Museo d'arte Moderna e Contemporanea A. Ortiz Echagüe

Photograph: Nicola Castangia

At the beginning of the twentieth century, two Spanish costumbrist painters lived in Atzara, scholarship holders at the Spanish Academy of Art in Rome: Eduardo Chicharro Agüera and Antonio Ortiz Echagüe, fascinated by local clothing and popular traditions.
Atzara, a small town in the province of Nuoro, thus became the centre for developing a native pictorial language of Iberian inspiration, as well as a destination for important artists who stayed there, such as Antonio Ballero, Filippo Figari, Mario Delitala, Giuseppe Dessì, Cesareo Bernaldo de Quirós, Richard Sheürlen and Prim Fullà.
The museum is dedicated to Antonio Ortiz Echagüe, who stayed in Atzara from 1906 to 1909. Located in the historic centre of the village, the museum presents visitors with three works by Antonio Ortiz Echagüe that he created in Atzara, such as the large canvas “La fiesta de la cofradía de Atzara”. The museum houses Antonio Ballero's painting “L’appello serale”, belonging to the Divisionist period, and works by Filippo Figari, Antonio Mura, Costantino Spada, Mario Delitala, Pietro Antonio Manca, Mauro Manca and others. The aim of the Atzara museum is to protect the artistic and cultural heritage with a view to enhancing the territory.