Beyond the monumental staircase that accompanies visitors through the entrance to the Teatro Grande, we reach the Sala delle Statue, a room completed in 1862 after numerous alterations, used as the antechamber to the spaces of the Theatre.

The current appearance of the Sala, enclosed between huge early 19th-century glazed windows and doors, consists of a peristyle with smooth stuccoed columns and Ionic capitals and four corner pillars supporting an architrave system with balustrade surmounted by 16 plaster statues and chalked canvas by Giuseppe Luzziardi. The restoration campaign undertaken in 2022 brought to light the ancient eighteenth-century decoration covering the vault of this first room of the building, which has become visible more than 150 years after its covering.

Two bronze busts are placed in the room: on the right Gerolamo Rovetta, Brescian playwright and novelist; on the left Giuseppe Verdi. Much more recent is the placement of the third bronze bust, depicting Brescian Maestro and pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, on June 12, 2002, on the seventh anniversary of the artist’s death. The sculpture is the work of master Gian Pietro Moretti.