San Fedele museum, religious museum in Milan, Italy
San Fedele Museum occupies a 16th-century Jesuit church on Piazza San Fedele across from the Scala in Milan. The collection displays religious artworks and relics spanning from medieval times to the present day.
Cardinal Carlo Borromeo commissioned architect Pellegrino Tibaldi to design this church in 1559 as a major Counter-Reformation center. The museum was established in 2014 to make the artistic collection housed within the church accessible to the public.
The museum's name comes from San Fedele, whose relics lie under the 1824 main altar by Pietro Pestagalli. Jesuit Father Arcangelo Favaro founded the Galleria San Fedele and in 1956 asked Lucio Fontana for the Sacred Heart altarpiece, still in the Guastalla Chapel. Works by Mimmo Paladino, Jannis Kounellis and Nicola De Maria continue this dialogue between faith and contemporary art.
The museum is easily accessible just a few steps from the Scala in the downtown area. Plan at least an hour to explore the rooms, and note that regular opening times apply.
The nine walnut confessionals, carved by the Taurino brothers between 1596 and 1603, are prototypes of the Borromean confessional. Each carries four sculpted panels, two above with scenes from the Old and New Testaments and two below facing the kneeler with figures of the Passion, drawn from Jerónimo Nadal's Liber imaginum.
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