Welcome to MARV
The MARV – Rubini Vesin Art Museum – is the Civic Museum of the Municipality of Gradara. Established in July 2022, it occupies the halls of the eighteenth-century Rubini Vesin Palace, formerly the municipal seat. Since the Municipality’s collections of works of art are exhibited in the adjacent Gradara Castle, the MARV is today a multifunctional space dedicated to the temporary exhibition of ancient and modern art, with a special reference to art of the Marche region.
Vision
Once an aristocratic residence and then, after the unification of Italy, a municipal seat, the MARV was born in close relationship with the urban fabric of the small medieval town of Gradara. Its windows overlook the Adriatic Sea and the Apennines mountains. Its elegant 18th century halls, originally intended as a private home, create a simple and welcoming environment, where the enjoyment of art becomes an experience as intimate as it is direct. In an age dominated by the rhetoric of ‘major events’ and ‘major exhibitions’, the MARV offers an encounter with art on a human scale, based on direct experience and, when possible, on first-hand experience, in the belief that the museum is a place “open… to the participation of communities, offering diversified experiences for education, pleasure, reflection and knowledge sharing” (ICOM, Prague, 24 August 2022).
The Palace
Located in the heart of Gradara, Palazzo Rubini Vesin has always been a point of reference in the urban space, standing out for its architectural quality and size as one of the most important buildings in the medioeval borough. Built above ancient caves and dungeons dating to the 16th century, it develops on three axes around a large central courtyard resulted from the union of several buildings. The halls on the main floor, decorated with stuccos and frescoes and introduced by a monumental staircase of rare harmony, reached its current layout in 1707, on the initiative of the archdeacon Giacomo Rubini (1672-1752). Rubini was the mentor of the well-known Pesaro archaeologist Annibale degli Abbati Olivieri, author of the Memorie di Gradara (1775), the most important text dedicated to the history of the town.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the building was bought by the retired French soldier J. A. Vesin (Lyon 1774-Gradara 1838), a member of the Agricultural Academy of Pesaro and a passionate malacologist (scholar of shells). In these years, the building houses one of the largest collections of living and fossil shells in Italy, 2890 species and 507 duplicates sold in 1842 for 300 scudi to the Natural History Museum of Modena. The heir of the cav. Vesin, Cesare Vesin Rubini, was a prominent figure in Gradara in the 19th century, holding the position of municipal councilor and playing an active role in the political transition between the government of the Church and the new Italian state.
Between 1861 and 1992, Palazzo Rubini Vesin was the municipal seat. The fresco room houses the Mayor’s office, while the paintings from the civic collections are exhibited in the central hall. In 1870, two large rooms in the northern wing were transformed into the Teatro Comunale, seat of the Accademia Filodrammatica; the scenes, created by the famous Faenza set designer Romolo Liverani, were lost during the Second World War.
Between 1861 and 1992, Palazzo Rubini Vesin was the municipal seat. The fresco room houses the Mayor’s office, while the paintings from the civic collections are exhibited in the central hall. In 1870, two large rooms in the northern wing were transformed into the Teatro Comunale, seat of the Accademia Filodrammatica; the scenes, created by the famous Faenza set designer Romolo Liverani, were lost during the Second World War.
In July 2022, for the first time in its history, the Palazzo was identified by the municipality as the seat of the Civic Museum of Gradara, which took the name of MARV – Rubini Vesin Art Museum. A series of redevelopment interventions still underway aim to transform it into an exhibition space for events of an international level.
Permanent collections
A center of military and strategic importance since the early Middle Ages, Gradara has been governed over the centuries by some of the most splendid lordships of the Italian Renaissance: the Malatesta of Rimini, the Sforza of Pesaro, the Montefeltro and the della Rovere of Urbino. In addition to an important Franciscan convent, located just outside the walls, the village boasts three important religious buildings: the church of the Santissimo Sacramento, that of San Giovanni Evangelista (which served as the chapel of the Caslte), and the no more extant Churh of Santa Sofia. With the unification of Italy, many important works of ecclesiastical origin became part of the municipal collections. As reported in April-July 1861 by Giovanni Cavalcaselle and Giovanni Morelli, appointed by the new unitary state to survey the assets of the region, among these stand out the Altarpiece of Santa Sofia by Giovanni Santi, executed for Gradara in 1484 (and in which somebody recognizes, in the figure of the Child, the portrait of the newborn Raphael); the large glazed terracotta by Andrea Della Robbia, among the most beautiful in the Marches and later passed on to the state property; and a Madonna della Misericordia dated 1494 and recently attributed to Andrea da Murano, which makes it one of the outstanding examples of the Venetian presence in the Marches in the 15th century.
Since 1992, the art collections of the Municipality of Gradara have been deposited in the Rocca Demaniale, to be better preserved and presented to a greater number of visitors.
