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THE DREAM of re-creating a splendid dwelling-place
of the Renaissance period did not materialize by simply copying one single
model. The brothers' inspiration came from numerous sources. The ideas
they borrowed from outstanding examples were re-elaborated to create a
Renaissance style in tune with 19th-century
sensibilities, but in which the mark of the Bagatti Valsecchis is ever
present.
BY NOW THE ANTIQUE market had little to offer and Fausto and Giuseppe
could not limit their purchases to artefacts produced before 1520-1530.
Their preference was nonetheless for pieces executed in the late 1400s
/ early 1500s. They collected
architectural fragments, wall friezes, fireplaces, ornamental elements,
furniture, household utensils, paintings and then used them to furnish
and decorate the various rooms of their home.
THE RENAISSANCE blossomed again through old finds - especially paintings
like Santa Giustina by Giovanni Bellini, St John the Baptist
byt Bernardino Zenale and the Madonna Enthroned with Saints by Giampietrino
- or splendid furniture like the 16th-century bed in Fausto's
bedroom. When original pieces were damaged or incomplete, they were
repaired or made whole again, so no missing element could spoil the all-encompassing
integrity of the place. "No part of it, even of secondary importance,
is neither old nor a perfect copy of an antique, with the result that everything
is in harmony and reflects the chosen period to perfection": this
is how, in 1885, the influential architect Vespasiano Paravicini described
the palazzo then taking shape in neo-Renaissance style in the heart of
19th-century Milan.
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