Misplaced Pages

#294705

52-589: The Civic Museums of Pavia include the Pinacoteca Malaspina, Museo Archeologico and Sala Longobarda, Sezioni Medioevale e Rinascimentale Quadreria dell’800 (Collezione Morone), Museo del Risorgimento, Museo Robecchi Bricchetti, and the Cripta di Sant’Eusebio . The museum was built by the will of the Marquis Luigi Malaspina di Sannazzaro, an enlightened artist (1754/1835), who donated his art collections to

104-564: A pomegranate . His head is crowned with a pine garland with fruits , bronze rays of the sun, and on his Phrygian cap is a crescent moon. It was discovered in 1867 at the Campus of the Magna Mater together with other statues. The objects seem to have been hidden there in late antiquity. A plaster cast of it sits in the apse of the Sanctuary of Attis at the Campus of the Magna Mater , while the original

156-514: A Greek marble bust depicting Artemis Soteira of Cephisodotus the Elder , a Roman copy of the 1st-2nd century AD stands out. The III and IV rooms exhibit Roman remains found in Pavia: ceramics, bronzes, terra sigillata , fine table ceramics, other Roman glass and large architectural and sculptural finds, including the statue of a man with a toga , known as name of Muto from the hilt to the neck, dating back to

208-720: A boar to destroy the Lydian crops. Then certain Lydians, with Attis himself, were killed by the boar. Pausanias adds, to corroborate this story, that the Gauls who inhabited Pessinos abstained from pork. This myth element may have been invented solely to explain the unusual dietary laws of the Lydian Gauls . In Rome, the eunuch followers of Cybele were called galli . Julian describes the orgiastic cult of Cybele and its spread. It began in Anatolia and

260-459: A large wheel included within a frame bordered by ribbon, herringbone and, laterally, with geometric motifs. The struggle between Faith and Discord is depicted in the larger band, as indicated by the Latin captions that still mark the wolf and the crow. The mosaic of the right aisle instead depicts scenes of the martyrdom of Saint Eustace and is also notable for the iconographic rarity (the saint's passion

312-646: Is also the Renaissance Section which preserves works of art from the Certosa construction site (in particular many terracotta sculptures) and sculptural testimonies attributed to the school of Giovanni Antonio Amadeo and Cristoforo and Antonio Mantegazza, active in the decoration of the Certosa facade: including the panel with the Annunciation from the monastery of San Salvatore, with evident Bramante influences, and

364-506: Is depicted in the capitals of the church of Vezelay in Burgundy , in the cloister of Monreale , but this one in Pavia would be the only mosaic example). Of particular interest is a homogeneous series of capitals in red Verona marble decorated with foliage and heads, of fine workmanship and expression of Lombard late Gothic sculpture (late 14th century). The perpetual demolitions and demolitions of

416-672: Is entirely dedicated to the Cairoli family, while the third room exhibits weapons and uniforms (Austrian, Piedmontese and French) from the Risorgimento period and dedicates space to the figure of Garibaldi and Benedetto Cairoli . The museum also collects other collections, such as that of Luigi Robecchi Bricchetti , engineer and explorer from Pavia, who donated to the museum in 1926 numerous artifacts collected by him in Africa and that of Numismatics, formed above all thanks to important bequests, such as

468-565: The Galli , as explained by origin myths pertaining to Attis castrating himself. Attis was also a Phrygian vegetation deity . His self-mutilation, death, and resurrection represents the fruits of the earth, which die in winter only to rise again in the spring. According to Ovid 's Metamorphoses , Attis transformed himself into a pine tree. An Attis cult began around 1250 BCE in Dindymon (today's Murat Dağı of Gediz, Kütahya , Turkey). He

520-650: The Islamic and Byzantine East, which adorned the facades of churches and buildings (many are still found on the facades of Romanesque churches in Pavia, so much so that Pavia, after Pisa and Rome is the Italian city that retains the largest number). These were very expensive and valuable products and were made with techniques then unknown in the West. Also of oriental origin are other contemporary finds, such as an 11th-century Islamic coffin in embossed foil (coming from Dagestan ) from

572-534: The Lombard period (including a rare Lombard age bronze statue representing a warrior), evidence of the importance and splendor of Pavia, then the capital of the kingdom . There are many finds of great interest (including historical ones) preserved: the front of a sarcophagus from the 2nd century AD. it contains an epigraph commemorating the work of the Gothic king Atalaric at the amphitheater of Pavia between 528 and 529. At

SECTION 10

#1732852572295

624-410: The church of San Teodoro . Along with the sculptural finds, some Romanesque mosaics (12th century) from the churches of Santa Maria del Popolo, Sant'Invenzio and Santa Maria delle Stuoie (the wheel of the months) are preserved in the 11th room. The mosaics of Santa Maria del Popolo were found in successive phases in the demolitions of 1854 and 1936. The floor mosaic of the central nave adapts the theme of

676-592: The "cicada" fibulae used in all barbarian jewellery from oriental models. The vaults of the latter preserve frescoes, of Byzantine style, depicting busts of saints dating back to the second half of the 12th century. Visiting the crypt requires contacting the Civic Museums. Attis Attis ( / ˈ æ t ɪ s / ; Ancient Greek : Ἄττις , also Ἄτυς , Ἄττυς , Ἄττης ) was the consort of Cybele , in Phrygian and Greek mythology . His priests were eunuchs ,

728-454: The 17th century, only to be destroyed and rebuilt again in the 18th century. In 1923, it was decided to definitively demolish it as part of an urban "reorganization" of the area, from which the current Piazza Leonardo da Vinci and the evocative as well as anti-historical isolation of the towers emerged. The crypt, although remodeled in the Romanesque period, still retains some capitals from

780-630: The 1st century AD. There are Celtic finds from the La Tène period and glazed pottery from the 1st century AD, also in the shape of a bird. Always linked to the events of Pavia and its territory is the Longobard Room, where paleochristian silverware is exhibited (including a liturgical spoon, a bowl and a chalice knot found between the presbytery and the side aisle of the basilica of San Michele Maggiore in 1968), late Roman and Ostrogothic jewellery (including some notable stirrup fibulae) and finds from

832-577: The 1st-2nd century AD. and coming from the western gate of the city (Porta Marenga). Among the sculptures of the Roman age there is also a female portrait, in Greek marble representing a woman of mature age with deeply sunken eyes and hats gathered on the nape of the neck, evidence of the "cultured" sculpture of Pavia of the III century. Also from a sepulchral monument comes a marble stone with the image of Attis , dating back to

884-623: The 2nd century B.C. In the second room is exhibited the Egyptian collection, donated by the Marquis Malaspina di Sannazzaro (who bought it from Giuseppe Nizzoli, chancellor of the Austrian consulate in Alexandria between 1818 and 1828), consisting of about 150 artifacts. The Egyptian collection is not the only section of the museum containing materials not coming from the Pavia area: we only remember

936-596: The Father God, to preserve Attis so his body would never decay or decompose. At the temple of Cybele in Pessinus, the mother of the gods was still called Agdistis, the geographer Strabo recounted. As neighbouring Lydia came to control Phrygia, the cult of Attis was given a Lydian context too. Attis is said to have introduced to Lydia the cult of the Mother Goddess Cybele, incurring the jealousy of Zeus , who sent

988-512: The Lombard period that show a departure from classical art through original forms inspired by jewellery. It was thought that they were originally covered with glass paste or large colored stones, which would have given a more majestic and graceful aspect to the whole; one is divided into triangular closed fields, reminiscent of the contemporary alveolate fibulae, while a second has longitudinal ovals, similar to large water leaves, which seem to derive from

1040-520: The Mother of Gods" contains a detailed Neoplatonic analysis of Attis. In that work Julian says: "Of him [Attis] the myth relates that, after being exposed at birth near the eddying stream of the river Gallus, he grew up like a flower, and when he had grown to be fair and tall, he was beloved by the Mother of the Gods. And she entrusted all things to him, and moreover set on his head the starry cap." On this passage,

1092-563: The aedicule with the Pietà, once stuck in the outer wall of the San Matteo Hospital or the telamon bust attributed to Annibale Fontana . The Museum of the Risorgimento was established by the municipality in 1885, initially thanks to the numerous bequests of citizens who, for various reasons, participated in the Risorgimento epic, and left documents, books, photographs, weapons and objects to

SECTION 20

#1732852572295

1144-482: The art gallery was enriched by the legacy of the Pavia collectors Carla and Giulio Morone, the donation consists of 66 works, including paintings, pastels and drawings by Italian artists such as Federico Zandomeneghi , Giovanni Segantini , Plino Nomellini , Giuseppe de Nittis , Luigi Conconi , Daniele Ranzoni , Tranquillo Cremona , Giovanni Boldini , Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo , Vittore Grubicy de Dragon , Carlo Fornara , Oreste Albertini and many others. Inside

1196-500: The brick elements of the box and in the clay unguentarium ). These are evidence of the progressive penetration of Roman culture into the Celtic Cisalpine world. Also from the same period dates back to a piece of great interest: a silver cup which on the rim bears an inscription formed by a Ligurian name followed by an indication of Roman weight measurements found near Zerbo in a group of "Gallo-Roman" tombs cremation and dated to

1248-550: The castle house the Lapidarium made up of stelae , sarcophagi , funerary and votive altars, epigraphs , capitals, colonnems and Roman milestones. The first room is dedicated to the territory of Ticinum (this was the ancient name of Pavia ) in Roman times and, among other finds, it exhibits a sepulchral area, made up of brick cremation tombs and a sepulchral stone, of the 1st century A.D. found in Casteggio . The room also houses

1300-421: The collection of Phoenician - Punic ceramics (rarely found in Italian museums outside Sardinia ) left by Francesco Reale in 1892 or the collection of Italiot and Greek vases that came to the museum through 19th-century Pavese collectors. Also in the same room is the collection of Roman glass , probably the most important in northern Italy , in which there are pieces of the highest quality and rarity, such as

1352-493: The collection of Camillo Brambilla, which has about 50,000 coins and covers a chronological period between the classical Greek issues and the minting of the modern period, with particular wealth for the sector relating to medieval and modern coins and coins issued by the Pavia mint. The Malaspina art gallery has its core in the donation of the Marquis Malaspina; it was expanded with subsequent donations from various entities and personalities, such as Brambilla and Radlinski. In 2001

1404-463: The collections of paintings until 1800 include the following works: Crypt of Sant%27Eusebio The church of Sant'Eusebio was a church of Pavia , of which today only the crypt remains. The church was probably built by the Lombard king Rothari (636-652) as the city's Arian cathedral. It later became the fulcrum of the conversion to Catholicism of the Lombards initiated by Theodolinda and

1456-421: The dark blue glass kantharos from Frascarolo and the cup of Ennion . the Roman glass in the museum stands out for its quality and typological variety. In the collection, ascribable in the majority of the pieces to the 1st and 2nd century AD, the most diverse processing techniques are testified Next to the glass, there are some sculptures from the Roman age found in the city and in its territory, among which

1508-545: The finds from the Celtic necropolis found in 1957 in Santa Cristina e Bissone , whose grave goods date back to the 2nd century B.C. they are characterized by the presence of stylistically traditional celtic objects combined with typically Roman products, such as black-glazed Ware . Not otherwise, the grave goods from the 1st century B.C. tomb found in Pavia it is at the same time Celtic (in the ceramics and brooches ) and Roman (in

1560-473: The former Royal Palace of Corteolona , while always linked to the royal past of Pavia is the inscription of the sarcophagus of Queen Ada (wife of King Hugh of Italy , who died in 931 and buried in the church of San Gervasio and Protasio) and the sella plicatilis , a folding chair of Carolingian or Ottonian art in iron coated with silver and gilded copper, a rare specimen (very few European museums retain furnishings from that era and almost none of them reach

1612-399: The god Attis with the similar-sounding name of the god Atys . The name "Atys" is often seen in ancient Aegean cultures; it was mentioned by Herodotus , however Herodotus was describing Atys , the son of Croesus , a human in a historical account. The 19th-century conflation of the man Atys's name with the mythology of the god he was presumably named after, "Atys the sun god, slain by

Pavia Civic Museums - Misplaced Pages Continue

1664-548: The monks of San Colombano and which later received, precisely in Pavia, a great impulse from King Aripert I (653-661) and from Bishop Anastasius . The Church of Sant'Eusebio is mentioned in Paul the Deacon 's Historia Langobardorum . The seventh century apse perimeter remains today. The crypt dates back to the 11th century reconstruction interventions that involved the church, which underwent extensive reconstructions in 1512 and during

1716-472: The municipality on his death. The collection, which over time was enriched by numerous donations, was initially housed in the Malaspina Palace and was moved to the castle only in 1951. The archaeological collection includes materials found by chance during agricultural or building works; the museum has come mainly from private collecting (Giuletti, Reale collection, etc.). The arcades on the ground floor of

1768-516: The new taste. Beyond the possible restitution of some context, the same quality is a significant datum of a paleo-industrial production that the documented existence of kilns, starting from the first half of the fourteenth century, can assign to Pavia. The tombstone of Ardengo Folperti (minister of Filippo Maria Visconti who died in 1430), attributed to Jacopino da Tradate and the funerary epigraph of Francesco da Brossano (grandson of Francis Petrarch who died at an early age in Pavia, also date back to

1820-482: The newborn museum. The museum itinerary is divided into three rooms: the first room covers the period from the years of Maria Theresa of Austria to the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia , dedicating particular space to the social, economic and cultural life of Pavia, to the liveliness of the university , also collecting materials of previous age, such as a seal of the municipality of Pavia of the sixteenth century. The second room

1872-482: The nineteenth century, such as those from the churches of Santa Maria del Popolo and Santo Stefano (from the twelfth century and demolished during the nineteenth century to make room for the Cathedral ). In particular, the monumental portals of the two churches (room VIII and X), numerous capitals and a portion of the wall with white, green and blue glazed bricks from Santa Maria del Popolo (11th Century) are exhibited, among

1924-500: The oldest Italian (and European) examples of majolica . Also from Santa Maria del Popolo also come some capitals (11th and 12th century) that reflect the decorations and the shape of the Corinthian capitals of the classical age and a capital represented and seven figures that hold the character in the center, while the last of the series respectively carry a cross and a knife. The most important Romanesque sculptures are also kept in

1976-407: The philosopher Severino Boethius (about 480 - 524 or 526), and the tombstones of King Cunipert , his daughter Cuniperga, Queen Ragintruda and Duke Audoald. Witnesses of Lombard sculpture at the time of King Liutprand are the well-known plutei of Theodota , which depict the tree of life between winged dragons and a chalice flanked by peacocks, and the fragment of pluteus with a lamb's head from

2028-433: The picture gallery there are also many examples of Pavia majolica, the city in fact, between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, was one of the main centers of majolica production in northern Italy. In one room there is the rare wooden model of the Cathedral from 1497, the work of Giovanni Pietro Fugazza and Cristoforo Rocchi, one of the few Renaissance wooden models that have survived. The Pinacoteca Malaspina and

2080-497: The quality of the Pavia specimen) due to its technical complexity and refined decoration. The artistic and architectural evolution of the city is represented in the rooms ranging from the 7th to the 14th, where Romanesque , Gothic and Renaissance sculptural and architectural finds are preserved, in particular the Romanesque section is probably one of the largest in northern Italy . Many of them come from buildings destroyed during

2132-419: The river Sangarius, took an almond, put it in her bosom, and later became pregnant with baby Attis, whom she abandoned. The infant was tended by a he-goat . As Attis grew, his long-haired beauty was godlike, and his parent, Agdistis (as Cybele) then fell in love with him. But Attis' foster parents sent him to Pessinos , where he was to wed the king's daughter. According to some versions the king of Pessinos

Pavia Civic Museums - Misplaced Pages Continue

2184-462: The same period. who was buried in the church of San Zeno). In particular, the Folperti slab must have constituted the lid of the sarcophagus of a more complex monument, while the epigraph of Francesco da Brossano is characterized by the refinement of the Gothic characters, elegantly engraved and gilded, accompanying the importance of the poetic text, in elegiac couplets , dictated by Petrarch himself. Rich

2236-566: The same time there is also a funerary epigraph in marble and written in Greek by a Syriac family, coming from the church of San Giovanni in Borgo and some fragments of tiles bearing the bishop Crispinus II (521- 541) stamp, proof of the presence of kilns in the city even after the end of the Roman world. In the room there is also the large marble tombstone, found in Villaregio in the nineteenth century, by

2288-399: The scholiast ( Wright ) says: "The whole passage implies the identification of Attis with nature...cf. 162A where Attis is called 'Nature,' φύσις." The most important representation of Attis is the lifesize statue discovered at Ostia Antica , near the mouth of Rome's river. The statue is of a reclining Attis, after the emasculation. In his left hand is a shepherd's crook , in his right hand

2340-511: The tenth room: those from the church of San Giovanni in Borgo (also demolished in the nineteenth century to enlarge the garden of the Borromeo College ), among which we remember a capital with dragons and telamon and a capital with dragons bitten by masks, the work of the so-called Master of Dragons, all dating back to the early decades of the 12th century. Of particular interest are the numerous dishes on display, all important products from

2392-408: The traveller Pausanias have some distinctly non-Greek elements. Pausanias was told that the daemon Agdistis initially bore both male and female sexual organs. The Olympian gods feared Agdistis and they conspired to cause Agditis to accidentally castrate itself, ridding itself of its male organs. From the hemorrhage of Agdistis germinated an almond tree. When the fruits ripened, Nana, daughter of

2444-519: The typically Anatolian costume of the god: trousers fastened together down the front of the legs with toggles and the Phrygian cap . In 2007, in the ruins of Herculaneum a wooden throne was discovered adorned with a relief of Attis beneath a sacred pine tree, gathering cones. Various finds suggest that the cult of Attis was popular in Herculaneum at the time of the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE. Nineteenth century scholarship wrongly identified

2496-491: The urban building fabric have given the museum an impressive number of architectural terracottas ; therefore the individual pieces are indicative of their relevance to string courses, windows, portals and, according to the style requirements, to a renewal that the city experienced above all in the Visconti and Sforza age, when alongside the large public buildings and noble palaces, even the small owners came updating their homes to

2548-463: Was Midas . Just as the marriage-song was being sung, Agdistis / Cybele appeared in her transcendent power, and Attis went mad and castrated himself under a pine. When he died as a result of his self-inflicted wounds, violets grew from his blood. Attis' father-in-law-to-be, the king who was giving his daughter in marriage, followed suit, prefiguring the self-castrating corybantes who devoted themselves to Cybele. The heartbroken Agdistis begged Zeus ,

2600-724: Was adopted in Greece, and eventually Republican Rome ; the cult of Attis, her reborn eunuch consort, accompanied her. The first literary reference to Attis is the subject of one of the most famous poems by Catullus ( Catullus 63 ), apparently before Attis had begun to be worshipped in Rome, as Attis' worship began in the early Empire. In 1675, Jean-Baptiste Lully , who was attached to Louis XIV's court, composed an opera titled Atys . In 1780, Niccolo Piccinni composed his own Atys . Oscar Wilde mentions Attis' self-mutilation in his poem The Sphinx , published in 1894: Emperor Julian's "Hymn to

2652-667: Was moved to the Vatican Museums . A marble bas-relief depicting Cybele in her chariot and Attis, from Magna Graecia , is in the archaeological museum in Venice. The pair also feature prominently on the silver Parabiago plate . A finely executed silvery brass Attis that had been ritually consigned to the Moselle River was recovered during construction in 1963 and is kept at the Rheinisches Landesmuseum of Trier . It shows

SECTION 50

#1732852572295

2704-467: Was originally a local semi-deity of Phrygia , associated with the great Phrygian trading city of Pessinos , which lay under the lee of Mount Agdistis . The mountain was personified as a daemon , whom foreigners associated with the Great Mother Cybele . In the late 4th century BCE, a cult of Attis became a feature of the Greek world. The story of his origins at Agdistis recorded by

#294705