1644/50 Girolamo Rainaldi (1570/1655) for Innocent X Pamphilj
(1644/55) over pre-existing buildings
Later it
became the home of Innocent X's sister-in-law, Olimpia Maidalchini, very
influential on the pope. She was a woman extremely resourceful and iron-willed
and many believed she was the mistress of the pope
“The role of
Olimpia Maidalchini in these building operations (...) is not yet completely
clear. Certainly, both the pope and Olimpia Maidalchini delegated the
supervision of many of the most important operations to the Oratorian Father
Virgilio Spada, a man of considerable artistic culture. There is, however,
evidence that, in some cases, Olimpia intervened directly in the design of the
works, as in the case of the great hall of the palace in Piazza Navona, for
which the painter Andrea Camassei, an artist protected by her, executed a
series of frescoes directly inspired by the client” (Stefano Tabacchi -
Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani)
Since 1960
it is owned by the Brazilian State with the Embassy of Brazil and the Italo-Brazilian
Cultural Center
Around three
courtyards there are TWENTY-THREE ROOMS including many richly frescoed by great
masters of the seventeenth century:
ROOMS OF
JOSEPH JEW, MOSES AND ROMAN HISTORY Giacinto Gimignani
(1606/81) and students
MARINE ROOM
Agostino Tassi (1578/1644)
ROOM OF BACCHUS
Andrea Camassei (1602/49)
HALL OF THE
COUNTRYSIDE Gaspard Dughet (1615/75)
HALL OF
OVID Giacinto Brandi (1621/91)
Architecture
of Francesco Borromini (1599/1667) who had
joined Girolamo Rainaldi in the years 1645/50
“In the two
heads of the gallery above the serliane decorations he used again the dolphin-shaped
motive of the canopy of St. Peter’s Basilica. Twenty years later still it
bothered him having given Bernini this sign so personal and so full of meanings,
organic symbol of vitality transmigrated in the material, usually inert, of architecture”
(Paolo Portoghesi)
Frescoes “Stories of Aeneas:
life and apotheosis”, in the short sides “Aeneas and Pallas” and “Aeneas into hell” 1651/54 Pietro Berrettini aka Pietro da Cortona (1597/1669)
It was a
tangible sign of friendship between the two great masters and Pietro da Cortona
was a congenial interpreter of the “human scale” Borromini's gallery with
perfect compatibility
“Here
Cortona drew a rich monochrome system, creating a wavelike structure for the
main scenes. Works of infinite charm, here the problem of changing points of
view has been resolved with incomparable mastery. His palette has become more
transparent and bright that in the last ceilings of Palazzo Pitti, revealing
the study of antiquity, Raphael and Veronese. Delicate blues prevail, as well
as pale pinks, purple and yellow prelude to the tonal values used by Luca Giordano
and during all the eighteenth century” (Rudolf Wittkower)
