LE TERRECOTTE DECORATIVE DEL MUSEO D'ARTE ANTICA DEL CASTELLO SFORZESCO DI MILANO: PRODUZIONE FITTILE E ARCHITETTURA NELL'ETA' SFORZESCA

The research and cataloguing activities conducted during the internship in 2010-2011 on the clay materials preserved in the deposit of the Museo d’Arte Antica at the Castello Sforzesco in Milan, were what sparked off a series of considerations and reflections on the subject of decorative terracottas during the early Renaissance in Lombardy - particularly Milan and Cremona - the results of which were discussed during the presentation at a conference held in 2011 entitled Terrecotte nel Ducato di Milano. Artisti e cantieri del primo Rinascimento. The decision behind the research conducted for my PhD was to continue and extend the studies to include the collection of clay products preserved by the Art Collections of the Municipality of Milan, more specifically the decorative coroplast productions in the Sforzesca era, which included an in-depth analysis of the contemporary architectonic context of some of the most significant cases. The results obtained, indexed and included in this thesis aim to present an initial mapping of the ornamental repertoires where, starting from the decorative patterns of the individual tiles preserved in the deposit of the Museum, it was possible to establish comparisons and trace relations with the countless architectonic complexes highlighting clay decorations scattered throughout the Lombardy region and bordering areas.