QUIRINAL PALACE (ninth part)

COFFEE HOUSE

1741 Ferdinando Fuga (1699/1782)

Two paintings in the room on the mezzanine:

“S. Maria Maggiore” and “Piazza del Quirinale with Palazzo della Consulta” 1742 by Giovanni Paolo Pannini (1691/1765), a brilliant landscape artist

“It differs from the objective views of Van Wittel for a taste for the theatrical and decorative and for his seemingly casual handling of figurative materials, often arbitrarily combined; but his views nevertheless are widely lucky with foreign travelers: in fact, although they are often invented, they can anyway manage to make alive again the memory of the impact with the grandeur of that historic fabric, the tingle of life, the space and the light of the city” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)

Five paintings by Pompeo Batoni (1708/87) in the vault of the green room

Five works by Agostino Masucci (1691/1758) in the turquoise room

SCUDERIE DEL QUIRINALE

Quirinal Stables

Begun 1722 by Alessandro Specchi (1668/1729) for Innocent XIII Conti (1721/24) and finished in 1730 by Ferdinando Fuga (1699/1782) for Clement XII Corsini (1730/40)

Mutilation with removal of the semi-elliptical staircases by Fuga in 1866 by Virginio Vespignani (1808/82) for Pius IX Mastai-Ferretti (1846/78) to open Via della Dataria

The building was built on the spot where was the glorious Temple of Serapis used to stand. Some of the ancient structures are still visible

In 2000 it was redesigned by Gae Aulenti (1927/2012) as a museum for prestigious temporary exhibitions

CORSINI PALACE - CORSINI GALLERY (ninth part)

Room VIII - Room of paintings for canonizations

“The room houses a large group of paintings executed for the solemn ceremony of beatification and canonization which took place in 1737 in the Basilica of St. John Lateran under Pope Clement XII. This is a unique in Roman collectibles that demonstrates the willingness of Neri Maria Corsini to group paintings in a dedicated room for this specific function and celebrate the role of 'procurator fidei' he played during that ceremony” (Official Website of the Galleria Corsini - galleriacorsini.beniculturali.it)

At the center of the room “Fragment of red amber” that may have come from the Baltic Sea

“Ecstasy of S. Caterina de' Ricci” 1737 or 1746 by Agostino Masucci (1691/1758) who also painted “S. Andrea Corsini” 1733/34 copy of an original by Guido Reni which was also copied as a mosaic by Pietro Paul Cristofari in the Corsini Chapel in the Basilica of St. John Lateran

“The staging of the miraculous event highlights a compelling desire to historicize the sacred drama, ahead of French paintings of the second half of the century. (...) (In the S. Andrea Corsini) Masucci reached a high level of extraordinary mimetic virtuosity, but not giving up in his own interpretation of the seventeenth-century model in his absolute clarity of design and cool color tones” (Valerio Da Gai - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)

“Preaching of S. Vincenzo de' Paolis” 1737 by Giacomo Zoboli (1681/1767)

“Vision of S. Caterina Fieschi” by Marco Benefial 1737 (1684/1764)

“Everything is polished, thoughtful and tangible in the sacred appearance. The serious heaviness of Christ walking under the weight of the Cross, trampling his own blood, is opposed to the stylish sophistication of the dress of the woman, an antithesis that perfectly captures the node of the story (the conversion of the frivolous lady from Genoa) outside of any formal flattery, playing only with the obvious concreteness of things shown. A compositional rigor unique in Rome at the time” (Angela Negro)

“Death of S. Giuliana Falconieri” by Pier Leone Ghezzi (1674/1755)

Mosaic with “Portrait of Pope Clement XII Corsini and Cardinal Neri Maria Corsini” about 1731 by Pietro Paolo Cristofari (1685/1743) who in 1727 founded the institution known as Studio del mosaico al Vaticano (Vatican Mosaic Studio) still operating today

“The prototype of the mosaic also executed by Masucci is kept in the Corsiniana Library. With the easy comparison between the two works it is possible to admire the technical capacity of Cristofari, able to reproduce with great fidelity the model even in the colors” (Sivigliano Alloisi)

Some of the Works Kept in Storage

“Portrait of Bernardo Clesio” by Joos Van Cleve (about 1485/1540)

“Portrait of a Man” about 1540 by Pier Francesco Foschi (about 1502/67)

“Hunters” by the Dutch Philips Wouwerman (1619/68)

“St. John and Angels” and “Flight into Egypt” by Carlo Maratta (1625/1713)

“St. Agnes” by the Florentine Carlo Dolci (1616/86)

“Portrait of James III Stuart, pretender to the English throne” by the French François De Troy (1679/1752)

“St. Francis resurrects a dead man” by Andrea Sacchi (1599/1661)

“St. Joseph” by Guido Reni (1575/1642)

“Lamentation over the Dead Christ” by Sisto Badalocchio (1585/1645)

“Jupiter sends Mercury to Apollo” maybe by Francesco Albani (1578/1660)

“Nymphs and Satyrs” by Francesco Trevisani (1656/1746)

“Country” by Paolo Anesi (1697/1773)

BRASCHI PALACE - MUSEUM OF ROME (eighth part)

The Rospigliosi family

ROOM 4

Extraordinary “Model of the Chapel Pallavicini Rospigliosi in S. Francesco a Ripa church” about 1712 by Nicola Michetti (about 1675/1758)

“Portraits of child masked” (maybe Pietro Banchieri, son of the nephew of Clement IX Rospigliosi - 1667/69) about 1668 maybe by Pierre Ronche

ROOM 5

“Equestrian Portrait of Camillo Rospigliosi” 1737 by Agostino Masucci (1691/1758)

“The choice of the equestrian portrait, while recalling courtly models of the seventeenth century, from Rubens to Van Dyck, in the exact description of the gait of the horse, its harness and Camillo's special clothing, is a faithful document of the art of riding in this period” (Brief Guide to the Museum of Rome)

Various “Portraits of horses” by Johan Reder (1656/1764)

“View of Palazzo Rospigliosi on Quirinal Hill from the East side” 1755, “Celebrations in Maccarese in honor of St. George on May 1st 1756” about 1756 and “Turkish sailors shipwrecked seized in Maccarese” 1756 by the French Adrien Manglard (1695/1760)

Chinoiserie

ROOM 6

Decoration of the room and clothes influenced by eighteenth-century fashion and passion for Chinese décor

“Automatic Organ with cylinders” about 1820/30 by the Viennese Anton Beyer, an extraordinary grandfather of a jukebox