Description
The Museo del Duomo of Milan, today the Grande Museo del Duomo, collects statues, stained glass, tapestries, models and the cathedral's treasury. It is housed in Palazzo Reale, in Piazza del Duomo, next to the cathedral: 26 rooms covering about 2,000 square meters, in chronological order, following the construction of the Duomo from 1386 to the 20th century.
The most surprising piece is the Modellone, a model of the whole cathedral in linden and walnut wood, at a scale of 1:20. It took three centuries to complete: the job was entrusted in 1519 to Bernardino Zenale. It tells the story of the Duomo well: a building site that never ends.
The route opens with the Treasury of the Duomo, liturgical objects from the 5th to the 17th century. Among the most famous pieces are the five-part ivory Diptych, the Chiaravalle Cross, carried into battle, according to tradition, by Archbishop Ottone Visconti, and the Chalice of the Liberal Arts.
Among the sculptures are works from the late Gothic schools of half of Europe, because workers came to the Milanese building site from all over the continent, and the portrait of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, sculpted by Amadeo, and Briosco's Sant'Agnese, with the lamb in her hand.
In the stained-glass room you can see up close the panels of the Old Testament, with details invisible from below. Then the tapestries with the Stories of Moses, given to Carlo Borromeo by the Duke of Mantua: three were destroyed in the fire at the 1906 Exposition.
The Veneranda Fabbrica had long wanted a place to keep the statues, drawings and models left outside the Duomo from being scattered. The museum opened in 1953 in Palazzo Reale, but the idea had been born already at the end of the 19th century.
After the wartime bombs, there was quite a lot of material to save, and pollution was ruining the displayed statues. In the 1960s the museum was expanded with ten more rooms; on November 4, 2013 it reopened renewed, with a project by Guido Canali.
Among the 18th-century sculptures is also the model of the Madonnina, Milan's symbol, by Giuseppe Perego, and for the 20th century the models and panels of the fifth door, by Lucio Fontana and Luciano Minguzzi.
The most surprising piece is the Modellone, a model of the whole cathedral in linden and walnut wood, at a scale of 1:20. It took three centuries to complete: the job was entrusted in 1519 to Bernardino Zenale. It tells the story of the Duomo well: a building site that never ends.
The route opens with the Treasury of the Duomo, liturgical objects from the 5th to the 17th century. Among the most famous pieces are the five-part ivory Diptych, the Chiaravalle Cross, carried into battle, according to tradition, by Archbishop Ottone Visconti, and the Chalice of the Liberal Arts.
Among the sculptures are works from the late Gothic schools of half of Europe, because workers came to the Milanese building site from all over the continent, and the portrait of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, sculpted by Amadeo, and Briosco's Sant'Agnese, with the lamb in her hand.
In the stained-glass room you can see up close the panels of the Old Testament, with details invisible from below. Then the tapestries with the Stories of Moses, given to Carlo Borromeo by the Duke of Mantua: three were destroyed in the fire at the 1906 Exposition.
The Veneranda Fabbrica had long wanted a place to keep the statues, drawings and models left outside the Duomo from being scattered. The museum opened in 1953 in Palazzo Reale, but the idea had been born already at the end of the 19th century.
After the wartime bombs, there was quite a lot of material to save, and pollution was ruining the displayed statues. In the 1960s the museum was expanded with ten more rooms; on November 4, 2013 it reopened renewed, with a project by Guido Canali.
Among the 18th-century sculptures is also the model of the Madonnina, Milan's symbol, by Giuseppe Perego, and for the 20th century the models and panels of the fifth door, by Lucio Fontana and Luciano Minguzzi.