Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
few decades began to flake. After 22 years of diligent restoration (completed in 1999)
conservators estimate that 80% of the original colour has been lost.
But the legacy remains.
The Last Supper
ushered in the High Renaissance with a flour-
ish, influencing generations of Lombard artists (Giovanni Boltraffio, Marco d'Oggiono,
Bernardino Luini, Salaino, Giampietrino, Cesare da Sesto, Andrea Solari and Cristoforo
Solari, whose works are scattered through the collections of the Pinacoteca di Brera, the
Accademia Carrara, the Museo di Poldi Pezzoli and the Certosa di Pavia) and laying the
groundwork for Michelangelo and Raphael.
AN ENLIGHTENED VISION
The great museum tradition for which Milan is famous can be traced back to the educational aims of Counter-Re-
formation cardinal Federico Borromeo (1564-1631). During his 36 years as Milan's cardinal, he distinguished
himself through his incorruptible episcopal virtue, academic zeal and civic patronage, applying everywhere the
reformed principles laid down by the Council of Trent (1545-63).
In 1609 he founded the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, which, along with Oxford's Bodleian, was one of the first pub-
lic libraries in Europe. In 1618 he also donated his art collection to the Ambrosian academy and laid the founda-
tion of a public institution that could work with the school training artists and supply them with models and ex-
amples to copy. Not only did he make his collection available, but he compiled a catalogue called the
Musaeum,
in which he gave an explanation of his tastes and ideas about art.
In contrast to the tradition of the time, Borromeo's collection included many anti-academic works like Cara-
vaggio's
Basket of Fruit
(1599) along with genre paintings, still lifes by Breugel and Paul Bril, and miniatures,
portraits and landscapes that reflected his scientific approach and interest in visual realism. Despite being struck
by the plague while feeding the poor in 1630, which led to the closure of the academy for many years, the public
tradition and universal intention introduced by him were to leave an indelible mark on Milan.
