| SALA DEGLI SCARLIONI (ROOM 15) |
Planned as a meeting venue in the 15th century, the vast official room was named after a peculiar ornamental motif consisting of red zigzag lines on a white background depicted in the frescoes covering its walls and once also the vault.
Within Sala degli Scarlioni are provided examples of the most significant sculptural masterpieces from 16th-century Lombardy, among which a handsome sculpture called 'Busto della Mora' (Bust of the Negress) , whose author is still unknown, the tomb of Bishop Bagarotti and the sepulchral stone of poet Lancino Curzio by Bambaja. The most important among the exhibits on display are definitely the funerary monument of Gaston de Foix by Bambaja and Michelangelo's Pietà Rondanini, which great Tuscan artist Michelangelo Buonarroti left unfinished. Michelangelo's masterpiece stands in a display niche in the wall, separated from the other exhibits.
The funerary monument of Gaston de Foix undoubtedly shows Bambaja's great technical skills, while Pietà Rondanini reveals the hand of an elder Michelangelo, who worked on it until shortly before his death.
It is worth pointing out that the room has been rearranged during the 1950s in order to accommodate Pietà Rondanini, which the museum acquired in 1952.
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Agostino Busti, better known as il Bambaja, Funerary Monument of Gaston de Foix, marble, dating from between 1517 and 1522, from Milan church of Santa Marta
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The grandiose monument was commissioned to Bambaja by Odet de Foix, Milan's governor and cousin of French leader Gaston de Foix, but was never completed because the French troops were defeated and had to leave the city. Various elements were acquired by either public or private collections. The castle museum currently houses most relief work and decorative elements, even though the monument has not been reconstructed according to the original project yet.
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Michelangelo Buonarroti, Pietà Rondanini, marble, dated to 1564, acquired from Roman family Vimercati Sanseverino, in 1952
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Named after one of the owners, Michelangelo's last work is quite unusual to some extent, as it depicts Virgin Mary standing with Jesus in her arms on a funerary altar dated to the Roman Age (late 1st century AD). The base, which was probably readapted to better support the sculptural group during the Renaissance, portrays Roman emperor Marco Antonio and his wife Giulia Filumena Asclepiade
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Bust of the Negress, marble sculpture, dated to the first half of the 16th century, acquired from the Archinto collection
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Sculpted by an exceptionally skilled artist from Lombardy, whose name is still unknown, the Bust of the Negress probably derives its name from the dark colour of the marble.
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