West Wing, Poldi Pezzoli Museum

This environment was conceived as a scenic entrance to the apartment of Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli using an ancient baroque staircase already present in the palace decorated with eight monumental sandstone statues placed in niches, the work of a Milanese sculptor of the eighteenth century.

To emphasize the Baroque style Giuseppe Bertini added stuccos (destroyed in 1943) and an elegant neo-baroque fountain.

Ancient staircase
The scenic Baroque staircase, embellished with an elegant fountain, connects the entrance and the rooms on the ground floor to the rooms on the main floor. The staircase was the old access to the apartments of Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli and was designed starting from the ancient staircase of the building, decorated with six niches that contain as many statues of monumental grandeur: Prudence, War, Piety, Wisdom, Faith and Theocracy. The stucco decoration of the walls and the painted glass skylight were destroyed during the bombing of 1943, while five walnut chests with a golden coat of arms and the word “Poldi” on the back were saved.

Lombardi room
The three rooms host the collection of Lombard Renaissance paintings, chosen by Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli with the advice of Giuseppe Bertini, Giuseppe Molteni and Giovanni Morelli. The first installation, a unique environment that housed the volumes of the Library, was destroyed by the bombings of ’43. In 1960, with the reopening in the Museum, the new division of the rooms was inaugurated, embellished with a series of ceiling tablets with heraldic motifs and half- length portraits of the Cremonese School.

Hall of Foreigners
The room, originally part of the antechamber, houses the works of foreign masters from the Poldi Pezzoli collection. Among the exhibits it is possible to admire the famous diptych with the portraits of Martin Luther and his wife Katharina von Bora, painted by the German Renaissance master Lucas Cranach the Elder. The ceiling decorations and original furnishings, the work of the engraver Giuseppe Ripamonti, have unfortunately been lost.

Stucchi room
The Sala degli Stucchi is the first historic room on the main floor, where the Museum’s porcelain and majolica collections have always been kept. Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli personally bought almost all the pieces on display, about six hundred and fifty, displayed in a showcase built in 1880 to divide the Sala degli Stucchi from the Golden Room. The section of Meissen porcelain, undoubtedly the richest and most significant, covers the production of the manufacture from 1720 to the second half of the nineteenth century, and includes tableware, statuettes and various objects. At the time of Gian Giacomo the Sala degli Stucchi, called the Yellow Room, had stucco decorations in the Rococo style, destroyed in ’43 and partially rebuilt according to the original models.

It was decorated in the Rococo style and intended to house the eighteenth-century porcelain collections. The frescoes by Luigi Scrosati and the stucco decoration by Antonio Tantardini, made by 1855, were destroyed in 1943.

The shelves, consoles and rocaille-style chairs executed by Giuseppe Speluzzi between 1870 and 1876 were instead saved.

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.

This room, 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.

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.

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.