The Collection

The Carlon Collection, started over fifty years ago and housed at Palazzo Maffei, is an eclectic compilation that has grown without chronological or genre limitations. It encompasses paintings, sculptures, engravings, drawings, miniatures, ancient books, as well as maiolica, bronzes, ivories, everyday objects such as furniture and decorative artifacts, spanning from antiquity to the present day. The collection is well-balanced between modern and contemporary art, yet it also features works from earlier periods, including paintings, gold grounds, and sculptures from the early centuries of the first millennium.

Significant groups of works attest to the organic nature of the collection’s acquisitions, such as the rich presence of Veronese paintings from the 1400s to the late 1700s, Italian Futurism, Metaphysical art, Surrealism, and abstract painting from the second half of the 20th century.

The collection’s focus on the artistic history of Verona is a key identity marker, boasting a comprehensive overview of the region’s art history, with masterpieces by Altichiero, Liberale da Verona, Nicolò Giolfino, Zenone Veronese, Bonifacio de’ Pitati, Antonio and Giovanni Badile, Felice Brusasorci, Jacopo Ligozzi, Alessandro Turchi, Marc’Antonio Bassetti, Antonio Balestra, and Giambettino Cignaroli.

An extraordinary journey through 20th-century Italian art and beyond is also documented. The Carlon Collection’s richness and quality are demonstrated through the works of key figures from the historical avant-garde movements, such as Pablo Picasso, René Magritte, Amedeo Modigliani, Katsushika Hokusai, Giorgio de Chirico, Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balla, and Gino Severini, among others. The collection also includes works by Afro, Emilio Vedova, Lucio Fontana, Alberto Burri, Tancredi, Gino De Dominicis, and Piero Manzoni, to name just a few.

The collection also features rare artistic artifacts and precious applied art objects, as well as common-use items from the Orient and other European countries, reflecting the collection’s openness to all forms of art. This eclectic approach follows a vision that bridges the ancient Wunderkammer (chamber of wonders) of Princes and the Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art), striving for a perfect, ideal synthesis of painting, sculpture, decoration, and architecture.