[5][8] It was the four sons of the aforementioned Giovan Paolo Averoldi who initiated the construction of the mansion:[9][note 2] Giovan Andrea, Leandro, Mario, and Fulgenzio, on the aforementioned date, entered into a contract with the Bergamasque architects and military engineers Pietro Isabello and his son Marcantonio;[5][10] the two designers were commissioned both to design the new mansion from scratch and to adapt the pre-existing hovels and buildings in the area of the service courtyard.

[11] It is highly probable, moreover, that the work was conducted rather expeditiously, also by virtue of the fact that, again according to the terms of the stipulated contract, the fee would not be rendered unless certain timelines of the construction site were met.

[5] Work on the building, in any case, did not proceed very expeditiously: the testimony of Leandro Averoldi, dating back to 1548, reports that it was still necessary to incur substantial expenses to finish its construction;[14] twenty years later, it is even said that there was "more than half of it still to be built.

[8] Although unfinished, this facade is asymmetrical and features an ashlar portal of a certain grandeur; it is then adorned simply with two Medusa heads carved in relief, without presenting any other elements worthy of mention.

[5] The aforementioned columns, moreover, support eyebrowed round arches, while on the upper floor there are Ionic lesenes in which simple windows are inserted; the whole is then concluded by a string course with conspicuous corbels.

[17][27] The work in question, however, is attributed not unreservedly to the hand of Lattanzio Gambara, who seems to have been inspired by the lessons of the Cremonese painter Giulio Campi,[28] with whom he had completed his youthful apprenticeship.

"[34] Critics agree in assigning to Romanino alone the frescoes of the eastern rooms, marked by the figures of Minerva and Abundantia,[35] the viewing of which is hampered by repainting and, in some cases, by gaps in the plasterwork.

More in-depth archival research conducted by Pietro Balzani for the drafting of his dissertation (proposed in the bibliography) has revealed some significant elements that show how the current appearance of the hall is the result of chronologically distinct interventions attributable to different artistic personalities.