Rock art and ancient
One of Lombardy's most beautiful valleys, Val Camonica, is home to Italy's first Unesco World Heritage Site, the Parco Nazionale delle Incisioni Rupestri. More than 12,000 years of history unfold on thousands of rock carvings. Signs and figures carved into the rock depict agriculture, hunting, navigation, dance and combat in geometric compositions. The daily lives and beliefs of our ancestors continued to adorn both sides of this valley near Brescia, during Roman and medieval times. The excursion is completed at the Val Camonica National Museum, whose archaeological collections underline the pictorial continuity of the petroglyphs. There are many dedicated museums around Lake Garda. At the Sirmione Archaeological Museum, associated with the Grotto of the Poet Catullus (Grotte di Cattullo), the Roman period is magnificently represented by the polychrome mosaics and frescoes that adorned the villa built on the site.
Medieval sculpture
After Etruscan domination, the Lombards moved into Roman territory as early as 568. In north-western Italy, Romanesque art developed at the end of the 11th century and spread as far as Sardinia and England. Aesthetic innovations arrived over the Alps via artists who had come to work in neighboring countries. Models born in Northern Europe were disseminated in the Como region. They changed not only architecture, but also stonework and religious art in general.
The first masters of Lombard Romanesque art were anonymous, itinerant sculptors. Many of them converged in the Como region. Known as the "Masters of Como", they 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. More rare in this period, the stocky, unrealistic human representations contrast with the more elaborate animal and plant ornamentation. Other masters followed in northern Italy: Wiligelmo in Modena, Nicolaus at Piacenza Cathedral and in Ferrara; in 1138, he contributed to the polychrome tympanum of the Basilica of San Zeno in Verona. In 1139, he sculpted a Madonna, an Annunciation scene and an Adoration of the Magi for the portal of Verona cathedral, revealing elements borrowed from northern Spain.
Lombardy Renaissance
The 11th century was characterized by large-scale wall paintings for churches. Lombardy has preserved some magnificent Romanesque frescoes, such as those in Civate (Lecco), San Pietro Al Monte and the San Martino chapel in Carugo (Como). In the latter, artists broke away from the Byzantine model. Gradually, the figures became longer, and a more naturalistic trend emerged in the early 13th century, as can be seen in the Sacrifice of Isaac fresco in the church of San Jacopo do Grissiano, set against the snowy peaks of the Dolomites.
The Lombard Renaissance was marked by the transition of power from the Viscontis to the Sforzas in the mid-15th century. The characteristics of the various Italian territories, principally Florence, Ferrara and Padua, merged with the ancient heritage to produce innovative talents.
The Milanese art scene reached its zenith with the arrival of two masters: Bramante in 1479, quickly followed by Leonardo da Vinci in 1482. In the pictorial upheavals taking place, tradition and avant-garde coexisted happily. This artistic explosion was made possible by patrons of the arts.
Francesco Sforza and his descendants were responsible for some of the most exceptional commissions. Vincenzo Foppa painted frescoes for him in the Portinari Chapel. Here, he magnificently applied the lessons of architecture to painting: creating the illusion of space through a single vanishing point.
Leonard
Ludovico il Moro entrusts Leonardo with the decoration of a small wall in the refectory of the Basilica di Santa Maria delle Grazie. It was here, in 1498, that the genius created his famous Last Supper. The vivid emotions of the apostles dominate the composition of figures grouped in threes, so as to isolate Christ at the center of the fresco. The lighting reflects the room's natural lighting, so that the viewer feels as if he or she is entering the scene.
Da Vinci struck a chord with his direct and indirect pupils for decades to come. Studied composition, melancholy faces, sfumato (contours softened by a kind of mist), androgynous faces and diffused lighting are among his major contributions, perpetuated by the "leonardeschi". Active in the 16th century, Boltraffio, Andrea Solario, Cesare da Sesto, Bernardino Luini and Agostino da Lodi all contributed to the harmonization of taste, spreading his teachings throughout the Duchy and far beyond Milan.
Masterpieces at Milan's Pinacoteca Ambrosiana include works by Leonardo, Raphael and Botticelli, as well as a still life by the great Lombard painter Caravaggio, which marks the beginning of Baroque painting.
Bergamo and local schools
In border towns such as Bergamo and Brescia, artistic effervescence was fueled in the 16th century by the passage of foreign painters, particularly Venetians. In Bergamo, the quest for a local style was supported by the installation of three painters. A native of Brescia, Vincenzo Foppa (1429-1519) was commissioned by the Sforza family to paint frescoes in the Portinari Chapel in the church of Sant'Eustorgio in Milan, between 1464 and 1468. After that, it was in Bergamo that he resolutely broke away from the Leonardo style that dominated Milan. He was followed by Gaudenzio Ferrari and above all Lorenzo Lotto, from 1513 onwards, who left remarkable altarpieces and paintings on display at the Accademia Carrara.
Formal explorations, oriented towards exacerbated expressivity, gave rise to a blossoming of pictorial schools: that of the Piazza brothers in Lodi, and the Campi brothers in Cremona. In Brescia, a generation of painters (Moretto, Savoldo and Romanino) paved the way for the Baroque movement.
The Caravaggio
The Lombard artist Michelangelo Merisi (born 1571 in Milan, died 1610 in Porto Ercole) is considered the great master of the Baroque period. In his strikingly realistic works, his mastery of chiaroscuro made him an unrivalled artist. His tumultuous temperament led him to travel at an early age, often to escape trouble. He was active in Rome from the age of 18, where patrons quickly took him under their wings. However, his taste for parties and brawls got him into trouble. Sentenced to death by the Pope, he fled to Naples, then to Malta. There too, he ended up imprisoned... before escaping to return to Sicily. It was an incredible life that probably inspired his most poignant scenes of bloodshed. The Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan holds a Still Life , while the Meal at Emmaus can be seen at the Pinacoteca di Brera. Although he died relatively young, his influence is immense. Rembrandt and Rubens drew on his pictorial repertoire to deploy their genius.
Private commissions continued to keep Lombardy dynamic in the 18th century. In Brescia, Giacomo Ceruti, known as the Pitocchetto, depicted the poverty of peasant and working-class society. In the following century, Romantic painting reached its apogee with Francesco Hayez, who painted his famous Kiss in 1859(Pinacoteca di Brera).
Futurism
In the modern era, Milan was once again at the heart of an artistic revolution that spread throughout Europe, affecting all areas of avant-garde creation, from architecture and theater to music and the visual arts. The Futurist movement was born under the impetus of Tommaso Marinetti, who published the Futurist Manifesto in 1909. The following year, 1910, the Futurist Painters' Manifesto was signed in Milan by artists Boccioni, Carrà, Severini, Balla and Russolo. In pictorial terms, the artists took up the codes of cubism to exalt the characteristics of modernism: speed, machines and movement became the preferred subjects of the Italian movement. Its representatives put their manifesto into practice at events combining painting, sculpture, theater and a healthy dose of provocation. In this way, the Futurists were at the origin of performance art, crucial in the twentieth century. In Milan, Futurism can now be admired at the PAC (Pavillon d'art contemporain) and the Museo del Novecento, which houses Boccioni's famous bronze Man in Motion. The museum also champions a number of Italian contemporaries, including Milanese painter and poet Emilio Tadini.
Nowadays
Italy's first public museum dedicated to photography, MUFOCO puts contemporary photography in the spotlight, giving pride of place to local artists such as Giovanni Gastel (1955-2021).
Among Lombardy's top contemporary art venues, the Villa Panza in Varese has enriched its collection with several pieces by American artist Dan Flavin. The installations in the garden echo the avant-garde art on display in the galleries. Bruce Nauman and Rauschenberg remind us that cultural cross-fertilization continues to embellish Italy's heritage.
Street art flourishes in the capital of design, particularly in the Isola and Lambrate districts. The Museo d'Arte Urbano Augmentato, or MAUA, offers tours outside the city center. From frescoes to graffiti, the works of 200 artists emerge from the walls before the astonished eyes of visitors, who are invited to frame them with their smartphones.
