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Christianity and Art
Italy
ITALY
ORGANIZATIONS AND WEBSITES
ARC Italy is an ecumenical organisation which provides free guided tours to visitors in European churches and cathedrals during the summer months. xoomer.virgilio.it/arc_italia (It)
Artisti Cristiani Associati. Its members are active in the following fields of art ministry: Music, Painting, Christian Prophetic Dance, Literature, Media, TV, Art Counseling. Aims to promote the Gospel message, in its fullness, through the creativity, talent, and personal life of Artisti Cristiani Associati. Participates in Christian Artists Network. http://www.christianartists-network.org/members/?member=112668 (E)
L'Associazione "Guarino Guarini" per l’Arte Cristiana, Torino. Promotes understanding of and studies the liturgical and theological content of Christian art, especially below the Alps. Linked to Ars et Fides. Organises lectures, guided tours of churches etc.
Associazione Italiana Amici del Presepio (A.I.A.P.). Association dedicated to research, exhibitions, preservation etc. of nativity scenes.With a museum dedicated to nativity scenes in Rome. www.presepio.it/index.php (It)
Associazione Sant’ Anselmo. Association for the promotion of theological and religious culture. Organises lectures, conferences and exhibitions. https://www.chiesacattolica.it/enti-e-persone/associazione-santanselmo/ (It)
Diakonia of Beauty is a service to give back artists to the Church and to bring the Church to artists. http://www.fem-roma.org/des-projets-concrets/diaconie-de-la-beaute/ (It, E, Fr, Es, Por)
Icone Cristiane. Catholic website, dedicated to the development of iconography in Italy. https://www.iconecristiane.it/
Mount Tabor, Ecumenical Centre for Arts and Spirituality, Barga. The centre promotes visual and performing arts, organizes educational programs, and facilitates ecumenical exchange. Via Sacra, home of the Mount Tabor Ecumenical Centre in Barga, Italy, provides a context for reflection and discussion about faith and creativity, contemplation and communication, liturgy and beauty. http://www.mounttabor.it (E)
UCAI . Unione Cattolica Artisti Italiani. Association of Catholic Artists, with separate groups per region and a national conference. Issues journal Arte e Fede, 4 issues per year. https://www.ucainazionale.eu/ (It)
UCAI Roma. Group of UCAI in Rome. Runs Galleria La Pigna in Rome. http://www.ucairomadue.com/ (It)
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
Mount Tabor, Ecumenical Centre for Arts and Spirituality, Barga. The centre promotes visual and performing arts, organizes educational programs, and facilitates ecumenical exchange. Via Sacra, home of the Mount Tabor Ecumenical Centre in Barga, Italy, provides a context for reflection and discussion about faith and creativity, contemplation and communication, liturgy and beauty. http://www.mounttabor.it (E)
Orvieto Semester, linked to Gordon College, but not only for Gordon College students. The Orvieto program is designed to provide contemporary American students with a vivid experience of tradition in art, spirituality and worship, and civic life, and to inspire young artists of Christian faith to re-connect with the religious artistic traditions of the past to enable them to respond creatively to the past in order to shape a human future in art and culture. While the Orvieto Semester is clearly art-intensive, it is not restricted to students majoring in art. http://www.gordon.edu/geo/orvieto (E)
Pontifical University of Santa Croce, Rome. Ralf van Bühren (https://docenti.pusc.it/?u=buhren) is teaching at the School of Communication and at the School of Theology: History of Christian art, Architectural history, Visual rhetoric (Christian art as «locus theologicus»), History of liturgical art, Visual arts as communication media, Christian art and architecture in Rome (from antiquity to the present). The mentioned faculties offer the Bachelor’s and Licentiate Degree as well as the Doctorate, furthermore a Masters degree in Church History. University website: http://en.pusc.it/ (It,E)
Scuola d’Arte Cristiana ‘Beato Angelico’, Milano. A Catholic academy teaching architecture, painting, sculpture, liturgical arts and liturgy. Aiming to conserve and improve the cultural heritage of the Catholic church. For Italian and international students. http://www.scuolabeatoangelico.it (It,E)
GALLERIES
Milano:
- Galleria Ponte Rosso, Via Brera 2, Milano. Founded in 1973, the Ponte Rosso has long given space to Lombardy painters and the movements they started, from the early 1900s to the present day. Many Catholic artists. www.ponterosso.com (It)
Rome:
- Galleria La Pigna, Via della pigna 13/a Rome, gallery of U.C.A.I (Unione Cattolica Artisti Italiani). https://www.gallerialapigna.net/ (It)
MUSEUMS
Aosta:
Museo del Tesoro della Cattedrale, Piazza Papa Giovanni XXIII, Aosta. http://www.cattedraleaosta.it/it/Cattedrale+di+Aosta2/museo-del-tesoro-1
Ascoli Piceno:
- Diocesan Museum. www3.chiesacattolica.it/diocesiap/museo/informazioni.htm (It)
Assisi:
- Pro Civitate Museum, Assisi, Osservatorio Cristiana alla Cittadella di Assisi. With ca 2500 works by 20th-century and contamporary artists in the Galleria d'Arte Contemporanea della Pro Civitate Christiana, via degli Ancajani 3, Assisi, the Miserere series by Georges Rouault and ca 1500 works of old art. http://procivitate.assisi.museum (It)
Brescia:
- Museo d'ArteModerna-Associazione Arte e Spiritualità – Brescia. www.milanodabere.it/brescia/musei/museo_d_arte_moderna_associazione_arte_spiritualita.html (It)
Brixen/Bressanone:
- Diocesal Museum Hofburg, Hofburgplatz 2, Brixen. www.dioezesanmuseum.bz.it (It)
(Brixen lies in the middle of South-Tirol, but it is an autonomous province that belongs to Italy)
Cortona:
- Diocesan Museum.
Ferrara:
- Cathedral museum.
Florence:
- Cathedral Foundation Museum (Museo dell’Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore), Via della Canonica, Firenze. www.operaduomo.firenze.it/english/luoghi/museo.asp (E, It)
Frascineto:
Museo delle Icone e della Tradizione Bizantina.
Museo delle Icone e della Tradizione Bizantina.
Loreto:
Museo-Pinacoteca del Santuario di Loreto, Diocesan museum, with artworks from the Middle Ages till now.
Mantua:
- Diocesan museum.
Milan:
- Diocesan Museum; Chiostri di Sant'Eustorgio, c.so di Porta Ticinese. www.museodiocesano.it (It, E, F)
- Galleria d’Arte Sacra dei Contemporanei, Villa Clerici, Milano Niguarda. With modern and contemporary sacred art (Giacomo Manzù, Aldo Carpi, Floriano Bodini, Felice Carena, Francesco Messina, Enrico Manfrini, Libero Andreotti, Attilio Selva, Giuseppe Zigaina).
Montalcino:
- Diocesan Museum.
Montespertoli:
- Museo di Arte Sacra, Via S. Piero in Mercato, 233, 50025 Montespertoli (FI).
Napoli:
- Museo Diocesano Napoli, Largo Donnaregina, Naples. http://www.museodiocesanonapoli.com
- ARCA, Museo d’Arte Relogiosa Contemporanea, Piazza Santa Maria La Nova, 44 – Napels. The ARCA Museum aims to go beyond the classic concept of a museum display, with the aim of making contemporary interactions with artistic production of our time. It is divided into seven different locations in the ex-convent building and collects religious pieces of contemporary art from 1949 to date, made by national and international artists.
Reggello:
- Museo Masaccio d Arte Sacra, Via Casaromolo, 2/a - Cascia, 50066 Reggello.
Rome:
- Vatican Museums (Pinacoteca Vaticana). Among others:
* Sistine Chapel decorated by Michelangelo.
* Stanza della Segnatura decorated by Raphael.
* The Vatican Museum of Contemporary Religious Art. Artworks of 250 modern artists, not all Christian, but religious. Artists (among others): Ottone Rosai, Carlo Carrà, Mario Sironi, Aligi Sassu, Renato Guttuso, Maurice Utrillo, Giorgio Morandi, Filippo de Pisis, Umberto Boccioni, Giazomo Balla, Rodin, Chagall, Henry Morre, paul Klee, Kandinsky, Braque, De Chirico, Jacques Villon, Bernard Buffet, Kokoschka, Picasso, Bacon.
* Also the Ethnological Vatican Museum. Objects of above all a religious nature from four geographical areas (Asia, Oceania, Africa, America). This is flanked by a section called Missionary Synthesis which is a collection of works produced following mission.
On the website a lot of information about the museums and the various artworks: http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/MV_Home.html (E)
- Museo Tipologico Internazionale del Presepio, “Angelo Stefanucci”, Via Tor de’ Conti, 31/a – Roma – 00184. Museum with 3000 nativity scenes through the centuries.
San Casciano:
- Cathedral Museum.
Teramo:
- Museo Stauros d’Arte Sacra Contemporanea, 64048 San Gabriele – Isola del Gran Sasso (Teramo).
Torre Pellice (TO):
- Museo Valdese. Museum about the Waldensians who lived in this part of Italy. It has a historical section about the history of the Waldensians from the Middle Ages till now, an ethnographical section about Waldensian life, a section about the mission in Africa, and one with liturgical objects. Exhibitions about Italian and European Protestantism and about contemporary art. Paintings by Paolo Paschetto and Filippo Scroppo are part of the collection of the museum. https://museovaldese.org/ (E, D)
Trapani (Sicily):
- Diart, Museum of Religious Contemporary Art, Via Cosenza 90 Trapani. Permanent collection of works by many contemporary Catholic Italian artists. www.seminariotrapani.it/OPEREINESPOSIZIONE.html (I)
Udine:
- Museo d’Arte Sacra, Viale Ungherese 2, Udine.
Venice:
- Venice Diocesan Museum is a cultural institution for the Diocese, a home for both permanent and temporary exhibits and other cultural events. www.veneziaupt.org/pls/veneziaupt/v3_s2ew_consultazione.mostra_pagina?id_pagina=36 (It, E)
- Museo delle icone, Istituto Ellenico Venezia, Castello 3412.
Vicenza:
- Gallerie di Palazzo Leoni Montanari, Contra’ S.Corona, 25, Vicenza: Russian icons. www.gallerieditalia.com/it/collezioni/3/13 (It)
- Gallerie di Palazzo Leoni Montanari, Contra’ S.Corona, 25, Vicenza: Russian icons. www.gallerieditalia.com/it/collezioni/3/13 (It)
For an elaborate list with many more museums of Christian and religious art in Italy , see Associazione Musei Ecclesiastici Italiani (AMEI), https://www.museiamei.it/