Palazzo Maffei Casa Museo

Palazzo Maffei Casa Museo is the result of the restoration of the most important Baroque building in the heart of Verona.

An itinerary with a "double soul", between ancient and modern art, which spans more than five centuries, with over 350 works in dialogue between the arts: painting, sculpture, applied arts and architecture. An important focus on Veronese painting, the passion for Italian Futurism and Metaphysics and authentic masterpieces of modern and contemporary art, with the great masters of the 20th century: from Picasso to De Chirico, from Mirò to Kandinsky, from Magritte to Fontana, Burri and Manzoni.

Inaugurated in Verona, in the ancient heart of the city, in two successive moments - on 14 February 2020 and on 25 October 2021, with the setting up of the second floor as well - Palazzo Maffei Casa Museo offers an eclectic itinerary among masterpieces and art curiosities, united by a kaleidoscopic passion for collecting.

The building, an evocative backdrop to Piazza delle Erbe, with its now resplendent Baroque façade, the imposing self-supporting spiral staircase, the stuccos and wall paintings on the noble floor, houses a collection of great interest ranging from the end of Greek - Roman art until today, the result of over fifty years of collecting passion of the Veronese entrepreneur and collector Luigi Carlon.

The architectural and exhibition design is by the Baldessari and Baldessari studio with the museographic idea of ​​Gabriella Belli, art historian and curator.

In the first part, characterized by the views over the square, the dialogue with the rooms on the main floor of the building is privileged to recreate the atmosphere of a private residence, but also the sense of a Wunderkammer and a synthesis between the arts, with thematic cores of ancient art in which the dialogue with modernity suddenly breaks through. The collection of ancient art boasts a sort of compendium of art history of the Scaliger area, with works by, among others, Altichiero and Liberale da Verona, Nicolò Giolfino, Zenone Veronese, Bonifacio de' Pitati, Antonio and Giovanni Badile, Felice Brusasorci, Jacopo Ligozzi, Alessandro Turchi, Marc'Antonio Bassetti, Antonio Balestra and Giambettino Cignaroli.

In the second part, dedicated to the twentieth century and contemporary art, the intention was instead to create a real museum gallery, where many masterpieces stand out, in which the guest can perceive the passion for Futurism and Metaphysics and meet some of the greatest artists of the twentieth century: Boccioni, Balla, Severini, but also Picasso, de Chirico, Casorati and Morandi alongside Magritte, Max Ernst, Duchamp and Modigliani. And again Afro, Vedova, Fontana, Burri, Tancredi, Manzoni and many others, up to the most current instances, with Pistoletto, Cattelan, Erlich, Nannucci, Sassolino, etc.

On the second floor, a further 8 exhibition rooms and a project room offer an itinerary that invites reflection, thanks also to the installations by contemporary artists such as Chiara Dynys, Eliseo Mattiacci, who died in 2019, and the Dutch Daan Roosgaarde. The rooms - which offer great meetings, from Antonio Canova to Mario Schifano, from Alberto Burri to Fausto Melotti up to Robert Indiana, with the iconic Hope - each represent an entity in themselves. Individual concluded episodes of a vast narration, no longer entrusted to the direction of art history, but to empathy and meditation around eternal or urgently topical themes: the relationship between man and the cosmos, nature and the infinity, environmental sustainability.

From private vision, from the intimacy of daily residence, this heritage of art has become a wealth for the city and the public, in a highly symbolic building such as Palazzo Maffei, whose original late-medieval nucleus stands in the area of ​​the Capitolium, the votive complex dedicated to the Capitoline Triad, built when Verona became a Roman municipality (49 BC), evidence of which still remains in the basement of the building.

FAQ

Can Palazzo Maffei be visited in its entirety?
Of the main building you can visit the house museum, which houses a private art collection which is divided into 27 rooms.

Is it possible to take photographs inside Palazzo Maffei?
Amatorial photos and videos can be taken except in areas marked with a prohibition sign.

What works are on display at Palazzo Maffei?
The Luigi Carlon Collection is rich in extraordinary works from antiquity to the present day: paintings, sculptures, engravings, drawings, miniatures, old books, but also pottery, bronzes, ivories, objects of daily life such as furniture and decorative objects.

Is the monument accessible to people with disabilities?
The museum is completely accessible. Lift available.

Is it possible to access to the monument with animals?
It is not possible to enter the monument with animals, except in cases of guide dogs with muzzle accompanying a disable guest, prior showing the disable pass.