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MAR – Ravenna Art Museum

Via di Roma, 13 - Ravenna

Art lovers cannot miss a visit to the MAR – RAVENNA ART MUSEUM.

With exhibitions, festivals, educational laboratories and a collection of modern and ancient art, this museum is one of the beating hearts of the city’s cultural life.

The MAR, once called Pinacoteca Comunale (municipal art gallery), became an official museum institution in 2002, relaunching the city’s cultural and activities alongside important conservation and research initiatives, such as the International Mosaic Documentation Centre (CIDM), as well as significant temporary exhibitions.

The museum is located in the area of the Public Gardens, in the 16th-century monastery known as Loggetta Lombardesca, which was once part of the adjacent abbey of Santa Maria in Porto.

From Napoleon’s invasions onwards, this building served different purposes, until the restoration works carried out in the ’70s.

Today, we can still see the original structure and rooms, and the elegant loggia with five arches, which has become the symbol of the museum’s architecture.

The Art gallery – from the 14th to the 21st century

The museum hosts more than 300 paintings and sculptures that cover a time span between the 16th and the 19th century, as well as a large collection of small-size boards datable between the 14th and 15th century.

This is the first nucleus of works that opened the way for the civic art gallery in Ravenna in 1892.

This incredible treasure was enriched over the years thanks to private donations.

The gravestone of Guidarello Guidarelli (focus), made by Tullio Lombardo in 1525, is a very important piece of the museum.

Giorgio Vasari’s painting Lamentation over Christ Deposed from the Cross (1548), commissioned by the Monastery of Classe, is of fundamental importance, as well as the great canvas of St. Romuald by Guercino, magnificent for its colours and composition.

Thanks to the recent rearrangement, the art gallery is also open to modernity. You will thus find neoclassical landscapes by Giambattista Bassi, examples of Tuscan purism by Antonio Ciseri and symbolist works by Vittorio Guaccimanni and Domenico Baccarini.

The contemporary collection features a female nude by Gustav Klimt, whereas the second half of the 20th century is documented by the most important names of Roman Pop Art, such as Mario Schifano and Tano Festa, as well as by the the great names of Abstract art, such as Luigi Veronesi, Alighiero Boetti, Dadamaino, Olivieri, Castellani, Griffa, Mondino, Cattelan and Banksy.

The collection is dynamic and always open to new acquisitions and works that continuously enrich the exhibition.

Modern and contemporary mosaics

Thanks to scholar Giuseppe Bovini – who donated the original nucleus with the aim of highlighting the refined technique of the mosaic artists from Ravenna adjusting it to the spirit of contemporary painting – the museum also hosts a charming collection of contemporary mosaics.

The exhibition displays names of the likes of Guttuso, Capogrossi, Vedova and Chagall, entrusted in 1951 to draw the sketches of future mosaic works.

The collection, featuring a brand-new and fascinating rearrangement inaugurated in May 2023, is constantly enhanced with new works, which, even though they are made of mosaics, go beyond the traditional techniques.

CONTACTS

FOCUS

The statue of Guidarello Guidarelli

Born in Ravenna between 1450 and 1460, Guidarello Guidarelli was appointed a knight by Frederick III in 1468 and in 1500, Cesare Borgia’s commander. He died in Imola one year later, in 1501.

According to a historical witness, the commander fell victim to a revenge plot organised by Cesare Borgia himself and carried out by Paolo Orsini.

According to a more solid source, the murder was committed for a much more trivial reason — the restitution of a shirt.

His body was brought back to Ravenna and buried in a sepulchre in the Basilica of San Francesco, in the Chapel of san Liberio.

Just before dying, Guidarello had also earmarked 600 ducats for the creation of a sculpture to adorn his burial place. Originally, the tombstone rested on an ancient sarcophagus inside the chapel of San Liberio. It was later moved to the Quadrarco of Braccioforte area.

In 1972 it was finally moved to the second floor of the new premises of the Ravenna Art Museum, where you can still admire it today.

The statue of the warrior is accompanied by a legend: every woman who touches his marble lips will be married within the year, or, if she’s already married, she will be pregnant within the following twelve months.

Over the last two centuries, an estimated five million women have succumbed to the temptation of kissing the marble knight. For this reason, to prevent repeated contact from damaging the statue, it was even decided to hide it and replace it with a copy.

Today, after a careful restoration, it is forbidden to approach the slab and touch it.

Reproductions of Guidarello’s marble slab are exhibited in different parts of the world – from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Further information

Opening times

HOURS

From Tuesday to Saturday: 9 am – 6 pm
Sundays and public holidays: 10 am – 7 pm
Festive opening: 1st November

Last admission: 1/2 h before closing time.

Closing time

The museum is closed on MondaysDecember 25th and 1st January.

Entrance fee

Adults: € 6
Concessions: € 5 / € 3
MAR CARD: €10 (Card which gives the right to unlimited entry to the permanent collections of the museum, from the ancient one with the new layout of the cells, to the contemporary section with the works of Zorio, Banksy and Cattelan, the collection of contemporary mosaics, the new acquisitions of the mosaic works, Sacral and the installation in the cloister of the museum by Edoardo Tresoldi)
The Mar Card is nominative and is valid for one year from the activation date and entitles you to a rate reduction for temporary exhibitions.

For more information on concessions: www.mar.ra.it

 

Free of charge

Free admission for people with disabilities and caregivers, children up to 13 years of age, invalids, ICOM, teachers with school groups, journalists and tourist guides with ID cards, people over 80 years old, AIMC card holders.

Free entry for under 26 on Wednesdays.

Accessibility

The museum is accessible to people with physical disabilities.

How to get there

The museum is located just behind the Public Gardens, about 500 metres away from the railway station.

On foot/by bike: the museum is easily reachable on foot or by bike from the nearby railway station.

By bus: bus parking area about 150 metres away from the museum, in via Santi Baldini. For more information about bus routes: www.startromagna.it

By car: many parking areas near the museum. For more information, click HERE.

A cura della Redazione Locale
E-mail: turismo@comune.ravenna.it

Last edit:21 October 2024

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