The collections

The Fantoni Foundation’s artistic heritage mostly derives from the workshop production of the 17th and 18th centuries, which includes an exceptional amount of sacred and secular works spread over the provinces of Bergamo and Brescia. This repertoire virtually encompasses all kinds of church furnishings and devotional images, and extends to addressing the grand architectural scale with the design and execution of a few church buildings. The graphic collections – besides the Fantoni corpus, linked to the design of sculptures, church and secular furnishings, and architecture (15th to 19th centuries) – preserve acquisitions coming from other artistic environments and included into the repertoires of the Fantoni workshop for the purpose of keeping up to date with the art world of the period. These were subsequently increased due to some family members’ collecting ambitions (Caniana archive, Quarenghi archive, and graphic collections of various authors).

The sculpture collections almost exclusively include models and works created by the various generations of Fantoni masters between the 16th and 18th centuries. The art collections also encompass a gallery of portraits of the Fantoni family members, a collection of paintings dating between the 16th and the 18th centuries, and the period fittings and furnishings present in the building.

A section created for educational purpose gathers woodworking tools (18th to 20th centuries) and explains the design and production steps of the process.

The archive

The Fantoni Foundation’s art collections are completed by a document archive, of historical and artistic interest, which brings together remembrances and testimonies relating to the creation and execution of Fantoni artworks, to the process of design and subsequent production, and to the acquisition of materials. In this archive we can find the ledgers concerning the activity and financial management of the workshop, negotiations, contracts and work relations, correspondence, and news. The archive corpus is completed by a small historical library and by a diplomatic papers collection dating to the period between the 14th and 18th centuries, both of mainly local interest.

Reproductions and Publications

It is possible to request digital reproductions of specimens of the collections and documents from the historical archive for study and publication purposes

(D.Lgs. 22 Gennaio 2004 n. 42 – Codice dei Beni Culturali e del Paesaggio)

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