{"id":29115,"date":"2025-11-12T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/areademo.beculture.it\/?p=29115"},"modified":"2025-10-26T10:08:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T09:08:12","slug":"what-to-see-at-palazzo-maffei","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/areademo.beculture.it\/en\/what-to-see-at-palazzo-maffei\/","title":{"rendered":"From the historical Avant-Gardes to the Trecento: the story of Palazzo Maffei"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Majestic and elegant, Palazzo Maffei stands like a theatrical backdrop at the end of the enchanting Piazza delle Erbe, in the heart of Verona. Its 17th-century fa\u00e7ade, animated by lively Baroque decorations, introduces interiors filled with the treasures of Luigi Carlon\u2019s collection. <\/strong>An entrepreneur and passionate collector, Carlon has transformed the ancient Maffei residence into a true contemporary Wunderkammer<\/a><\/em>, where the ancient and the modern meet, revealing unexpected and evocative connections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"veduta
Veduta di Piazza delle Erbe<\/em>, Carlo Ferrari (il Ferrarin)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A boundless, kaleidoscopic collection<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For years, Carlon kept in his bedroom a painting by Carlo Ferrari, known as il Ferrarin (1813\u20131871): a Veduta di piazza delle Erbe<\/em> in which Palazzo Maffei stands out against the backdrop of the city\u2019s everyday life. Almost a prefiguration of what would become the home of his vast art collection, previously kept within his private walls.
Since 2020, the Casa Museo Palazzo Maffei<\/a> has welcomed visitors to explore the spirit of this refined collector<\/strong> through paintings, sculptures, and objects of applied art from different ages and regions. It is a unique spectacle, not only for the rarity of the artefacts displayed, but also for the originality of the display itself. Those expecting a chronological layout will be disappointed. The rigid sequential approach has been set aside: instead, the rooms follow thematic affinities<\/strong>, where masterpieces from distant eras engage in dialogue, suggesting powerful resonances and new impressions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Palazzo<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

An Eclectic and Stimulating Display<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0Among the most striking combinations is Lucio Fontana\u2019s<\/strong> Concetto spaziale<\/em><\/strong> (1964\u20131965) paired with the Crocifissione<\/em> by the Second Master of San Zeno (c. 1320\u20131360). A bodily yet immaterial dimension connects the two works: a wounded canvas, like Christ\u2019s wounded body; an \u201cother\u201d space opening in Fontana\u2019s cuts and in the gilded background of the 14th-century triptych.<\/strong>
A more intimate link unites Arturo Martini\u2019s white Maternit\u00e0<\/em> (1932\u20131933), a sculpture in Finale stone, with the Sacre Famiglie of the 14th and 15th centuries in the room dedicated to the Mater amorevolissima<\/em>.
Of an entirely different tone is the \u201cwar room<\/strong>,\u201d where the horrors of conflict are evoked literally and metaphorically \u2014 from battle scenes by Antonio Calza and Matteo Stom to Alberto Burri\u2019s Tutto Nero<\/em> from the Combustioni<\/em> series (1957), and Piccolo miracolo<\/em> by Marino Marini (1951).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Palazzo<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The exhibition also features fine craftsmanship and pieces of design<\/strong>, such as those brought together in the Salotto blu. Here, dark, refined wallpaper provides a backdrop for Chinese lacquered furniture, 19th-century decorative objects, and paintings from the American Avant-Garde. Indeed, the Historical Avant-Gardes are among the key protagonists of the Carlon Collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Highlights of Palazzo Maffei<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An entire section of Palazzo Maffei is devoted to the 20th century and brings together all the leading figures of the Historical Avant-Gardes<\/strong>: Futurism, Dadaism, Metaphysical Art, Surrealism, and Magic Realism \u2014 as well as Pop Art, Arte Povera, Abstraction, and major independent artists such as Giorgio Morandi.
The collection includes everyone: from Giovanni Boldini<\/strong> to Mimmo Paladino<\/strong>, via Ren\u00e9 Magritte<\/strong>, Vassilij<\/strong> Kandinskij<\/strong>, Andy<\/strong> Warhol<\/strong>, Amedeo<\/strong> Modigliani<\/strong>, Joan<\/strong> Mir\u00f3<\/strong>, and Max<\/strong> Ernst<\/strong>. Carlon\u2019s interest in art \u2014 especially in that which innovates and disrupts \u2014 is unmistakable.
In a recent interview, he declared that the artist he could never part with is Picasso<\/strong>, precisely because of his constant capacity for reinvention. The Spanish master, father of Cubism, is represented by two paintings: T\u00eate de femme<\/em> (1943), portraying \u2014 with extreme formal synthesis \u2014 Dora Maar (1907\u20131997) \u2014 photographer, painter, poet, and Picasso\u2019s companion between 1935 and 1943 \u2014 and Femme assise<\/em> (1953), inspired by the artist Fran\u00e7oise Gilot (1921\u20132023), with whom he had a decade-long relationship and two children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"palazzo<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Carlon\u2019s taste for provocation \u2014 an aspect dear to the collector \u2014 emerges in works such as Marcel Duchamp\u2019s<\/strong> Bo\u00eete-en-Valise<\/em>, which with subtle irony proposes a portable version of the museum. His \u201cbox in a suitcase\u201d contains reproductions of his masterpieces, including the Fontana<\/em>, L.H.O.O.Q<\/em>., and the Portabottiglie<\/em>: a multiplication of ready-mades alluding to the transience of life and art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"palazzo<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Verona and the introduction to the world of art<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Equally rich is the section dedicated to Veronese painting<\/strong>. Indeed, the Carlon Collection began precisely with local artists of his time: the first painting he purchased, as a very young man with savings from his job at the bank, was Moulin Rouge<\/em> by his friend Eugenio Degani, a Veronese painter.<\/strong>
It didn\u2019t take long for his gaze to expand, also moving back in time: landscape painters<\/a> were added, including Gaspare Vanvitelli<\/strong>, with his Veduta dell\u2019Adige nei pressi di San Giorgio in Braida<\/em> (1705). Then came Baroque painters such as Simone Brentana and Gregorio Lazzarini, whose monumental Strage degli innocenti<\/em> (16th\u201317th century) and Mos\u00e8 fa scaturire l\u2019acqua dalla roccia<\/em> can now be admired across entire walls \u2014 and further back, to the Trecento.<\/p>\n\n\n