La collezione di arte applicata del Museo civico belliniano di Catania
Angela Scialfa
The aim of the essay is to offer elements that contribute to the reorganisation of the objects of applied art that are part of the collection of the Vincenzo Bellini house museum in Catania, thanks to the cross-analysis of primary sources – property inventories, auction sales and archive papers – compared with the descriptions of the relics dating back to 1935, the year of publication of the Museum’s first catalogue. This operation has made it possible to trace errors and inaccuracies handed down to the present day and, at the same time, to bring to light the relationships between the paternity, places of production and provenance of the objects now on display in the Museum, many of which were exported after 1835 from Bellin’s two residences, in Milan and Paris, following the composer’s death. In particular, the pieces with the most critical reconstructive issues were investigated here.