Today I went to one of the many museums of the Castello Sforzesco. They have so many different ticketed exhibitions that it was confusing which one I had seen. According to their pamphlet, there's the Museum of Ancient Art, Picture Gallery, Egyptian Museum, Museum of Prehistory and Proto-history, Museum of Decorative Arts, Museum of Musical Instruments, Furniture Museum, "Achille Bertarelli" Prints Collection, Photographic Archive, Archaeological and Numismatic Library, Trivulziana Library and City Historical Archive, Art Library, Vinciana Collection, and CASVA all located inside the castle walls. phew. I believe all of those museums operate under one ticket, though if you want to give everything the time it deserves, there's no way you can make it to more than 3 before closing.
This specific museum had a lot of literature to read, and so I only got around to one. Additionally, there was a no cell phones and no camera sign, so I only got a handful of pictures. Apparently the sign was lying because at the end everyone was taking pictures of the crown jewel right in front of a guard. He told someone to turn flash off, but that was it.
This museum was almost entirely sculptural. I would say 90% of the piece were sculptures or relief sculpture (that is, sculptures on a flat surface that "pop out" of the 2-D plain a bit. The stem of relief in Latin means 'to raise'). The rest were stained glass, tapestries, a single painting, and, bizarrely, armor and weapons in the last room. I suppose the weapons and armor were artfully crafted, I think I might've wandered into another museum. Though it was only one room.
The first four images I took simply because I thought they were interesting. I don't have much to say about them, as they mostly weren't discussed in the English handouts I got and the placards next to them were Italian. It's obvious the first one is the three kings in a relief sculpture. The second one I have no idea. The third was called a dragon, and it looked more like a Dragon Tales dragon than any dragon I've seen depicted from the medieval ages. That caught my eye. The last was a very humorous stained glass of a battle with a man shooting another man with a sword while two men prod each other with gigantic pole spears.
The crown jewel of the museum was the Riondanini Pieta (pictured above), an unfinished sculpture by Michelangelo, apparently the last piece he worked on. It remained unfinished because he lost control of his body and could no longer use his hands to sculpt. Well, the paper about it gave that as a reason to debunk that he worked on it right up until death. Wikipedia asserts that it is unfinished because he carved away at it until there was insufficient stone. I could believe either one. The stone was originally carved to be of the Deposition of Jesus; the moment he is taken down from the cross. However, he changed the whole layout into Mary holding a limp Jesus in a woeful pose. He continued to make changes, such as lowering the pedestal at the bottom to elongate the figures. The piece is interesting to me because of the clear juxtaposition of finished and unfinished area. Pretty much the only finished area is Jesus' legs, which are completely smooth and chiseled perfectly. If you look at his chest you see the lines that show how Michelangelo chipped away at the statue. The back, which I did not picture, was even more unfinished; it was just a mass of chisel marks that vaguely resemble two backs. Apparently the statue is liked for its abstract nature. The undefined faces, floating, misplaced right arm of Jesus, and of course the raw chiseling. I can respect that, but I also like it for showcasing the process by which a statue is sculpted. I suppose that point is a little muddled considering the statue is actually one statue carved into another. Even so, it's interesting to try to sort out.
Not pictured, unfortunately, are the 10 or so gigantic tapestries. Those never cease to amaze me. The fact that someone sewed together something so enormous is amazing to think about. I also recognized some of the stories depicted. One was of Elijah and false god worshipers having a competition to see who had a true god. They would both make altars and pray for fire, and whichever altar caught fire was proof of a true deity. In the foreground the worshipers danced around an unlit altar, and someone looked like they were pulling at their beard in anger. In the background Elijah's altar is being struck by lightning in a huge burst of fire. Pretty cool. Noah was also depicted elsewhere.
I also found out a bit about Milan's saint, Saint Ambrosio. Apparently at some point in the 12th century, Milan was sacked and all its people were banished. About a decade later, the Milanese came to return and rebuild the city. I believe another group had begun living in the city in the meantime, and Saint Ambrosio legendarily chased the people out of the city with a whip. If you see someone with a halo and a whip depicted in Milan, it is no doubt Saint Ambrosio. That is his distinguishing item, I guess because of that story. I'll have to go around to other museums to find out more. Recall that on my walking tour of Milan, we went to the church where Saint Ambrosio is kept and saw his bones (and I have a picture in that album).
I also went back (yesterday) to the illuminated manuscript room and took more pictures of the books for reference. I like the designs and I'll be sketching them in my sketchbook. But yeah, there are many more museums to see (in the castle alone!) and I'll have to keep exploring to get to them all. Thanks for reading guys!
