Museo Giancarlo Vitali

The Giancarlo Vitali Museum in Bellano presents works by the painter and engraver in Palazzo Lorla. The artist’s family donated works to the municipality and the ArchiViVitali association; a garden mural by his son Velasco Vitali honours his father.

Why it matters

Giancarlo Vitali was born in Bellano in 1929 and became known as a painter and engraver. After a period in which he stepped away from painting, etching helped renew his public career, with support from writer Giovanni Testori. The museum preserves his work in the town where he lived and created it, following a major 2017 retrospective in Milan.

What to notice

The works are arranged by association and subject rather than as a strict chronology. One room presents Vitali’s family and friends; another focuses on Bellano and its daily life, followed by banquet scenes and the painting La festa è finita. In the garden, Velasco Vitali’s mural Uccelli al Museo pays tribute to his father. Palazzo Lorla was formerly known as the Circolo dei Lavoratori.

Context and history

Vitali was born in Bellano on 29 November 1929 and died there on 25 July 2018. He began painting as a teenager and received early recognition from Carlo Carrà at the Milan Biennale of Sacred Art. His son Velasco encouraged him to return to printmaking in 1981; in 1983, Giovanni Testori encountered one of his prints and helped bring renewed attention to his work. The 2017 exhibition Giancarlo Vitali. Time Out presented his work at several Milan venues. The permanent museum in Palazzo Lorla grew from a donation by the family to the municipality and ArchiViVitali.