Interdisciplinary Regional Museum of Messina

The main entrance

The Interdisciplinary Regional Museum of Messina (Italian - Museo regionale interdisciplinare di Messina^[1]) is a museum of painting, sculpture and archaeology in the city of Messina. Until 2017 it was housed in the former Barbera-Mellinghoff silk-mill, a late 19th century building chosen for it after the 1908 Messina earthquake. Since 2017 it has been housed in a nearby complex designed in the 1970s.

History[]

Origins[]

Antonello da Messina, Madonna of the Rosary

The first nucleus for the museum's collection came with various private collections of conservative taste. First opened in 1806 as the Museo civico peloritano by the Reale Accademia Peloritana "to end the despoliation of art", its formation was the idea of its first director Carmelo La Farina. It housed the Alojsio, Arenaprimo, Ciancialo, Grosso-Cacopardo and Carmisino family collections as well as a collection of 14th to 18th century paintings owned by the city's senate, which also part-funded its running costs.

It was initially based on via Rovere, near the Archivio degli atti notarili, before being moved to former university buildings, then (after its massive expansion from the collections of religious corporations suppressed by the 1866 liquidation laws) in 1884 to a building on via Peculio Frumentario and from 1891 to 1908 to the former monastery of San Gregorio.

Earthquake and recovery[]

The rebuilding plans were cut short by the 1908 earthquake, in which the museum collapsed and some artworks were lost.

Nationalisation[]

1939 plan[]

Post-war restoration[]

Pelican lectern of the Renan school, 16th century

1956 and 1961 plans[]

1960s plans[]

1970s plans[]

In 1977 responsibility for the museum passed to the Regione Siciliana and it took on its present name. In 1984 it was rearranged chronologically.^[2]

Basile-Manganaro plan[]

Antonello da Messina, Madonna and Child and Pieta

Completion[]

Collections[]

The museum illustrates the course of figurative art in Messina from the 12th to 18th centuries, including paintings, sculptures and decorative art in chronological sequence. Their artists include Antonello da Messina, Mattia Preti, Caravaggio, Girolamo Alibrandi, Vincenzo Catena, Annibale Carracci and Francesco Laurana.

From the precious cathedral treasury come the 'flowering branch' in gold, enamel, pearls and emeralds from a late 17th century goldsmith in the city, though only the early 14th and 17th century Sicilian jewels from the two crowns of the sacred images are displayed.