Museo Civico Ala Ponzone is a public

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

and art gallery located in the 16th-century Palazzo Affaitati in

Cremona Cremona (, also ; ; lmo, label= Cremunés, Cremùna; egl, Carmona) is a city and ''comune'' in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po river in the middle of the ''Pianura Padana'' ( Po Valley). It is the capital of th ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

History

The core of the original collection was donated in 1842 by Giuseppe Sigismondo Ala Ponzone and was supplemented from works from suppressed ecclesiastical institutions. Among the works in the collection are a '' Saint Francis in Meditation'' by

Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi (Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi) da Caravaggio, known as simply Caravaggio (, , ; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the final four years of hi ...

and '' The Gardener'' by

Giuseppe Arcimboldo Giuseppe Arcimboldo (; also spelled ''Arcimboldi'') (1526 or 1527 – 11 July 1593) was an Italian painter best known for creating imaginative portrait heads made entirely of objects such as fruits, vegetables, flowers, fish and books. These w ...

. In the Sala del Platina, a section in the museum, is a large

sacristy A sacristy, also known as a vestry or preparation room, is a room in Christian churches for the keeping of vestments (such as the alb and chasuble) and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records. The sacristy is usually located ...

armoire A wardrobe or armoire or almirah is a standing closet used for storing clothes. The earliest wardrobe was a chest, and it was not until some degree of luxury was attained in regal palaces and the castles of powerful nobles that separate accommo ...

or cabinet, called the Armadio del Platina, originally from

Cremona Cathedral Cremona Cathedral ( it, Duomo di Cremona, ''Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta''), dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is a Catholic cathedral in Cremona, Lombardy, northern Italy. It is the seat of the Bishop of Cremona. Its be ...

. The

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

-style wood cabinet has a series of

intarsia Intarsia is a form of wood inlaying that is similar to marquetry. The start of the practice dates from before the seventh century AD. The technique of intarsia inlays sections of wood (at times with contrasting ivory or bone, or mother-of-pear ...

tableaux, completed during 1477–1480 by Giovanni Maria da Piadena, called il Platina, and restored for this museum in 2007. The museum also houses historic musical instruments, with the nucleus being a collection donated by

Carlo Alberto Carutti Carlo is a given name. It is an Italian form of Charles. It can refer to: *Carlo (name) *Monte Carlo *Carlingford, New South Wales, a suburb in north-west Sydney, New South Wales, Australia *A satirical song written by Dafydd Iwan about Prince Char ...

External links

*
Official website
Museums in Lombardy Art museums and galleries in Lombardy Musical instrument museums in Italy {{italy-museum-stub