In collaboration with Francesco Vitali, Roadmovie, the Municipality of Lainate, the Association of Amiici di Villa Lita, the National Gallery of Art in Washington is pleased to present online in streaming Villa Visconti Borromeo Litta—Four Centuries of History, a Journey through Time between Art Delights and Water Games, film documentary directed by Francesco Vitali and written in collaboration with Claudia Botta, is based on the book Milano profana nell’età dei Borromeo (Secular Milan in the Borromean Age) by Alessandro Morandotti, and produced by Francesco Vitali, Municipality of Lainate, Friends of Villa Litta Association, and Roadmovie.
The film richly illustrates the history of one of the most famous and lavish Italian pleasure villas, located in the town of Lainate in Lombardy, not far from Milan. Using onsite documentation, costumed reenactments, interviews with prominent curators and historians, architectural models, and computer graphics, Villa Visconti Borromeo Litta portrays centuries of Italian art and architectural history in terms of stylistic expression. The film also explores the social, familial, and political milieux—not least of which is the chronicle of Pirro I Visconti Borromeo, count of Brebbia, the creator of this place of art and delights, a romantic, a patron, and a sophisticated man of culture in Milan during the late sixteenth century. The villa’s wonders are many—its famous Nymphaeum, greenhouses, palaces, sculptures, frescoes, fountains, and water features among them.
See the program on National Gallery of art web site
