Art of the late 16th century in Milan

The Milanese art scene of the late 16th century must therefore be analyzed by considering the city's particular position: while for the Spanish Empire it represented a strategic military outpost, from a religious point of view it was at the center of the conflict between the Catholic and Reformed Churches.

[7] As indicated by the Council's decrees, elaborate and monumental art was supposed to impress the faithful, prompting them to contemplate and learn religious doctrine: the representations, though grand and solemn, would be easy to understand even by the uneducated populace.

Ottavio Semino frescoed the head of the transept, while the sacristy is adorned with Peterzano's oil on canvas of the Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine (1579); finally, the tomb of Bishop Pietro Giacomo Malombra is attributed to Annibale Fontana.

[25][26]Vincenzo Seregni's first work in Milan, excluding his apprenticeship in the Fabbrica del Duomo, was in the reconstruction of the church of San Vittore al Corpo in a collaboration with Alessi: the two architects anticipated the Counter-Reformation architectural canons in the internal structure by means of the longitudinal layout with a natural outlet to the space of the dome: the internal structure was compared by James Ackerman to Palladio's Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore, in which the Venetian architect combined the central plan with a Latin cross plan.

[30] Alessi continued in his Counter-Reformation program with the construction of the new church of St. Barnabas for the Barnabite fathers, an order recently created to foster the spread of Tridentine doctrine: the single-nave interior layout can be considered one of the earliest attempts at a "basilica of the Reformation.

Although the two architects had never come into contact, Jesuit construction superintendent Giovanni Tristano had the opportunity to assist Tibaldi on the Milan building site: both churches have a single-nave layout with the natural vanishing point toward the altar overlooked by the brighter space of the dome, thus creating vertical directionality and anticipating Baroque "static dynamism" themes.

[40] As for the portal, Pellegrino Tibaldi adhered to the model of the Gesù church although with numerous stylistic debts to Michelangelo in the windows of the side façade, whose frames trace those of the Palazzo dei Conservatori, or in the niches similar to those of St. Peter's Basilica.

[47] The design was later modified and completed by Martino Bassi: however, the typical elements of the Perugian architect already present in Palazzo Marino can be recognized, resulting in a rich plastic decoration, contrasting, however, with Solari's pre-existing late Renaissance quadriporticus.

[56] The reconstruction was actually supposed to involve the structure in its entirety, however, due to the close control of the archbishop, the works included only the dome and the remodeling of other minor parts of the church, leaving intact, by express order of Borromeo, the plan with the circular path.

However, the architect made precise changes in the internal structure to carve out spaces to accentuate the directionality between the building's entrance and altar; an anticipation of the theme of the Baroque elongated central plan.

Inside can be found the altarpiece of St. Matthew and the Angel (1586) by Ambrogio Figino in which a mixture of Michelangelo's classicism and Lombard naturalism can be observed, which probably served as an inspirational model for the two versions on the same subject by Caravaggio for the Contarelli chapel.

[47][75] The original project with the opening of the new street finds famous precedents with Villa Farnese in Caprarola and especially with Strada Nuova in Genoa, with which it would have shared the width of the new district and the celebratory intent of the new ruling class.

Noteworthy among them all is the Alessi Hall, decorated with stuccoes, lesenes and medallions, and the frescoes by brothers Andrea and Ottavio Semino of Psyche and Cupid in the presence of the gods and the twelve Allegorical Figures on the walls, reconstructed after the war.

[85]Owed to Leone Leoni, a sculptor who improvised as an architect, is the Omenoni house, built by the artist to assert his prestige beginning in 1565, which, with its parade of eight atlantes, did not fail to attract the attention of many, including that of Vasari, who wrote as follows in his The Lives: of beautiful architecture [...] perhaps the only one of its kind in MilanThe building is emblematic of the period and of the Milanese political situation: despite Borromeo's strict dispositions and the Church's numerous attempts to control public morals, a frieze depicting a faun emasculated by a lion, a clear intimidating signal to ill-intentioned people or enemies of the sculptor, was on display on the entrance door.

[108]Famous for his bizarre compositions, Giuseppe Arcimboldi, commonly known as l'Arcimboldo, trained in his father's workshop and began his painting career as a cartoonist for the stained glass windows of Milan Cathedral.

[109] Giovanni Ambrogio Figino was a pupil of Lomazzo, but he finished his training on a trip between Genoa and Rome, where he focused his studies in particular on Michelangelo and Raphael: this Roman sojourn decisively influenced his style far more than he had with his master.

Among his most famous last works is the altarpiece for Milan Cathedral of Santa Tecla in which emerges a high compositional tension already seen in the Martyrdom of Saint Vincent for the church of San Vincenzo alle Monache, a painting style that is thought to have been at the basis of his enmity with Cardinal Borromeo.

In addition to this prolific collaboration Carlo Urbino also painted on his own, trying his hand at pictorial works more in the Lombard tradition, such as the Pentecost for the chapel of St. Joseph in the church of San Marco, which takes up the scheme of Lomazzo's Angelic Glory painted in the same church in the Foppa chapel:[102] however, his collaboration with Bernardino Campi and his later solo works contributed to the introduction in Milan of a mannerism more attentive to Emilian and Central Italian traditions that marked the definitive entry of "foreign" commissions into the Milanese nobility.

[119] Finally, in the church of San Paolo Converso there is Antonio Campi's major achievement, with the collaboration of his brother Vincenzo, of the fresco decoration of the vault with the Assumption of Jesus (1586-1589) in which the brothers tried their hand at a rare example of quadraturistic illusionism inspired by Giulio Romano's Mantuan solutions, in which the adherence to the perspective treatise of Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola's Two Rules of Practical Perspective is noted: the church, governed by nuns from the Cremonese Sfondrati family, was instrumental in breaking the Milanese school's closure to other influences, entrusting almost all commissions to Cremonese artists.

[123]Vincenzo Campi, the youngest of the three brothers, was the one who developed the most distinctive style of them all: the casual use of luministic effects and a greater focus on naturalistic painting sometimes led him to be labeled an exponent of "pre-Caravaggism."

[119][124] The Cremasque artist Giovanni da Monte, though linked to the Cremonese school, made his debut in Milan in the church of Santa Maria presso San Celso on his return from a stay in Vilnius and Venice with the work of the Resurrection of Christ, later passed on to the Campi brothers.

These objects, like armor, were also considered to be of the highest quality: it was not uncommon for major noble families or European courts to commission works from Milanese workshops to give as gifts to sovereigns, relatives or friends.

The initiators of this tradition were the brothers Gaspare and Gerolamo Miseroni, who with their workshop were the suppliers, starting in the second half of the sixteenth century, of Maximilian II of Habsburg, Cosimo I de' Medici and the Gonzagas.

Within the vast collection of the Dukes of Bavaria are also many works by Annibale Fontana from which Scala sometimes drew inspiration, such as the box for Albert V with crystal plates engraved with stories from the Old Testament and decorated with precious stones such as lapis lazuli, rubies and emeralds, as well as gold enamels.

Particularly active in the city was then the guild of embroiderers, which provided for the registration exclusively of female workers, of which Caterina Cantona was a member, who worked on commissions from Christina of Lorraine and Catherine of Austria, and is moreover mentioned in Lomazzo's Rime.

The reappraisal moved the academy experience from a purely goliardic and recreational role to a cultural movement that with its "anti-intellectualist attitude" and the idea of art "as free creation" anticipated themes that would be made centuries later in Romanticism and Scapigliatura.

Other more active members include Pirro Visconti Borromeo, noble protector of the order, engraver Ambrogio Brambilla and "grand chancellor of the valley," painters Giuseppe Arcimboldi, Aurelio Luini, Ottavio Semino, Paolo Camillo Landriani, sculptor Annibale Fontana, and finally Flemish publisher Nicolaus van Aelst.

It is uncertain whether the members actually had to dress in the manner depicted by the painting, however, it was obligatory during the meetings to express themselves in the Bleniense dialect; the language in which the "entrance examination" was conducted, which included a series of questions on the customs and habits of the brentatori, or ancient Ticino wine carriers.

[139] In the academy, therefore, there was no lack of a goliardic and joking component as an end in itself, but it would be wrong to classify it only as such: in Lomazzo's sonnets, in addition to double entendres and mockery, one can find important elements of social criticism toward Borromeo's rigid policies, as well as references to the works of Pietro Aretino and Lucian of Samosata.

The goal of the group was precisely to lash out against the heart of reformed art, that is, against imposed models and fixed rules that would result in orthodox compositions, outside of which it was not possible to exit, in the words of Francesco Porzio, through "the assumption of popular material in a cultured manner, in support of a modern and conscious poetics.