Every Italian city of cultural importance is encircled by superb aristocratic villas. Lucca’s own are spread among the foothills of the Pizzorne and include such wonders as the Villa Reale (see my post on its new owners at https://longoio3.com/2020/08/12/elisas-villa-resurrected/) and the Villa Torrigiani. Vicenza is famous for its Palladian villas along the Brenta. (There’s my post on these at https://longoio3.com/2018/11/04/vicenzas-palladian-splendour/). Florence is distinguished for its UNESCO world-heritage Medicean villas (see my post on them at https://longoio3.com/2020/02/28/a-place-in-the-country/

It is no wonder that, with its magnificent location between mountain and sea, Palermo would have a cornucopia of villas. The town of Bagheria is the focus for these villas. Indeed, the name derives from the Arabic baḥriyya, meaning ‘by the sea’.

The majority of these villas were built in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and are baroque in style. Sadly, many are now abandoned, waiting for a shining knight to rescue them from the dragons devouring their dilapidated splendours.  We wanted to indulge in some urban exploration of them but the risks were too high what with crumbling roof beams and a major mafia centre nearby at Corleone.

Interestingly, there is a theory that alchemical philosophy was at the basis of the construction of some of these villas, in particular Villa Valguarnera and Villa Palagonia with their strange sculptures.

This philosophy probably derived from the desire to create an Arcadian society where acolytes could devote themselves to the liberal arts and alchemical philosophy, far from Palermo’s menacing Court of the Inquisition of Palermo. This theory links up with Florence’s Neo-Platonism associated with villas like Careggi where philosopher Marsilio Ficino was based. (No wonder I felt enlightened when I woke up in that villa’s grounds now incorporated in Florence’s Careggi hospital after my eight-hour operation earlier this year…)

In Bagheria there are some villas available to view and one that I came across by chance houses the Renato Guttuso museum. The villa was built in 1736 by the prince of Cattolica Eraclea, Francesco Bonanno. From 1830 the Bonanno family lost the property and the villa took different uses: lazaretto, barracks, and finally at the end of the 1800’s it was bought by Gioacchino Scaduto who used it as a home and a factory for canned food!

Luckily the villa was saved for more exalted purposes and reopened in 1973 housing works by Renato Guttuso which the maestro donated his hometown before his death in 1987.

In addition to Guttuso’s creations, representing over forty years of activity,  the villa hosts works by twentieth century artists like, among others, Cagli, Mario Schifano, Onofrio Tomaselli, Silvestre Cuffaro, Domenico Quattrociocchi, Pina Calí, Vincenzo Gennaro and Giuseppe Pellitteri, Mimmo Pintacuda andGand Tornatore. Over the years, other works have been donated to the museum.  Here is a small selection of what we saw:

Guttuso’s works range from paintings to sculptures, from drawings to engravings and range from works from the 1930’s to the artist’s last years.

Guttuso, who we had the privilege of meeting in the 1980’s when he opened an exhibition of his works in London, is one of the most significant Italian painters of the modern age.  I particularly admire the socialist imprint of his artistic production. Without indulging in the crasser aspects of soviet realism Guttuso manages to produce works which stand for their moral force together with those such as ‘Guernica’ – Guttuso and Picasso were good friends.

(Guttuso’masterpiece: ‘Crucifixion’.)

The museum also includes a lovely collection of the two-wheeled painted Sicilian donkey cart. The panels illustrate stories from the great knightly epics of the past like ‘Orlando Furioso’ and his paladins.

The tradition of painting transport vehicles in this colourful way continues to this day in Sicily: for example with this Fiat 500.

In India we noted a similar tradition with regard to heavy goods vehicles vivaciously decorated with epic stories, this time from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.

For me these are wonderful examples of how great traditions can survive and continue across technological progress. Ever thought of customizing your car with stories from Malory’s ‘King Arthur’, for example?

I do hope that the time will come when the whole area of Bagheria will be elevated to a world heritage site. Its wonderful villas need this help and they could be used for so many social and cultural purposes. We at least are glad to have visited something of what can be achieved in the Villa Cattolica.

Where to now in Sicilia? Just one day left before our appointment with Giovanni in Syracuse….