Castelvecchio Museum

Beginning in 1958, under the direction of Licisco Maganato, a new organisation of the entire building was planned, to restore the value of the notable historical and artistic patrimonies. This critical and historical revision favoured authenticity, and thus eliminated the false contexts created in the previous renovation. The task of restoration and museum installation was entrusted to the architect Carlo Scarpa, whose highly original solution is universally recognised as one of the finest examples of museum renovation of post-war Italy.

The first room in the sculpture gallery houses sculpture, reliefs and epigraphs from the late Medieval and Romanesque periods. Of particular interest is the Sarcophagus of Sts. Sergius and Bacchus, dated 1179, which depicts on the upper section two archers shooting an eagle and the two saints in profile holding palms of martyrdom. Reliefs on the coffin recount their story, from the prayer to God to the renunciation of the idolatry and the consequent death sentence.

Installed in the second room is a group of statues from the first half of the fourteenth century, dramatically arranged like figures emerging from behind stage scenery. These remarkable works, which were often part of monumental groups, are attributed to the so-called “Master of Sant’Anastasia” circle, and represent perhaps the most original period in the history of Veronese sculpture. Carved in “pietra gallina”, a soft sandstone quarried in nearby Avesa, these figures were originally painted.

This image depicts an extremely rare fourteenth-century jewel found in 1938 in Via Gaetano Trezza in Verona: it is a splendid fibula of precious and semi-precious stones (“pietre dure”) and pearls set in gold. The elegant star form is decorated, in particular, with alternating amethysts and emeralds arranged in large and small rays surrounded by white oriental pearls. This object was probably a gift of the Venetian Republic to Mastino II della Scala.
The weapons hall displays a collection of cold-steel arms dating from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries.

The painting collections offers an overview of Veronese painting from the medieval epoch through the eighteenth century. Among the most representative works is John with Drawing of a Clown by Francesco Caroto (Verona, 1480 - circa 1555). It is a portrait, remarkable for the presence of the childlike drawing, that documents the influence on Caroto of Leonardesque works seen during his stays in Milan.

CASTELVECCHIO MUSEUM
Corso Castelvecchio 2
Tel. 045.594734
Fax 045. 8019729
E-mail: castelvecchio@comune.verona.it - www.comune.verona.it/Castelvecchio/cvsito/index.htm

Opening time
from tuesdy to sunday from 8.30 a.m to 7.30 p.m.
Monday from 1.45 p.m. to 7.30 p.m