L'immagine della musica nello 'studio' del palazzo veronese di Mario Bevilacqua (1536-93)

Abstract

Mario Bevilacqua was one of the most important collectors and patrons of literature and the arts of his time. He was born in Verona on 8 October 1536 to Gregorio and Giulia di Canossa, niece of Girolamo Canossa, an important Veronese collector. Mario grew up in a cultured and refined environment. He studied law at Bologna, where he graduated in 1567. He then returned to Verona, and settled in the family palace, on the current Corso Cavour. In the years that followed the return to his native town, Mario Bevilacqua transformed his residence into a place suitable for his collections of works of art, books, musical instruments, and rare and precious objects. This article re-examines the surviving documents in order to highlight the relationship established by Bevilacqua between objects and the architectural space in his residence, focusing in particular the attention on four rooms on the first floor of the building, which assumed a recognized public function. The paper is completed by the analysis of two objects placed in one of these rooms - a musical instrument ever so far examined and a painting attributed to Giorgione -, their mutual relationship and the one with the environment in which they were placed. This example is considered representative of the way in which Bevilacqua considered and displayed the objects that formed part of his collections.