The Tower Room

By virtue of the juxtaposition of works and the dialogue established between them, some rooms of the villa more than others appear to follow a precise iconographic program. Particular importance attaches in this sense to what should have been the collector’s bedroom, whose location at the top of the tower can be seen as a citation of De Chirico or a reference to Porta Palatina, the most metaphysical of Turinese buildings. By all accounts, Cerruti slept in the villa only on very rare occasions, possibly in the Rose Room on the first floor, and the room in the tower, which preserves the original Provençal decoration from its date of construction, was probably never used as a bedroom. This fact makes a symbolic reading of the space all the more tempting. The walls are all lined with wood panelling in warm hues, apart from the alcove for the bed, which is upholstered with a bright green fabric that matches the curtains and counterpane. This room contains most of the gold-ground paintings and the earliest works in the collection by artists like Simone dei Crocifissi, Sassetta, Marco di Paolo Veneziano, Gherardo Starnina and Bergognone, whose
three panels suggest the reconstruction of a magnificent lost triptych and occupy an entire wall.