Fresques de l'abbaye Sant'Antonio di Ranverso réalisées par Giacomo Jacqueiro © Michele Vacchiano- Shutterstock.com .jpg
Fresques de l'église Santa Maria delle Grazie de Varallo réalisées par Gaudenzio Ferrari © Gaudenzio Ferrari - Shutterstock.Com.jpg

Origins

Italian art has its roots in ancient Greece. Under the Roman Empire, it was primarily at the service of politics and religion. The tradition of wall frescoes and mosaics is a direct legacy of Byzantine culture. After the signing of the Edict of Milan in 313, authorizing everyone to worship the divine in his own way, the paleochristian art comes out of the catacombs to embellish the basilicas. A period of conflicts followed, the leaders fled under the invasion of the Huns and then the Lombards. The conversion of the latter opened the way to sculptural innovations in northern Italy. At the dawn of the Middle Ages, this part of the boot remained a place of exchange of unprecedented wealth. The Piedmontese school flourished between the 14th and 16th centuries. Some of its masterpieces are gathered at the Galleria Sabauda in Turin. It is one of the richest art galleries in Italy. Among more than 700 works by Italian and Flemish masters, there are works by Fra Angelico, Botticelli(The Virgin and Child), Mantegna, Veronese, Rembrandt(Portrait of an Old Man)...

Gothic : Jacquerio

The Gothic style developed in France in the 12th century, then crossed the border under the Visconti family. The transalpine influence is felt in the elegance of the master Giacomo Jacquerio. Born in Turin around 1375, he exercised his talent as a painter in Northern Italy, in Savoy and as far as Geneva. He entered the service of Amedeo VIII of Savoy and frequented French and Venetian Gothic artists (Gregorio Bonio). At the height of his art, he painted the frescoes of the Abbey of Sant'Antonio di Ranverso (Turin 1450); their discovery in 1912 consecrated his talent. The presbytery houses his Madonna on her throne, surrounded by rural scenes of remarkable realism; other works by the artist can be seen in the ribbed vaults of the sacristy (Ascent to Calvary, the Four Evangelists, Prayer in the Vegetable Garden). His art also adorns the castles of Pignerol in Piedmont, St. Peter of Pianezza near Turin and the Castello della Manta, near Saluces. The paintings in the Hall of the Barons, belonging to the Courtly Gothic style, are attributed to Jacquerio or to Jacques Yverni, depending on the source. The cycle of the Preux and the Heroines is the work of an anonymous artist called the Maestro del Castello della Manta. The life-size figures are shown in a profusion of plant motifs. Like his contemporaries, Jacquerio exercised his talent in the fields of miniature and painting, such as the Life of St. Peter housed in the Palazzo Madama - Museo Civico d'Arte Antica.

After his death in Turin in 1453, Jacquiero's influence was colossal. His sons passed on his teachings, as did his many students, among them Giovanni Canavesio and Guglielmetto Fantini da Chieri.

Also worth seeing in Piedmont is the long wall of frescoes in the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Varallo (15th century) on the Sacro Monte di Varallo. The scenes from the life of Christ are by Gaudenzio Ferrari (1484-1546).

Renaissance and Baroque

The great princely families dominate the Italian cities of the Renaissance. This turning point is characterized by several pictorial changes that revolutionize the medieval canons. Masaccio invented the single vanishing point, thus modifying the rendering of perspective, volumes and proportions. During this decisive period of openness to the world and to knowledge, secular subjects attracted more and more artists.

The great religious crisis of the 16th century opened the way to the Baroque. Artists explored exaggerations and contrasts in painting as well as in sculpture. The sculptor Bernini and the painter Caravaggio are the great representatives. Northern Italy, Venice, Turin and Genoa were strongly affected by the Baroque style until the 18th century.

In the city of Casale Monferrato, with its numerous baroque buildings, the cathedral, the churches and the palaces are home to many works. The Muse Civico e Gipsoteco Bistolfi, located in the old monastery of Santa Croce, is decorated with frescoes by Guglielmo Caccia. Nicknamed the "Moncalvo" (1568-1625), he marked the decades of the counter-reformation. Paintings, ceramics and wooden sculptures complete the visit. Don't miss the portraits by Pietro Francesco Guala (1698-1757) in the Art Gallery.

Do you appreciate religious art but find the door closed? The sesame that gives access to the churches is called Chiese a porte aperte. The app "Chiese a porte aperte" allows you to access dozens of buildings and their works throughout the region in just a few clicks.

Vanguard

Turin is the first Italian municipality to have established a public collection of modern art. With its thousands of paintings, sculptures, installations and videos by artists, the GAM or Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea

now covers the 19th and 20th centuries. Among the works on display are those of Canova, Modgliani, Picasso, Soulages, Chirico and Fontana, as well as the main Italian creative movements of the last two centuries, such as the Novecento group and Milanese futurism.

Turin has been the capital of contemporary art since the 1960s with the birth of Arte Povera. This adventure, as much intellectual as artistic, was opposed to the great American currents that were resolutely formalist. Faced with pop art, its emulators responded with a poor art that relied on instinct, the ephemeral and modest materials. In 1966, as Turin became the most industrialized city in the country, the Sperone Gallery presented the exhibition Arte abitabile, which brought together the artists Giovanni Anselmo (born 1934), Alighiero e Boetti (1940-1994) and Michelangelo Pistoletto (born 1933). In Rome, the gallery L'Attico defends Janis Kounellis (1936-2017) and Pino Pascali (1935-1968). The current involves twelve official artists who are, to say the least, radical, including Mario Merz who integrates neon tubes in place of the traditional canvas. Pistoletto extended his manifesto with the development of the Città dell'arte in Biella, renamed Cittadellarte - Fondazione Pistoletto. In 2000, he moved into this vast renovated complex, which now hosts artists in residence, a restaurant, and sees the formation of new trends.

Close to Arte Povera, the photographer Claudio Abate (born in Rome in 1943, died in 2017) pursues his aesthetic research in parallel with his activity as a photojournalist. His black and white images provide an exceptional testimony to the cultural effervescence of Italy in the 1960s and 1970s. The following decade was one of experimentation with color. He established his reputation with his portraits of artists. Marina Abramović, Jannis Kounellis, Mario Merz, Pino Pascali and Giuseppe Penone pose in front of his lens.

High place of the contemporary art

All of Northern Italy shows its attachment to contemporary art. Cultural foundations are multiplying in the region: Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Fondazione Merz. An imposing avant-garde cultural center is opening in a former sorting station, the OGR - Officine Grandi Riparazioni. In another register, the Italian Center of Photography in Turin Camera promotes Italian and international photographers. Perhaps the best known, the Castello di Rivoli - Museum of Contemporary Art is housed in a former royal residence 15 km from Turin. Its permanent collection, which is sometimes confusing, covers the major trends in contemporary art. Still looking for originality? Designed by the artist Piero Gilardi, the PAV - Parco di Arte Vivente is defined as an experimental place where the installations dialogue with the environment. Both an open-air museum and an interactive art lab, it is the first permanent outdoor facility built in an urban context in Italy.

MAU and Artissima

On the street side, Turin is still at the forefront of innovation! The first permanent outdoor venue dedicated to street art was founded in the capital of Piedmont. The MAU - Museo d'Arte Urbana proposes a route of 180 works scattered in the Campidoglio district. Walking through the city, it is not uncommon to come across some of the best street art: in the area of the train station, the portrait by the Portuguese Vhils near Plazza Nizza; the giant bear by Bordalo II near the Teatro Colosseo; at the bus terminal in Via Fiochetto, look out for the fresco by Ericalcaine and the one by ROA In the Barriera di Milano neighborhood, Millo painted 13 walls after winning a competition with his Habitat

project. Pixel Pancho's frescoes dot the city. Normal, it is the child of the country! The artist born in 1984 discovered urban art during his studies in Valencia. He experiments with all kinds of media, and travels around Europe to embellish the walls on his way. Humans, robots and androids are among his favorite themes that he also uses in his watercolors.

Among the impressive variety of art galleries in Turin, three addresses are worth mentioning. The Franco Noero Gallery presents stars of contemporary art from around the world (Sam Falls, Francesco Vezzoli...) in its two spaces: the first in an industrial style in Barriera, the second in a sublime 18th century building.

Since the end of the 1990s, the Guido Costa Project gallery has been defending Boris Mikhailov and Miroslav Tichy alongside the younger generation of Italian artists. The daughter of the painter Salvo Mangione runs the Norma Mangione Gallery where she promotes young talents.

Want to see everything at once? The art fair Artissima is a meeting point for all facets of contemporary art in Turin. More than 150 local and international galleries, street art events, thematic bike tours and a host of other original initiatives will delight those hungry for discovery!