Villa Menafoglio Litta Panza
The Villa Menafoglio Litta Panza is located in Varese in northern Italy . The 18th century villa houses a collection of contemporary art that can be visited all year round.
history
The Marquis Paolo Antonio Menafoglio purchased a plot of land on the hill of Biumo Superiore, Varese, in 1748, on which he built his three-story villa. The villa was given a U-shaped floor plan that opens onto a large Italian garden with a view over the city of Varese. A bridge connects the villa with the agricultural property that later became the park of the neighboring villa complex Ponti.
The building was designed not so much as a residential complex for the Menafoglio family, but rather as a representation for glamorous events. The servants' wing is therefore kept correspondingly small.
Menafoglio, who found himself in financial difficulties, sold the villa again in 1783. After a few changes of ownership, Pompeo Litta Visconti Arese , scion of a wealthy Milanese patrician family , finally acquired the villa in 1823. The new owner commissioned the architect Luigi Canonica to extend the villa in 1829 . The renovations took two years. Canonica had converted the farm buildings into horse and carriage stables. In addition, he created a new one-story building with a rectangular floor plan, which is presented as a large oval by a series of columns in the corners and which housed the large dining room, known as the "Imperial Hall". Many of the dining room's architectural elements are attributed to Canonica, such as: B. the large fireplace, the floor, the consoles. Thanks to Canonica's work, the former pleasure villa became a patrician house.
Art collection
In 1956, the new owner and art lover, Count Giuseppe Panza di Biumo, began his extensive collection of contemporary art , mainly American artists, in the rooms of the villa. He invited important artists to the villa and gave them the opportunity to design some of the rooms artistically according to their ideas. These site-specific works of art , which u. a. by Dan Flavin , James Turrell and Robert Irwin can still be viewed in the villa today. In the last decades of the 20th century Panza built an important collection of monochrome paintings and other works of art in the villa by artists such as Phil Sims , David Simpson , Ruth Ann Fredenthal , Max Cole , Maria Nordman , Martin Puryear , Ford Beckman , Ross Rudell , Alfonso Fratteggiani , Ettore Spalletti , Lawrence Carroll , Stuart Arends , Allan Graham , Winston Roeth . The works of art fit into the furnishings from the 16th to 19th centuries and into Panza's collection of African and pre-Columbian art .
In 1996, Giuseppe and Rosa Giovanna Panza di Biumo donated their villa and the art collection to the Italian Foundation for the Protection of Monuments and the Environment (FAI) on the condition that the family could continue to live and use the second floor. The FAI carried out the necessary restorations and technical modernizations and opened the Panza Villa and Collection to the public in 2001.
literature
- M. Magnifico, L. Borromeo Dina (eds.): Villa Menafoglio Litta Panza e Collezione Panza di Biumo. Milano 2001.
- L. Borromeo Dina (Ed.): Il libro del FAI. Milano 2005, pp. 145-159.
Web links
- Villa e Collezione Panza at the FAI (Italian)
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 45 ° 49 ′ 30 ″ N , 8 ° 49 ′ 45 ″ E