The Poldi Pezzoli museum dates back to the 17th century, bought by Giuseppe Pezzoli, ancestor of Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli, at the end of the 18th century. The Armoury, which was completely destroyed during the Second World War, was built in the Neo-Gothic style between 1846 and 1851 by the painter-scenographer Filippo Peroni (who worked for the Teatro alla Scala), with stucco work by Paolo Gazzoli and stained glass by Pompeo Bertini. The collection is mainly made up of pieces from the Milanese and Brescian Renaissance, with particular emphasis on parade arms. A second important group consists of German firearms from the 16th and 17th centuries. The current installation is the work of Arnaldo Pomodoro, who says: “When I was offered this job I thought back to my childhood spent among the medieval castles of Montefeltro. I am proud to have left my mark on this museum”. He has created a space where architecture, history, art and scenography intertwine in a sentence that critic Gillo Dorfles calls “extraordinary”. The vault then becomes the site of a work entitled “The Battle, in the Vault” in the Hall of Arms, composed of the vault, treated with copper stucco, and sculptural elements in fiberglass: a sky of spheres, hemispheres and points covered in lead foil. In the background of the room, antique armour is displayed all together. Piero Castiglioni’s lighting project develops alongside the architectural, scenographic and museographic design, following the same structural changes. The showcases, built as niches in the walls, contain the most important pieces of the collection suspended and illuminated by a “magic” light, because it is invisible: the showcases themselves, in fact, contain the lighting fixtures, directional light on the object in the absence of shadows; controlled luminance, homogeneous distribution of the light beam given by the prismatic glass. For this museum lighting design project a special optic was studied, as you can see from the drawing, a perfect integration light – architecture, since the source is never visible in the field of vision.
Collaborations:
Arnaldo Pomodoro
Photo Courtesy:
Piero Castiglioni
Year:
2001
