Ethnographic Museum “G. Pitré”, Palermo

In the museographic setup curated by architect Antonio Di Lorenzo, Palazzo Tarallo hosts temporary and permanent exhibitions focusing on particular aspects of popular culture and traditions. The permanent exhibition is arranged in the noble floor rooms, including the large hall frescoed by Pietro Martorana, which contains a fine 17th-century bed with a wrought iron headboard. Here cultural meetings and book presentations will be organized. In the other six rooms on the first floor, two elegant 18th-century sedan chairs and some artifacts from the Museum of refined and aristocratic taste and commission have been placed, even if crafted in the same artisan workshops that produced more popular-use items; among them, some painted furniture from the late 1700s, coming from the former National Museum (now the Regional Archaeological Museum “Antonino Salinas”). These include a chest of drawers, a wardrobe, an altar cabinet, a “scarabattola,” and two display cases. Although of different origins, they share some uniform features: they belong to the 18th century, are of Sicilian manufacture, and have the common characteristic of being painted. The artisans who created them had as their model the chinoiserie furniture of the high aristocracy, which was widely popular.