World art day: top 10 best Italian artworks to see once in your lifetime

World Art Day is celebrated every year on April 15, on the same date of the birthday of one of the greatest artists of all time, Leonardo da Vinci.

There is no doubt that Italy is exactly the place to be on such a special day. There are literally hundreds of priceless masterpieces scattered in the museums and sites throughout the territory, so why don't take advantage of this special celebration to see them up close?

To help you choose where to start, here is a top 10 of the artworks that have made the Italian cultural heritage unique, the ones that everyone should see at least once in a lifetime.

Let's begin our journey among the masterpieces of Italian art with one of the most evocative works of all. It is the Veiled Christ, kept in that incredible casket of treasures which is the Sansevero Chapel in Naples.

An aura of mystery has surrounded Prince Sansevero for years, to whose family the chapel belonged. Brilliant and cultured, he was passionate about alchemy so that perfection of the statue that now occupies his chapel's central nave has been attributed for a long time to some obscure process, capable of transforming fabric into marble.

The artwork, actually, is undoubtedly entirely in marble. It's simply due to the talent of its author, the sculptor Sammartino, the incredible veil that covers the body of Jesus and which appears so thin and impalpable as to reveal not only the beautiful face of Christ, but also his wounds.

Visit the Veiled Christ in Naples❯

A visit to the Bargello Museum in Florence is certainly a great way to celebrate the World Art Day. Here, among many wonderful pieces of art to admire, there is an absolute masterpiece: Donatello's David.

The bronze sculpture represents the young David who has just defeated the giant Goliath and who certainly doesn't do much to hide his pride and the bravado typical of youth. It's therefore also an allegory of victory and in fact it was commissioned by Cosimo de' Medici soon after the victory of Florence against Milan in the Battle of Anghiari.

This statue also has an important record. At the time, i.e. in the mid-1400s, it was the first one to represent a full-relief nude since the days of ancient Rome, so it can be said that it was one of the works that started the Italian Renaissance.

Visit the Bargello Museum❯

World Art Day cannot be properly celebrated without at least mentioning Caravaggio, a seventeenth-century painter, passionate and intense, with a life turbulent to the point of earning him the reputation of a cursed artist.

One of his most important and engaging works can be found in Naples, in the church of Pio Monte della Misericordia, in the historic center.

The painting, The Seven Works of Mercy is a huge canvas over three meters high. It's an emblematic work because it was the first to represent seven scenes simultaneously, linked to each other, for a harmonious and balanced result despite the pressing pace of the story.

The protagonists, inspired by the reality of the poorest slums of Naples, tell of a suffering but vital humanity, and of the hope of redemption through good deeds.

Visit Pio Monte della Misericordia❯

Another representation of the David, once again for the glory of Florence, arrived only sixty years after Donatello's one. Despite this, Michelangelo's David is a very different work from the previous one and not only for its huge dimensions (more than five meters in total) and because it's made of marble.

If Donatello represents a  teenager, victorious after the battle, Michelangelo represents a young man in the moment before attacking the enemy Goliath. His fierce and focused gaze makes him a symbol of courage and strength. It's not so much a celebration of a victory as an incentive for future battles, metaphorical and otherwise.

This artwork should be seen in the World Art Day and not only, because it has become the symbol of Florence and in a sense of the whole Italy. Furthermore, thanks to a basically perfect anatomy that has set for centuries the standard of male beauty.

Initially it was located in Piazza della Signoria, where today there is a copy, while the original is exhibited in the Galleria dell'Accademia.

Visit Galleria dell'Accademia❯

There are works so perfect that it's almost impossible to describe them in words. Michelangelo's Pietà is certainly one of these and in fact it's considered one of the greatest expressions of art in the West.

The artis made it when he was only twenty-four years old, stating that he had seen it in the block of marble from which he only had to remove the excess.

The theme is certainly not new, but what makes this sculpture an authentic masterpiece are the emotions, real and vibrant even if they're represented with dignity and poise. The pain and love on the beautiful and young face of the Virgin who supports her son's body, serene even in death, tell of an intimate yet very intense moment. The rest is done by the voluminous and soft drapery that gives consistency to the figures and helps to define the classic pyramid shape.

You can admire this wonderful masterpiece in Rome, in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.

Visit St. Peter's Basilica❯

An absolute must for World Art Day, but in general on any day of the year, is the Sistine Chapel.

Once again in the Vatican, this Chapel is almost an encyclopedia of Renaissance art. Completely frescoed on the walls and ceilings, it houses aweome works by Italian masters such as Perugino, Ghirlandaio, Signorelli, Botticelli, and their workshops, to then culminate with the vault and the altar wall which are painted by Michelangelo.

In fact, inside the Chapel there are the stories of Genesis, including the very famous Creation of Adam, or the portraits of the Prophets and Sibyls, all indeed painted by Michelangelo as well as the Last Judgment on the wall. This grandiose work represents more than three hundred characters but is also and above all considered a watershed work marking the peak and at the same time the end of the Renaissance.

Visit the Sistine Chapel❯