Fortunato Duranti: Painter, Antiquarian and Collector

Fortunato Duranti: what to know

Duranti was born in Montefortino. His father was a shoemaker of limited means. He soon showed versatility in drawing and painting. He learned the basics at the Monastero delle Grotte di Massaccio, in today's Cupramontana, not far from Jesi. In Jesi he was able to see the decorations of the Palazzo Comunale and the Teatro Comunale, the work of the Neoclassical painter Felice Giani.

Shortly before 1807, under the protection of the Honorati family, he continued his studies in Rome, at the school of Abbot Domenico Conti. In Rome he was protected by Cardinal Bernardino Honorati and developed a fondness for Raphael and the Tuscan Mannerists. He came into contact with artists such as Tommaso Minardi, Vincenzo Camuccini, Pelagio Palagi, Felice Giani and Bartolomeo Pinelli.

After Cardinal Honorati's death, Duranti did not obtain any major commissions and turned to the antiques trade. He collected ancient marbles, paintings, drawings, prints and engravings. In 1815 he left for Germany with many works, hoping to sell them at a good price. During the journey he was accused of being a spy and arrested, and everything was confiscated. The episode marked him deeply: from then on, amid bouts of mental instability, he lived between Rome and Montefortino, where he retired for good in 1840.

Artistically, his early phase was academic. Around the 1820s his graphic style searched for new patterns and looked to the visionary painting of Johann Heinrich Füssli and Francisco Goya. Around 1830 he developed his so-called "square style". The figures are geometrically abstract and squared off, as if carved from blocks of stone. The line is almost shorthand and, taken as a whole, works like a large notebook of things seen and to be remembered, a working tool for an antiquarian. Little documentation survives of his work as a painter, apart from a Self-Portrait kept in the Pinacoteca.

He made repeated donations to the municipality. Duranti made them in gratitude for the tax and financial concessions granted to him. Montefortino thus found itself, ahead of other Italian civic museums, "virtually" owning the first public art gallery in the Marche. Because of the richness of its works, the Pinacoteca has been nicknamed the "little Louvre" of the Sibillini.

The rooms of the Pinacoteca hold, among other works:

• the Madonna and Child Enthroned between the Archangels Michael and Raphael by Pier Francesco Fiorentino, from 1497;
• three panels from a dismembered polyptych by Pietro Alemanno;
• a wooden cross by Jacobello di Bonomo;
• the Christ of the Passion by Perugino;
• some sketches and a work by Corrado Giaquinto.

The palace's main hall displays some drawings by Duranti, featuring the squared-off figures typical of his style. The Pinacoteca occupies the third floor, once the palace's piano nobile, with nine exhibition rooms that retain rich 18th- and 19th-century decoration.

Palazzo Leopardi has a history of its own. It was commissioned by Ser Desiderio Leopardi, a count palatine, who chose it as a temporary residence for the bishops of Fermo during their pastoral visits. It is built of brick with travertine finishings. On the ground floor stands the rusticated portal, with a keystone carved in the shape of a faun's face topped by the coat of arms.

The same palace houses two other collections. On the fourth floor, in 2000, a section of church-owned sacred art was set up, with a 14th-century wooden sculpture known as the "Madonna del Girone" and paintings by Simone De Magistris and Domenico Malpiedi. On the second floor is the wildlife collection of Ignazio Rossi Brunori, with a rich series of mammal and bird specimens, mainly from the central Apennines.

For the wider context of the area, continue with the page on Sibillini Mountains history.

Fortunato Duranti: visiting his art gallery

The Pinacoteca Duranti has no recommended visiting season. What matters most is whether the museum is open, and for years it was not.

In 2025 Palazzo Leopardi and the Pinacoteca reopened on a special basis for the FAI Spring Days (Giornate FAI di Primavera), pending their permanent reopening after years of closure caused by the 2016 earthquake. The palace thus opened its doors again after about a decade. Before planning the trip, check the current status.

Fortunato Duranti: practical tips

First of all, find out whether the Pinacoteca can be visited in the period chosen. After the closures linked to the 2016 earthquake, openings have been exceptional and tied to special initiatives. It is best to ask the Comune of Montefortino or the museum ticket office.

Those who manage to visit the museum can also see the sacred art section and the wildlife museum in the same palace, so allow time for all three collections. The museum complex is among the accessible museums of the Marche. The project "Il museo di tutti e per tutti" (a museum of and for everyone) created a tactile sensory route and a resin reproduction of Perugino's "Christ of the Passion".

Montefortino is a mountain village. Its center, in the province of Fermo, is atmospheric and maze-like, watched over by the Sibillini range. To get a better feel for the setting in which Duranti lived and collected, you can also spend time in the village, its lanes and Largo Duranti, where the palace stands.