Art and Nature coexist at Palazzo dei Musei. The Art Gallery tells the story of the evolution of art in Valsesia from the fifteenth to the twentieth century and houses the Francesco Franchi collection of Italian majolica and the Remogna collection.
The Calderini Natural History Museum, a true Valsesian Wunderkammer, preserves naturalistic, archaeological and demo-ethno-anthropological collections.
It is a journey to discover the Earth, from minerals to rocks up to the evidence of life in the past, the fossils, to continue on an evolutionary path that touches the animal kingdom. The Museum is part of the MUVV – Museums of Vercelli and Varallo network.
Of particular importance in the collection are the wooden statues created between the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th century. First of all, the group of eight life-size statues forming a Lamentation over the Dead Christ sculpted by the Milanese workshop of the De Donati brothers must be mentioned: it comes from the Sacro Monte, probably from the ancient chapel of the Deposition ( which justifies the name Stone of Anointing by which the group is known).
Also among the evidence of fifteenth-century Valsesian wooden sculpture we also find a beautiful wooden head (probable fragment of one of the primitive statues of the Sacro Monte) and an imposing Crucifix, discovered by Giovanni Testori in the Campertogno cemetery and by he attributed to the young Gaudenzio Ferrari (attribution now generally denied).
A later wooden sculpture (1660s), coming from the Sacro Monte, is the Flagellated Christ, perhaps referable to Giovanni Battista da Corbetta.
Among the main works of the 15th century, the Scarognino polyptych should be remembered, today attributed to the so-called Maestro di Crea, which testifies to the early attention of the Varallo aristocracy towards the Casalese workshop of Martino Spanzotti.
Also from the fifteenth century are the interesting detached frescoes, coming from local places of worship which found shelter in the art gallery.
Among them a Assumption of the Virgin and a Group of Musical Angels from a chapel of the Sacro Monte, doubtfully attributed to the workshop of Stefano Scotto, an artist believed to be Gaudenzio Ferrari’s master, and in which some scholars believe identify details that would testify to Gaudenzio Ferrari’s debut in Varallo.
Other detached frescoes from the second half of the 15th century, coming from the Church of San Marco in Varallo, are attributed to Giovanni de Campo and his workshop (Martyrdom of Saint Peter of Verona), and to Daniele De Bosis and his workshop (Stories of the Life of Saint Mark).
The collection of paintings by Tanzio da Varallo present in the art gallery has no counterpart in other museum institutions. You can admire the two famous Davide and Goliath, masterpieces by the artist from Alagna; but also the canvases depicting San Rocco (an example of the high artistic levels to which an “ex voto” can reach) coming from the parish church of Camasco, Sant’Antonio da Padova, The Madonna and Child and Saints Charles and Francis.
By Tanzio’s brother, Giovanni d’Enrico, a leading protagonist in the creation of the statues of the Sacro Monte, we find two groups of terracotta depicting the Flagellation and the Lamentation over the Dead Christ respectively.
Noteworthy is the collection of works by other artists who, at different times, worked on that center of artistic attraction that was the construction site of the Sacro Monte: we find paintings by Bernardino Lanino (Pentecost), by Melchiorre d’Enrico (Angels in adoration), by Giulio Cesare Luini, by Pier Francesco Gianoli, by Antonio Orgiazziand others.
An important part of the Art Gallery is made up of the collection of drawings and sketches (mostly coming from the Avondo family of painters) which ranges from the 16th to the 20th century and is represented by artists prominent figures such as Gaudenzio Ferrari, Tanzio da Varallo, Cerano, Morazzone, and others.
Palazzo dei Musei Pinacoteca di Varallo e Museo Calderini
Via Calderini 25
Varallo (Vercelli)
Piedmont – Italy