SFORZA CASTLE, Art Galleries

From the tiny yard with the fountain, you can reach the staircase that takes you to the first floor where the Dukes' apartment was located. There you'll find an important display of furniture. There's something for all tastes, from the ancient to the most modern, which today we call design.

Now pause the audio and go into Griselda's room.

This hall is called Griselda's room because its frescoes illustrate a Boccaccio novella which tells of a nobleman who falls in love with a commoner and marries her, a real scandal in those times! Also, if you look up you'll see that the ceiling is completely decorated with beautiful images of the zodiac.

Now pause the audio and go to the gallery's first hall.

You can admire various Italian paintings from the fifteenth century in this collection, including Filippo Lippi's Madonna and Saints, the refined Madonna and Child by Giovanni Bellini and the monumental Madonna and Saints painted at the end of the 1400s by Andrea Mantegna. Now pause and go to the Lombard painters room....