Rooms 11, 12, and 13 of the permanent exhibition itinerary of the Gallery of Ancient Art (Castle of Udine) are once again open to visitors.
The rooms, which were closed at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, have so far open only for some temporary exhibitions dedicated to renowned artists such as Giovanni da Udine, Marcello D'Olivo, Raimondo D'Aronco and Gianni Berengo Gardin.
Visitors will have the chance to admire:
room 11, which presents a selection of paintings that entered the civic art collections thanks to the bequest of the Friulian doctor, artist and collector Giuliano Mauroner (1919). Next to some paintings of the Tuscan school, one can once again admire some remarkable portraits from the 16th and 17th centuries and an interesting antique copy of the Portrait of an Old Man (Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C., USA) assigned to the Dutch Golden Age master Salomon Koninck (1609-1656);
room 12, in which, alongside refined portraits of 19th-century Friulian high society, some of the Gallery's best-known masterpieces are displayed: The Painter’s Model by Odorico Politi (1785-1846). the Lavagnolo Family by Giovanni Pagliarini (1808-1878) and the Flood by Filippo Giuseppini (1811-1862). These works have become part of the civic collections thanks to acquisitions and donations.
room 13, which is a tribute to the painter Odorico Politi through a selection of some of his portraits and paintings with religious and mythological themes. Among the most significant pieces is the effigy of Antonio Canova (1757-1822) that Politi, according to recent studies, painted a few months after the death of the famous Venetian sculptor. Next to it, visitors will have the chance to admire a terracotta Crucifix recently restored for its loan to the Canova: Sketching in Clay exhibition in Washington and Chicago. The restoration of the sculpture, which was donated to the Civic Art Collections in 1875 by Abbot Giovanni Battista Del Negro, has led scholars to believe that Canova modelled it in Rome at the end of the 18th or in the very early years of the 19th century.
The three rooms can be visited during the opening hours of the Galleria d'Arte Antica and the other Castle Museums, i.e. from Tuesday to Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (last admission 5.30 p.m.).