Casa Museo Polli Stoppani

The Polli Stoppani House Museum in Bergamo’s Upper Town preserves a private art collection within the historic palazzo where collectors Vittorio Polli and Anna Maria Stoppani lived. Its paintings and sculptures span the fourteenth to twentieth centuries and remain displayed in rooms with the character of a home.

Why it matters

The museum reflects the collecting of Vittorio Polli, an entrepreneur and art scholar, and Anna Maria Stoppani. Their collection brings together works from several centuries of Italian and European art, including painting and carved wooden sculpture. The house preserves the collectors’ arrangement of the works within a historic domestic setting.

What to notice

The palazzo includes a fifteenth-century courtyard and rooms with frescoes and decorative work associated with the Bergamasque painter Domenico Ghislandi. The collection spans early panel painting, Renaissance portraits, Baroque still lifes and later works. Artists represented include Giovanni Cariani, Bernardino Licinio, Carlo Ceresa, Fra Galgario, Francesco Hayez and Ottone Rosai. A fourteenth-century gold-ground panel attributed to Neri di Mone is among the collection’s notable works.

Context and history

Vittorio Polli spent decades assembling the collection while working as an industrialist and art scholar; he also founded the Museo della Valle at Zogno. The palazzo on Via San Giacomo preserves medieval and Renaissance elements. In 2009 the Fondazione Vittorio Polli e Anna Maria Stoppani was established to care for the house, collection and library. The museum opened within the foundation’s programme, retaining the domestic setting and arrangement of the works.