Veduta della Corte della Biblioteca (Fototeca ISAL.BAMS Photo Rodella)
The smaller court yard at the eastern side of the Villa is surrounded by a lower wing compared to the central body, built in the 19th century to host the greenhouses.
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Here, next to the eastern end, a Carrara marble statue is kept, depicting Arnaldo da Brescia, the plaster copy of which is kept in the Modern Art Gallery in Milan, commissioned in the 19th century by the owner of the Villa, Giovanni Traversi to the Milanese artist Antonio Tantardini, sculptor from Viggiù, who moved here to embellish the walkways of the park and transferred here in the 20th century.
Traversi in 1817 commissioned Tantardini to produce various other works among which, is the composition depicting Faust and Margherita for the entrance hall. A pupil of Pompeo Marchesi at the Brera Academy, this sculptor was most loved for the serene nobility of his compositions, the opulence of the forms and softness of the surfaces of his works. It is important to evidence that the lawyer, Giovanni Traversi wanted Arnaldo da Brescia as the subject, a religious reformer of the 12th century, who preached the renunciation of the Church to wealth and its return to evangelical poverty, abandonment of temporal power, its glorification as victim of obscurantism and advocate of free thinking. Having adorned the residence with the images of a heretic and an apostate caused Traversi to gain the open defiance of the local ecclesiastical institutions and Catholic associations.
