Curiosity

Giovanni Civardi Hall

The ‘Stanza Museale’, located on the ground floor of Palazzo Certosa Cantù, houses the works of art created and donated to the Municipality of Casteggio by Maestro Giovanni Civardi.

Biography

Giovanni Guglielmo Civardi was born in Milan on 22 July 1947. He graduated in Economics and later attended the Faculty of Medicine and the School of Nude at the Brera Academy, devoting himself to portraits and sculpture.
For over a decade he drew illustrations for newspapers, magazines and book covers. He organised solo exhibitions of sculpture and deepened his anatomical studies during frequent stays in France and Denmark.

For many years, he has been conducting anatomy and figure drawing courses, condensing his teaching experience into numerous books (published by the ‘Il Castello’ publishing house and reissued several times). From 2011 is the Lourdes Notebook, the most recent of his travel notes.

He currently lives and works in Milan, Casteggio and Nice, frequently participating in conferences on medico-legal and artistic subjects. Since 2014, some of his Notebooks of life drawings and the original drawings for many of his books are kept in the Historical Fund of the Brera Academy Library, Milan.

Since 2017, many illustrations and numerous study drawings have been kept at the Musei Civici di Milano (Achille Bertarelli Collection) in the Castello Sforzesco. Since 2022, part of his drawings, illustrations, clay sketches, sculptures, plaster casts and books have been donated to the Municipality of Casteggio and are kept in the Stanza Museale of Palazzo Certosa Cantù, home of the Archaeological Museum.