Room near the courtyard of the Nymphaeum

Adjacent to the frescoed “Galarietta fatta a Mosaico,” the room known as the “Stanza vicino al cortile del Mosaico” served to house and display the Arese Borromeo family’s collection of ancient and modern statues to their most distinguished guests and friends. Indeed, inventories from the period indicate that the room housed four small tables made of marble and dark wood, likely ebony, which served as stands for trophies and sculptures in marble and terracotta.

Unlike the preceding rooms of the Nymphaeum, this room is one of four within the palace featuring painted decoration in the “boscareccia” (woodland) style. Unfortunately, it is not perfectly preserved due to a heavy layer of whitewash that likely covered the walls in the 18th century.

What remains of the paintings depicts woodland landscapes in the foreground, set against a backdrop of hills and mountains. One features a deer, an animal also depicted in another of the “boscarecce” rooms on the main floor (piano nobile). This suggests the work was executed by the same artist, identified by critics as the Milanese painter Giovanni Ghisolfi (1623-1683). Trained in Rome within the circle of Salvator Rosa, Ghisolfi specialized in painting ‘ruins.’ He was therefore chosen by Bartolomeo III Arese specifically for his skill in representing the new artistic style emerging from Rome (the papal city) and for his unique originality in depicting urban landscapes with ruins or ancient monuments, as well as natural landscapes. This approach was seen as a modern interpretation adhering to classical tradition.