Il Palazzo e la Collezione

THE PALAZZO

Palazzo Maffei, Verona’s most important Baroque building, closes the northwestern side of the historic Piazza delle Erbe with its magnificent facade. Erected in the late Middle Ages on what was the Capitolium of the Roman era, right at the intersection of the cardo and decumanus maximus, the Palazzo is the result of a major expansion work carried out in the seventeenth century by Marcantonio and Rolandino Maffei, bankers whose foreign exchange business had developed right next to Piazza delle Erbe.

Spread over three floors, it is surmounted by a long balustrade on which rest six statues: Hercules, Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, Apollo, Minerva, to create a true theatrical backdrop. All from the coeval period and made of local stone, only the Hercules, first on the left, turns out to be made of Parian marble: probably an original from the Roman period reused in the Neoclassical makeover. No less scenic is the interior of the palace: the helicoidal staircase, which reaches from the cellars to the roof, crowned by a large lantern and statues, appears as a challenge to the laws of gravity for that it was executed “supporting itself”.

In the halls, we find evidence of fresco cycles from various periods and fine architectural elements. There are numerous overlooks with splendid views of Piazza delle Erbe and side streets.

 

THE ART COLLECTION

The house museum at Palazzo Maffei offers an eclectic tour of masterpieces and art curiosities brought together by Luigi Carlon over sixty years of passionate collecting.
More than 600 works and unexpected visual short- circuits in an intense dialogue among the arts: painting, sculpture, architecture and applied arts, with drawings, antique books, ivories, ceramics, majolica, silverware and fine period furniture. Rich and significant is the nucleus of Veronese painting from the 15th to the 19th century, a compendium of art history of the Veronese territory. Masterpieces stand out, ranging from Italian Futurism, Metaphysics and Surrealism, as well as abstract painting from the second half of the 19th century: Boccioni, Balla, Severini, de Chirico, Casorati, Morandi, and then Magritte, Max Ernst, Picasso, Duchamp, Kandinsky, up to Fontana, Manzoni, Burri, Tancredi, and De Dominicis, to mention only a few of the main artists in the collection.
An exhibition with a “double soul” between ancient and modern, which leads from Greco-Roman archeology to fourteenth-century tables, up to
the avant-gardes of the twentieth century and the contemporary, passing through big names such as those of Van Wittel, Canova or Boldini.
Finally, the opening to the protagonists of the contemporary scene, also with site specific works such as those by Chiara Dynys, Maurizio Nanucci and Daan Roosegaarde.

 

Palazzo Maffei is strategically located in the heart of Verona, in Piazza delle Erbe 38, a few steps from the Arena and Juliet’s house. Piazza delle Erbe is
in a Limited Traffic Zone, open to the transit of vehicles in time slots which can be consulted on the website www.comune.verona.it ZTL area.
Just outside the Limited Traffic Zone there are several paid parking lots.

Radiotaxi: 045532666

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By car:

All the motorway exits are convenient: Verona Est, Verona Sud, Verona Nord

Parking Saba Isolo, Via Ponte Pignolo, 6
Parking Saba Arsenale, Via A. Cappellini, 2
Parking Saba Arena Via M. Bentegodi, 8
Parking APCOA Cittadella Piazza Cittadella

By train:

erona Porta Nuova stop and 20 minutes on foot or bus n 21,22,23,24,41 to Via Diaz and then 5 minutes on foot towards Piazza delle Erbe or taxi

By plane:

Verona Catullo airport and bus 199 to Verona Porta Nuova railway station