Time-Themed Exhibition at Museo Poldi Pezzoli Explores Human Temporality

The Museo Poldi Pezzoli in Milan presents 'Il tempo in mostra', an exhibition examining humanity's relationship with time from antiquity to modernity. Curated across three sections—'La misura del Tempo e dello spazio', 'Le immagini del Tempo', and 'Nottetempo'—the show features around thirty works including clocks, sculptures, codices, and paintings. Highlights include a 15th-century monastic alarm clock, a medieval Astrario, and a series of rare 17th-century Italian night clocks invented by the Campani brothers for Pope Alexander VII Chigi, who suffered from insomnia. These clocks used a mercury escapement to avoid chiming, with dials painted by famous Baroque artists. The exhibition also presents Titian's 'Allegory of Prudence', a statue of Pope Alexander VII by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and a large projection night clock sculpture by Johannes-Jacobus Reyff. The show connects depictions of time across science, literature, and art, emphasizing how pendulum technology brought clocks into daily life and spurred philosophical reflection.