Sala della Musica / Sala di Lettura

Whereas the Salone Rosso and the Salone Verde have a decidedly ceremonial character as magnificent reception rooms, the two smaller rooms facing onto the Piazza SS. Annunziata, namely the Sala della Musica and Sala di Lettura, clearly belong to the private and domestic domain, as is also suggested by their size. This more intimate character is also reflected in the iconography of their ceiling frescoes. In the Sala della Musica a pergola-like lattice structure interlaced profusely with flowers converges on an oval panel at the centre of the ceiling, in which a view is opened up of a bare-breasted girl sailing through the air on a swing, while in the Sala di Lettura Augusto Burchi’s ceiling fresco shows two children playing with garlands of flowers on a balustrade. The date inscribed in Burchi’s signature on the plinth of the balustrade to the left (‘A. Burchi / 1892’) suggests that the Sala di Lettura was one of the first rooms to be decorated during the late nineteenth-century renovation of the palazzo. As handed down in the Budini Gattai family, the names of the two rooms no doubt allude to their original function.