We’re lost in Milan’s Pinacoteca Ambrosiana. We came here to see Petrarch’s personal copy of Virgil’s works, but there has been no sign of it so far. I had asked a docent for help, but he spoke zero english, and my italian wasn’t up to the task. It didn’t help that the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana turned out to be much larger than I had thought.
Then it occurred to me that Petrarch’s Italian name is “Francesco Petrarca”, and Virgil’s name in italian is “Virgilio.” That seemed to help. When the docent thought he knew what we were looking for, he gave us directions…
Cerco un Libro… (I’m looking for a book)
Docente – “Passare attraversa quella porta laggiù.”
(“Go through that door over there.”)
Mio – “Va bene.” (“OK”).
Docente – “Poi giri a sinistra. Sala le scale. Scenda l’atrio.”
(“Then turn left, go up the stairs, and go down the hallway.”)
Mio – “E il libro è lì?” (“And the book is there?”)
Docente – “No. Poi trovi la prossima docente.”
(“No. Then find the next docent.”)
Oh, man. That was disappointing. I thought we were getting close. We followed his instructions and found the next docent.
Mio – “Buon giorno. Cerco il libro di Francesco Petrarca di Vergilio.”
(“Hi. I’m looking for Petrarch’s book by Virgil.”) (Or something like that).
Docente Due – “Francesco Petrarca? Non lo so.”
(“Petrarch? Never heard of him.”)
The Allegory of Fire
This guy didn’t even know who Petrarch was. We set off in search of another docent. The next room was filled with amazing paintings. Some of them were by Jan Bruegel, (the Elder). Bruegel made a famous set of four paintings. Each one was an allegory for one of the four elements – air, earth, fire, and water.
Bruegel’s “Allegories” are really neat. Napoleon Bonaparte liked them so much, he took ‘em when he had the chance. After the French army occupied Milan, Napoleon took three things home with him to the Louvre in Paris: Leonardo’s Codex Atlanticus, Bruegel’s Four Allegories, and Petrarch’s copy of Virgil.
The Italians got everything back except for two of the four Allegory paintings. The two they got back are here in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana. We were standing right in front of “The Allegory of Fire.” It’s wild-looking, painted with oils on tin, with incredible detail. Everything in it has something to do with fire, at least in the mind of Jan Bruegel. It’s awesome. (Shown at the top of this post).
Next Docent, Please
We found the next docent and went through the usual routine. This one seemed to know what I was talking about. When I finished my request, he said, “Sì sì… Seguimi!” (“Yes yes… Follow me!”)
Hey, that’s more like it! He took off and we took off after him, following him down halls, around corners, up and down staircases, and through rooms of various shapes and sizes. This place was huge. Who knew?
You should have seen the things we walked past. But we couldn’t stop to look or we’d lose our guide, who was moving at a pretty good clip.
I saw a painting I recognized – Caravaggio’s famous “Basket of Fruit.” There have been a lot of paintings of fruit done over the years, but this is the mother of all basket-of-fruit paintings. There it was, and then it was gone.
Then I spotted Leonardo’s painting of Beatrice d’Este, (Mrs. Ludovico Sforza). Remember her? We saw a copy of this painting at Sforza castle. Here’s the real thing, right in front of us. There it was, and then it was gone.
This Place is Huge!
We passed a sign pointing to the “Muratorian Fragment.” As I found out later, it’s the oldest listing of New Testament books known to exist. Produced in the 7th century, it’s thought to be translated from a document written in greek, sometime around the year 170. Wow. There it was, I guess, and then it was gone.
We kept following our guy. Could this crazy path he’d been leading us on actually be going somewhere? Seems like we’ve been going around in circles. Hey – didn’t we pass this painting five minutes ago?
The docent finally came to a stop. He pointed to a doorway and said in a hushed tone, “It’s in there.” Well, what he actually said was, “I libri sono nella biblioteca.” (“Books are in the library.”)
Are you kidding me? The guy we’d been following, nice as he was, had no idea what we were looking for, other than that it was a book. And where does one find books? In the library, of course. Oy vey.
To be continued…
Note: Get acquainted with Petrarch here.
