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Museo Schifanoia
An extraordinary testimony to the Renaissance era, Palazzo Schifanoia is the symbol of the Ferrara of the Este family. Completely refurbished and renovated in 2021, the museum, in addition to the famous frescoes in the Salone dei Mesi, in 21 rooms presents about 250 works including sculptures, paintings, ceramics, medals and illuminated manuscripts that tell of the city’s rich historical and artistic heritage.
HOURS
10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday to Sunday
Closed on Mondays
Last entry 1 hour before closing
RESERVATIONS
For individual visitors and groups, reservations are recommended and free of charge
Opening in 2021, Museo Schifanoia represents the spearhead of the Ferrara museum system. 850 square meters, 21 rooms, about 250 works including sculptures, paintings, ceramics, precious objects, medals and illuminated codices. The centerpiece of the palace is the celebrated Salone dei Mesi, one of the greatest masterpieces of the European Renaissance.
Focusing on the relationship between container and content, Museo Schifanoia is a modern museum that exhibits historical and artistic heritage, enabling its visitors to learn about Ferrara’s extremely rich historical, artistic, archaeological and numismatic heritage.
The tour begins in the fourteenth-century wing: the first rooms contextualize the palace in the urban fabric and trace the history of collecting that determined the birth of the Museo Civico in the eighteenth century. Through the display of collecting and excavated ceramics, the daily life of the Este family in the earliest phase of the palace’s use is then recounted, then focusing on the figure of Leonello and the birth of humanism in Ferrara. After a close look at the fragments of 14th-century wall paintings that decorated this wing, the visit continues to the piano nobile. Crossing the Hall of Months, the next rooms, richly decorated, document the ages of Borso and Ercole I d’Este and the extraordinary artistic and cultural flowering of the Ferrara court, up to the fateful date of 1598, the year in which the Este power was replaced by the papacy. The many changes brought about by the change of city authority are the focus of the narrative in the last rooms, located on the ground floor, in which numerous sacred paintings tell the story of Baroque Ferrara, while the typically 18th-century classicist, civic and Enlightenment instances find a perfect synthesis in the display of some significant objects from the collection of Cardinal Gian Maria Riminaldi. The spiritual father of the Civic Museum, Riminaldi with his idea of a “didactic museum” for the city, rich in objects and testimonies of the past, symbolically closes the itinerary by reconnecting with the very birth of the Civic Museums recounted in the first room.
The entire itinerary is then also usable with the help of the app Museum Mix which provides access to curiosities, unpublished photos and other content to make the visit more complete, rich and engaging
THE STORY.
The construction of Palazzo Schifanoia can be placed around 1385, the year in which Alberto V d’Este, marquis of Ferrara, started numerous construction sites in the city including the lost residence of Belfiore and Palazzo Paradiso, now home to the Ariostea Library. The Palazzo was built on the extreme northeastern side of the city walls with the function of a “delizia,” a place intended for the rest, leisure and entertainment of the house of Este. After an initial modification of the palace in 1391, a major expansion was carried out by Borso d’Este beginning in 1466, when the future duke of Ferrara, thanks to court architect Pietro Benvenuto dagli Ordini, decided to add a floor to the pre-existing body of the building. The centerpiece of this new building element was the extraordinary Salone dei Mesi, to whose decoration important painters led by the humanist Pellegrino Prisciani had worked.
A final expansion of the palace along with a general decorative modernization was finally carried out under Ercole I d’Este, who entrusted the project to the architect Biagio Rossetti. After Ercole’s death, the building underwent numerous changes of ownership: it was first granted to his brother Sigismondo, then to Alfonso I’s brother Francesco, and finally to the latter’s daughter Marfisa.
The last years of the 16th century marked the beginning of the decline of the mansion first with its leasehold in 1582 and then with the Devolution of 1598 and reached its peak during the 18th century, when all the decorated surfaces were whitewashed. It was not until 1820 that painter and restorer Giuseppe Saroli rediscovered the first portion of the frescoes and completed the restoration work in 1840. In a very few decades the delight once again became the focus of historical studies –European art until, in 1898, it became home to the Museums of Ancient Art of Ferrara. The traumatic seismic event of 2012 finally resulted in the need for extensive architectural recovery and refurbishment of the exhibition spaces.
