Il Museo Civico di Montagnana (established in 1980) is housed in the Castle of S. Zeno, the oldest core of the city’s fortifications (1242, construction of the great keep by Ezzelino da Romano; in the following century the Carraresi expanded the Castle, completing the famous city walls). The First Hall houses materials from the prehistoric and protostoric age. The oldest evidence dates back to the late Neolithic and Eneolithic periods (end of the 4th-3rd millennium BC). The most significant archaeological evidence of ancient Montagnana comes from the Borgo S. Zeno area, a protostoric settlement dated between the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age (12th-8th century BC). The later phase of the Iron Age is documented by the equipment of a rich male tomb. The Celtic custom of burying the deceased with their weapons and tools of the trade is attested here: a sword with its sheath, a spearhead, a large knife, shears.
The Roman age – in the second hall – is documented by numerous archaeological remains, from the Augustan period to the late imperial era, belonging to rustic villas and burial sites, which attest to a scattered settlement across the territory, often located on river hills of Atesan origin. More relevant and valuable, however, are the funerary monuments and burial furnishings; particularly rich are the sets, referring to a family burial ground of members of the gens Vassidia, probably landowners of the area. Among the stone monuments, the large stele in white stone, decorated with bas-relief and bearing a long inscription on the front face, stands out.
The Medieval and Modern Section consists of three different groups of materials, all related to the history and buildings of the walled city. Among the 14th-century paintings (Fourth Hall) is a “Madonna enthroned and Saints Prosdocimus and Justina,” revealing a skilled execution in the style of Altichiero da Zevio; then a Charity by Alessandro Varotari, known as il Padovanino, and a late canvas by the artist from Este, Antonio Zanchi (17th and 18th centuries).
The collection of ceramics (Third and Fourth Hall) is substantial, offering a fragmentary overview of Montagnanese production and relations with neighboring art centers, Legnago, Este, and Padua, products from the late Carrarese period (14th century) and later (Renaissance sgraffito).
The Musical Section includes materials donated to the native Municipality of Montagnana mainly by the heirs of the tenors Giovanni Martinelli (1885-1969) and Aureliano Pertile (1885-1952), famous protagonists of opera theater in the first half of the 20th century. Aureliano Pertile was recalled to La Scala by Arturo Toscanini in 1922, his always preferred performer in operas by Donizetti, Bellini, Verdi, Auber, Massenet, Puccini, Mascagni, Respighi, Wolf-Ferrari, up to Wagner and Mussorgsky, demonstrating rare eclecticism. Giovanni Martinelli was invited by Puccini himself to perform his La Fanciulla del West at the Teatro S. Carlo in Naples in 1911; the following year, debuting at Covent Garden in London with Tosca, he was hailed as “a new Caruso.” He was then continuously engaged from 1913 to 1945 at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. The documents preserved at the Museo Civico di Montagnana consist of original photographs, posters, and other testimony of the activity of the two great singers. Of particular interest is a collection of stage costumes worn by Martinelli.
Information about Museo civico di Montagnana
Piazza Trieste, 15
35044 Montagnana (Padua)
0429804128
protocollo@comune.montagnana.pd.it
https://www.comune.montagnana.pd.it
Source: MIBACT
