent theme. And he also displays a mastery of the color palette applied with the spatula that shows a clear maturation from his earliest period (1923-26) as a result of his stay in Paris” (Stefania Frezzotti)
“The Café Royal Saint-Germain” 1948 by Toti Scialoja (1914/98)
“Portrait of the mother” 1930 by Scipione (Gino Bonichi) (1904/33)
“The corporal works of mercy (Visiting the Sick)” 1931 by Guglielmo Janni (1892/1958)
“Painting” about 1935 by Atanasio Soldati (1896/1953)
Sculpture in stone “Abandon” about 1941 by Gino Colognesi (1899/1972)
Wood sculpture “Figure of a man (Man of Buchenwald)” 1944/48 by Marino Mazzacurati (1907/69)
Bronze sculptures “David” about 1937 and “Chimera” about 1945 by Mirko (Mirko Basaldella) (1910/69) Afro's brother
Bronze sculpture “Naked (young girl sitting)” 1938 by Carlo De Veroli (1890/1938)
Carlo De Veroli was the sculptor of ten statues at the Stadio dei Marmi, near the Stadio Olimpico
 “Pietro” 1938 and “The death of a young man” 1933/34 by Alberto Ziveri (1908/90)
Two polychrome glazed terracotta sculptures “Hermaphrodite” and "Harpy" about 1939 by Leoncillo Leonardi (1915/68)
“The first hour” 1930 by Orazio Amato (1884/1952)
“Gathering of people in the square (Order of assembly)” 1934 by Contardo Barbieri (1900/96)
“Return of the legionnaires” 1940 by Giovanni Barbisan (1914/88)
Two reliefs in cement mortar colored to imitate terracotta “The protection of the mother and child” 1940 by Luciano Minguzzi (1911/2004)
“Nude with black veil” 1941 and “Rosa, who sleeps with sunflowers” about 1942 by Renato Birolli (1905/59)
“Girls in Palermo” 1940, “The Goat” 1952, “Triumph of Death” 1943 and “Battle and wounded horses” 1943 by Renato Guttuso (1911/87)
Terracotta sculpture “Naked Woman” about 1954 by Giovanni Ciliberti (1897/1978)
“Sheperds of the island” 1940 by Giuseppe Migneco (1908/97)
Bronze sculpture “Hiroshima # 2” 1961 by Umberto Mastroianni (1910/98)
“Labourers on the bandwagon” 1952 by Giuseppe Zigaina (1924)
He is a painter, writer and director from the Friuli region, friend and exegete of the great Italian movie director Pier Paolo Pasolini. Example of the neo-realist style that had emerged in the Venice Biennale in 1950 as an alternative to abstract art
“The big fishing” 1949 by Antonio Corpora (1909/2004)
Bronze sculpture “Seated figure” 1949 by Emilio Greco (1913/95)
“Window (fruitbasket)” 1950/52 by Luciano Gaspari (1913/2008)
Bronze sculpture “Woman dancing” 1950 by Pericle Fazzini (1913/1987)
“Highway at Night” 1951 by Titina Maselli (1924/2005)
“The Return” 1950 by Alberto Savinio (1891/1952)
“Figure No. 3” 1951/52 by Ennio Morlotti (1910/92)
“Squero site” 1947 by Armando Pizzinato (1910/2004)
“Cassandra (The Odalisque)” about 1947 by Enrico Prampolini (1894/1956)
“Inside” 1948 by Giuseppe Santomaso (1907/90)
“The chair and the cat” 1952 by Antonio Scordia (1918/88)
“Revolt” 1948 by Giulio Turcato (1912/95)
“I was referring to the climate of revolt that was alive among us during the German occupation (...). The revolt had started from Rome, Naples was already liberated and it took four months for the Americans to land at Anzio” (Giulio Turcato)
“Still Life” 1948 by Afro (Afro Basaldella) (1912/76)
“The neocubist decomposition tends to reconstruct imaginary figures in a kind of abstract Surrealism” (Giorgio De Marchis)
“Margutta (Triptych)” 1951 by Concetto Maugeri (1919/51)
“Nude Caryatid” 1951/52 by Alberto Viani (1906/89)
“Daphne” 1955 by Corrado Cagli (1910/76)
 “Surface 018” 1948 and “Surface 022” 1949 by Giuseppe Capogrossi (1900/72)
In Surface 022 the comb or fork appears: it was the characteristic element ever present in the works of this Roman artist
“Composition” 1950 and “Rossoverde” 1963 by Carla Accardi (1924)
“Two circular form No.2” 1962 by Robert Adams (1917/84)
“Construction of wood in brown, black and white” about 1962 by Victor Pasmore (1908/98)
Bronze sculpture “L’idole des Lapins” 1965 by Jean Arp (Hans) (1886/1966)
 “Framework sculpture” about 1968 by Gastone Novelli (1925/68)
“Monument to polar exploration” 1964 by Achille Perilli (1927)
“Vous viendrez après la pluie” 1962 by the Belgian artist Pierre Alechinsky (1927)
“The world of Alechinsky is anxious, narcotic, illegal, nonsensical but fun if you manage to keep the distance” (Eugène Ionesco)
“Square composition with horse” about 1938 by Jackson Pollock (1912/56)
“About Venice” 1958/59 by Tancredi Parmeggiani (1927/64)
“Woman” 1963 by Enrico Baj (1924/2003)
“Riding” 1965 by Gianni Ruffi (1938)
Three works including “Cabinet with reflections in the mirror and figure elements” 1963 by Tano Festa (1938/88)
There are also other works by Nino Franchina, Mino Guerrini, Rufino Tamayo, Wilfredo Lam, Hans Bellmer, Bruno Capacci, Oscar Domìnguez, Augustin Cardenas, Leonora Carrington, Arshile Gorky, Maurice Henry, Philippe Hiquily, Ragnar von Holten, Edouard Jaguer, Humphrey Jennings, Jiři Kolář, Dora Maar, Leo Malet, Wolfgang Paalen, Roland Penrose, Kurt Schwitters, Valerio Adami, Pietro Consagra, Arman (Armand Fernandez), John Chamberlain, Lucio Del Pezzo, Luca Maria Patella and Giosetta Fioroni