The Sala dei Quaranta at Palazzo del Bo
Antechamber of the Aula Magna, the Sala dei Quaranta owes its name to the presence of forty portraits of foreign students, who between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries attended the University of Padua. From here they returned to their countries of origin spreading the knowledge they had learned: as the enrolment above the entrance door states, "How many from the ends of the earth flocked to draw the doctrines of civil law and the arts, many the University of Padua returned to their homelands, Latin facts for language, science, civilization".
Among the characters represented are famous scientists, doctors, jurists and humanists, such as William Harvey, a doctor who discovered blood circulation, Michel de l'Hôspital, a French politician famous for his tolerance in religious matters, and Stephen Bathory, later king of Poland, on whose actual attendance at the Paduan Studio there remain, however, doubts.
The forty portraits were made in 1942 on commission from the Rector Carlo Anti by Gian Giacomo dal Forno, then a promising artist of Lombard training.
It is up to the Rector to choose the illustrious to be celebrated and the iconographic research, through which he provides the painter with precise indications to make the portraits as close as possible to the truth, now referring to faithful images of the characters represented, when not available inspired by costumes and period objects.
Starting from these materials, Dal Forno then proceeds with the creation of the works, in tempera and on viscose canvas. The correspondence preserved in the University Archives highlights the complexity of the operation, which took place in a very short time – just over three months – and in the middle of the war, with the difficulties associated with the supply of raw materials.
Once ready, the paintings, divided into four groups in turn distributed on three walls, are literally recessed into the plinth below, specially made.
And the effect is stunning: the curtain walls are completely covered with no other interruption than the frames, creating an effect that refers to the fresco. The earthy tones go well with the warm honey color of the wooden floor and the beautiful table, both designed by Gio Ponti, who also furnished the room to host the graduation commissions of the then Faculty of Political Science.
The restoration of the 40 canvases was one of the University's major projects for its first 800 years.
On either side of the entrance are Galileo's chair, according to tradition built for the great Pisan scientist by his own pupils, and the three-dimensional copy of his fifth vertebra: the original was donated to the University in 1823 and is preserved here.
