The Origins and the Vallisneri donation
The Museum of Archaeological Sciences and Art is deeply integrated with the building in which it is located, Palazzo Liviano, designed by architect Gio Ponti in the 1930s. However, the Museum represents the point of arrival of a history that began almost three centuries earlier, whose initial nucleus belonged to a single donor.
Its origins date back to the early 1700s, thanks to the donation to the University of Padua of the private museum of Antonio Vallisneri, an Emilian physician and naturalist, professor of medicine at the same University from 1700 to 1730, who had also acquired part of the collection of the Mantova Benavides family in Padua, gathered especially by Marco Mantova Benavides (1489-1582), a famous Renaissance jurist, humanist, and patron.
The acquisition by Vallisneri, and the subsequent donation by his son Antonio Vallisneri Jr. in 1733, offered a safeguard, at least in part, of this important heritage that represents the only example of a Paduan Renaissance collection that the university holds today. Moreover, it marked the arrival of many museums of the University.
Starting from 1736, the Museum was placed at Palazzo Bo, where artifacts of the naturalistic collections were largely used in teaching, while antiquities were less valued. The antiquities were therefore removed from that location and placed in a new “museum” of antiquities located within Palazzo Bo and, for a short period, also in the Hall of Giants.
1899: A turning point for Paduan archaeology
The evolution of the Museum is closely linked to the presence of distinguished professors who, with their scientific preparation and their national and international reputation, laid the foundations for the development of the School of Archaeology in Padua.
The first was Gherardo Ghirardini who came to Padua in 1899. After graduating with Giosuè Carducci at the University of Bologna, Ghirardini trained at the Italian Archaeological School between 1878 and 1880. His contribution to the University of Padua was decisive for the constitution of the first nucleus of the Plaster Cast Gallery. He was succeeded by Giuseppe Pellegrini who, in addition to further implementing the plaster cast gallery, in 1912 transferred the Institute of Archaeology and its Museum to Piazza Capitaniato.
With the arrival of Carlo Anti (1922), first as a professor and then as rector of the University, the museum underwent a phase of renewal and growth. Among his main merits was the acquisition of Eugenio Neumann’s collection, including Egyptian, Etruscan, Apulian, Greek, Magna Graecia, and Roman artifacts, still identifiable today by the “N” acronym.
Anti was known to carry out international excavation campaigns, such as those in Tebtynis (Egypt) between 1930 and 1936, which enriched the museum with several findings including papyri, ostraka, small objects of daily use and an exceptionally preserved Pan flute, which is now the symbol of the museum.
During Carlo Anti’s rectorate, the idea of a new museum space took shape. The new museum was included in the project of Palazzo Liviano, the new headquarters of the Faculty of Letters, designed by architect Gio Ponti. Ponti designed an exhibition space evocative of Antiquity, with classical architectural elements and modern solutions.
Unfortunately, the events of World War II prevented the completion of the project, and the collections remained in storage until the 1950s. The task of completing the museum fell to Anti’s successor, Luigi Polacco, who changed the original project to adapt it to new contemporary museography needs.
More recent events
During the 1960s, the Museum underwent important organizational changes with the establishment of the role of curator, a fundamental technical-scientific figure for the correct management of a museum institute. During this period, the Museum also changed its name: from Museum of Antiquities, it assumed the current name of Museum of Archaeological Sciences and Art.
Between 1975 and 1987, the Museum of Archaeological Sciences and Art opened to the public and schools for the first time thanks to agreements with the Municipality of Padua. A second agreement followed between 1994 and 1999. However, from 1999 to 2008 the museum closed its doors completely or partially to allow urgent building restorations and technical adjustments. These renovations allowed to restore the narrative coherence of the original exhibition conceived by Carlo Anti and Gio Ponti, while enhancing the multiple stratifications of the subsequent installations.
To learn more, consult A.Menegazzi, A. Zara, The Museum of Archaeological Sciences and Art at the Liviano in Padua. History and collections, Silvana Editoriale, Milan 2024, the new museum guide, available at the Library of Sciences of Antiquity, Art, Music Liviano: https://biblio.unipd.it/biblioteche/liviano