Museo Civico d'Arte Contemporanea - Pinacoteca Cascella

Ortona's Museo Civico d'Arte Contemporanea and Pinacoteca Cascella occupy Palazzo Farnese. The collection's core follows Michele Cascella's long career and the artistic ties between his family and his birthplace.

Why it matters

Michele Cascella was born in Ortona in 1892 and trained with his father Basilio. The civic collection brings that local formation into relation with an international career, preserving works donated by the family alongside contributions from other artists.

What to notice

The group of fifty-three Michele Cascella works represents a career extending over more than eighty years. Landscape, coastal subjects, flowers and still life illustrate his sustained interest in light and colour. Donations by the sculptors Giuseppe Massari and Guido Costanzo broaden the collection beyond a single family. The sixteenth-century palace adds a historic architectural setting to this modern artistic heritage.

Context and history

Cascella exhibited in Milan from 1907 and subsequently in Paris, later participating repeatedly in the Venice Biennale. His travels and periods in California extended his work beyond Abruzzo. He died in Milan in 1989. The Ortona collection connects this wider career with the place where his artistic life began, distinct from the Basilio Cascella museum in Pescara.