The Month of December represents one of the most interesting of a cycle of twelve tapestries commissioned by Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, executed by Benedetto da Milano and designed by the painter Bramantino. Dominated by the sign of Capricorn, the scene is set in a large room; in the background is a winter landscape overlooked by a majestic castle. At the centre of the composition is a cauldron in which salami and sausages are being stirred by a woman whilst a man is attempting to embrace her. In the foreground, to the left, a man is inflating a pig’s intestine, making a balloon in which a child seems very interested. The scene in the background focuses instead on an old man who is holding a sickle and whose feet are bound by a woollen thread. The old man, representing the deity Saturn, is being worshipped by a group of farmers. In his design, Bramantino skilfully exploits and reinterprets ancient literary and iconographic sources. December is the month in which pigs are slaughtered; however the tapestry refers to the practice while avoiding bloody images. The central theme of this series of masterpieces is the continuous and cyclical flow of the seasons, described by an activity specific to each month. The Tapestries, each of which leads into the next, focus on the close relationship between man and nature. The inscription on each tapestry also describes the characteristics of the month. When translated, December’s reads: "December allows us to revel at home, for the birth of the lambs and trapping of fowl, it allows us to salt the pork and also gives idle children things to do."

The geometric compass was designed by Galileo Galilei in Padua in 1597 and built by Marcantonio Mazzoleni. It is composed of two arms, on which numerous “lines” are engraved, converging at the opening pivot, which is equipped with a hole for a plumb line, by a quadrant marked with a variety of scales and by a “forked” clamp and a slider that allows for the leg in which it is threaded to be lengthened and for the compass to be positioned vertically. This instrument of calculation allowed its users to quickly make more than forty different types of complex geometric and arithmetic calculations and exploits the theory of proportions to solve various civil and military problems. It could be used for instance, as a gunner’s quadrant, to redraw a map to scale or to calculate exchange rates. In 1606 Galileo published 60 copies of a treatise describing the uses of the instrument, The Uses of the Geometric and Military Compass, which were provided along with the compass itself. Of the sixty original compasses only 5 examples are known to have survived. As well as the compass exhibited at the Sforza Castle’s Museo di Arti Applicate (Museum of Applied Arts), the others can be seen at the Museum of the History of Science in Florence, the Istituto Geografico Militare - also in Florence, the University of Pisa and in Cambridge, England.

The tension of the bodies and rendering of the muscles in the bronze group depicting Christ crucified between the two thieves, betrays a clearly Michelangelesque style, particularly in the figure of the impenitent thief. The position of this subject, whose left leg is fully bent, is an unambiguous reference to a drawing by Michelangelo housed at the Teylers Museum in Haarlem (inv. 18). Given the likely Lombard provenance of the group, it has been speculated to be the work of sculptor Annibale Fontana or according to other scholars that of Guglielmo della Porta. The existence of another two groups of the same subject, preserved in the Diocesan Museum of Hildesheim and the Metropolitan Museum in New York is particularly interesting. The positive attribution of the three groups remains problematic; however they can be dated to the second half of the 16th century. The group belonged to the collection of the painter Giuseppe Bossi.

The refined and exquisite fruit bowl is a prime example of the crystalline glass technique, invented by Murano glassmakers in the fifteenth century: the extraordinary transparency of Murano glass in fact created results similar to that of crystal. The centre of the piece, datable to the first half of the 16th century, features the coat of arms of the Gonzaga family, a quartered coat of arms with black eagles on a white background, while the edges are decorated with a series of small golden flowers and dots in polychrome enamel applied by brush. The underneath of the bowl is embellished with "tong" shaped rope pattern obtained with the half moulding technique (the glass is blown into an open mould). This richly adorned piece must have been part of a dinner service, together with plates, chalices and jugs that the Gonzaga family would use on special occasions. The bowl was purchased by the civic museums directly from Gonzaga family in 1886.

The porcelain holdings of the Museum include some decidedly representative works produced by the Richard Ginori factory in the 1920s and 1930s. These pieces were made under the artistic direction of Gio Ponti, the brilliant protagonist of the renewal of Italian decorative arts. This architect and designer succeeded in bringing together the irreconcilable: the creation of unique pieces and mass production. He created pieces of identical shape but with differing decorations, which were carried out in different colours or shapes. The blue Urn with gold decorations, celebrating the triumph of Love over Death and in which Love and Death appear on chariots pulled by winged horses, stands out among these objects. The cylindrical vessel stands on golden feet topped by winged figures at rest. The ornate lid decorated with a wreath, has a knob in the form of a winged figure, shown standing and leaning against a pillar. Designed by Gio Ponti and the sculptor Libero Andreotti, who designed the winged figures, in 1928, the urn is elegantly decorated at the top with cupids and friezes, and cornucopia at the bottom. This and other objects in the same series were very successful. The "Blue Urn" was donated to the museum by the Richard Ginori Company.

The scene represents an emperor of the Ottonian Dynasty with his wife and already crowned infant son, kneeling before the enthroned Christ, in proskynesis, a gesture of homage paid to Byzantine emperors. Next to the Saviour, to whom the IHS XPS inscription refers, are Saint Maurice (on the left) and Mary (on the right), identified by lateral inscriptions, while above the scene are two angels in flight. The platform on which the imperial family are kneeling is inscribed with the words OTTO IMPERATOR. This inscription does not settle the question of whether the piece is celebrating Otto I or Otto II. However, the very young age of the prince, who bears the crown and is therefore already associated with the power of his father, argues in favour of a reference to Otto II, Theophanu and Otto III. If the deduction is correct, the plate may have been produced in Milan on the occasion of the visit of Otto II in 983, when Otto III was only three years of age. The elegance of the composition and style, which resembles that of other Milanese works of the 10th century, such as the tabernacle of the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio, confirms the role played by Milan and northern Italy in the creation of sophisticated Ottonian art. The ivory belonged to the Trivulzio Collection and entered the Civic Collections in 1935.

The small chest is a fine example of the level of skill reached by Lombard goldsmiths in the 11th century. A rectangular box with its gabled lid, has a wooden core and is covered with six partially gilded, embossed and chiselled silver plates. The larger sides are decorated with scenes of the Martyrdom of Saints Cyprian and Justina and a Traditio Legis et Clavium, while on the smaller sides are represented two female figures, one of which/whom is seated on a throne, and the Beheading of St. Cyprian. The lid is adorned with the Lamb of God (representing Christ) between angels and a bishop among Saints. The iconography reveals a careful balance between the celebration of the life and martyrdom of the two saints and that of the role of the Church, recalled in the presentation of the Keys to St. Peter and the Law to St. Paul. It seems likely that the chest was conceived as a reliquary of Saint Justina, the relics of whom were taken from Rome to the Cathedral of Piacenza in 1001. The exceptional quality of the reliquary can be appreciated in the chromatic variations and the skilfully created drapery. The chest belonged to the Luigi Alberico Trivulzio collection and entered the Civic holdings in 1953.

Among the numerous and remarkable pieces that make up the Castle’s considerable ceramics collection, this majolica jug stands out for the refinement of the decorations. The jug has been attributed to the Patanazzi workshop in Urbino, which produced majolicas of great renown in the second half of the 16th century. The jug was part of a service inscribed with the motto ARDET IN AETERNUM (burn for eternity) and commissioned by the Duke of Ferrara, Alfonso II d'Este, for his marriage to Margherita Gonzaga in 1579. The museum holds another three pieces from this superb service, an amphora, a small plate and a goblet. The heraldic device painted on the neck of the jug, depicts an asbestos (meaning inextinguishable in Greek) stone in flames. The motto "burn for eternity", framed in two cartouches curved between two sphinxes, symbolically exalts the flames of love that cannot be put out. The jug, the shape of which is taken from contemporary jugs of precious metals, is richly decorated both at the top and bottom with "grotesque" style birds and fantastical creatures, while the midsection is painted with sea gods, among which, between two creatures that are half centaur half triton, is a river god holding a rudder. All these subjects are inspired by the paintings of Raphael, the engravings of whose works had made the artist popular in majolica workshops.

The precious monstrance of Voghera, intended for t

Carried out following a design by Giuseppe Arcimboldi and Giuseppe Meda, the banner was created in embroidery and tempera with additional inserts by the embroiderers Scipione Delfinone and Camillo da Posterla. The work, which is 5 meters in length and 3,50 meters wide, was commissioned by the Magnifica Comunità di Milano in 1565 and completed in 1566. On September 8th of that year, the Banner was shown to the people and blessed by Archbishop Carlo Borromeo. From iconographic evidence we know that it remained in use until the late 19th century. The image of Saint Ambrose, the patron saint of Milan, appears on both sides of the banner. In his right hand he is holding a whip, a traditional attribute alluding to the expulsion of the Arians, and in the left a very elaborate pastoral staff, a symbol of his episcopal role. The sumptuous robes of Ambrose are decorated using panels with scenes of the Annunciation, and scenes from the lives of Saints Peter, Paul and Barnabas, figures that are repeated in the knot of the pastoral staff, in the shape of a small temple. The mitre has inserts of polychrome gems. The patron saint of Milan is framed in a round arch, while the building behind him is decorated with scenes from his life. The detail of the depiction and splendour of the materials make this work an extraordinary example of this refined art form.

The bas-relief tablet is among the finest examples of late Roman ivories. It is a justly famous piece because it is one of the first ivory diptychs with religious content and one of the earliest known representations of the Holy Sepulchre, which appears below the images of two Evangelists: Luke, symbolised by a bull, and Mathew, by an angel. In the scene below, the women, united in mourning for the dead Saviour, encounter a character, who represents an angel or the risen Christ. The presence of only two evangelists suggests the existence of a second piece, now lost. The doors of the building behind the women are decorated with three scenes from the Gospels, the Resurrection of Lazarus, Zacchaeus climbing the tree to see Jesus and Christ teaching the crowd. The attribution of such an early date, the 5th century AD, stems from stylistic considerations. The refined workmanship, the late Roman culture of the sculptor, and the extraordinary softness of carving, places the origin of the piece in one of the capitals of the Western Empire, probably Rome. Once belonging to the Trivulzio Collection, the piece was purchased in 1935 by the City of Milan.