Bagatti Valsecchi Museum, splendid 19th century pictorial decoration of the Library restored

The pictorial decoration of the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum Library has beenrestored, an intervention carried out by Studio Carlotta Beccaria & Co thanks to Italia Nostra’s Monti Fund during the closure of the Milanese museum venue due to anti-Covid restrictions imposed by the government.

The pictorial decoration of the Library is inspired by the chapter house of Santa Maria della Passione, frescoed with a monumental pictorial cycle by Ambrogio Bergognone, among the most significant places in Renaissance Milan.

The entire decoration was carried out in 1887 by Luigi Cavenaghi, an esteemed artist as well as a skilled restorer who also specialized in imitating the art of the past and for this very reason called by the Bagatti Valsecchi brothers for this commission. Cavenaghi substituted the busts of religious figures that appear in the lunettes of the sixteenth-century frescoes with Latin mottos taken from ancient authors such as Ovid, Horace, and Tibullus. This anthology of quotations is a recurring motif not only in the Library, but also in all the other rooms of the house-museum.

Lucia Pini, conservator of the museum, recounts, “Before the restoration, the decoration of the Library appeared seriously compromised: in fact, some of the materials used in the 19th century were already proving problematic because, not allowing the regular transpiration of the masonry, they had led to the massive formation of salts. The latter, pushing below the most superficial layer of plaster, had over the years caused the swelling and even the detachment of large parts of the pictorial decoration. Repeated compresses to remove the salts and small injections of lime to consolidate the areas at risk preceded the pictorial integration of the lost parts, which was carried out with reversible colors and precisely mapped.”

Thanks to this restoration, we can once again admire the Library with all the objects left as they were in their original location, starting with the pair of globes from 1579, one terrestrial and the other celestial, which stands in the middle of the room with the long central table housing ancient ivory artifacts, chests and scientific instruments.

Designed as a place of recollection, the Library is completely lined with wooden cabinets decorated with family coats of arms. A number of majolica tiles are set up above them, and inside are the many art and architecture magazines that the two brothers consulted in the late 19th century in search of decorative motifs to reproduce in their home.

Finally, on a large lectern is still open today Pietro Toesca’s volume, published in 1918, illustrating all the collections and rooms of Casa Bagatti Valsecchi.

The Library and the entire Bagatti Valsecchi Museum can be visited from May 6, 2021. It will be temporarily open Thursday through Sunday, with extended weekend hours from the morning: Thursday and Friday from 1 to 5:45 p.m., Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. The museum’s halls can accommodate only a few visitors at a time: therefore, it is mandatory to purchase tickets online in advance from www.museobagattivalsecchi.org for weekend visits, but pre-sale is also recommended on other weekdays. Those who visit the museum from May 6 to 9 will also receive a free Amici del Museo Bagatti Valsecchi card, which entitles them to unlimited and free admission throughout the year, as well as a wide range of benefits, reductions and conventions, and the opportunity to participate in all events and cultural visits organized for members and reserved for them.

Ph.Credit Museo Bagatti Valsecchi

Bagatti Valsecchi Museum, splendid 19th century pictorial decoration of the Library restored

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