Argentina Guide
The Northwest
Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes Arías Rengel
Opening time: Mon– Sat 8.30am–1pm & 4–8pm
Price: $1
Address: La Florida 20
The pedestrianized street on which the Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes Arías Rengel stands allows you an unrestricted view of its brilliant white facade, with its elaborate arched doorway and handsome green door. Erected towards the end of the eighteenth century, and virtually intact, albeit well restored, it's the finest viceregal building left in the city. The home of Sergeant-Major Félix Arías Rengel, who conquered the Argentine Chaco and had the house built, it has splendid patios, full of lush trees and plants, while the fine interior details include verandahs, banisters and rafters of red quebracho timber.
Occasionally putting on regional or national art exhibitions, the museum houses the city's rich fine art collection, ranging from paintings from Cusco to twentieth-century sculpture. Highlights are a St Matthew of the Cusqueña School, an eighteenth-century polychrome Asunción de la Virgen from the Jesuit missions, a large painting of The City of Salta, painted in 1854 by Giorgio Penutti, and some fine engravings by nineteenth-century artists Basaldúa, Spilimbergo and Quinquela Martín.