Castle Hall

The room known as “del Castello” (of the Castle) takes its name from one of the four large paintings with polygonal frames that decorate the center of the walls, depicting, clockwise starting from the northern end: Palazzo Arese Borromeo in Cesano Maderno before the construction of the “Loggia,” the fiefdoms located in the lower Verbano area, the Cesano palace after the addition of the “Loggia,” and the Sforza Castle in Milan.

These pictures are actually frescoes painted directly onto the walls, illusionistically hung with red ribbons from fake metal hooks set into a high frieze supported by Richinian Ionic columns, characterized by a small festoon connecting the volutes of the capital. This entablature is decorated with a succession of rich frames containing woodland landscapes with ruins, alternating with corbels adorned with festoons which, in turn, support a second frieze with floral decorations.
Critics suggest the artist behind this complex and elaborate painted setting was close to the noted Lombard dynasty of quadratura painters, the Marianis, who likely worked here based on designs by the Milanese Giovanni Ghisolfi (1623-1683), trained in Rome and active in many rooms on the main floor (piano nobile) of Palazzo Arese Borromeo. The date of the work’s execution, however, is suggested by the large paintings (‘quadroni’) themselves, which would place the Cesano work around the mid-1660s. The double view of the noble Cesano residence, in fact, shows two distinct phases of the architectural complex’s construction. In the first panel, the absence of the eastern wing featuring the “Loggia” can be observed, placing the painting before 1660. The second panel, representing a bird’s-eye view of the palace, highlights the front of the building overlooking the garden, with the characteristic three-arched “Loggia” and the raised ballroom now known as the “Sala dei Fasti romani,” executed after 1660. The Sforza Castle in Milan is also presented as it appeared during the Spanish domination, when the military-noble building was surrounded by a twelve-pointed star fortification, placing the painting sometime after 1656, as can be inferred from the presence of a specific reinforcement added to the structure by Giacomo Prestino by that date.
More unique, however, is the aerial view of Lake Maggiore and the Borromean fortress (rocca) of Angera, recognizable by the characteristic silhouette of the fortress and the town (borgo). On the far left, instead, Arona appears, surrounded by the hills upon which the Sacro Monte stands. The entire basin is characterized by a certain perspectival approximation, although it is evident that geographic reality is here subordinated to certain iconographic-representational needs. This fresco, indeed, appears strongly characterized by a precise symbolic structure alluding to the fertility of the Borromeo family line. The presence, for example, of two storks flying in the sky, constitutes an evident reference to the Borromeo dynasty, which in those years was experiencing a series of internal disputes concerning the territorial properties of Angera and Arona. Furthermore, one must not forget the importance of both the Verbano area and the Sforza Castle to the Spanish crown, depicted here as a perpetual display of the loyalty of Cesano’s noble owners to the royal house of Spain.