Milanese Baroque

Due to the work of the Borromeo cardinals and its importance in the Italian domains, at first Spanish and then Austrian, Milan experienced a lively artistic season[2] in which it assumed the role of the driving force behind Lombard Baroque.

The second phase of the Baroque, which began approximately after the early 1730s, started after a brief interlude filled with significant events: firstly, the main interpreters of the movement died between 1625 (Giulio Cesare Procaccini) and 1632 (Cerano), to which was added the death of Cardinal Federico Borromeo, one of the major figures of 17th century Lombardy, and above all the Great Plague of Milan, which halved the city's population, killing among the thousands of victims the promising young Milanese painter Daniele Crespi,[9] which among other things led to the closure of the Accademia Ambrosiana, founded in 1621 by Federico Borromeo to train young artists for the Milanese school, where he hired the greatest interpreters of the early Baroque, above all Cerano and Fabio Mangone, as teachers.

[9] Architecture, with the death of Fabio Magone, saw the work of Francesco Richini, who remained almost unrivalled in his Milanese production,[11] joined by minor interpreters such as Gerolamo Quadrio and Carlo Buzzi.

[12] The 18th century represents the last Baroque phase; the style did not blossom openly into Rococo due to the normative action of the Milanese College of Engineers-Architects[14] and there was a change of trend: religious commissions no longer played the main role in Milan's artistic scene, but gave way to the ville di delizia in the Milanese countryside[15][16] and the return of the large private urban building sites: the liveliness of the construction sites led to a greater number of outstanding performers, including Giovanni Battista Quadrio, Carlo Federico Pietrasanta, Bartolomeo Bolla, Carlo Giuseppe Merlo and Francesco Croce, to which was added the Roman Giovanni Ruggeri, who was very active throughout Lombardy.

For this particular period, in which the legacy of Charles Borromeo was still strong and in which the interests of the Spanish government focused more on military and strategic aspects, religious art and architecture led the transition to the new Baroque style.

[25] Many of Borromeo's contemporaries commented positively on the classical solution of the structure, which was even defined ‘a temple of the muses’ by the theologian Luigi Rossi,[26] praised for the ‘Roman-style vestibule’ and the ‘ancient-style architraved peristyle’ by Ambrogio Mazenta[27] or compared to the architecture of imperial Rome for its ‘solidity and majesty’ by Girolamo Borsieri.

[53] Also recorded in the late seventeenth century were the cabinetry works of Giuseppe Garavaglia, son of the more famous Carlo, which, however, were largely lost over the years, of which only the chancel and organ facade remain.

[63] On the left side, the third chapel is adorned with three canvases by Giulio Cesare Procaccini, while the second, designed by Gerolamo Quadrio, contains another sculptural cycle by Rusnati, and the Ecstasy of Saint Gaetano on canvas by Cerano.

[66] The façade was completed in 1608; inside, the vault of the nave was frescoed by Daniele Crespi with the Sacrifice of Abraham, Magdalene in Ecstasy, inspired by Giovanni Lanfranco's frescoes of the Camerino degli Eremiti in Palazzo Farnese, St. John the Baptist, more in keeping with classicist models from Emilia, and Christ in Glory, depicted according to the canons of the Counter-Reformation,[67] to which are added various figures of Carthusian monks; the counter façade is painted with the Stories of Saint Bruno[66][68] also by Crespi: these depictions are considered among the artist's best works.

The first cycle, made between 1602 and 1604, included twenty canvases, to which some were added later, ranging from descriptions of the cardinal's public activities, such as the spread of Counter-Reformation doctrines and visits to the plague victims, to private life, such as episodes of charity and penance; the paintings feature the work of the aforementioned Cerano and Morazzone, who were joined by Paolo Camillo Landriani, known as the Duchino, Giovanni Battista della Rovere, known as the Fiammenghino, and other lesser artists such as Carlo Antonio Procaccini, cousin of the more famous Giulio Cesare, and Domenico Pellegrini.

[75] Finally, the above-mentioned artists took part in the limited trend of portraiture: the most famous collection of the period is that of the benefactors of the Ospedale Maggiore, in which Daniele Crespi and Tanzio da Varallo stand out with their portraits of Pozzobonelli and Francesco Pagano.

The greatest example of civil architecture of the period is the Palazzo del Senato, commissioned in 1608 by Federico Borromeo to house the Collegio Elvetico:[77] the project was originally assigned to Fabio Mangone, and resumed twenty years later by Richini.

[78][80] Started by order of Francesco Sforza, the construction site for Filarete's Ospedale Maggiore, which had been at a standstill for many years, reopened in 1624 thanks to a large bequest from a private individual: the renovation projects were once again entrusted to Richini and Fabio Mangone, who were responsible for the central part of the façade and the large Baroque portal[81] with tympanum, flanked by niches with statues, and the reworking of the main courtyard with a double order of arched loggias with marble and terracotta decorations;[82] artists such as Camillo Procaccini and Cerano also took part in the work and in the designs for the works.

[76] Finally, mention should be made of the Palace of the Captain of Justice, which was begun in the 16th century and underwent a great deal of remodeling and enlargement over the years: of the 17th-century interventions, the facade, with its elaborate portal, and the ashlar loggia courtyard remain.

[93] The interior consists of a single nave with side chapels introduced by Serlian windows, ending with the presbytery which contains a dome with lantern[92] attributed to Gerolamo Quadrio; on the drum are niches with sculptures of angels by Giuseppe Vismara and Carlo Simonetta dating from 1662. Notable among the four chapels is the first on the right side, designed by Giuseppe Quadrio, with the works Gloria and Angels also by Simonetta: it constitutes one of the best examples of sculpture of the second Lombard 17th century.

[98] Finally, of note are some restorations by Gerolamo Quadrio in the church of Santa Maria del Carmine between 1673 and 1676[99] and Carlo Garavaglia's walnut choir from 1645 depicting Episodes from the life of St. Bernard at the Abbey of Chiaravalle.

Religious commissions include the Archiepiscopal Seminary, in particular the entrance, a perfect example of a Baroque portal,[100] which was designed by Richini in 1652:[86] consisting of smooth ashlar and crowned by a trapezoidal architrave, it has two caryatids representing Hope and Charity on its sides.

[107] Completed in the fourth decade of the seventeenth century, Palazzo Annoni[108] was once again built to a design by Filippo Maria Richini; the façade, adorned on the ground floor with an ashlar plinth, is centered on the entrance door inserted between two jutting columns of Ionic order that support the balcony on the piano nobile; on the upper floor, large windows with alternating triangular or curvilinear pediments feature balustrades;[109] finally, the façade is bordered by ashlar lesenes.

[109] The palace in the 18th century was home to a rich library and the Annoni's private art gallery, which included, among other things, paintings by Rubens, Gaudenzio Ferrari and Antoon van Dyck, confiscated by the Austrians in 1848.

Going through the entrance, one arrives in the main courtyard of seventeenth-century style, attributed to Richini; it has a square plan enclosed on all four sides by barrel-vaulted porticoes, supported by architraved granite columns decorated with capitals with festoons;[128] continuing to the left, one enters the monumental double staircase, built by Carlo Giuseppe Merlo in 1750 in pink granite from Baveno with a parapet in red marble from Arzo and black marble from Varenna.

[134] The interior reaches its zenith in the Gallery of Tapestries, whose vault is frescoed by Giambattista Tiepolo[133] with the cycle of frescoes of the Race of the Sun Chariot, the Allegories of the Four Continents, and the Allegories of the Arts, considered to be among the Venetian painter's greatest works; the walls are decorated with Flemish tapestries dating from the 17th century depicting Stories of Moses[134][135] and mirrors carved in wood by Giuseppe Cavanna, depicting scenes from Jerusalem Delivered.

[140] It differs from the style of typical Milanese mansions such as Palazzo Cusani: the reason can be found in the design of Giovanni Ruggeri, an architect from Rome who imported the more lively Roman Baroque into his work, already recognizable in the plinth made of rough faux rock on the ground floor.

[143] The interior still contains the monumental stone staircase and houses the series of paintings representing Orpheus enchanting animals from the Verri family collection, traditionally attributed to Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione,[145] known as Il Grechetto.

The upper order has on its sides two terraces with balustrades supporting two statues of Faith and Hope; in the center is a lavishly decorated window, surmounted by a coat of arms bearing the motto “CHARITAS” of the church's titular saint.

[142] The interior has a single nave: of particular interest are the Baroque-era organ on the counter façade, the frescoes on the vault by Carlo Maria Giudici depicting the Glory of St. Francis of Paola, and the marble ovals by Giuseppe Perego.

[152] Inside the church, on the right side, is the most peculiar part of the complex, namely the ossuary: in addition to the sumptuous marble altar by Gerolamo Cattaneo and frescoes on the vault by Sebastiano Ricci of the Triumph of Souls among Angels (1695), one can see the walls almost completely covered with human skulls and bones, sometimes creating real motifs and decorations.

The interior consists of a single nave punctuated by lesenes, with five side chapels; above the 18th-century high altar is a complex of Carrara marble sculptures of angels[138] and a late 16th-century painting by Giovanni Battista Trotti depicting Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene.

[163] Later, after the period between the two centuries, the figures of Giovan Battista Sassi, Pietro Antonio Magatti and Giovanni Angelo Borroni[164] can be mentioned in mythological and allegorical painting, the latter's fresco Olympic Scene with the Rape of Ganymede in Palazzo Clerici being of particular note.

His first Milanese commission was at Palazzo Archinto, where in five rooms he painted a cycle to celebrate the wedding of the patron, explicitly depicted in the fresco of the Triumph of the Arts and Sciences, which was destroyed by bombing in World War II.

The painter was a few years later summoned to Palazzo Dugnani where he frescoed the cycles of the Stories of Scipio and Apotheosis of Scipio, passing also through a brief religious commission of the Glory of St. Bernard in a chapel of the church of Sant'Ambrogio,[166] concluding his Milanese stint with the Palazzo Clerici masterpiece of the fresco of the Sun Chariot Race with a mythological theme, from which he would later draw inspiration for the commission of the imperial salon in the Würzburg Residence, also counted among the Rococo masterpieces.