Museo d'arte Costantino Barbella

The Museo d'arte Costantino Barbella occupies the principal floor of Palazzo Martinetti Bianchi in Chieti. Painting, sculpture, graphic art and Castelli maiolica connect the civic collection with several centuries of Abruzzese artistic life.

Why it matters

Named for the sculptor Costantino Barbella, the museum developed from donations and works transferred from local churches and convents. It preserves both the artistic heritage of religious institutions and later collections shaped by artists and private patrons.

What to notice

Barbella's terracottas and bronzes explore rural life and human emotion. Painting links Abruzzo with the Neapolitan tradition, while drawings and stage designs widen the range of media. Castelli ceramics add the history of a distinctive regional craft. The palace itself contributes Giacinto Diano's late eighteenth-century fresco of the Apotheosis of Psyche.

Context and history

The building originated within a seventeenth-century Jesuit complex before passing to private owners. Its adaptation as a civic museum in the twentieth century created a public setting for collections that continued to grow. The Paglione donation of 2004 strengthened the modern-art holdings and extended a collection rooted in Chieti towards wider twentieth-century currents.