Art In Italy

No matter where you go in Italy, you will find art. Sculptures, paintings, pottery, mosaics -- treasures of incalculable value and more than one could ever see in a lifetime.

Much of Italy's art is tied to religion. Many of the great Italian artists were actually commissioned by the Catholic church to paint or sculpt religious subjects including Italy's greatest artists, Michelangelo, Leonardo DaVinci and Raphael. In fact, patrons like the Catholic church and the Medici family, that at one time was stronger and more powerful than the Catholic church, kept hundreds if not thousands of artists from becoming starving artists of their times by virtue of their commissions for churches and palaces throughout Italy.

If your vacation in Italy is all about Italian art, Venice is a good place to start at the Galleria dell’Accademia. Feast on the art of Venetian masters Titian, Tintoretto, and Bellini. View dazzling mosaics at the Basilica di San Marco, some dating to the 12th century. For a change of pace, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection is one of Italy's most important museums for modern art and contains some priceless pieces by some of Europe's and America's most famous artists including Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, and Alexander Calder, as well as the better known 20th century Italian artists.

The next stop on your art tour of Italy is Florence, cradle of the Italian Renaissance and home to one of the great art museums in Italy, the Uffizi Gallery. Founded by the Medici's, the museum contains countless treasures by the Italian masters including Botticelli, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci. The original statue of David, Michelangelo's colossal figure that has been an icon of Florence for centuries, is housed in the Galleria dell’Accademia along with some of the artist's unfinished pieces. In what was once a prison, the Bargello is to sculpture what the Uffizi is to paintings. Works by Donatello, della Robbia, Michelangelo and other great sculptures of the Renaissance are not to be missed along with the sculptures displayed outdoors in the Piazza di Signoria.

Ovieto is not a destination most people consider when they think about Italian art. This Umbrian town built on a high plateau and reachable by a funicular is worthy of a stop on your way to Rome to view the frescoes of Signorelli in the towns Duomo (cathedral). You won't be disappointed.

Rome, the Eternal City, boasts numerous art museums but two of the largest and most famous will occupy a great deal of your time.

The Villa Borghese, a 17th-century villa with a world-class art collection, is impressive. Here you can admire some of Bernini’s most famous sculptures and paintings by Caravaggio, Titian, and Rubens. The gardens of the Villa Borghese are works of art unto themselves and provide a peaceful retreat in Rome's pandemonium.

Vatican City is as much about art as it is about religion, and the Vatican Museums are among the greatest museums in the world. Their immense collection is over 500 years old and contain some of the most renowned classical sculptures and most important masterpieces of Renaissance art in the world. The 12,000 sq. ft. ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is Michelangelo's crowning work as is his Pieta which sits just inside the main entrance of St. Peter's Basilica. Everywhere you turn in this city within a city, you will find masterpieces of art in all its forms. You could easily spend days discovering the art of Italy in Vatican City.

More than any other country in Europe, Italy and art are almost synonimous. No other country has produced both the quanity or the quality that Italy has over the centuries beginning with the early Eruscans and continuing to modern day masters. Should you choose an art tour for your vacation in Italy, be sure to allow enough time. Even with time on your side, you will only see a fraction of the art in Italy.