La dimora milanese di Giuditta Pasta

The essay analyses the pictorial decoration of the destroyed dwelling that Giuditta Pasta bought in Milan around 1829. The only visual source for the reconstruction of the small cycle, realized in the first half of the 1830s, are some photos preserved at the Photographic Archive of the Sforza Castel of Milan and the Treccani degli Alfieri Photo Library for the Storia di Milano. The soprano choose to decorate both the main halls of her house with eight grisaille squares, which depicted episodes taken from the most important operas she interpreted in her career. The monochrome scenes, attributed for the first time to the decorator Pietro Mariani, were part of a richer and more complex ornamental decoration, amenable to the late neoclassical style, in close connection with the requests of Romanticism. This new investigation reveals interesting aspects about the figure of Giuditta Pasta and the network of social and cultural relations she developed with the most important personalities of art, music and science.

L'articolo intende indagare la decorazione della dimora milanese di Giuditta Pasta, estendendo lo sguardo al panorama artistico e culturale dei primi decenni dell'Ottocento lombardo con un tentativo inedito di attribuzione circa l'autore della stessa.