Dawn, day and night
Duilio Cambellotti
The sketches relate to the three works of stained glass in the cycle Dawn, Day, Night, now lost, which were intended for the central body of the House of the Owls. In this case also, the artist used the theme of birds in flight which allowed him, through by varying the species depicted, to represent symbolically the changing aspect of day and its development into night. The idea of the transition of light to darkness is extremely poignant, and here rendered realistically through the different colours of the birds’ plummage: from the white doves, on and almost equally transparent background, to the intense light of full day, against which the dynamic flight of the falcon is defined, and finally the darkening sky, broken by the whirling passage of noctural predators
Masterpieces of the hall
The hall
This room takes its name from the large piece of stained glass in the form of a nail, made by Duilio Cambellotti and elaborately decorated with vine leaves and bunches of grapes.
The motif is repeated in the delicate monochrome work in stucco which emphasises the panels of the ceiling and in the tondo at its centre, from which a chandelier of wrought iron originally hung.
The room was used as a studio by the Prince, but its furniture has been lost.
