Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Architecture of the Imagination
The Duomo may be the enduring symbol of Milan, but it is also one of the most famous
and complex constructions of Italian Gothic architecture. Begun by Giangaleazzo Visconti
in 1387, its ambitious design was considered impossible to build. Canals were constructed
to transport marble to the centre of town and new technologies were invented to adapt to
the never-before-attempted scale. And its slow construction - over 500 years - made its
name a byword for an impossible task (
fabrica del Dom
in the Milanese dialect).
During his stint as King of Italy, Napoleon, never one to miss a chance to be associated
with something monumental, offered to fund its completion in 1805. The appointed archi-
tect piled on the neo-Gothic details displaying a prescient use of fashion logic, ie
everything old is new again. The organic ferment of petrified pinnacles, cusps, buttresses,
rampant arches, cyma and acroteria are almost all products of the 19th century but pay
faithful homage to the original design.
The choice of the Duomo's Gothic style was inspired by 14th-century European trends,
reflecting the Visconti's close links with France, Germany and Bohemia, through marriage
and alliance. Although the designer is unknown, we do know that Giovannino de'Grassi
was listed among the engineers in 1389. In 1395 he was painting the sacristy sculpture, and
from 1396 he was involved in illuminating the transcript of Beroldo's
Treatise on the
Usage of Milan Cathedral
, which he decorated with swirling plants and pinnacles. In it the
close relationship between organic forms and the cathedral's architectural detail are clear.
The macrocosm of the Duomo and the microcosm of manuscript decoration were part and
parcel of the same stylistic universe.
French, Flemish, Venetian, German and Alpine influences are evident throughout the
enormous structure. Initially designed so Milan's then-population of around 40,000 could
fit within, the cathedral's elegant, hysterical and sublimely spiritual architecture can even
transport 21st-century types back to a medieval mindset. Inside, once your eyes adjust to
the subdued light, how but not to stare up, and up, to the largest stained-glass windows in
all of Christendom? In the north (left) transept the Trivulzio Candelabra is one of the
cathedral's original decorations. Attributed to Anglo-Norman master Nicolas de Verdun, its
roiling, writhing composition of Biblical figures, flora and fauna reflects the same natural-
istic detail and simplicity of form that marks out Grassi's manuscripts and Baldassare degli
Embriachi's extraordinary triptych (c 1390-1400) in hippopotamus ivory in the Duomo's
only contemporary, the Certosa di Pavia.
