Heritage

In the evocative setting of the Ducal Chambers it is possible to retrace six centuries of the history of furniture, recreated in four main sections.

The first, "The Court and the Church", contains 15th century furniture, luxurious wedding chests and wooden sculptures. The next section, "The Scholar’s Room the Wunderkammer" takes visitors to the world of furniture intended for small studies. The Wunderkammer, or chamber of wonders was the location of choice for 16th and 17th century collectors. Extremely refined and elegant cabinets were made by Italian and European craftsmen to safeguard and exhibit a vast variety of materials making show of precious woods, ivory inserts, rock crystal, precious stones and paintings.

Dressing tables, chests, and baroque consoles are the protagonists of the "Baroque and Rococo Carvings" and document the style of 17th century noble residences with large rooms destined for balls and receptions. With the arrival of the Austrians in Lombardy, the Baroque gave way to the Rococo, with its elaborate forms, documented thanks to the collections of the Durini and Sormani families. The characteristic features of the period are the "Galleries of Mirrors", which create the illusion of larger spaces.

In the last section "Masters of Style" is the extraordinary furniture by Maggiolini and his followers, which celebrated neoclassicism and French rule, while instead the historic unification of Italy founds its expression in the eclectic style of Ludovico Pogliaghi and a group of artists who reinterpreted Renaissance forms, giving rise to a theatrical taste in furniture. The itinerary continues with the inventions of Carlo Bugatti and Eugenio Quarti and with the creations of Gio Ponti, leaders in the post war years of debate and research into a different concept of living space, in which craftsmanship gave way to industrially produced furniture. Finally, post-modern design by Sottsass and Mendini, who react to serial production by creating unique pieces of high impact, brings the journey through the Museum to an end.