a key to Milan [guidebook] - City Council Art Collections

City Council's Art Collections

The 'Comune di Milano''s four art museums are also formed mainly of private collections donated to the City by their owners. There are some exceptional art works, plus very well researched documentation on Milan's history from the Middle Ages to the present day.

City Council's Art Collections

excerpt from pages 87-89

Civico Museo d'Arte Antica del Castello

A wealth of works: Lombard sculpture from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, and Northern-Italian painting up to the 18th century. The Civiche Raccolte di Arte Applicata are also exhibited here: arms, antique furniture, ceramics and an exceptional collection of hundreds of musical instruments.
The museum's layout is modern and has been kept up-to-date, but the charm of the first series of rooms stems from their older layout which dates back to 1954-63. It is the result of the team-work of BBPR (Banfi, Belgiojoso, Peressutti and Rogers). Identification plates in solid wood, imaginative settings created without excessive regard to expense, the tall shell-shaped panelling which encloses the Rondanini Pietà by Michelangelo are solutions that reflect the finest taste of the 1950's.

Outstanding in terms of sculpture is the Monument of Bernabò Visconti by Bonino da Campione (1360-80 circa), which comes from the demolished church of San Giovanni in Conca. The Statue of Gaston de Foix (1515-1523), by Agostino Busti called Bambaja, also comes from a demolished church (in 1990 this monument reacquired its originally intended appearance, thanks to the purchase of high-relief sculptures and statues that had been made for the tomb of the young French general but found their way into private collections). The Rondanini Pietà, considered to be Michelangelo's last work (1555 circa), was purchased by the City Council in 1952. The Sala delle Asse now houses the Greppi-Belgiojoso collection of Flemish paintings.
The paintings are at the first floor, after the antique furniture collection (where you will also see the 15th century frescoed Camera di Griselda, from Roccabianca, Parma). Worthy of special mention are works by the Lombard schools of the Renaissance (Foppa, Bergognone, Boltraffio, Bramantino, Moretto) and of the 16th and 17th centuries (Cerano, Morazzone, Cairo, Magnasco, Procaccini, Nuvolone). There are also works by Mantegna, Lippi, Lotto, Tintoretto, Correggio, Bronzino, Tiepolo. Paintings by Sebastiano Ricci, Carlo Preda, Montalto, Vermiglio and Canaletto are among the recent acquisitions.
With the old BBPR-designed layout, you went straight from the art gallery to the applied arts sections in the buildings overlooking the Cortile della Rocchetta. Now, instead, you have to go down to the entrance again, and from there take the staircase on the left. Outstanding among the many exhibits - besides the previously mentioned musical instruments - are the Arazzi Trivulzio, a series of twelve tapestries of exceptional quality, size, completeness and conservation; they were made (around 1504-09) in Vigevano and depict the months of the year, to designs by Bramantino.
Since the 80s two exhibition rooms have been opened under the Cortile Ducale: you can see a number of Roman inscriptions and tombstones, medieval statues and bas-reliefs, Renaissance capitals and medallions - very elegantly exhibited.

An overview of the Castello's collections is not complete without the Gabinetto dei Disegni and the Medagliere (which can be seen only upon specific request) and without the Civica Raccolta Stampe 'Achille Bertarelli' (8.45AM-12 noon and 2.30-4.15PM, closed Saturday, Sunday and public holidays; 8646 1404), whose entrance is next to the Torre del Filarete. The Raccolta Stampe consists of more than 30,000 prints, maps, ex libris and visiting cards donated to the City in the 20s by Bertarelli, who collected them assiduously. These collections are filed as in a library, and you can see them only as you would in a reference library.

inside the Castello Sforzesco

Cairoli

9AM - 5:30PM
• closed Monday

entrance free

tel. 02 861125

Civiche Raccolte Archeologiche e Numismatiche

These collections may have less appeal for the public at large but they are still very interesting for anyone with more than schoolboy knowledge of the subject. Their largest portion - Greek, Etruscan, Roman and Longobard exhibits - is located in the only place in the city where there are still two Roman towers from the Imperial period; namely, at the Monastero Maggiore. A good part of the pieces were obtained from excavations in various areas of Milan.

The Egyptian and palaeethnological sections of the Raccolte Archeologiche are in the Castello (same opening hours as the Museo d'Arte Antica) in rooms beneath the Rocchetta. The Egyptian part is not extensive (but has burial chamber relics from the 7th century BC and some small statues of notable interest), while the palaeethnological has a wider and clearly presented collection of material found in Lombard necropoleis from the Paleolithic to the Iron Age.

Corso Magenta 15

Cadorna Triennale

9AM - 5:30PM
• closed Monday

entrance free

tel. 02 86450011

Civica Galleria d'Arte Moderna

The Gallery documents mainly Italian visual artworks from late 18th century neoclassical Milanese paintings to the early Avant-garde, through the phases that go from Romanticism to Divisionism (the optical mixtures technique used by the Neo-Impressionists). The Raccolta Grassi (on the second floor), donated to the City Council in 1956, is a permanent part of the gallery: it focuses on late 19th and early 20th century Italian and French art and includes numerous important works by the Tuscan 'Macchiaioli' and above all - a rarity in Italy - by French Impressionists and Post-Impressionists like Corot, Manet, Cézanne and Gauguin. On the first floor is the Museo Marino Marini, which provides a fascinating setting for this Italian contemporary artist's work.

Among the neo-classical artists represented here are Canova and Appiani, for the Romantics Hayez and Faruffini, for the 'Scapigliati', Cremona and Medardo Rosso, for the turn-of-the-century 'Divisionisti', Segantini (The Two Mothers), Previati and Pellizza da Volpedo - whose gigantic Quarto Stato is a sort of symbol of both the Gallery and of the Milanese socialist traditions - ; for the 'Macchiaioli', Lega, Signorini and Fattori; for the Avant-gardes, Balla and Boccioni.

The small building on the right of the Villa Reale is the PAC (Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea, Via Palestro 14, tel. 02 783330). It is dedicated to excellent temporary exhibitions of current contemporary art. PAC was conceived to house the section of the Modern Art Gallery which was permanently devoted to 20th century art. But the City Council's contemporary art collections have been moved to the

Via Palestro 16
(inside the Villa Reale)

Palestro

9AM - 5:30PM
• closed Monday

entrance free

tel. 02 76002819

CIMAC
Civico Museo di Arte Contemporanea

This is the first nucleus - on the top floor, after interminable flights of stairs - of the future Galleria di Arte Contemporanea, which should occupy a whole wing of Palazzo Reale. There are two L-shaped corridors flanked by small rooms each of which is dedicated to an artist or group of artists belonging to the same period or school. One wing covers the years from Futurism to the 50s, the other, from the 50s to the present day. The most recent works are almost all donations, the majority from the painters themselves.

The room dedicated to Boccioni's work is outstanding. Other artists who also have an entire room dedicated to their work are Giorgio De Chirico, Carrà, Sironi, Martini, De Pisis, Melotti as established masters of Italian contemporary art; and Novelli, Tancredi, Schifano, Rotella and Paladino as more authentically current contemporaries.

There are ambitious plans to expand the CIMAC, but these are not the only plans for the city's museums. For quite some time a project to create a museum of fashion design throughout the centuries has been seriously considered. It would be set up in Villa Scheibler, once a Renaissance country house now on the outskirts of Milan, and would occupy an exhibition area of 2,700 square meters. The Castello's collections of period costumes could thus be exhibited, since presently its Civiche Raccolte d'Arte Applicata are not completely on show. In the future fashion museum, alongside the historical costumes, the creative works of some contemporary Milan based fashion designers would be exhibited.

Piazza Duomo
(inside the Palazzo Reale)

Duomo

currently close for restoration
(about one hundred pieces are temporarily been exhibited at La Permanente, Via Turati 34, open Tuesday - Sunday 10AM - 1PM and 2:30PM - 6:30PM, Thursday through 10pm, tel. 02 6551445, entrance fee)

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