Poldi Pezzoli Museum
The Poldi Pezzoli Museum is an art museum in Milan, which was originally created from the private collection of Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli. The museum is located in the former residence of Poldi Pezzoli, built at the end of the nineteenth century. It houses a large collection of weapons, armor, paintings of the XIV-XIX centuries, Italian classical sculpture, Renaissance furniture, Persian carpets and Flemish tapestries, Venetian glass and antique ceramics.
History of the building
The passion of the young aristocrat Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli for art led him to replenish the family's art collection. When he died in 1879, he left his palace and his works of art to the Brera Academy, and in 1881 the Poldi Pezzoli Museum was opened. During the Second World War, the museum was severely damaged, many paintings were completely destroyed. The remaining works of art survived, and those that were damaged but repairable were restored. The building was rebuilt and reopened to the public in 1951.
Founder of the collection
Poldi Pezzoli was a Milanese trendsetter who loved to divide his house, and in his will he included precise instructions for turning the palazzo into a museum "for eternal public use and benefit." The foundation that manages the Poldi Pezzoli Museum today keeps pace with the times by entrusting major architectural projects to Luigi Caccia Dominioni and Arnaldo Pomodoro, opening doors to contemporary artists such as Giulio Paolini, and expanding the collection through exceptional donations such as the recent acquisition of the Reading Virgin by Antonello da Messina.
Exquisite masterpieces
The Poldi Pezzoli Museum creates a wonderful setting for the Italian Renaissance art collection, which is complemented by a wide variety of decorative elements from porcelain, sculptures, tapestries and clocks. The staircase is made in the neo-Baroque style, leads us through rooms with paintings by Mantegna, Botticelli, Pollaiolo, Lotto and Cheruti, and delights with its new frescoed ceiling. One of the highlights of the Poldi Pezzoli Museum is the Armory, a magnificent hall with a wide variety of weapons and armor. In addition, visitors should not miss the Golden Room, where the masterpieces of the museum are located, one of which is the "Portrait of a Young Lady" by Antonio Pollaiolo. In 1858, a representative of the London National Gallery, after visiting the house of a young collector, commented on the Poldi Pezzoli Museum as a beautifully decorated house in a modern Milanese style. Eclectic and refined in style, his palazzo was a hotbed of new trends and attracted the most renowned architects and designers of the time.
