Chiuduno

Chiuduno is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Bergamo in the Italian region of Lombardy, located about 60 kilometres (37 mi) northeast of Milan and about 15 kilometres (9 mi) southeast of Bergamo, midway between the Bergamo plain and the Valcalepio. Chiuduno borders the following municipalities: Bolgare, Carobbio degli Angeli, Grumello del Monte, Telgate. History The settlement has Gaulish origins, and was later a Roman centre as Claudunum on the road between Bergamo and Brescia. It is however mentioned for the first time in a document from 795, and in the Middle Ages it developed and received a fortress. Main sights Castle (9th century), of which only a tower and other parts remain. Another fortification on the border with the territory of Carobbio degli Angeli (17th century). The son of a carpenter, Wicar studied drawing at the free school in Lille before further honing his talents in the studio of David. The drawings Wicar created of Tableaux, statues, bas-reliefs et camées de la Galerie de Florence et du palais Pitti (Paintings, statues, bas-reliefs and cameos in the Gallery of Florence and the Pitti Palace) were published in Paris in 4 volumes at the Lacombe publishing house from 1789 to 1807. Wicar headed the commission set up by Napoleon I of France to loot artworks from the Austrian Netherlands to enrich museums in France - an initial convoy left Antwerp on 11 August 1794, notably with paintings by Rubens, for the Louvre. Abbeys and castles were systematically emptied of their contents, furniture and works of art. Wicar was also a member of the commission des sciences et des arts on the Italian campaign, in the entourage of Bonaparte. This commission was charged with seizing artworks that could enrich French national museum collections. He finally permanently settled in Rome in 1800 and became a portraitist of European renown. On his death in Rome, Wicar left the major collection of 1,300 drawings he had accumulated over his lifetime to the Société des Sciences, de l’Agriculture et des Arts de Lille. Mostly from the Italian school, but also in some small measure from the northern schools, it held drawings by artists like Raphael, Albrecht Dürer, Lucas Cranach, Nicolas Poussin and Jacques-Louis David. This legacy initially formed the public "musée Wicar", which in 1866 merged into the Palais des beaux-arts de Lille. Demographic evolution References