Staircase Anteroom

The rectangular hall, which allows access to the “Southern Staircase,” belongs to a series of rooms where painting is used to create an extremely symbolic space and can be considered the ideal starting point of an initiatory path that leads from the staircase to the tower.

The interior decoration of the room consists of a series of Ionic pillars supported by a continuous base, which support a projecting frieze adorned with corbels and floral friezes, in turn surmounted by the coffered vault. The fresco decoration also frames the access doors to the room, adorned with festoons and putti resting on marble panels. On the western side, there are two cherubs holding books, a lamp, and an arrow in their hands, thus representing “Ingenuity based on Constancy” and “Acuteness.” On the southern side, there is no trace of any putto, while on the northern wall, there is one holding a medal, a symbol of “Honor.”

Below the latter appears a Latin inscription, unfortunately fragmentary today, which bears the date “Anno MDCLIX” (1659) and a reference to the appointment of Bartolomeo III Arese as President of the Senate, which became effective only in the following year. This date is also of particular importance because it coincides with the coming of age of Bartolomeo’s heir, Giulio II Arese, and constitutes the year in which the Peace of the Pyrenees was signed, which put an end to the conflict between the Spanish and French kingdoms, allowing Bartolomeo to ‘ease’ his political duties as well.

Critics have attributed the paintings to the Milanese painter Giovanni Ghisolfi (1623-1683), who trained in Rome within the circle of Salvator Rosa and was active in most of the rooms on the main floor of Palazzo Arese Borromeo. Here, he conducts the work in a decorous manner but without any kind of exaggeration, perhaps with the intention of creating a modest environment that would serve as a better introduction to the wonders contained in the adjacent halls and, in particular, in the “Hall of Roman Splendors.”