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1819 - 1828; oil on paper mounted on canvas
cm. 47 x 61
Inventory: AH01496AFC
Provenance: Milan, Angelo Rizzoli Collection (in 1937); Alessandria, Margherita Micheletti Collection (until 1985)
Exibition:
1998, Brescia , n. 15
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Previously owned by Angelo Rizzoli, this painting was exhibited at the Esposizione Nazionale di Belle Arti di Brera in 1829. It was also included in the major exhibition of Italian art curated by Ugo Ojetti and Adolph Venturi at the Royal Academy in London in 1930. The view constitutes one of the most emblematic images of the square of
Milan Cathedral
, before the urban clearance and redevelopment undertaken in the second half of the century. The tenement building in the foreground, known as the Coperto dei Figini, was demolished in 1863 in order build the Palazzo dei Portici Settentrionali to plans by Giuseppe Mengoni. Ten years later the same fate befell the Rebecchino block with its characteristic coloured façades on the opposite side. While the slightly off-centre view of the cathedral affords a glimpse of the courtyard of the Palazzo Reale, the piazza provides a stage for the city’s everyday life in a whole variety of episodes involving all levels of society.
The press was quick to take note of Migliara’s new approach to the perspective view, combining various scenes of everyday life with the faithful depiction of some characteristic places in Milan, and coined the term “urban painting” to describe it when this work made its appearance in 1829.
The subject proved very popular with the public. Codified into standard forms in the school of perspective at the Brera Academy, it was sometimes depicted with the aid of photography (as in the View of the Cathedral Square in Milan by Giulio Rossi) and came to provide a stage set for lively scenes of urban life in Milan Cathedral and the Corsia dei Servi by Carlo Canella, which is also in the Cariplo Collection.
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Sources:Archivio Storico Intesa Sanpaolo, Patrimonio Cariplo, Opere d’arte. Atti d’acquisto ex Cariplo. Fald. 2/3, pratica no. 879 R/695 |
Bibliography |
Tesori d'arte delle banche lombarde, Associazione Bancaria Italiana, Milano, 1995, p. 300, ill. n. 580;
Paola Segramora, Giovanni Migliara, Piazza del Duomo col Coperto dei Figini e l’isolato del Rebecchino, in Fernando Mazzocca, a cura di, Angelo Inganni 1807-1880. Un pittore bresciano nella Milano romantica, catalogo della mostra, Brescia, Palazzo Bonoris, 18 aprile-30 agosto 1998, Skira, Milano, 1998, n. 15, p. 202, ill. p. 90;
Paola Zatti, Giovanni Migliara, Veduta di piazza del Duomo in Milano, in Sergio Rebora, a cura di, Le collezioni d’arte. L’Ottocento, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio delle Provincie Lombarde, Milano, 1999, n. 175, pp. 268-269, ill. ;
Paola Segramora Rivolta, Giovanni Migliara, Piazza del Duomo col Coperto dei Figini e l’isolato del Rebecchino, in Franco Della Peruta, Carlo G. Lacaita, Fernando Mazzocca, a cura di, I volti di Carlo Cattaneo (1801-1869). Un grande italiano del Risorgimento, catalogo della mostra, Milano, Palazzo Morando Attendolo Bolognini, 19 aprile-16 settembre 2001, Skira, Milano, 2001, p. 205, n. 155.;
Sergio Rebora, L’immagine di Milano nella pittura dell’Ottocento. La pinacoteca della Fondazione Cariplo, in “Ca’ de Sass”, n. 149-150, Cariplo, Milano, aprile-agosto 2001, pp. 47-48;
Elena Lissoni, in Fernando Mazzocca, a cura di, Da Canova a Boccioni. Le collezioni della Fondazione Cariplo e di Intesa Sanpaolo, Skira, Milano, 2011, n. V.54, p. 197, ill.
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