Museo dei Pianoforti Antichi - Fondazione Musicale Masiero e Centanin

The Museum of Antique Pianos at Villa Centanin in Arquà Petrarca preserves the changing forms and sounds of historical keyboard instruments. It belongs to the Fondazione Musicale Masiero e Centanin and is named after Bartolomeo Cristofori.

Why it matters

The collection connects instrument-making with musical practice from the later eighteenth century to the end of the nineteenth. German, French, English and Italian examples reveal different approaches to the piano during a period of extensive technical change.

What to notice

Grand, square and upright pianos show how mechanism and case design responded to different musical and domestic settings. Instruments made in the Veneto provide a regional connection. Antique prints with musical subjects add evidence of how performance and instruments were represented in visual culture.

Context and history

The foundation was established in 1997 through Giulia Centanin's testamentary wishes, commemorating both her and her mother, Maria Margherita Masiero. The Franco Angeleri collection formed a principal nucleus of the museum. Villa Centanin's buildings had previously housed the Orazio Masiero wine firm's cellars, giving the site a cultural role after its commercial use.