The Sala delle Capriate is home to a series of works that narrate a fundamentally important experience in the city during the 1900s. In the period between the two World Wars, Monza was home to the Higher Institute for Industrial Arts, better known as ISIA.
This school, located inside the Royal Villa, which had been abandoned by the Savoys after the assassination of King Umberto I in Monza on 29th July 1900, trained a legion of young artists using a multi-disciplinary, practical approach with the example of important artists, offering the possibility to experiment with different avantgarde techniques in its teaching laboratories, as well as with crafts, applied arts, painting, and sculpture.
Iron, ceramics, wood and metals, but also advertising graphics, life drawing and decoration are just some of the subjects in which the young students could put themselves to the test: the museum still has a rich selection of works from the school, and which can be ascribed to both students and teachers. These include outstanding pieces by two of Italy’s most important Italian sculptors in the 20th century, Arturo Martini and Marino Marini. Marini is responsible for the plaster of “Leda and the Swan” in the centre of the room. It is an imposing, pared back statue that reflects the artist’s love of classical sculpture and for the synthesis of its masses. Marino Marini leaves Monza with his bas relief of “St George and the Dragon”, first proof of the theme of horse and knight. The sculptor is depicted by Costantino Nivola, one of his most gifted students, part of a group of talented young artists from Sardinia that included Salvatore Fancello. The painting class was taught by Raffaele de Grada and Pio Semeghini: De Grada is the artist behind several painted views of the centre of Monza, views destined to disappear with the urban development interventions of the 1930s, such as “via dei mulini” in the painting displayed on the wall next to Marino Marini’s bas relief. The Park was obviously one of the most popular subjects for the artists in that period: corners and buildings were interpreted in modern style, using an evocative rather than stately manner, like in the paintings of Nivòla, Lilloni and Lattuada.
With the items on display behind you, you can look in more detail at another interesting subject of the period, documented in the museum: at the same time as the ISIA, “International Exhibitions of Decorative Arts“ were also promoted to boost the updating of national artistic culture, using comparisons with experiences outside Italy. Four of such shows were held Inside the Royal Villa of Monza: the first three biennales, in 1923, 1925, and 1927, and the fourth in 1930, which was the last before the event was moved to what was then the “Triennale” in Milan. The Biennale events brought artists from all over Italy and Europe to Monza: furniture and handcrafted items were put on show to create effective examples of how the arts could be combined. Three pieces displayed in the museum come from the exhibitions of the time: the “Vaso Forma Monza 91” by Guido Andlovitz, the “Specchio” by Dagobert Peche and the “Levriero” by Italo Griselli.
Your visit continues into the glass tower, with entrance behind a wall where you can admire a copy of a period photo showing young pupils at work in the classrooms of the ISIA. Here you will see a selection of the many ceramic works produced by students and teachers. Vases, amphorae, and mosaic compositions using tiles illustrate the creativity and modernity of the expressive language used, first and foremost, by Salvatore Fancello, an artist who died too young, during the second World War, which evokes memories of his Sardinia.