Capolavori in miniatura fra età napoleonica e Restaurazione: alcuni esempi milanesi

Starting from the assumption that «never with so much obsession, as in the years of the Restoration, have been reproduced, in all possible media, the masterpieces of the past or those of contemporary artists, nourishing an infinite trust in the possibilities of recreating the appropriate equivalents of the originals and to follow, with ever greater decision and encouraging results, the marvelous paths of disclosure» (F. Mazzocca, 2004), the paper aims to offer an overview of three almost contemporary case studies. Seat of the events examined is the city of Milan, which became the "capital of the arts" in the Napoleonic era, a role that the city continued to play even when the Austrian domination returned. Between 1803 and 1804 the Roman mosaicist Giacomo Raffaelli created, on commission of the Vice-president of the Italian Republic Francesco Melzi d'Eril, a grandiose centerpiece for the National palace (today Reale), official seat of the Government. The work, a spectacular composition of marble, hard stones, bronzes, enamels and alabaster, 12 meters long, presents templar architecture, columns, obelisks, statues and ornamentations that combine the classical repertoire with the Egyptian taste and is inspired by the structure of the Roman circus. Between 1810 and 1823 Giovanni Battista Sommariva, a rampant Francophile politician, commissioned a high number of enamel painted miniatures on copper to some specialized artists, reproducing timeless masterpieces and works from his rich collection, scattered between Milan, Paris and Como Lake. In 1830 the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana received the donation of Giovanni Eduardo De Pecis, which made it possible to set up a «Cabinet of gilded bronzes» composed of bronze reproductions - in reduced size - of some Roman obelisks, of the Traiana and Antonina columns, or of famous works by Guido Reni, Andrea Appiani and Antonio Canova.