Works and artists

When art in the Renaissance was also political propaganda: Garofalo's masterpiece

It is an episode in the history of the Renaissance perhaps not known to many, but certainly the Battle of Polesella can be counted among the most singular ones, and not only because in the aftermath of this Ferrara military feat, events ensued that l...
Read more...

When Donatello and Masaccio agreed on the Renaissance revolution in Pisa.

The Museo Nazionale di San Matteo in Pisa holds a very special record: it is the only museum in the world where, in the same building, it is possible to see a work by Donatello and a work by Masaccio, that is, by the father of Renaissance sculpture a...
Read more...

Pietro da Cortona's The Triumph of Divine Providence, a fundamental text of 17th-century art

When, in August 1623, Maffeo Barberini (Florence, 1568 - Rome, 1644) ascended to the papal throne with the name of Urban VIII, many intellectuals, scientists and artists rested their hopes on this learned and refined man, hoping for a cultural renewa...
Read more...

Giuseppe Gorni, the artist who celebrated the Mantuan countryside, and his museum in Quistello

An artist who was able to translate into sculptural forms the essence of rural life in the Lower Po Valley, shaping the material to give voice to the stories of a people, their visions, their emotions: this is how we could define Giuseppe Gorni (Quis...
Read more...

How Etruscan art influenced twentieth-century art

The Etruscan civilization, with its aura of mystery, fascinating aesthetics and distinctive materials, was a powerful creative stimulus for artists, intellectuals and designers in the 20th century. To this day, many designers continue to be inspired ...
Read more...

Vincenzo Giustiniani, a collector of Macchiaioli.

Art historian Lucio Scardino, in his 1999 survey of art collections in Ferrara in the 20th century, wrote that the most important among Ferrara's collectors of modern art at the turn of the century was "undoubtedly," as he took care to point out, Cou...
Read more...

History of the Florentine commesso, an ancient technique of high craftsmanship

It is not clear to what period the invention of inlays in semi-precious stones dates: what is certain is that since the 16th century the city of Florence has linked its name to this art, so much so that even today it is better known as commesso fiore...
Read more...

The labyrinth of Lucca Cathedral: a sacred symbol linked to Greek myth

Those who visit the Cathedral of Lucca, or the Cathedral of San Martino, the most important building of worship in the city, an extraordinary Romanesque-Gothic monument filled with fundamental works of art (the moving funeral monument of Ilaria del C...
Read more...

The art of Trenton Doyle Hancock: a mixture of mythology, pop culture, religion, psychology

What happens when we mix mythology, pop culture, religion, and psychology into a single artistic vision? What does his art tell us about us, our struggles, our inner transformations? If we stop to think, that is precisely the starting point of the wo...
Read more...

When William Blake painted the ghost of a flea--after a vision

The work we discuss in this article can be seen at the exhibition Blake and His Age. Travels in Dreamtime, curated by Alice Insley, at the Reggia di Venaria Reale, Turin, through Feb. 2, 2025. For more info read here. "Here he comes! With his eager ...
Read more...

The patronage of Pius II, the humanist pope

Building the ideal city at the height of the Renaissance was an ambitious project, to say the least, although the great passion for the arts and the high intellectual knowledge of one man, one of the greatest patrons of his time, had made this dream ...
Read more...

Masterpieces of the Flemish world at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium

Brussels is said to be a capital city to which its own state goes, wanting to emphasize the city's imposing scale in size and population in the context of a relatively small country. The same cliché might also marry for its Royal Museum of Fin...
Read more...

Keil Space's artistic revolution in Florence: the observer at the center as co-creator

To visit Keil Space in Florence, the space conceived by British artist Samantha Keil, is to glimpse the future, to experience and savor what we would like the future to be. The space, founded by Samantha Keil, a master of bronze from a long line of c...
Read more...

The Fondaco dei Tedeschi, history and transformations of a symbol of Venice

The Fondaco dei Tedeschi, a building of thirteenth-century origins overlooking the Grand Canal, next to the Rialto Bridge, stands at one of the nerve centers of central Venice, and is not only an architectural masterpiece and a symbol of the Sereniss...
Read more...

Andrea Pozzo's masterpiece: the Glory of St. Ignatius in Rome

The saint is above a cloud, borne in flight by a swarm of angels, moving over a sky that illusionistically breaks through the vault of the church of St. Ignatius of Loyola, in the heart of Rome: in front of him Jesus with the cross, in the corners th...
Read more...

The art of stopping time: the portraits of Ugo Mulas

Since time immemorial, in human history, hands have made themselves eternal protagonists, ancient and irreplaceable tools that shape, transform, create and destroy by the mere force of gesture. In the photographic workshop of Ugo Mulas, these very sk...
Read more...