Lattuada Serviliano - Descrizione di Milano ornata con molti disegni

Casa degli Omenoni is a historic palace of

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...

, northern

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 ...

, located in the eponymous street of Via degli Omenoni (number 3).
Casa degli Omenoni
'' It was designed by sculptor

Leone Leoni :''For the early 17th-century composer, see Leone Leoni (composer)''. Leone Leoni (ca. 1509 – 22 July 1590) was an Italian sculptor of international outlook who travelled in Italy, Germany, Austria, France, Spain and the Netherlands. Leoni is r ...

for himself; he both lived and worked there. It owes its name to the eight atlantes decorating its facade, termed "omenoni" ("big men" in

Milanese Milanese (endonym in traditional orthography , ') is the central variety of the Western dialect of the Lombard language spoken in Milan, the rest of its metropolitan city, and the northernmost part of the province of Pavia. Milanese, due to ...

), which were sculpted by Antonio Abondio, most probably on a design by Leoni.Casa degli Omenoni
/ref> Lions (a reference to the "Leoni" family) are a recurring theme of its decorations; in particular, a large

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

placed under the

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

depicts two lions tearing a

satyr In Greek mythology, a satyr ( grc-gre, σάτυρος, sátyros, ), also known as a silenus or ''silenos'' ( grc-gre, σειληνός ), is a male nature spirit with ears and a tail resembling those of a horse, as well as a permanent, ex ...

into pieces. The overall style of the palace and the decorations have been noted to include several references to the art of

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was ins ...

.
Casa degli Omenoni
' The internal courtyard, modified in 1929 by

Piero Portaluppi Piero Portaluppi (19 March 1888 – 6 July 1967) was an Italian architect. Biography Pietro (known as Piero) Portaluppi was born in Milan, son of the engineer Luisa Gadda e Oreste Portaluppi. He graduated in 1905 from the Istituto Tecnic ...

, has a colonnade with

metope In classical architecture, a metope (μετόπη) is a rectangular architectural element that fills the space between two triglyphs in a Doric frieze, which is a decorative band of alternating triglyphs and metopes above the architrave of a bu ...

s and

triglyph Triglyph is an architectural term for the vertically channeled tablets of the Doric frieze in classical architecture, so called because of the angular channels in them. The rectangular recessed spaces between the triglyphs on a Doric frieze are ...

s. Artist and historian

Giorgio Vasari Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work '' The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculp ...

expressed his admiration for the palace, stating that it was ''pieno ..di capricciose invenzioni'' ("full of capricious inventions"). At the time, the palace also housed a notable collection of art works and antiquities, which has been dispersed over time. According to an inventory dating back to 1615, it had paintings by

Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italians, Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school (art), ...

Parmigianino Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola (11 January 150324 August 1540), also known as Francesco Mazzola or, more commonly, as Parmigianino (, , ; "the little one from Parma"), was an Italian Mannerist painter and printmaker active in Florence, Rome, B ...

, and

; the inventory also mentions a book of drawings by

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested on ...

, which scholars identify with the ''

Codex Atlanticus The Codex Atlanticus (Atlantic Codex) is a 12-volume, bound set of drawings and writings (in Italian) by Leonardo da Vinci, the largest single set. Its name indicates the large paper used to preserve original Leonardo notebook pages, which was u ...

'' now preserved in the

Biblioteca Ambrosiana The Biblioteca Ambrosiana is a historic library in Milan, Italy, also housing the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, the Ambrosian art gallery. Named after Ambrose, the patron saint of Milan, it was founded in 1609 by Cardinal Federico Borromeo, whose agen ...

.Casa degli Omenoni a Milano
/ref> The palace has been largely restored and restructured in the 19th and 20th century; only the facade has remained almost unchanged, except for the addition of iron balconies and of the attic. After being owned by Leone Leoni and then by his son

Pompeo Leoni :''For the early 17th-century composer, see Leone Leoni (composer)''. Leone Leoni (ca. 1509 – 22 July 1590) was an Italian sculptor of international outlook who travelled in Italy, Germany, Austria, France, Spain and the Netherlands. Leoni is r ...

, the house was sold by Pompeo's son-in-law Polidoro Calchi, and over time was owned by several notable Milanese families, including the Belgioioso, the Pozzi, and the Besana. It was also used as the seat of the music-publishing company

Casa Ricordi Casa Ricordi is a publisher of primarily classical music and opera. Its classical repertoire represents one of the important sources in the world through its publishing of the work of the major 19th-century Italian composers such as Gioachino Ro ...

, as a seat of the

Fascist Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and the ...

party, and as a theatre. The building is adjacent to the Palazzo Pozzi Besana.

References

{{Authority control Omenoni Renaissance architecture in Milan Tourist attractions in Milan

See also

References