To the origins
Italy's first UNESCO World Heritage Site is located in one of the most beautiful valleys in Lombardy. Val Camonica is home to 12,000 years of history that unfolds through thousands of rock paintings. Signs and figures engraved in the rock have as their theme agriculture, hunting, navigation, dancing and fighting among geometric compositions. The daily life and beliefs of our ancestors continued to decorate the two sides of this valley near Brescia during the Roman and medieval periods. To be completed by the archaeological collections of the National Museum of Valcamonica. Other dedicated museums are scattered around Lake Garda. In the archaeological museum of Sirmione, associated with the caves of the poet Catullus (Grotte di Catullo), the Roman period is beautifully represented by the polychrome mosaics and frescoes that adorned the villa built on the site.
Antiquity
Italian art has its roots in ancient Greece, at the time of the Etruscans. Later on, the artistic production of ancient Rome served the politics and religion of the Empire. Those with a passion for art can visit one of the most important archaeological museums in Italy, the Museo Civico Archeologico. Its collection follows the history of Bologna, from the earliest remains of the capital of Emilia Romagna.
The frescoes and mosaics, illustrating mythological scenes or daily life, are inherited from Byzantine art. More than 400 square meters of polychrome mosaics are to be discovered on the archaeological site of the Domus dei Tappeti di Pietra in the church of Sant'Eufemia in Ravenna, with geometric and floral compositions but above all unique paintings such as The Dance of the Geniuses of the Seasons and The Good Shepherd, portrayed in a novel posture. To go further, the Museo Tamo, in the heart of the church of San Nicolò in Ravenna, offers a fascinating itinerary on the art of mosaics.
With the fall of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine model disappears in favor of a Christian art. Christianity becomes the official religion from the end of the fourth century. The churches that were then built were decorated with paintings and pious sculptures. Medieval art, put at the service of beliefs, relies on pictorial symbolism to sing the Christian values.
Medieval sculpture
After an Etruscan domination, the Lombards settled in Roman territory in 568. In the northwest of Italy, the Romanesque style developed at the end of the 11th century and spread to Sardinia and England. Aesthetic innovations arrived through the Alps, brought by artists who came from the border countries to work. Thus, the models born in Northern Europe were diffused in the region of Como. They changed not only the architecture but also the stonework and religious art in general.
The first masters of Lombard Romanesque art were anonymous itinerant sculptors. Many of them converged in the Como area. These masters of Como contributed to the emergence of the Lombard style. In Como, they carved zoomorphic figures, griffins and other monsters on the exterior of the Basilica di Sant'Abbondio and in the choir of the Basilica di San Fedele. The human representations, which were rarer in this period, are stocky and not very realistic, contrasting with the more elaborate animal and plant ornaments.
Other masters followed in northern Italy: Wiligelmo in Modena, Nicolaus in the cathedral of Piacenza and in Ferrara; in 1138, he participated in the polychrome tympanum of the Basilica di San Zeno in Verona. In 1139, he sculpted for the portal of the cathedral of Verona a Madonna, an Annunciation scene and an Adoration of the Magi which reveal elements borrowed from northern Spain.
Mural painting
Large murals adorned the churches in the eleventh century. Lombardy preserves magnificent Romanesque frescoes as in Civate (Lecco), San Pietro Al Monte, or the chapel of San Martino in Carugo (Como). The artists freed themselves from the Byzantine model. The figures became longer and a more naturalistic trend emerged at the beginning of the 13th century, as can be seen in the fresco of the Sacrifice of Isaac in the church of San Jacopo di Grissiano, which is set against the snowy peaks of the Dolomites.
The thirteenth century marked the beginning of a vast conquest of reality that upset Western painting. The artists apply themselves to restore the appearances of the real world, at the price of technical innovations. Cimabue and his pupil Giotto were the first to shake up the Byzantine model. Inserting life and emotions, as well as elements of landscape in his painting, this artist launched the "new naturalism". The divine characters are closer to the human.
At the School of Siena, the Byzantine traditions were swept away by a Gothic art animated by Simone Martini and the Lorenzetti brothers, remarkable for their work on precision and detail.
From the scuole to the Venetian school
The scuole appeared in the 13th century in Venice and were defined as charitable brotherhoods. The wealthier ones called upon artists to build or embellish their premises, thus affirming their prestige. Indirectly, they stimulated artistic creation and participated in the blossoming of the Venetian school which resulted in a unique style, the most recognizable of all Italian schools, between Gothic and Byzantine teachings and local particularities.
The Renaissance arrived in Venice through the workshop of Jacopo Bellini (1400-1470), the first painter to fully free himself from the Gothic style, who rethought the notion of perspective and composition of space. In Venice, his works can be seen at the Galleria dell'Accademia or at the Museo Correr
A disciple of Giovanni Bellini, son of Jacopo, Titian (c. 1488-1576) explored all genres during his long life: frescoes(History of St. Anthony, Scuola del Santo in Padua), portraits and self-portraits, mythological and religious scenes. He excelled in the rendering of light and movement. Inventor of the halo effect, he favored color over form. Titian's art had a considerable impact on the history of European art.
A colorist without equal, Veronese (1528-1588) was the painter of Venetian splendor. Even in his biblical subjects, luxury and beauty prevail over religious fervor. The frescoes of the Villa Barbaro di Maser highlight a research on the perception of the pictorial space confronted with the architectural space.
Patronage and the first Renaissance
In the 15th century, the great princely families reigned over the Italian cities. Patronage was in full swing: the Medici in Florence, the Sforza in Milan. It was with the Florentine School that the first Renaissance painters expressed themselves.
The first Italian Renaissance, or Quattrocento, is represented by Masaccio. Inventor of the single vanishing point, he focused his work on perspective, volumes and proportions. But also Brunelleschi, an outstanding architect who designed the first dome, and a painter of genius seeking the perfect proportions that Donatello found in his statues. At this decisive time of opening up to the world and knowledge, religious art was shaken up. Reflecting the social secularization, the plastic arts extended to profane subjects.
The Milanese artistic scene reached its peak with the arrival of two masters: Bramante, in 1479, quickly followed by Leonardo da Vinci in 1482. In the pictorial upheavals that were taking place, tradition and avant-gardes were mutually enriching. This creative explosion was made possible by patrons.
Francesco Sforza and his descendants were responsible for the most exceptional commissions. Vincenzo Foppa executed for him some of the frescoes in the Portinari Chapel of the Basilica Sant'Eustorgio. There he magnificently applied the lessons of architecture to painting: creating the illusion of space through a single vanishing point.
Ludovico il Moro entrusted Leonardo with the decoration of a small wall of the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie, the Cenacolo Vinciano. It was here that the genius created the famous Last Supper in 1498. The lively emotions of the apostles dominate the composition of the figures grouped in threes, isolating Christ in the center. The light takes up the natural lighting of the room to give the viewer the impression of entering the scene.
Leonardo da Vinci
The genius of Leonardo (1452-1519) struck the minds of his direct and indirect pupils for several decades. Son of a peasant, Vinci entered the court of the Duke of Milan Ludovico Sforza as an engineer. Fond of mathematics, music, sculpture, science, drawing and architecture, he soon received commissions for paintings. He recorded his studies in notebooks, his works remaining mostly unfinished. Perspective and its geometric order are among his main subjects of study.
The studied composition, the melancholy of the faces, the sfumato (contours attenuated by a kind of mist), the androgynous faces, the diffuse lighting constitute his major contributions, perpetuated by the "leonardeschi". Active in the 16th century, Boltraffio, Andrea Solario, Cesare da Sesto, Bernardino Luini and Agostino da Lodi participated in the harmonization of taste by spreading his teachings in the Duchy and even far beyond Milan.
Among the masterpieces of the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan are Leonardo, Raphael, Botticelli and a still life by the great Lombard painter Caravaggio that marks the beginning of Baroque painting.
The 29 rooms of the Museo di Castelvecchio in Verona show medieval, Renaissance and 18th century Italian and European art in one visit.
The High Renaissance
Until now, the artistic revolution was essentially carried by the bourgeoisie, and Florence was its undisputed capital. However, from 1500, the movement spread to Rome and Venice. The Roman city and the Papacy wished to regain their place as the cultural center of the West.
Painting, sculpture, architecture, mathematics, the geniuses of the Renaissance (Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo...) combined knowledge and know-how in science, technology and artistic talent. The golden age of the Renaissance is embodied in the work of Raphael, whose achievement brings together all the ideals of harmony of the time.
Note that magnificent Renaissance frescoes adorn the ceilings of the Palazzo dei Pio museum in Modena. Dated between the middle of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th century, they are the work of Giovanni del Sega and Bernardino Loschi, painters of the court of Alberto III Pio.
Mannerism and Baroque
After the height of the Renaissance, Italy experienced a brutal crisis that had repercussions on the arts. The Reformation threatened the integrity of the Roman Church. Mannerism appeared in this climate of tension. The heirs of the great masters elaborated a painting with unreal tones, the proportions were distorted. As an instrument of the Catholic counter-reformation, Mannerism was more severe and less hedonistic than the Renaissance.
In the second half of the 16th century, Baroque art took root in Rome. The three main figures of this movement inspired by the strange and the disrespect of the arts are the architect Borromini, the sculptor Bernini and the painter Caravaggio. Baroque paintings played on the striking contrasts of light and shadow to inspire Catholics to believe again, if necessary through fear. It was a matter of reaffirming the power of the Church. Baroque reigned in Northern Italy, in Venice, Turin and Genoa until the 18th century.
The collection of the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna brings together religious art from the 13th century to the Baroque: Giorgio Vasari, Guido Reni, Raphael and Tintoretto.
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism stems from the influence of the Enlightenment and the rediscovery of antiquity. It translates into a quest for absolute beauty, balance and clarity. The painter Andrea Appiani (Milan, 1754-1717) and the sculptor Antonio Canova (Possagno 1757-Venice 1822) were appointed official artists of the Emperor and King of Italy. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Italian art ran out of steam and its influence waned.
However, private commissions continued to maintain the dynamism of Lombardy in the 18th century. Active in Brescia, Giacomo Ceruti, known as the Pitocchetto, represented the poverty of a peasant and working class society. In the following century, Romantic painting reached its peak with Francesco Hayez who painted his famous Kisses in 1859(Pinacoteca di Brera).
XXth century
Very quickly, in the 20th century, Italian art regained an international scope. In 1909, the Futurist movement was formed in Milan following the publication of the Futurist Manifesto. Conceived by the poet Filippo Marinetti (1876-1944), it first appeared in a French daily newspaper, Le Figaro. Futurism has its roots in neo-impressionism and French cubism. This movement, which was not limited to the graphic arts, wanted to do away with past traditions. It advocates a new aesthetic based on progress, the machine, speed. It is above all an urban art. Evoked by the modernization of cities or the invention of new means of transportation (airplane, car...), futurism represents imaginary cities or the stylized movement of machines in bright colors. In its ranks, we count Sant'Elia, Balla, Cara or Russolo.
In Milan, Futurism can now be admired at the Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea and at the Museo del Novecento, which houses Boccioni's famous bronze, Man in Motion. The place also defends many Italian contemporaries, such as the Milanese painter and poet Emilio Tadini.
Nowadays
The MUFOCO (Balsamo), Italy's first public museum dedicated to photography, puts contemporary photography in the spotlight by giving pride of place to the country's children, like Giovanni Gastel (1955-2021).
The capital of the Renaissance gets into the contemporary time. In the Leopoldine complex, Florence presents the art of the twentieth century at the Museo Novecento.
In Milan, street art flourishes in the Isola and Lamabrate districts. The Museum of Urban Augmented Art or MAUA offers tours outside the center. From frescoes to graffiti, the works of 200 artists come out of the wall under the amazed eyes of visitors invited to frame them with their smartphone.
Two renowned collectors have chosen Venice as their home. In 1949, American art patron and gallery owner Peggy Guggenheim purchased the Venier dei Leoni Palace on the Grand Canal. The Collezione Peggy Guggenheim, which is on a human scale and has a garden, brings together masters of contemporary art: Picasso, Mondrian, Chagall, Pollock, Dali, Kandinsky and Magritte.
The Pinault Collection occupies two exceptional sites restored by architect Tadao Ando: Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana. To accompany the temporary exhibitions, artists are invited to create works in situ. In Northern Italy, you will be carried away in an artistic whirlwind of several centuries.
