Bed with carved reliefs

The headboard has a large almost three-dimensional carving of Christ on the Road to Calvary surrounded by small panels depicting Old Testamente scenes and flanked by two warriors in niches. The foot board, similar in layout, has an unidentified battle scene. The sculpted elements of the bed, including the columns, probably are from the area around Valtellina or Germany, while the architraves decorated with stucco and pastiglia could be Tuscan. These 16th and 17th century elements clearly were assembled into a bed in the 19th century, and it was purchased by the Bagatti Valsecchi brothers from the nobleman Giovanni Visconti Venosta in 1884 for 2200 lire, a considerable expense even at the time, but not indicative of a Renaissance object. Clearly, both the seller and the buyers understood that the item, beautiful and of antique pieces, was nonetheless a pastiche. Documentation regarding art purchases is quite rare in the house's archives, and is another indication that the was considered a practical purchase. The archives are full of minutely detailed records of heating oil and cloth for their tailors, for example, but quite scarce in receipts for art pieces, which they evidently considered their passion, outside the house's annual budget. The bed is still displayed--as are all other objects in the museum--in its original place, thus contributing to the authentic "time capsule" ambiance.