The Museo Civico d'Arte Antica is an

art museum An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own Collection (artwork), collection. It might be in public or private ownership, be accessible to all, or have restrictions in place. Although ...

located in the Palazzo Madama in

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. It has a renowned collection of paintings from the

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

and

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

periods. It reopened in 2006 after several years of restorations.

History

The museum was founded in 1934, as the heir of the Pinacoteca Regia and the Galleria Reale, which had been established in Palazzo Madama by King Charles Albert of Savoy in 1832. A Civic Museum had been founded in 1860 in the wake of the

unification of Italy The unification of Italy ( ), also known as the Risorgimento (; ), was the 19th century Political movement, political and social movement that in 1861 ended in the Proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, annexation of List of historic states of ...

although, three years later, the collections were moved to another location in Turin, in Via Gaudenzio Ferrari. These were increased gradually with acquisitions from private collectors, from closed residences of the

House of Savoy The House of Savoy (, ) is a royal house (formally a dynasty) of Franco-Italian origin that was established in 1003 in the historical region of Savoy, which was originally part of the Kingdom of Burgundy and now lies mostly within southeastern F ...

, or from donations by the same family. In 1898 the collections of "ancient art" were separated from those of "modern art". The former were moved to the current location in 1934 by the director Vittorio Viale. The collection of Asian art, including rare artifacts from

Gandhara Gandhara () was an ancient Indo-Aryan people, Indo-Aryan civilization in present-day northwest Pakistan and northeast Afghanistan. The core of the region of Gandhara was the Peshawar valley, Peshawar (Pushkalawati) and Swat valleys extending ...

uncovered in the excavations by IsMEO at the Butkara Stupa in

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

, was transferred to Turin's Museum of Oriental Art in 2008.

Description

The museum includes a total of 35 rooms on four floors. The underground floor is dedicated to medieval works, the first floor to Gothic and Renaissance painting, and the second floor to Baroque works, while the uppermost floor deals with decorations. Aside from paintings and sculptures, works exhibited also include

illuminated manuscript An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared manuscript, document where the text is decorated with flourishes such as marginalia, borders and Miniature (illuminated manuscript), miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Churc ...

s (such as the Turin–Milan Hours), ceramics, porcelains, maiolica and ivories (mostly of oriental origin), and gold and silver works, as well as a furniture and cloths. The 15th-century Torre dei Tesori ('Tower of the Treasures') is home to several of the museum most known works: Antonello da Messina's '' Trivulzio Portrait'', the Turin–Milan Hours, and several objects from Charles Emmanuel I's cabinet. Other works include a series of sculptures of the Dead Christ, paintings by Macrino d'Alba, Giacomo Jaquerio, Giovanni Martino Spanzotti, Defendente Ferrari, Antonio Vivarini, Giulio Campi, Gaudenzio Ferrari, Gandolfino da Roreto, Gerolamo Giovenone, Francesco Hayez, sculptors' and goldsmiths' works from the 8th to the 13th centuries, and

Piedmont Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...

ese coats of arms. The ''Camera delle Guardie'' ('Guards Chambers') houses Baroque paintings by artists such as

Orazio Gentileschi Orazio Lomi Gentileschi (; 1563 – 7 February 1639) was an Italian painter. Born in Tuscany, he began his career in Rome, painting in a Mannerist style, much of his work consisting of painting the figures within the decorative schemes of other ...

(''Assumption'' and ''St. Jerome''), Giovanni Battista Crespi, Giulio Cesare Procaccini and Francesco Cairo.

Sources

External links

* * of the Palazzo Madama 1934 establishments in Italy Art museums and galleries in Piedmont Art museums and galleries established in 1934 Museums in Turin {{Italy-art-display-stub