Summary: Three hundred years ago, Giuseppe Alberti, a painter and architect from the Fiemme valley and a leading figure in Baroque art in Trentino, died in Cavalese. He was involved in the two biggest projects taking place in Trento at the end of the 17th century, namely the Chapel of the Crucifix in the cathedral and the Giunta Albertiana building at the Castello del Buonconsiglio. The third centenary of the artist’s death offered a unique opportunity to recall his work with an exhibition at the Castello del Buonconsiglio, retracing the most important phases in his activities, which saw him play a leading role in the local artistic scene in the last quarter of the 17th century. Thanks to numerous restoration projects promoted by the Cultural Heritage Department over the last thirty years, most of Alberti’s works, whether frescoes or paintings, are now in an excellent state of conservation. Alberti also worked extensively in the diocese, in the Abbey Church in S. Michele all’Adige, where he painted the magnificent demi-lunettes with the Fathers of the Church, the Franciscan church in Cavalese, the Chapel of Suffrage in the Archpriest Church in Riva del Garda and the Chapel of the Rosary in the Parish Church of Pressano, but he was also active in the Vicenza area, working on the decoration of Palazzo Leoni Montanari. In addition to more than seventy works including paintings, drawings, etchings, silverware, alabaster objects and sculptures, the exhibition also intends to highlight the best items produced by Alberti, comparing them with the many stylistic models encountered by the Trentino artist during his studies in Venice (Pietro and Marco Liberi, Bernardo Strozzi, Francesco Maffei, Giovanni Battista Langetti, Karl Loth and Pietro della Vecchia) and in Rome (Pietro da Cortona). The exhibition will recall the fashion for so-called turquerie exploding in Europe in the 17th century, a style which conquered the Western aristocracy, fascinated by the exotic and relatively unknown culture of Turkey, the centre of the Ottoman Empire. In this period the West showed a growing interest in Turkish arts and artefacts, including music, visual arts, architecture and sculpture. The exhibition will display the original blue and coloured majolica tiles in oriental style that once covered the floors of rooms in the Giunta Albertiana. In addition to many motifs taken from the splendid pottery of Iznik, innumerable figures representing birds, landscapes and architecture can be found on these tiles, the same motifs being echoed in aristocratic dwellings, suggesting a dialogue between the West and Istanbul resulting from continuing interaction in terms of trade, legations, and political and diplomatic relations. In the eighteen lunettes in the first room of the Giunta Albertiana, the artist from Fiemme painted chiaroscuro maps with views of cities won back from the Turks by the Empire around the end of the 17th century. Most of these are Hungarian cities, among which Budapest stands out, but there is also Vienna, defended against the attack of the Turks in 1683.

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