The exhibition area houses the remarkable Collection of paintings and a selection of graphic works, belonging to Fondazione. On the first floor are on display graphic works and paintings of XV up to XIX century; the second floor houses paintings of XX century and the Donation Cuccio Alesi Cartaino; on the ground floor two rooms are dedicated to the Donation Rizzo Amorelli.
Pinacoteca
The Paintings Collection is divided into three main parts: Ancient Painting, with the main characters of Baroque style in seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: Mattia Preti, Luca Giordano, Bernardo Strozzi, Francesco Solimena, Salvador Rosa; the 1800s, with the landscape’s topic in the wake of Grand Tour voyagers, and topics referring to Realism and Naturalism, with a specific focus on the greatest leading artists in Sicily: Francesco Lojacono, Antonino Leto, Michele Catti and Ettore De Maria Bergler; the 1900s, deepening a cultural overview of that age, with its conflicts and contradictions, through the works of sicilian and italian artists: Aleardo Terzi, Camillo Innocenti; Mario Sironi, Filippo De Pisis, Ottone Rosai, Carlo Carrà, Arturo Tosi, Ugo Attardi, Fausto Pirandello, Renato Guttuso, Armando Pizzinato, Corrado Cagli.
Along the exhibition itinerary, you can find archive windows, with the goal of analyze an author or a period, also comparing with other works.
Donation
DONATION ETTORE DE MARIA BERGLER, 1990
A very important core of the Fondazione Sicilia’s collection is represented by the donation of 23 works by Ettore De Maria Bergler, according to his heirs’s wishes. It consists of paintings referring to studies on light’s effects and portraits, taking on a prominent role in De Maria’s production.
DONATION MICHELE DIXITDOMINO, 1990 AND 2001
The donation of Michele Dixitdomino, desired by the artist himself, includes 36 works realized by Ettore De Maria Berglers’s pupil between 20s and 40s.
DONATION RIZZO AMORELLO, 2001
Thanks to Alba Rizzo Amorello, Pippo Rizzo’s daughter, Fondazione Sicilia can boast a remarkable collection of paintings and items, evidencing varied phases of the career of a gifted sicilian artist in the twentieth century.
DONATION ALESI CUCCIO CARTAINO, 2008
The donation, on purpose of Mrs. Angela Alesi Cuccio Cartaino, counts 44 works by well-known artists between late nineteenth century and mid-twentieth century. Point of excellence are Giovanni Boldini’s works.
Donation Romano La Vecchia, 2009
The Romano La Vecchia donation has enriched the collection of Fondazione Sicilia of 18 works by Giovanni Fattori, one of the greatest exponent of Macchiaioli artistic trend, realized in the last years of his career.
Graphic works
The Collection of Graphic Works includes a wide range of geographic and topographic maps, landscapes and bird’s eye views of cities; a rich selection of the graphic production realized between sixteenth and nineteenth century, depicting historical events, local customs and traditions, old crafts and religious celebrations.
This voyage starts by the XVI century with portrayals of the island depicted by modern geography’s founding fathers, Ortelio and Mercatore, going through the Dutch Blaeu and the Bohemian Hollar in XVII century, until Seutter, one of the greatest cartographer of the XVIII century: a pictorial history retracing the evolution of geographic knowledge of Sicily and its cities.