In the unique and suggestive atmosphere of the new cafeteria inside the Pinacoteca di Brera, opened on October 1st, Pedrali furnishings enhance the refinement of the room without interfering with the artworks. On the first floor, Caffè Fernanda is part of the museum itinerary with its new setting realized by the director James Bradburne. The interior design project, by the Milanese studio rgastudio, is focused on both chromatic and material coherence thanks to the gallery’s new layout, and on a reinterpretation of the 1950s architecture of the location.The intense peacock blue colour chosen for the walls accentuates the great artworks exhibited in the Cafè: Pietro Damini’s St. Bernard Converting the Duke of Aquitania, Bertel Thorvaldsen’s The Three Graces, the bust of Fernanda Wittgens by Marino Marini and her portrait by Attilio Rossi. The wonderful peach-blossom marble floors and the Lepanto-red frames, prominent features of Piero Portaluppi’s previous design, have been recovered and restored. Below Damini’s seventeenth-century painting stands the large, round-edged bar, which recalls the furniture of the fifties in ribbed wood, albeit with inverted proportions, made of large semi-circular strips of Canaletto wood and with a thin, antique brass top with rounded ends.One wall of the cafeteria is completely furnished with Modus modular seating combined with the elegance of Jazz armchairs, with powder pink simil leather upholstery and steel frame antique brass finish, the same chosen for Inox tables with walnut top. In the middle of the room Nym armchairs, with the solid ash wood backrest that designs an uninterrupted arch, and Nemea chairs and armchairs, which combine the ash-wood with a die-cast aluminum frame, welcome guests who can relax sipping a drink while admiring Francesco Hayez’s famous Kiss, located in the final room of the galley.The cafeteria also has an outdoor area, overlooking the courtyard, protected by the porch: here the Nolita chairs and tables, entirely made of steel to ensure maximum solidity and durability, allow the visitor to experience moments of conviviality in the open air.Caffè Fernanda pays tribute with its name to the gallery’s visionary director Fernanda Wittgens, the first woman to run a national museum in Italy and thanks to whom the Pinacoteca reopened in 1950, after the terrible bombings of 1943.
