Giovanni Segantini and the mountain painters

The exhibition presents a selected itinerary which focuses on the paintings by Giovanni Segantini, one of the most important artists from the Italian Divisionist movement and who elevated the mountain landscape to be his main subject, offering personal and innovative interpretations both in style and poetics.

The selection of works showcased by this exhibition identifies and puts forward one of the many possible routes into mountain landscape painting between the 19th and 20th century, restricting its attention to Italian artists and focusing geographically on works from the Alps.
Giovanni Segantini’s works, selected from a specific period of the painter’s artistic experience - his earlier years spent in Brianza - are placed alongside the production of over fifty artists, starting from Vittore Grubicy, Emilio Longoni, Baldassarre Longoni, Carlo Fornara, Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo, Lorenzo Delleani, Cesare Maggi, Leonardo Roda, Italo Mus, until Fortunato Depero.

Next to the works of these great masters, there are also paintings from at least three generations of other artists who are not as well-known but have, nevertheless, established a dialogue with these great painters, taking part in one of the most important periods of Italian Art.

Within the major theme of mountain painting, the works have been additionally organised into seven rooms, besides the one dedicated to Segantini, where his oil painting on canvas The Gathering of Silkworm Cocoons (1882-1883) is exhibited. These rooms are: Summer Views, Scenes of Country and Farming Life, Man-made Landscapes, Alpine Memories, Lakes, Sunsets and Nocturnal Landscapes, and Views of Great Snowscapes.

In addition, there is a section dedicated to Italo Mus, the most celebrated and admired painter of the 20th century from the Aosta Valley. 2017 also marks the 50th anniversary of his death.