Antiquity
Of ancient occupation, the Marche has ancient sites of interest such as the village of Faleria or the ancient Roman city of the 2nd century B.C., Urbisaglia, whose successive reconstructions have included the Roman foundations.
The history of the charming little town of Fermo, a few kilometers from the Adriatic coast, goes back to the Bronze Age. It then experienced a boom between the 8th and 4th centuries BC. Its development is retraced in the Museo archeologico of Fermo, which gathers the finds of the surroundings. Also worth visiting is theMuseo Archeologico Nazionale delle Marche in Ancona, housed in the Palazzo Ferretti. The 16th century palace is also decorated with ancient frescoes and bas-reliefs that are worth a stop. The archaeological collections cover wide periods, from the Paleolithic to the Middle Ages. Among its highlights, the Venus of Frasassi was found at the entrance of a cave in the area. Carved in a stalactite, the 8.7 cm statuette wonderfully bears its 28,000 years. Its great particularity lies in its hands, joined in a gesture of offering that was rare at that time. Its voluptuous body attests to a remarkable mastery.Golden age of the fresco: the Trecento
Umbria and the Marches experienced great prosperity in the Middle Ages and later in the Renaissance. As a result, Umbria attracted exceptional artists: Giotto, Fra Angelico, Cimabue to name a few. The art of fresco reached its peak in the 13th and 14th centuries. The pictorial revolutions are carried by talents who will make school. Giotto in the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi, Fra Lippi in Spoleto, Raphael in Perugia and Urbino. Some of the artists came from these regions, others were invited to carry out commissions that have come down to us.
Giotto, born around 1266 and died in 1337, was a painter, sculptor and architect. The works of this Florentine artist mark a renewal in Western painting. He asserted his style in the art of fresco, which made him a recognized precursor. As can be seen in the cycle of frescoes on the life of St. Francis in Assisi, which cover the walls of the upper church of the Basilica of St. Francis, he applied the technique of trompe l'oeil before its time. To do this, he relied on the codes of perspective. These principles are first elaborated in the scenes of the Life of Isaac, which adorn the transept. Through the use of trompe l'oeil, he painted a curtain and architectural elements to add a frame to the interior of the painting. By playing with twisted columns, he creates the illusion that the representations of the life of St. Francis are integrated into the construction of the building. Giotto created these remarkable frescoes at the request of the superior of the Franciscans in the last years of the 13th century. The Basilica also presents the Episodes of the Life and Passion of Christ, by Simone Martini (1280-1344).The Quattrocento
In Perugia, Assisi and Orvieto, the Quattrocento painter Fra Angelico (1387/1395-1455) showed a talent praised by Vasari. The famous "brother of the angels" infused all his spirituality into his religious scenes. His favorite subject, the Virgin and Child, is depicted with a moving grace. In his paintings on wood as well as in his frescoes, he combines the precepts of the Renaissance with the medieval canons, especially the mystical power of light. In the cathedral of Orvieto (Duomo di Orvieto), the chapel of San Brizio houses the famous fresco cycle Storie degli Ultimi Giorni (Stories of the Last Days). Begun by Fra Angelico in 1447, with the assistance of Benozzo Gozzoli, the series was completed by a student of Piero della Francesca, Luca Signorelli, in 1502 (theApocalypse and the Last Judgment
). Signorelli is considered a typical Renaissance artist because of his emphasis on perspective and anatomy. The Cattedrale Santa Maria Assunta in Spoleto, built in the 11th century with blocks of stone taken from Roman buildings, has frescoes in its apse by the Florentine painter of the early Renaissance, Filippo Lippi. Heir to the contributions of Masaccio, Lippi had not finished illustrating the life of the Virgin Mary in the Duomo di Spoleto when she died. In order not to leave his frescoes unfinished, Lorenzo de' Medici travelled from Florence to commission Filippino, Lippi's son, to complete the project. He also commissioned the construction of a mausoleum to pay tribute to Filippo Lippi. The artist is buried in the transept of the cathedral. Lippi counted among his pupils the famous Sandro Botticelli.The classical Renaissance: Raphael
The pictorial blooming continues in these regions, as in all the north of Italy. One of the three great masters of the Renaissance was born in Urbino. Raphael, born Raffaello Sanzio in 1483, died prematurely in 1520, in Rome where he became the official painter of the Vatican. Painter and architect, he will exercise, like the two other masters of the Renaissance, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, an immense influence on the arts of the centuries to come. Raphael's father, Giovanni Santi, was a renowned painter who taught in his studio in Urbino. Raphael was influenced by his father and adopted the technique of working with several hands, which he would use to decorate the Vatican chambers. In Perugia, he worked with Perugino. Then he left for Florence where he completed his training with Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. From the age of 16, Raphael was in demand throughout the country. He received commissions for altarpieces and portraits that led him to travel throughout Italy. The characteristics that make him special are present in his first works: an expressive realism with a halo of gentleness that only he has the secret. In 1514, the pope entrusted him with the embellishment of St Peter's Basilica in Rome. Thanks to his system of assistants, he was able to carry out several projects at once, while continuing his pictorial research, which he recorded in precious notebooks. Fever took him prematurely, leaving some of his paintings in the Vatican. A study of his Transfiguration
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... The Casa di Raffaello, in Urbino, retraces the genius' career. In this 15th century house, Raphael painted one of his first frescoes, a Madonna and Child. The visit sheds light on the determining influence of his father, Giovanni Santi, as well as on the master's first steps. To explore Urbino is also to immerse oneself in the ancient capital of the Dukes of Montefeltro, and one of the most beautiful cities in the Marche, along with Ascoli Piceno. The historic center of Urbino is a Unesco World Heritage Site. The Palazzo Ducale now houses the National Gallery of the Marche, prized for its artistic masterpieces including The Miracle of the Profaned Host by Paolo Uccello and a sensitive portrait: La Muta(The Mute) by Raphael.Towards the Baroque
Painters of Raphael's generation flocked to work in the Marche and Umbria. This is the case of Lorenzo Lotto, born in Venice in 1480 and who died in Loreto (province of Ancona) in 1556, a city where he was particularly active. Five of his most beautiful works are preserved in the Pinacoteca of Jesi, including The Madonna of the Roses, famous for the beauty of its child Jesus.
The Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria in Perugia covers pictorial art from the 13th to the 17th century. Among the paintings and sculptures of the Umbrian school are works by Perugino, Fra Angelico and Piero della Francesca. The Gothic period is represented by the Madonna with Child and Angels by Gentile da Fabriano and the late Renaissance by Federico Fiori, known as Baroccio. Born around 1535 in Urbino, where he died in 1612, this Mannerist painter, draughtsman and engraver was one of the precursors of the Baroque in Italy. He grew up in a Lombard family, in the city where Raphael was born. At the time of Baroccio, the Church was inspired by the spirit of renewal: painting must henceforth arouse emotion. The characters remain natural, but the theatricality of the compositions is underlined by the use of chiaroscuro. Endowed with a narrative simplicity, the mission of these scenes is to lead to spirituality. Baroccio proposes a vision of mannerism that immediately seduces in the Marche region.
Abstract art
Born in 1915 in Città di Castello, in the province of Perugia, Alberto Burri studied medicine and was taken prisoner during the Second World War. He was sent to a camp in Texas, where he began his first pictorial experiments. Returning to Italy in 1946, he settled in Rome and made a remarkable entry into the art scene of the 1950s. Initially an abstract painter, he blurred the boundaries between form and matter. To his canvases, he integrated objects as banal as rags and burlap bags. He founded the Origine group, with Mario Balloco, Ettore Colla and Giuseppe Capogrossi, united by a questioning around a purified abstract art, both in the construction and in the chromatic choices. From 1953, while exhibiting throughout Europe, he expanded the field of materials incorporated into the oil to sand, pumice or earth. This led to monochrome series: Neri ( "blacks"), Muffe ("molds") or Catrami ("tars"). The work of the material becomes primordial. The artist, stingy in explanations, however, assigns eloquent titles to his works as in 1952, Umbria vera (True Umbria
), his land of origin.Since 1978, the artist's collection has been housed at the Fondazione Palazzo Albizzini - Collection Burri, in Città di Castello.
Contemporary art lovers flock to Palazzo Lucarini Contemporary in Trevi. This Mecca for the production and promotion of contemporary culture has an event dedicated to photography: Photology is held every October.Open air
The Via delle Viola, in the ancient center of Perugia, is a true open-air art gallery that beautifully combines tradition and modernity. The university district, called "elcegallery", lends its walls to all forms of expression. Urban frescoes have not yet become commonplace, even if the street art map is expanding every year. Heavy fines are still handed out to graffiti artists, especially if they express themselves on monuments. Some street artists organize themselves in collective. In Perugia, SAD (Sempre Allegri Dentro - always happy inside) is stimulating creativity in a beautiful spirit of sharing!
