Galleria nazionale della Puglia, Art museum in Bitonto, Italy
The Galleria Nazionale della Puglia houses paintings and drawings spanning from the 16th to the early 20th century within a Renaissance palace located in Bitonto. The building itself, Palazzo Sylos-Calo, provides the architectural setting for the collection with its period rooms and structures.
The idea of a museum emerged in 2004 and was revived in 2005 after an exhibition at Palazzo Venezia in Rome showing 66 of the works now in Bitonto. The Devanna siblings' donation comprised 229 paintings and 108 drawings from the 16th to the early 20th century. The gallery was inaugurated on 18 April 2009 in Palazzo Sylos-Calò; since December 2014 it has been run by the Polo museale della Puglia, from December 2019 the Direzione regionale Musei.
The museum is named after the collector siblings Girolamo and Rosaria Devanna, whose donation of 229 paintings and 108 drawings founded the gallery. The collection's core is Neapolitan and Apulian painting of the 17th and 18th centuries, shown alongside works from Liguria, Emilia, Veneto and the Marche. A rare panel fragment of a Head of a Saint, attributed by Federico Zeri to Giovanni da Rimini, opens the chronological display.
The museum occupies the Renaissance Palazzo Sylos-Calò in Bitonto, with about 350 paintings arranged in six sections across the palace rooms. The collection is reached through the historic interiors of the building, so visitors move between rooms rather than a single open hall. The gallery is managed by the Direzione regionale Musei, which took over from the Polo museale della Puglia in December 2019.
The museum's symbol is Giovanni Lanfranco's "Farewell of Christ from His Mother". The collection also holds a rare panel fragment, a Head of a Saint, attributed by Federico Zeri to the 14th-century Giovanni da Rimini, and a sketch by Nicolas Poussin for the Martyrdom of Saint Erasmus left in the Vatican.
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