Ambrosiana
NOVEMBER 2020: READING ROOM OPENING HOURS
Opening hours and access rules for the month of November
16/10/2020
NEWS
Our Director, Msgr Rocca, talks about the “bagatello” (small thing) that Brueghel presented to his mecenat, Cardinal Borromeo.
Exactly 449 years ago, Caravaggio was born in Milan. Let's celebrate this anniversary by talking (finally) about our Basket of fruit...
Today we are talking about the statue of the Swiss physician, alchemist and astrologer Paracelsus...
In this video we talk about the statue of Rumanian prince and man of letters Dimitrie Cantemir
Today we talk about the statue of Hungarian poet and patriot Sándor Petőfi...
New video on the courtyard of the Great Souls: today we discover the statue dedicated to the famous English poet William Shakespeare.
New video on the courtyard of the Great Souls: today we meet the first statue to be inaugurated; that one dedicated to Goethe.
New video on the courtyard of the Great Souls: today we talk about Renè de Chateaubriand, depicted in one of the statues of the courtyard.
Last episode of the history of the #CodexAtlanticus, from the 19th century to the present day, this time from the magnificent ancient reading room of the Library, the Sala Federiciana!
Today we talk about the statue of Alessandro Manzoni...
Today we talk about the statue of Dante by Giannino Castiglioni...
New video on the statues of the Courtyard of the Great Souls: Saint Thomas Aquinas
In the last episode we talked about the arrival of the Codex Atlanticus in the Ambrosiana and we mentioned the fact that the Marquis Arconati actually donated several other volumes with Leonardo's writings and drawings...
New video on the courtyard of the Great Souls: today we talk about the statue of Plato...
This video is about the reliefs for the sepulchral monument to Gaston de Foix by Bambaia, now scattered among several important museums around the world
Chi donò il Codice Atlantico di Leonardo da Vinci all’Ambrosiana e quando? Per scoprirlo insieme, vi portiamo sullo scalone di ingresso della Pinacoteca...
The “Courtyard of the Great Souls” has always been one of the places that most fascinate our visitors...
Second appointment with the History of the Codex Atlanticus: we follow the events of these precious drawings from Leonardo's death until the end of the sixteenth century ...
Today we begin a new series of videos devoted to the Codex Atlanticus of Leonardo da Vinci...
We are now on the opposite side of the crypt with respect to the frescoes previously presented with Christ on the cross...
As we can see, the Cartoon is really large: 8 x 3 meters, but it is actually made up of 220 sheets. It is therefore a monumental but also very fragile work, precisely because it is composed of different parts...
Did you know that in the Ambrosiana there is even an artifact that was probably used by indigenous tribes of Brazil for cannibalic rites? ...
There are also differences between the cartoon and the fresco. First of all, we see that at the center the figure normally identified as “the Thinker” is missing...
This painting has been variously interpreted, but currently, critics agree it represents the celebration of the wedding between Peleus, a Greek mythological figure, and the nymph Thetis...
This Virgin with the Child in a wreath of flowers is a very important work, since it is the first version created by Brueghel on commission and inspiration from Federico Borromeo...
Even the vaults have been brought back to their original beauty and returned in the truly unique light that allowed to see the contrast with these floral decorations or stars...
Let's carry on, going into the underground church of San Sepolcro; we come to one of the frescoed walls. The restoration has made visible further wealth in the wealth...
Raphael chose to depict some characters with the appearance of well-known personalities of the time...
The painting, made by the artist around 1877, is a preparatory study for the fresco in the library of Villa Giovanelli in Lonigo, near Vicenza.
This particular and - I would say also precious - artifact remained confined in the crypt of San Sepolcro for decades and it was practically ignored.
It is interesting to see how Raphael chose to depict the images of the Philosophy not in a stereotyped or fixed way but with a great dynamic of looks and gestures.
Bohemian painter Anton Raphael Mengs painted three portraits of Pope Clement XIII. Born Carlo Rezzonico in 1693 to wealthy Venetian patricians, he was bishop of Padua, where he was so loved by people that he was called "The saint".
What is the meaning that Cardinal Federico wanted to give to this copper palm tree, located in the heart of the Ambrosiana Library? The palm, by its nature, has a polymorphic, very varied, symbolism...
After telling us about Leonardo's connection with the Crypt of San Sepolcro, today Monsignor Ballarini explains how this place was particularly important for San Carlo Borromeo, who used to gather here in prayer...
Generally this is known as the Cartoon of the School of Athens, the fresco that is in the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican. Actually, at the beginning, this room was not thought up as the Stanza della Segnatura but it was to be the private library of Pope Julius II.
Giovan Battista Moroni was one of the greatest portrait painters of the sixteenth century, as this beautiful painting shows. On the stone fragment at the bottom right, there is an inscription in Roman numerals, indicating the year when the painter finished this portrait: 1554.
Leonardo was certainly here and Leonardo drew the map, both of the upper and lower church, which are currently in Paris.
Nothing is triumphant in the Risen Lord painted by Marco Basaiti: although there are the typical iconographic elements of the resurrection - the white shroud, the crusade banne - the body of Jesus is idealized and barely shows the wounds of passion.
The body of Jesus stands out, pure and immaculate, against the world immersed in darkness. He is raising his gaze to heaven, before emitting his last breath.
In John's Gospel, the narration of the Last Supper begins with the scene of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. It is a gesture of humility that the Master makes so to be imitated, but it is also an action that anticipates the salvation brought by Jesus in the humiliation of the death of the cross
On the day of the 500th anniversary of Raphael's death, we offer you a video made with some shots of April 6, 2019.
Msgr. Rocca retraces the main events that involved the artwork throughout the centuries, from its arrival in the Ambrosiana, up to the present day!
Msgr Navoni, deputy Prefect of the Ambrosiana, illustrates the copper palm tree created at the beginning of the 16th at the behest of Cardinal Borromeo.
Sent by Brueghel to Cardinal Federico in 1614, the Allegory of Water is the third painting of the series of four elements to have been created.
The Prefect of Tthe Ambrosiana, Msgr. Ballarini, explains the origins of the Church of San Sepolcro.
Monsignor Ballarini, Prefect of Ambrosiana, tells us about the importance of the Church of San Sepolcro for the history of the Milanese church.
A group of people interested in geometry surrpunds the character who is drawing a figure with a compass: he is Euclides...
Pythagoras is writing: the board on which the numerical ratios underlying the sounds are shown is missing from the Cartoon, graphic representation of the harmonic ratios, together with the sacred tetractys (clearly visible instead in the fresco in the Vatican).
Among the Pythagoreans there is a figure dressed in white: erroneously indicated by some as Hypatia, he is a young man gifted with virtue and beauty...
A video dedicated to the Cartoon, in which we retrace (in pills) the process of restoration of the work and the reanovation of the room, up to the inauguration!
Exactly one year ago the completely renovated Room of the Raphael Cartoon reopened to the public, a special day for the Ambrosiana and for Milan!
The Director of the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Msgr. Alberto Rocca, who explains us what a preparatory cartoon is and, more precisely, a "well-finished Cartoon".
An entire museum in a painting ... the "Allegory of Fire" that Jan Brueghel dei Velluti painted for Cardinal Borromeo is a work that never ceases to reveal new, surprising details, even to the most careful observer.
Msgr Rocca, Director of the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, comments the Rest on the flight into Egypt by Jacopo Bassano
Opening hours and access rules for the month of November
Opening hours and access rules from September 1