Museo d’arte moderna religiosa Dedalo Montali

At a glance

Type

Museum of modern religious art

Where

Rodello, Province of Cuneo, Piedmont, Italy

Coordinates

44.6307896° N, 8.0567748° E

Two sites

Church of the Immacolata Concezione and La Residenza

Origin

The 1960s seminar of don Mario Battaglino; the 1969 meeting with Dedalo Montali

Dedalo Montali

Cagliari, 10 July 1909 — Rodello, 13 February 2001

Overview

The Museo “Dedalo Montali” is at Rodello, in the Province of Cuneo, in the Langhe of Piedmont. It occupies two sites — the halls of the church of the Immacolata Concezione and La Residenza — held together as a single presentation.

The archive entry calls it original and wholly new in the local and national artistic scene: a museum of modern art built on a religious commission rather than on a collector’s taste.

History

The museum grew out of an experiment. In the 1960s don Mario Battaglino promoted an experimental seminar at Rodello, joined by the then young artists Piero Ruggeri, Giorgio Ramella, Bruno Sandri and Beppe Morino, among others, under the guidance of Enrico Paulucci. What was asked of them was work on religious subjects in contemporary technique and style. The group of works then produced stayed in the church of the Immacolata and formed the first nucleus of the museum.

In that context falls the meeting, at Turin in 1969, between Dedalo Montali and don Battaglino, who was then founding La Residenza, a nursing home, and looking for an artist to decorate its chapel according to the new demands of the Council.

The project is supported by the Fondazione CRC, by La Residenza and by the comune, with the Museo Diocesano of Alba and the associations Colline e Culture and Turismo in Langa; its declared aim is to recreate at Rodello the climate of those years.

What you see

Paintings and sculpture divided between the two sites, brought together at the wish of Dedalo Montali himself, on the initiative of his widow Taja Satta Montali and of Canon Mario Battaglino.

Montali’s works — he was born at Cagliari on 10 July 1909 and died at Rodello on 13 February 2001 — are arranged by period and theme, from before the war to the end of the century, and show him as painter, sculptor and poet.

Practical information

• Address: Via Roma 1, 12050 Rodello (CN), Piedmont.
• The museum is on two sites in the village; it is advisable to check opening before travelling.

Sources

• Cultural Heritage Online historical archive — original Italian entry (beniculturalionline.it), transposed and corrected 2026.