Antiquity
The constitution of the Roman Empire coincides with the apogee of the Greek tradition. The Roman way is perfected in contact with the Hellenic art, in particular bronzes. The sculptors copied Greek works to train themselves. Then, from these models, they innovated: we owe them in particular the bust (which stops at the shoulders or the neck) and the popularization of the portrait which is no longer the prerogative of the emperor.
Inherited from the Byzantine tradition, the frescoes and mosaics illustrate mythological or daily scenes. They embellish houses as well as temples, sometimes associated with frescoes, painted directly on the walls. One of the richest and oldest collections of ancient art in the world, the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli houses on the first floor Greek and Roman sculptures from the Farnese collection. On the upper floor, relics from Pompeii and Herculaneum, including the famous mosaic of Alexander the Great, from the House of the Faun. The visit completes the tour of the site, once covered by the ashes of Vesuvius. Among the wonders in situ: the flamboyant frescoes of the Villa of the Mysteries; the House of the Tragic Poet, for its scenes of Greek mythology; the sumptuous Domus des Vettii.
The Byzantine style marks for a long time the Christian art. It is characterized by the religious and imperial themes, the practice of the icon and the mosaic, the stylization of the motives and the gold which arouses the wonder. The contributions of Byzantium impregnate particularly Basilicata and some Calabrian villages. Southern Italy was the first center of Byzantine painting from the 10th to the 14th century. Worth seeing: the frescoes of Carpignano (10th century), Vaste or San Vito dei Normanni (12th century) and the Chapel of San-Stefano in Soleto (13th and 14th centuries).
In the North, the Byzantine model disappeared in favor of a Christian art. Churches were adorned 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. The models born in Northern Europe were thus diffused in the region of Como. They modified architecture 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. They carved zoomorphic figures, griffins and other monsters on the exterior of the Basilica of Sant'Abbondio and in the choir of the Basilica of San Fedele. More rare at this time, the human representations, stocky and not very realistic, contrast 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 of 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 do Grissiano, which is set against the snowy peaks of the Dolomites.
The 13th century marked the beginning of a vast conquest of reality that upset Western painting. Cimabue and his pupil Giotto were the first to shake up the Byzantine model. Inserting life, emotions and landscape elements into his painting, this artist launched the "new naturalism". The divine characters are closer to the human.
At the School of Siena, Byzantine traditions were swept away by a Gothic art animated by Simone Martini and the Lorenzetti brothers, remarkable for their work on 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 development of the Venetian school. It led to 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 and 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 European art.
An unequalled colorist, 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 Quattrocento
At the end of the Middle Ages, poverty struck southern Italy. The center and the north, particularly flourishing, channel the innovations of the Renaissance.
In Rome, the main sponsor was the pope. Pius II, an art lover, swore by Antiquity. But we owe to Sixtus IV the first phase of the most ambitious project of this period: the Sistine Chapel brings together Michelangelo, Raphael and Sebastiano del Piombo. In painting as well as in sculpture, these geniuses of the Roman Renaissance radically redefined the notion of classicism.
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 painters of the Renaissance expressed themselves.
The first Italian Renaissance, or Quattrocento, is represented by Masaccio. Inventor of the single vanishing point, he redefined perspective, volumes and proportions. The architect Brunelleschi designed the first dome. At this decisive time of opening up to the world and knowledge, religious art was turned upside down. Secular subjects entered the scene.
Sforza, Milan and Leonardo
The Milanese art scene reached its peak with the arrival of two masters: Bramante, in 1479, and Leonardo da Vinci in 1482. 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. 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. In 1498, the genius created the famous Last Supper. 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.
The genius of Leonardo (1452-1519) struck the minds of his direct and indirect pupils for several decades. Son of a peasant, Leonardo 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 geometrical 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 Caravaggio, whose Still Life prefigures Baroque painting.
Baroque style
the "Neapolitan school" asserts itself in the 14th century. From Naples, the Baroque breath spread to Campania, Puglia and Calabria. One of these trends derives from the style of Giotto, who came to execute the frescoes at Santa Chiara and the Incoronata (Naples). Among his students, Tommaso de Stefani, born in 1324, is known as "Giottino".
Driven out of Rome, Caravaggio (1571-1610) stayed in Naples. Recognized as the great Baroque painter, this tumultuous character and absolute master of chiaroscuro made a strong impression on Neapolitan artists. Among the regional painters to remember: Mattia Preti (1613-1699), the "Calabrian horseman", is one of the most famous 17th century painters of his time. Some of his works adorn the church of San Domenico, in Taverna. His painting is strongly influenced by the style of Caravaggio and Veronese.
Baroque, the height of religious fervor, was all the rage in Italy until the 18th century. In Naples, Cosimo Fanzago (1593-1678) sculpted an abundance of saints with a strange realism. Conversely, in Rome, an austere current of the baroque is carried by Borromini, and a more fanciful one by Bernini. These masters are represented in the sublime collections of the Villa Borghese in Rome.
The Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna presents a wide panorama of religious art from the 13th century to the Baroque: Giorgio Vasari, Guido Reni, Raphael and Tintoretto.
Towards modernism
Neoclassicism went in search of absolute beauty, with the sculptor Antonio Canova (1757-1822). But in the 18th and 19th centuries, Italian art ran out of steam.
In 1909, the poet Filippo Marinetti (1876-1944) published the Manifesto of Futurism, which laid the groundwork for the Futurist movement. Constituted in Milan, this urban art is not limited to the graphic arts. Futurism advocates an aesthetic based on progress, the machine, the speed. Futurism figures imaginary cities or the stylized movement of machines in bright colors. In its ranks, we count Sant'Elia, Balla, Cara or Russolo.
To be discovered at the Padiglione d'arte contemporanea) and at the Museo del Novecento which houses Boccioni's famous bronze, Man in Motion.
Creation in the open air
In Southern Italy, street art is a way of life. The public fresco, worthy heir of antiquity, is prized even in the most remote villages.
Calabria is a pioneer in the revaluation of a city by street art. In 1981, the "Operazione Murales" was launched by Nani Razetti and raised Diamante to the status of a city of frescoes. Catanzaro hosts the Altrove Festival and its famous competition that earned it the title of Italian capital of street art 2016. Another peculiarity is that this village promotes religious tourism through urban art!
In Puglia, in Lecce, the 167 district hosts a vast project headed by Don Gerardo Ippolito, priest of the San Giovanni Battista church. Some of the world's greatest names have joined this large-scale program.
The city center of Bari is home to a variety of frescoes. In Via Quintino Sella, a mural by Angela Matarrese pays tribute to the composer Ennio Morricone. The circuit around San Cataldo starts from the "muro della gentilezza" created by three Bari artists. The district of San Cataldo combines sea spray and graffiti.
And in the metropolises, cosa succede? In Rome, there are no less than 75 Spaces Invaders, mosaics signed by the French artist Invader. The districts of Monti, Trastevere and Tor Marancia are to be explored in priority. Unusual: the largest ecological fresco in Europe was created in the Ostiense district, using a pollution-eating paint. Hunting pollution is a "smog eater" signed by Federico Massa.
Naples has a mythical Banksy, in Piazza Gerolomini: the "Madonna with a gun" is the first fresco to have received the blessing of the Church! In the Spanish Quarter as elsewhere, the religious theme dominates Neapolitan street art.
In Milan, a journey Museum of Urban Art Augmented or MAUA guides from frescoes to graffiti. Through a smartphone, the works of 200 artists emerge from the wall before the amazed eyes of visitors.
Photo destination
The MUFOCO (Balsamo), Italy's first public museum dedicated to photography, puts contemporary photography in the spotlight, giving pride of place to the country's children, such as Giovanni Gastel (1955-2021).
Photo lovers will stop in Matera, at the Museo per la Fotografia - Pino Settanni. Settanni defined himself as "a painter with a camera". Born in 1949 in Taranto, he began a series of photographs on the theme of southern Italy that revealed his talent.
Contemporary photography is exhibited at the MADRE in Naples in the heart of an exceptional collection of international art: Anish Kapoor, Buren, Sol Lewitt, Jimmie Durham..
Land of passions
The collection of modern and contemporary art of the Biscozzi Foundation is housed in a historic residence. It covers European abstraction with a strong Italian focus: Angelo Savelli, Mario Schifano, Gianni Bertini, Alberto Burri. The eleven rooms also house works by Josef Albers, Hans Hartung and Jean Fautrier.
Two renowned collectors have established themselves in Venice. In 1949, the American art patron and gallery owner Peggy Guggenheim bought the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni on the Grand Canal. This museum, collezione Peggy Guggenheim, is a human-sized collection of contemporary art masters: Picasso, Mondrian, Chagall, Pollock, Dali, Kandinsky and Magritte.
The Pinault Collection is spread over two exceptional sites restored by architect Tadao Ando: Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana. Artists are invited to create works in situ, in the pure tradition of the patrons who make Italian culture shine throughout the world.
