The dominion – at first unofficial, then official – of the Visconti family over Milan favored the development of this Lombard city that already at the time of the ancient Roman emperors had affirmed its hegemony. The definitive unification of Lombardy under the Visconti and their policies of territorial and military expansion led to such enormous benefits for the city in the fields of agriculture, the economy, commerce, and manufature that, from the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries onwards, Milan and its court became the point-of-reference for art and culture, a meeting place for artists, architects, scientists and intellectuals.
The goal of the exhibit is to analyze the development of Milanese society, highlighting its fisiognomy and the role that the Visconti and the subsequent Sforza dynasties had on the extraordinary growth of the dukedom. This is possible through the exhibited paintings, important documents from state archives, codexes, illuminated miniatures, maps, furniture and antique money.
From the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum one of the works collected at the end of the 19th century by the noble brothers Fausto and Giuseppe Bagatti Valsecchi has been requested for the exhibit:
- Bishop’s seat, Lombard art, painted and gilded wood, 15th century, inv. 31, Room of the Valtellinese Bed
For more information about the exhibit running from March to June of 2015 at the Palazzo Reale (Royal Palace), see Arte Lombarda dai Visconti agli Sforza – Milano al centro dell’Europa (in Italian)
