Italian travel Articles By Jane Maripose

Articles Index: Udine, A stroll around, Where to stay…, …And to eat, Events,

Art lovers will find plenty to keep them busy in Udine: the Castle Museums (on Castle Hill, tel. 0432/271591) boast a fine collection of archaeological finds, galleries dedicated to ancient art, drawings and prints, the Friuli Photography Museum and the photographic archives, and shows and exhibitions are often held there.

Then there is the Modern Art Gallery (Piazzale Paolo Diacono 22,  tel. 0432/295891; gamud@comune.udine.it), which is home to a collection of over four thousand paintings, sculptures and drawings from the mid-nineteenth century up to the present day and includes names such as Modigliani, Vedova, the local Friulian contemporary artist Zigaina, and the brothers Dino, Mirko and Afro Basaldella, to whom an area is dedicated.

The Gallery hosts a number of particular collections such as the twentieth-century Italian artworks donated by Maria Luisa Astaldi (Sironi, Morandi, Guttuso, De Chirico), the works donated by American artists (De Kooning, Andre) to show their solidarity following the 1976 earthquake, and the international-style engravings donated by Fabio Mauroner.

Visitors often come from all over Italy to see the Diocesan Museum and the Tiepolo Galleries (Piazza Patriarcato 1, tel. 0432/25003, info@musdioc-tiepolo.it; www.musdioc-tiepolo.it), housed in the eighteenth-century Archbishop’s Palace, which was once the residence of the patriarchs of Aquileia.

The interior of the Palace is an extraordinarily spectacular testament to the skill of Giambattista Tiepolo: from the broad ceremonial staircase with the fresco depicting the Caduta degli angeli ribelli, to the Giudizio di Re Salomone in the Sala Rossa, or red room, and the Galleria degli Ospiti (Guest Gallery).

By: Laura Sebastianutti

Photo by: Archivio fotografico dell’Agenzia TurismoFVG

Filed under: Focused on Udine Tagged: | art museum, castello udine, chirico, friuli italie, friuli venezia giulia, giambattista tiepolo, giorgio chirico, museum of art, museums exhibitions, raffaello, raphael, salone del parlamento, sironi, udine friuli, udine tourism, universita udine