Musei Civici di Arte Antica
Comune di Ferrara

We are now in the Grand Hall of the Plebiscite, so called in memory of the 1860 referendum to decide of the accession of Emilia Romagna to the Italian Kingdom.
It is decorated at the summit of its walls by a monochromatic XVI Century band.
On the right side of the hall, that since the XVII Century was the seat of the Maestrato dei Savi (the executive of the time), Ercole I d’Este, in the late XV Century required to build the so-called ‘Great Hall’ for feasts and theatre shows. Here in 1531 Ludovico Ariosto, to show his comedies before the court, established the first stable theatre in Italy, unfortunately destroyed by a fire in 1532.

On the left, you can visit the Hall of Tapestries.
Two precious Flemish tapestries are exposed here.
The one representing the ‘pergula with garden’ was executed between 1620 and 1630 by Jan Raes, a famous tapestry artist from Brussels active between 1593 and 1649.
The other tapestry, woven closely in wool and silk, was probably executed in Oudenaarde (a Belgian city) in the first half of the XVII Century and illustrates the biblical story of Holofernes’ beheading at Judith’s hands.
Also to be noted are a wardrobe of the second half of the XVI Century , the many antiques of the XVIII and XIX Centuries, portraits of some ‘gonfalonieri’ of the XIX Century and of Rodolfo Varano, the first Mayor of Ferrara in 1859-1867.
Finally, at the centre is a very rare desk in painted marble, on which is represented the map of Ferrara and its surroundings in 1951 as drawn by the engineer Carlo Savonuzzi and painted by the Paolucci brothers from Rimini.



Image credits:

The Hall of Tapestries, Judith beheads Holofernes, tapestry, first half of the XVII Century