Civic Museum of Crema

It shows fossils and remains of animals like deer, bison and aurochs found in the area and dating back to the Paleolithic Era, but also items belonging to the Neolithic Era, to the Bronze and Iron Ages, to the Roman and medieval period.[1][8]

The historical section collects documents, memorabilia and objects of the ages from the end of the Middle Ages. Some documents testify the political and social reality of the city of Crema under the rule of the Serenissima. An important nucleus consists of documents of the 1797, year of the fall of the Republic of Venice, the constitution by Napoleon of the ephemeral Cremasca Republic and its immediate annexation to the Cisalpine Republic. Some papers from the Habsburg Era are ideally followed by a rich repertoire of memorabilia, documents and memories of the Risorgimento, witnesses of the presence in Crema of important personalities of the time, such as Enrico Martini and Vincenzo Toffetti and of the visits to the city made by Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1862 and Vittorio Emanuele II in 1859. With regard to the Great War, there are significant relics of General Fortunato Marazzi and Infantry Major Umberto Fadini, Cremaschi characters who had important roles in the conflict.[9]

Miracle of St Peter of Alcantara by Giovanni Battista Lucini

The artistic section, mainly pictorial, collects works of art from the 16th century to the present day.

Of the oldest centuries there are works by Vincenzo Civerchio, Carlo Urbino, Gian Giacomo Barbelli, Giovanni Battista Lucini, Tommaso Pombioli (called Il Conciabricci), Tommaso and Mauro Picenardi.

A significant component of the museum's collection is the modern and contemporary art section, which includes paintings and sculptures by 19th and 20th century Cremaschi artists such as Eugenio Giuseppe Conti, Angelo Bacchetta, Camilla Marazzi, Amos Edallo, Carlo Martini, Achille Barbaro, Carlo Fayer, Gianetto Biondini and Federico Boriani.

The Museum also houses paintings by the Francesco Arata of Castelleone and Trento Longaretti of Treviso.

In addition to the cremasca artistic production, there are some paintings in the museum by other Italian and foreign authors, about subjects related to the events of Crema and some of its illustrious citizens. Particularly noteworthy are the paintings Enrico Martini, diplomat in Russia by Karl Pavlovič Bryulov and Gli ostaggi di Crema by Gaetano Previati, owned by the Brera Academy of Fine Arts and stored at the Cremasco museum. A second painting, Christ and the Apostles, is also in the museum. Cremasca is also a Portrait of Alberico Hall of Aligi Sassu.

In contrast, some paintings by Palma il Giovane, Guercino, Bronzino, Fra Galgario, Magnasco, Cignaroli and, more recently, a Portrait of a Man by Domenico Induno are unrelated to the Cremasco context.[1][10][11]

The section bears witness to the musical tradition of Crema, the birthplace of composers such as Francesco Cavalli and Giovanni Bottesini and home of the Pacifico organ builders Inzoli and Giovanni Tamburini. Linked to the musical tradition is the scenographic one: the Civic Museum in fact preserves numerous sketches and cartoons of the cremaschi Luigi Manini and Antonio Rovescalli, painters and scenographers of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan.[12]

This section was recently dismantled to make way for the new staging of the Art Section.[13]