Pinacoteca Civica di Ascoli Piceno

The Pinacoteca Civica di Ascoli Piceno is one of the most important civic art galleries in the Marche region, housed in the Palazzo dell'Arengo on Piazza Arringo, the grand square at the heart of the travertine city of Ascoli Piceno in southern Marche. Formed in the nineteenth century from suppressed church collections and later donations, the gallery occupies the richly decorated halls of the historic municipal palace and presents painting and decorative arts from the Middle Ages to the modern era. Its collection is particularly strong in late medieval and Renaissance art associated with the region, including works connected to Carlo Crivelli, the Venetian painter who spent much of his career in the Marche and whose sharply detailed, gilded altarpieces are a regional speciality. Among the gallery's most treasured possessions is the so-called Cope of Nicholas IV, the Piviale di Niccolo IV, a magnificent thirteenth-century English embroidered liturgical cope of opus anglicanum work, given to the city by the Ascoli-born pope and counted among the finest medieval textiles in Italy. The picture galleries also hold paintings attributed to or associated with Titian, Anthony van Dyck, Guido Reni, Carlo Maratta and other masters, alongside Ascoli's own artistic traditions and a section of more recent art. The setting in the frescoed rooms of the Arengo palace, overlooking one of central Italy's most harmonious squares, adds greatly to the visit. As the civic gallery of a city famous for its luminous travertine architecture and rich history, the Pinacoteca offers an authoritative survey of the art of the Piceno area and beyond, complementing the nearby archaeological museum and the elegant monuments of Piazza Arringo and Piazza del Popolo.