The Institutio Santoriana Fondazione Comel was designed and established by Italian dermatopathologist and physiologist Marcello Comel (1902-1995).
Having studied medicine at the Universities of Genova, Pisa and Turin, Comel was appointed Assistant Professor at the University of Milan in 1929, and rapidly gained a reputation at both national and international levels. He contributed with hundreds of publications to various areas of research (including dermatology, eudermy, medical hydrology, and ecology).
Comel’s pioneering expertise in the field of medical humanities was mirrored by his extensive library, and by the constitution of the Institutum Santorianum de Humanitate Medica in 1943. A versatile writer and an advocate of the studia humanitatis, Comel nurtured a collecting interest for the fine arts. His dream of an Athenaeum devoted to the arts and letters, which remained on paper at the time of his death in 1995, fuelled the foundation of our institution.
Artworks from Comel’s collection will be presented for the first time at the forthcoming exhibition Legacies and Visions. From Comel to Karshan. Masterpieces shortlisted for this momentous event include a portrait by Gerolamo Induno, arresting landscapes by Moses Levy, Giovanni Lomi and Artuso Tosi, works on paper by Telemaco Signorini, Mario Sironi, Filippo de Pisis and Renato Guttuso, and an array of works by Comel’s protégée Carlo Sbisà.
