Comunale Gallery of the modern and Contemporary
Art
(
Galleria Comunale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea )
The gallery was inaugurated in January 1995.lt
houses the works of the municipal collection datable
from 1883 to 1945 and is based in the former
seventeenth-century convent of the barefooted
Carmelites connected to the sixteenth-century Church
of S. Giuseppe a Capo le Case.
The collection was started in 1883 when the
City of Rome purchased several works of
historical and genre theme at the International
Exhibition. The first display of the collection,
which had been enriched with other paintings, took
place in 1925 in the rooms of the Palazzo Caffarelli.
The gallery was temporarily closed in 1938 and
was reopened in 1963 in the halls of the Palazzo
delle Esposizioni in Via Nazionale and
again closed with the contextual transfer of the
works to Palazzo Braschi.
In
the existing arrangement that is organized on three
floors of the abovementioned former convent, the
gallery houses more than four thousand works
by important artists mostly Italian from XIX
and XX centuries.
Some
of the works on display: the great triptych on a
table by Giulio Aristide Sartorio called ''Le
vergini savie e le vergini stolte" datable
between 1890 and 1891 and the most radiant landscape
"Carri di fieno a Terracina" from 1923; the
two oil paintings by Giacomo Balla "The doubt"
and "Portrait of Nathan" (politician and
mayor of Rome), both of inspiration and relevant to
the early production of the artist.
The
futurist movement is represented in several works by
Fortunato Depero "Polenta a fuoco duro"
(1924-1926), Enrico Trampolini ''La bullfight"
(1929-1930) and "Sailor in space" (1934), with a
clear study on the dynamics and decomposition of
color.
The
first nucleus of the so-called Roman School
-movement of clear expressionist definition - is
represented on the other hand by the works of
Scipione including his "11 Cardinal Decano" from
1930 and of Mario Mafai exhibited with the painting
"Demolizione in Via Giulia" from 1936.
The
still life genre is represented by such works as
that by Filippo De Pisis with fish and bottle from
1925 and that by Giorgio Morandi from 1932 with oil
on canvas, together with three others painted by the
same artist using the technique of etching on copper
in the thirties.
Giorgio De Chirico is represented by a single oil
painting portraying a "Contest of Gladiators"
(1933-1934), while his brother Antonio Savinio is
exhibited with the representation of Autumn from
1934 in oily tempera on canvas.
There
is a self-portrait from 1937 by Sicilian painter
Renato Guttuso, Mario Sironi is represented with an
oil painting entitled "The family" from 1927,
the many sculptures on display include the "Bust
of a Lady" (1907) and "Tete au nez casse,"
(1913) in bronze by Auguste Rodin, the "Portrait
of Anna Gemito" (1886) in terracotta and clay,
the "Bust of Cesare Correnti" (1878) in
plaster and the big "Horse" (1920-1926) in
wood by Vincenzo Gemito.
Address Via Francesco Crispi, 24
Visiting Hours Closed until autumn 2008
Telephone 06 4742848 - 4742909; Fax 06 4742912
For
Tours information
– private guided tours – special entrances, no waiting in
line - VIP services
www.tourinrome.com
www.vaticanmuseuminformation.com
www.vaticanmuseumticket.com
