The Circular Room
The Louis XVI decor is the same as in the adjoining room. Gold and blue are the dominant colours, with a touch of red in the border of the geometric drapes running all the way around the room, which is taken up in the upholstery of the armchairs and stools.
What strikes the visitor at first sight is the sense of composure achieved by respecting the principles of symmetry and presenting elements in pairs. An example is provided by the diptych of distinguished works by Pompeo Batoni – the Allegoria della Pittura, Scultura e Architettura (Allegory of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, 1740) and Apollo, la Musica e la Geometria (Apollo, Music and Geometry, 1741) – that dominates the main wall. Cerruti experienced such deep delight in the contemplation of these works that he had copies made by Barrington Bramley, also copyist to the British royal family, to take their place whenever he agreed to lend them for exhibitions. The harmony of the room thus remained intact and the interplay of symmetry was preserved.
The central axis that extends between the two Batoni paintings continues with Madonna con il Bambino e un angelo che presenta san Giovanni Battista (Madonna and Child with an Angel Presenting John the Baptist, c. 1505) by Francesco Francia, beneath which an important Louis XV chest of drawers with decorations in the Chinese style supports a tabernacle by the Florentine Jacopo del Casentino (c. 1330–35) and a pair of celadon vases, again in the Louis XV style. A Rococo sofa with polychrome marquetry, of the same kind as the one at the entrance to the villa, a pair of Louis XV armchairs and a carved wooden tray table of Piedmontese manufacture (third quarter of the 18th century) stand on a precious Isfahan carpet of the “Polonese” or “Polish” type from central Persia, dating from the early 17th century.
In symbolic terms, the circular room occupies an intermediate space among those occupying the cylindrical shaft of the tower of Villa Cerruti. From the wine cellar in the basement to the music room on the ground floor, the circular room on the first and then Cerruti’s bedroom on the second and last: an ascending path of delights from the corporeal (wine) to the Dionysian (music, as symbolised by the piano) and the Apollonian (represented by the Batoni paintings), and then on to the final redemption of the setting created by the collector in the highest room of the building.
