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Baitone Alpino Suggests: Palazzo Maffei in Verona

Palazzo Maffei is a building that borders the north-western side of Piazza Erbe in Verona, built in the 17th century in late Renaissance style with Baroque motifs based on a design by a designer probably originally from Rome, commissioned by the Maffei family. The building is spread over three floors. The ground floor is marked by five arches which constituted a portico; the entrance to the internal courtyard is through the fourth arch from the left. On the main floor, in each of the five squares, there are large windows with simple balustraded balconies crowned with triangular and curved gables, divided by semi-columns of the Ionic order, decorated with masks. The attic floor, placed above a serrated cornice, repeats the order of the lower level but with openings of lower height. Above the attic there is a high frieze with brackets, scrolls and festoons, crowned by a balustrade with six statues of divinities: from the left, Hercules, Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, Apollo and Minerva. The statues are carved in local stone, with the exception of that of Hercules, which is much lighter in colour, and is believed to come from the Capitolium, therefore of Roman origins. Inside the palace there is an elliptical spiral stone staircase that rises, without resting on any central support, from the cellar to the top, where it is crowned by a lantern and statues. Some entrance halls on the main floor and the room overlooking the square are decorated with classical frescoes created between the 18th and 19th centuries; other internal rooms, overlooking the secondary courtyard, are adorned with architectural elements and stuccos with floral motifs surrounding works from the end of the 18th century. Since 2020, the permanent exhibition Palazzo Maffei Casa Museo has been open to the public on the main floor, a container of works of art, especially contemporary ones, belonging to Luigi Carlon's collection.