The Angelucci's collection

Arduino Angelucci was an artist active in the fields of painting and decoration, known for his numerous important public commissions. Throughout his long career, he decorated numerous buildings—public, private, and ecclesiastical—taking on celebratory, mythological, and religious themes. His monumental works, inspired by the language of the twentieth century, are characterized by solemn, complex, and highly modeled scenes, qualities evident in his preparatory studies for frescoes.

His artistic output spans a variety of techniques—from panel painting to oil on canvas, from tempera to mosaic—but it was in fresco that Angelucci achieved his greatest achievements, as demonstrated by his exquisite preparatory cartoons. Among these, the decoration of the ceiling of the Aula Magna of the Royal University of Palermo, completed between 1935 and 1938, stands out.

To participate in the competition, announced by the Civil Engineering Department of Palermo [Notice No. 8935 of June 28, 1934 (XII) Extraordinary Public Works] and aimed at renovating the Aula Magna of the Royal University, Angelucci developed a particularly elaborate project, accompanied by the creation of a series of preparatory cartoons, similar in style and content to his other mural works. These cartoons, executed in charcoal on paper, were donated to the University of Palermo in 2021 by will of the artist's daughter, Alessandra Angelucci, and thus became part of the University's heritage managed by UNIPA Heritage – University Museum System. The donation includes fifteen cartoons divided into four scenes that correspond to the exquisite decorative cycle that can still be admired today in the current Aula Magna of the Department of Law at the University of Palermo.

The cartoons are kept in the Steri Monumental Complex and the cataloguing cards are being published on the website of the General Catalogue of Cultural Heritage of the MIC.