Museo Civico d'Arte Antica

Museo Civico d'Arte Antica

Piazza Castello, Turin, Italy
Coordinates	45°04′16″N 7°41′08″E / 45.071097°N 7.685478°E / 45.071097; 7.685478
Type	Art museum
Director	Guido Curto
Owner	Fondazione Torino Musei
Website	www.palazzomadamatorino.it

The Museo Civico d'Arte Antica is an

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

45°4′15.95″N 7°41′7.72″E / 45.0710972°N 7.6854778°E / 45.0710972; 7.6854778

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

in 1832.

A Civic Museum had been founded in 1860 in the wake of the unification of Italy 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, 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 uncovered in the excavations by IsMEO at the Butkara Stupa in Pakistan, 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

, while the uppermost floor deals with decorations.

Aside from paintings and sculptures, works exhibited also include illuminated manuscripts (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:

coats of arms.

The Camera delle Guardie ('Guards Chambers') houses Baroque paintings by artists such as Orazio Gentileschi (Assumption and St. Jerome), Giovanni Battista Crespi, Giulio Cesare Procaccini and Francesco Cairo.

Sources

• Romano, G. (2006). Palazzo Madama a Torino. Da castello medioevale a museo della città. Turin.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

External links

• Media related to Museo Civico (Turin) at Wikimedia Commons
• Official website of the Palazzo Madama