Palazzo Schifanoia

Palazzo Schifanoia began as an Este retreat outside Ferrara and became the setting for the Salone dei Mesi, an extraordinary Renaissance fresco cycle celebrating the rule of Borso d'Este. A 2021 museum installation brings the palace's art and history together across 21 rooms.

Why it matters

The palace was built around 1385 for the Este court. From 1466, Borso d'Este expanded it under the direction of court architect Pietro Benvenuto dagli Ordini; later, Biagio Rossetti modernised the building for Ercole I d'Este. In the Salone dei Mesi, mythology, astrology and courtly imagery combine in a programme associated with the court humanist and astrologer Pellegrino Prisciani. Ferrara's leading painters worked on the cycle from 1469, before Borso's elevation to duke.

After centuries beneath whitewash, the frescoes were uncovered by Giuseppe Saroli between 1820 and 1840. The palace became a civic art museum in 1898. Its 2021 installation spans 850 square metres and includes about 250 works, from paintings and sculpture to ceramics, medals and illuminated manuscripts.

What to notice

The Salone dei Mesi is nearly 25 metres long, 11 metres wide and 7.5 metres high. Its walls were divided into twelve sections, one for each month; seven survive. Each combines a deity presiding over the month, zodiac imagery and scenes of Borso's courtly life. Francesco del Cossa's authorship of the March section is documented by his 1470 letter about payment. The north wall includes work attributed to Ercole de' Roberti, the Master of the Wide-Open Eyes and Gherardo di Andrea Fiorini.

Elsewhere in the museum, the collections range from Este-period ceramics and works associated with Leonello d'Este to Baroque art collected by Cardinal Gian Maria Riminaldi. Highlights include an alabaster polyptych, Guido Mazzoni's sculptural Lamentation and Antonio Canova's bust of Leopoldo Cicognara.

Context and history

After Ferrara's devolution to the Papal States in 1598, the palace declined and its frescoes were whitewashed. Saroli's nineteenth-century recovery revealed the cycle, though much of it had been painted a secco and is now badly faded. The 2012 earthquake led to restoration and a long closure before the museum reopened with its new installation in 2021.