Book received: Meital Shai on The Cosmos at Home. The Fresco Cycle of Villa Grimani Molin at Fratta Polesine.

The Cosmos at Home. The Fresco Cycle of Villa Grimani Molin at Fratta Polesine by Meital Shai, Turin: Silvio Zamorani editore, 384pp., 78 col. plates, 96 b. & w. illus., €28 pbk, ISBN 9788871582405

Villa Grimani Molin, today Avezzù, is a prestigious noble rural residence adorned with a precious, yet peculiar fresco program. Many attempts have been made to decipher these frescoes, though with very meagre results, mainly because of the absence of basic archival documentation regarding the identities of the architect, the painter and even the main patron responsible for the commission of the villa and its decoration. In order to overcome this barrier, the topic is approached according to the principals of Microhistory, by means of a preliminary, exhaustive documentary reconstruction that surpasses the common archival boundaries of the art and architecture historian. This approach has enabled to answer most of the preliminary questions, providing the essential cultural foundations for the iconographic study of the frescoes, on which the book is centered. The detailed analysis of every scene creates a vivid reconstruction of the cosmological philosophy of the villa’s family members, characterized by an extremely erudite and fascinating syncretic attitude, seeking to unify multiple world-views into one universal form of wisdom, encompassing paganism, Judaism, Catholicism, heretic thought and esotericism. Beyond the presentation of a single case study and its original iconographic discoveries, the book hopes to inspire art and architecture historians how to approach their objects of study when the more standard channels are not able to provide enough background information regarding their origins or function.

Introduction