“Art and Grotesque, Art with Grotesques: The Case of Pirro Visconti Borromeo’s Villa in Lainate”,

The paper enquires on the figure of Pirro Visconti Borromeo, who is now considered as a minor figure in sixteenth-century Milan. However, he was highly regarded in his own time as a distinguished promoter of the arts, patron of the Academy of Blenio, and a fervid collector of artificialia and naturalia. His peculiar collection was displayed in his fascinating Villa in Lainate, and it presents a meaningful selection of works of art and decorative arts, along with natural objects and religious items, which testify to the count's particular care not only for the objects themselves but for the context in which they were displayed.