The Teatro alla Scala façade in 1852

This famous painting by Angelo Inganni(1807-1880) depicts La Scala lit up by the sun and facing onto a narrow street.
The year is 1852 and still six years before the square in front of the Theatre was opened up. This is perhaps why in 1778 the Theatre was not liked byeverybody. Pietro Verri wrote in a letter: “The façade of the new theatre is beautiful on paper, and I was pleasantly surprised when I saw it before building commenced. But now, I am somewhat displeased by it”.
In 1858 the modest houses crowded around the Theatre were demolished and the current square was created. Initially called “Piazza del Teatro”, over time it became “Piazza della Scala”.It is this painting more than any other which symbolises our collections, La Scala as it was seen by the great opera composers of the nineteenth century: Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini and a young Verdi. The painting is signed and dated “By the real Angelo Inganni 1852”. This painting, donated to the Museum by Lorenzo Lorenzetti, is actually the second version of a previous one, exhibited in Brera in 1851, which was subsequently lost. An interesting fact about the painter is that in 1827 he was called up to serve in the Infantry battalion in Milan where he came to the attention of one Marshall Radetzky as being an artist. A portrait of the famous soldier and commander of the Austrian army during the First War of Independence, earned him a discharge from military service and a place at the Brera Academyin 1833.