Palazzo Durini

Palazzo Durini stands in Milan as a seventeenth-century architectural landmark commissioned by Count Giovan Battista Durini. Richini designed its sober, linear façade for Milan. A rusticated stone portal supports the grand balcony above the piano nobile. Alternating triangular and curved pediments frame the windows.

Inside, a red Verona marble staircase leads towards antechambers decorated with trompe-l’œil. Painted medallions mark the route through adjoining rooms. The grand hall contains Melchiorre Gherardini’s fresco of the Triumph of Eros. Carved, gilded wooden ceilings enrich the piano nobile. The palace also held the Durini family’s art collection and renowned tapestries. Artists associated with the interiors included the Nuvolone family, Ercole Procaccini, and Stefano Maria Legnani. The Putti Gardeners tapestry series later entered Palazzo Braschi in Rome.

Spanish governor Guzmán Ponce de León stayed within the palace during Spanish occupation. A balcony once allowed him to address Milanese residents. The palace changed hands during the early twentieth century before Gianni Caproni acquired it. The building suffered wartime damage without receiving a direct hit. After the war, it served as headquarters for the Rinascente-Upim Circle until 1982.