Ambrosiana
GUIDED TOUR THE MAGNIFICENT AMBROSIANA
APRIL-JUNE 2023
Every Saturday at 15.30 a guided tour of the masterpieces of the Pinacoteca, together with professional guides of our official partner AdArtem
Documents show that, as early as 1685, the Ambrosiana had a lock of hair from Lucrezia Borgia (1480-1519), the daughter of Roderic, later Pope Alexander VI, who married Alfonso d’Este, Duke of Ferrara. It was kept together with nine letters, also in the Ambrosiana, written by Lucrezia to Pietro Bembo (1470-1547), the humanist cardinal and man of letters. This lock of blonde hair became an almost cult object for the Romantics in the nineteenth century, and it was housed, like a reliquary, in this display case made by Alfredo Ravasco, one of the finest goldsmiths in Milan in the first half of the century, with a combination of precious materials, hardstones and gems. The two pendants, with the heraldic emblems of the aristocratic Borgia (the bull) and d’Este (the eagle) families, are worthy of note.