Pellegrino tibaldi e il Palazzo di Corte di Milano

the Ducal Palace in Milan had a long series of alterations during the 16th century: already residence for the duchess Isabella of Aragon, it did not host the kings under the French and Spanish domination, during their journeys in Milan, but the ducal governors and it received attention above all by Alfonso of Avalos and Ferrante Gonzaga, mainly in the occasions of visits by Charles V in 1541 and Philip II of Habsburg in 1548. During the following decades and the succeeding of the governors, the residence – in which the Senate and the other administration offices were located too – was periodically interested by works and decorative campaigns, like those realised for the arrival in 1598 of Margaret of Austria, wife of Philip III, so that it became the most important city site decorated with secular painting subjects, now unfortunately lost. Pellegrino tibaldi’s involvement in those changes, at first as a painter and then as a ingegnere camerale, is documented in five different moments: (I) in 1574-1575 as a painter and with the role of supervisor for the paintings and stained glasses by Valerio Profondavalle; (II) between 1583 and 1586 in the same role; (III) in 1579 for the restoration of the church of San Gottardo in Corte; (IV) in 1584 for the design for building and decorating a new ducal chapel in the palace; (V) for a general design to modify the main façade and the external courtyard of the palace, for which it is unknown the date, but it is documented by a drawing now preserved in the Raccolta Bianconi, I, f. 2 at the Archivio Storico Civico di Milano and biblioteca trivulziana