The Museo Poldi Pezzoli is an

art museum An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own Collection (artwork), collection. It might be in public or private ownership, be accessible to all, or have restrictions in place. Although ...

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. It is located near the

Teatro alla Scala La Scala (, , ; officially , ) is a historic opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as (, which previously was a church). The premiere performance was Antonio Salieri's ''Europa r ...

, on Via Manzoni 12. The museum was originated in the 19th century as a private collection of

Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli (Milan 27 July 1822 – 6 April 1879) was an Italian count who gathered art from Italian Renaissance. Italys' first private museum which bears his name, the Museo Poldi Pezzoli. Biography Son of Giuseppe Poldi Pezz ...

(1822–1879) and his mother, Rosa Trivulzio, of the family of the

condottiero Condottieri (; singular: ''condottiero'' or ''condottiere'') were Italian military leaders active during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. The term originally referred specifically to commanders of mercenary companies, derived from the ...

Gian Giacomo Trivulzio Gian Giacomo Trivulzio (1440 or 1441 – 5 December 1518) was an Italian aristocrat and ''condottiero'' who held several military commands during the Italian Wars. Biography Trivulzio was born in Milan, where he studied, among others, wi ...

. Many of the rooms in the palace were redecorated starting in 1846, a commissions entrusted to

Luigi Scrosati Luigi Scrosati (1814 in Milan – 1869 in Milan) was an Italian painter. He was not trained in any of the academies, nor did he apprentice with a master painter. He however gained respect as a watercolor painter, and was supported by his frien ...

and

Giuseppe Bertini Giuseppe Bertini (1825–1898) was an Italian painter, active in his native Milan. Biography He studied at the Brera Academy under Luigi Sabatelli and Giuseppe Bisi, and in 1845 was awarded the ''Gran premio di pittura dell'Accademia di Brer ...

. Individual rooms were often decorated and furnished to match the paintings hung on the walls. The architect

Simone Cantoni Simone Cantoni (2 September 1739 – 3 March 1818) was a Swiss architect of the Neoclassical period, active mainly in Northern Italy. Among his many works are the Villa Olmo in Como, Villa Cigalini in Bornate, Villa Giovia in Brescia, Villa Ga ...

(1736–1818) rebuilt the palazzo in its present Neoclassical style with an English-style interior garden. In 1850–1853, Poldi Pezzoli commissioned the architect Giuseppe Balzaretto to refurbish his apartment.Museum website
Pezzoli in his testament left the house and contents to the

Brera Academy The Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera (), also known as the or Brera Academy, is a state-run tertiary public academy of fine arts in Milan, Italy. It shares its history, and its main building, with the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan's main public mu ...

. Giuseppe Bertini, director of the Academy, opened the museum on 25 April 1881. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the palazzo suffered severe damage, but the artworks had been placed in safe storage. The museum was reopened in 1951 after reconstruction. The museum is notable for its broad collection of Northern Italian and Netherlandish/Flemish artists. The exhibition includes weaponry, glassworks, ceramics, jewelry, and furnishings.

Collection: Italian painters

Works on display include Italian painters such as:

Northern European painters

Painters in the collection include: Breughel the younger;

Cranach Cranach is a German-language surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Augustin Cranach (1554–1595), German painter *Hans Cranach (c. 1513–1537), German painter *Lucas Cranach the Elder (c. 1472–1553), German artist *Lucas Cranach th ...

; Goltzius;

James Baker Pyne James Baker Pyne (5 December 1800 – 29 July 1870) was an English landscape painter who became a successful follower of Turner, after having been in his earlier years a member of the Bristol School of artists and a follower of Francis Dan ...

;

Thomas Shotter Boys Thomas Shotter Boys (1803–1874) was an English watercolour painter and lithographer. Life Boys was born at Pentonville, London, on 2 January 1803. He was articled to the engraver George Cooke. When his apprenticeship came to an end he went t ...

; Sutterman; Teniers the younger;

Jacob Toorenvliet Jacob Toorenvliet (1640–1719) was a Dutch Golden Age painter of genre works. Biography Toorenvliet was born in Leiden, to Abraham Toorenvliet (1620–1692), a glass painter and drawing instructor. The younger Toorenvliet first studied art wi ...

; Pierre Tetar van Elven; Mathijs Van Hellemont; Jan Van der Meer II;

Willem Van Mieris Willem van Mieris (3 June 166226 January 1747) was an 18th-century painter from the Dutch Republic. Biography Willem van Mieris was a painter, sculptor and etcher active in Leiden. He was born in Leiden and studied under his father Frans van M ...

;

Jacob Ferdinand Voet Jacob Ferdinand Voet or Jakob Ferdinand Voet ( 163926 September 1689) was a Flemish portrait painter.Jacob Ferdinand V ...

; Nicolaus Alexander Mair Von Landshut, (Mair Landshut); and

Cornelis de Wael Cornelis de Wael (Antwerp, 1592 – Rome, 1667) was a Flemish painter, engraver and merchant who was primarily active in Genoa in Italy. He is known for his genre paintings, battle scenes, history paintings and still lifes. Through his art wo ...

Examples of the collection

File:Piero Pollaiuolo 001.jpg,

Piero del Pollaiuolo Piero del Pollaiuolo ( , , ; also spelled Pollaiolo; – by 1496), whose birth name was Piero Benci, was an Italian Renaissance painter from Florence. His older brother, by about ten years, was the artist Antonio del Pollaiuolo and the two fre ...

(or

Antonio Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan language, Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language–speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top ...

), '' Portrait of a Young Woman'' File:Sandro Botticelli 015.jpg, Sandro Botticelli, '' Lamentation over the Dead Christ'' Ghyas el Din Jami - Tabriz (?) - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Hunting'', Fine

Persian Carpet A Persian carpet ( ), Persian rug ( ),Savory, R., ''Carpets'',(Encyclopaedia Iranica); accessed 30 January 2007. or Iranian carpet is a heavy textile made for a wide variety of utilitarian and symbolic purposes and produced in Iran (histo ...

made by Ghyath ud-Din Jami, Wool, cotton and silk

References

External links

*
Virtual tour of the Museo Poldi Pezzoli
provided by

Google Arts & Culture Google Arts & Culture (formerly Google Art Project) is an online platform of high-resolution images and videos of artworks and cultural artifacts from partner cultural organizations throughout the world, operated by Google. It utilizes high-re ...

* {{Authority control Art museums and galleries in Milan Tourist attractions in Milan 1881 establishments in Italy