The historic homes of Lombardy between the sixties of the seventeenth century and the first seventy years of the eighteenth century are the subject of study of the international conference “Taste and home. Art, literature, music, theater and fashion in the palaces and villas of the Lombard aristocracy between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries” which unfolds over three days from 16 to 18 May.
It begins at the Catholic University in Milan on Thursday 16th afternoon at 2pm and continues on the 17th from the morning at 9.30am in Cesano Maderno at Palazzo Arese Borromeo, where guided tours are also planned with a focus on the history of art with the explanation of frescoes, sculptures and bronzes, and on Saturday 18th from 10am at Palazzo Belgioioso in Milan, a day dedicated to the combination of fashion and literature in a highly prized eighteenth-century context.
Promoted by the Department of History, Archeology and Art History of the Catholic University, the conference aims to investigate, from an interdisciplinary perspective, with the participation of scholars from other national and international universities and institutions, and with a significant case study, the of national and European tastes which intertwined and influenced the high society of the time and which involved art, literature, music, fashion, theatre, collecting, focusing in particular on the relationship with persistence of elements typical of the Lombard tradition.
The conference has its motivations in history, when the Treaty of the Pyrenees (7 November 1659) put an end to the war between France and Spain, giving rise to a long period of peace that would last until the beginning of the eighteenth century with the passage of State of Milan from Spain to the Empire. The Wars of the Polish and Austrian Succession, with the consequent occupations of Milan by Charles Emmanuel of Savoy and Philip of Bourbon, led to the creation and consolidation of the so-called “Austrian Lombardy”, with borders different from the previous ones.
Furthermore, the era of the Empress of Austria Maria Theresa of Habsburg was characterized by another long period of peace with a series of reforms of the administrative apparatus, among which, in 1786, the suppression of the New Constitutions, which for over two centuries had regulated the state of Milan.
In this historical context the families of the Lombard aristocracy (among others Alari, Borromeo, Calderara, Clerici, Corbella, Litta Modignani, Gallarati Scotti, Trivulzio, Visconti), those of ancient tradition and those of more recent nobility, attempted to maintain or to conquer, depending on their status starting point, visibility on the public scene. And they also did it by exploiting the “stage” offered by their respective homes, both the city palaces and the suburban villas of delight, as points of definition of their own family identity and of comparison and openness towards other families. In these places, specially built or renovated, with their decorative devices, art collections and furnishings, patrician sociability was realized through peculiar techniques of representation and narration. They were meeting and banquet spaces for the noble and intellectual elites, who delighted in theotium cum dignitate through the practice of the arts, accrediting its members as virtuous and witty knights. Here evening conversations, banquets, concerts, dances and theatrical performances were held, fulfilling not only a function of leisure and pleasure, but also allowing opportunities for political negotiations and informal diplomacy.
Thus, palaces and villas became places of aesthetic and cultural elaboration (figurative arts, literature, poetry, theatre, collecting, etc.), which, in the absence of a court in Milan capable of monopolizing and guiding the choices, proved to be more or less sensitive to suggestions coming from other Italian and European realities, also following the fashions that spread among members of the continent’s ruling class.
In the artistic field, this long period, which saw the transition from the baroque to the baroque, to the rococo, was marked initially by the opening of the second Ambrosiana Academy in 1667/68 and at the end by the birth of that of Fine Arts of Brera, inaugurated in 1776, and, in architecture, first from the death of the architect Francesco Maria Richini (1659) and then from the beginning of the renovation works on the ducal palace under the guidance of Giuseppe Piermarini (1773), following the arrival in Milan of Archduke Ferdinand of Habsburg-Lorraine, son of Maria Theresa, new governor.
Similarly, in the literary field two significant moments can be identified with the birth of the Accademia dei Faticosi (1660) on the one hand and the entry into force of the study reform on the other (1771), and in the musical one again with the first documented opera performed on Isola Bella (1664) and with the appointment of Giovanni Battista Sammartini as court chapel master (1768) and the presence of Mozart in Milan (1770-1772).
On Thursday 16 May at 6.30 pm in the San Francesco chapel of the Catholic University you can also attend the concert “The sonatas for harpsichord” by Giovanni Battista Corbella and on Saturday 18, at the end of the morning of study, the conference will end with a musical listening with mandolin, commented by Ugo Orlandi.
Here the complete program of the conference.
