East Wing, Poldi Pezzoli Museum

Rooms in Renaissance style, was designed as a hall of honor, intended to contain some of the most important works of the collection. Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli could not see it finished and Bertini continued its decoration after the death of the museum founder.

Golden Hall
The Golden Hall is the most important room in the museum and houses the masterpieces of painting from the Poldi Pezzoli collection. Conceived according to the dictates of the Renaissance style, it was designed to be the hall of honor of Gian Giacomo’s apartment. After the collector’s death, Giuseppe Bertini carried on the work: unfortunately both the gilded coffered ceiling, and the frescoes, painted by Bertini himself, and the decorationsDamask fabric actions that lined the walls were destroyed by bombing. The current museum layout dates back to the nineties. Among the exhibited works you can admire the Portrait of a Lady attributed to Piero del Pollaiolo and become a symbol of the Museum, the Immago Pietatis by Bellini, the Lamentation over the Dead Christ by Botticelli, the Madonna and Child by Mantegna and San Nicola da Tolentino by Piero of Francesca. In the showcase that separates the Golden Hall from the Sala degli Stucchi the porcelain and majolica collections are exhibited.

The hall, so called for a gilded coffered ceiling now destroyed, was decorated with frescoes by Giuseppe Bertini while the walls were covered with damask cloth; everything was destroyed in 1943.

Visconti Venosta room
The Visconti Venosta room, together with the Ghislandi room and the Clock room, was added to the museum after the Second World War. The room bears the name of the Visconti Venosta family, who supported the museum with some important donations. The works on display are a part of those collected by Emilio Visconti Venosta at the end of the nineteenth century, in the same Milanese collection environment to which Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzol i also belonged .

Clock room
One of the most important Italian collections of ancient watchmaking is housed here. The room was inaugurated in 1973 and completely redeveloped in 2015 with the addition of a multimedia station that shows the clocks in movement, allows you to listen to the sounds, admire the hidden faces. In addition to the few but noteworthy pieces purchased by Gian Giacomo, in 1973 was the substantial donation by Bruno Falck, steel magnate, who offered the Museum one hundred and twenty-nine extraordinary examples of mechanical watches, in 1978 the collection of solar watches by Piero Portaluppi (today exhibited in the Sala Palma) and in 2017 the former collection of Luigi Delle Piane (exhibited in the hall of the men’s watches). The collection allows you to explore the history of European luxury watchmaking from the 16th to the 19th centuries.

Hall of person watches
The first room of the new Franzini Wing, opened in 2017, is dedicated to the display of personal watches. The rich collection brings together luxury items of German, French, English and Swiss manufacture and develops from the mid-sixteenth century until the early twentieth century. Most of the pieces were part of the Luigi Delle Piane collection, which came as a donation in 2017.

Archeology room
The room, part of the new Franzini area opened in 2017, houses vessels and figurines of Greek origin, acquired by the museum thanks to the kind donation of Rossella Necchi-Rizzi and Orazio Carandente; helmets and parts of ancient armor from the Poldi Pezzoli collections are also exhibited. The exhibited works document the interest developed in Europe in the 19th century between monarchs and aristocrats for Attic ceramics and the small statuterracotta air. the route begins with “indigenous” pottery, produced in Apulia even before the settlement of the Greek colonists (from the 8th century BC); it is characterized by decorative and geometric motifs and particular shapes. Follow the “red-figure” pottery with their repertoire of myths and images, made in Apulia during the 4th century BC and the “black paint” pottery. Finally, the clay statuettes depicting divinities, girls in graceful poses, children, erotic or small animals, were used as votive offerings to the gods to be deposited in shrines or tombs.

Portrait gallery
The room is entirely dedicated to the famous portraits of the Bergamo artist Vittore Ghislandi. The room also displays some porcelain from Maria Chiara Zerilli Marimò’s recent donation.

Porcelain room
The small room houses the exceptional parure of fireplace vases, a gift from the Zerilli Marimò family and two portraits by Giacomo Ceruti.

Poldi Pezzoli Museum
Open to the public in 1881, beloved by both the Milanese and the international public, the Poldi Pezzoli Museum enchants not only for the charm of the rooms, which evoke the eras of the past from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century up to the Armory reinterpreted by the contemporary artist Arnaldo Pomodoro, but also for the variety and richness of the collections. Masterpieces of painting, sculptures, rugs, lace and embroidery, weapons and armor, jewelery, porcelain, glass, furniture, solar and mechanical watches: over 5000 extraordinary objects, from antiquity to the nineteenth century, immersed in a magical atmosphere.

In the heart of Milan, created thanks to the passion of the noble art collector Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli (1822-1879), the Poldi Pezzoli Museum is one of the most important and famous house-museums in the world. It is next to the Scala theatre, in the street once called “corsia del Giardino” (garden). Actually, behind the severe Neoclassical façade of the palace there is still a beautiful garden.

The house-museum, beloved by the Milanese and international public, opened in 1881; it fascinates not only for the charm of the rooms, evoking the past (from medieval times to the 18th century up to the Armoury by the contemporary artist Arnaldo Pomodoro), but also for the variety and richness of its collections. Masterpieces of painting, sculptures, carpets, lace and embroidery, arms and armour, jewels, porcelain, glass, furniture, clocks: over 5000 pieces from Antiquity to the 19th century suspended in a magical atmosphere that evokes the one chosen by the great Milanese art collector.

The museum It is part of the circuit of “Case Museo di Milano” and exhibits works by numerous artists, including: Perugino, Piero della Francesca, Sandro Botticelli, Antonio Pollaiolo, Giovanni Bellini, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Pinturicchio, Filippo Lippi, Andrea Mantegna, Jacopo Palma il Vecchio, Francesco Hayez, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Alessandro Magnasco, Jusepe de Ribera, Canaletto, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Luca Giordano.