Overview
The works on display are divided into two groups: the first belongs to those of the 15th to 16th centuries, once housed in the former Civic Museum, founded in 1882 and suppressed in 1948; the others, of the 19th to 20th centuries, come from private collections. Among the ancient paintings are the tablets with the penitent St Jerome and The Three Angels Appeared to Abraham, early works by Antonello da Messina that confirm the clear influences of Flemish art in the works of the Sicilian master. Also noteworthy is the large canvas with the "Return of the Prodigal Son" by Mattia Preti, "Christ and the Adulteress" by Luca Giordano, two landscapes by Salvator Rosa and eighteenth-century canvases by Vincenzo Cannizzaro. The artistic seasons of the 19th and early 20th century are well represented, with a canvas by Andrea Cefaly depicting an Episode of the Battle of Vulturno in 1860, two large landscapes by Giuseppe Benassai (La Quiete, 1868; Aspromonte, 1869), an interesting artist born in Reggio di Calabria, some landscapes by Ignazio Fieschi from Reggio and the Cantico dei Cantici by Enrico Salfi from Cosenza. Among the sculptures, noteworthy is the "Nasside" by Locri, a marble bust by Francesco Jerace, and works donated by the Calabrian sculptor Alessandro Monteleone. In the section dedicated to the Calabrian twentieth century, there is also a china drawing by Renato Guttuso.
