Gallery of the Centaurs

The vast rectangular room, located on the ground floor with direct access from the garden, was originally adorned with a series of twenty-five canvases, now housed on Isola Madre. These paintings, created by the leading Milanese painters of the 17th century, depicted stories from the Old Testament and Greco-Roman mythology. Complementing these were decorations in the lunettes depicting the cycle of Virtues. These remained in place until 1978 and are now presented as photographic copies by the “Associazione Vivere il Palazzo e il Giardino Arese Borromeo” to better convey the room’s decorative richness.

The center of the vault features three frescoes joined together to form a single, tripartite central band. Critics attribute them to the painter Ercole Procaccini the Younger (1605-1677), who here displays great inventive skill, both in the rendering of the faces (tragic, ironic, and sometimes even caricatured) and in the depiction of powerful nudes. These incorporate, to give just a few examples, learned allusions to the art of Michelangelo and Rubens. The theme depicted represents the three ways in which Love manifests itself.

The first episode, indeed, depicts the tender, yet unwise, love between the deities Aurora and Tithonus. The young goddess is portrayed moving away from the bed of her aged consort to scatter crocus flowers upon the earth, accompanied by several airborne putti who assist her, urging her not to wake the old man. The story connecting the couple of disparate ages is one of sincere love, but with misguided consequences: the goddess fell in love with the young and handsome Tithonus, brother of King Priam of Troy. However, when asking the gods to grant him immortality, she forgot to also ask for eternal youth. As the years passed, she found herself married to an old man with a shrill voice, whom the goddess herself would eventually turn into a cicada.
The central scene represents violent love that breeds monstrosity. It depicts Ixion’s assault on the cloud Nephele which, according to myth, led to the birth of the Centaurs – represented here by Nessus (on the right of the composition). The Centaurs, in turn, symbolize lustful beings who cause great suffering for humanity.
Finally, the third episode depicts love in its purest and most fruitful sense, represented by the goddess Venus. She is seated on a cloud, surrounded by putti bringing her lilies and shooting magic arrows. Indeed, her cult, from its very origins, presented love as a natural force, of which sentiment was merely a reflection. This led Greek poets and philosophers to distinguish two different aspects of Aphrodite-Venus: Aphrodite Urania, depicted here, born from the sea foam fertilized by Uranus and the quintessential symbol of ideal love; and Aphrodite Pandemos (common/public), daughter of Zeus-Jupiter, representing free and earthly love.
However, the richness of these myths should be interpreted in relation to specific allegorical meanings connected to the history of the family who owned the building and the historical events involving contemporary society. The theme of love thus becomes a vehicle to allude to the marital unions between the Arese and Omodei families – a marriage portrayed not as violent, but as wise and fruitful, a bond destined to bring forth the fertility of the Cesano lands and the Duchy of Milan. Finally, there are also references to the politics of the time and the love of vassals for their Spanish rulers: like the mythological love depicted in the paintings, this love too could be destructive and violent, well-intentioned but unwise, or, as in the case of Bartolomeo III Arese, honest, fruitful, and a bringer of peace and prosperity.