SCIARRA PALACE

PALAZZO SCIARRA

Via del Corso 239

Reconstruction as a palace of the homes of the Colonna family, of which the Sciarra constitute a branch

The palace was called Palazzo Sciarra in honor of Sciarra Colonna, who gave the famous “slap” of Anagni in 1303 to Pope Boniface VIII (1294/1303)

Reconstruction began after 1550, continued in 1610 maybe with Flaminio Ponzio (1560/1613) and ended in about 1641 with Orazio Torriani (about 1601/about 1657)

Library 1745 by Luigi Vanvitelli (1700/73) who restored also other rooms for Cardinal Prospero Colonna

Restoration in the years 1875/82 by Francesco Settimj (active 1875/88) and 1882/95 by Giulio De Angelis (1850/1906) who also built in the block of the building the Teatro Quirino (it had originally built in wood in 1871) the first theater of united Italy and the Galleria Sciarra

Giulio De Angelis reduced considerably the size of the building with the opening of Via Minghetti and the construction of theater and gallery

Beautiful PORTAL 1641 by Orazio Torriani which, according to popular tradition, was carved from a single huge block of marble

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it was considered one of the four wonders of the city with Palazzo Farnese, Palazzo Borghese and the Caetani Staircase in Palazzo Ruspoli

In 2010 the work of restoration of the interior finished. It was sponsored by the FONDAZIONE ROMA (Rome Foundation), which has its headquarters in the building and made it home to temporary exhibitions with the nearby Palazzo della Cassa di Risparmio di Roma also called Palazzo Cipolla

The Rome Foundation has a permanent art collection in the palace with many important works ranging from the fifteenth century to present day. Most of the works have a close connection, for the subject or for the artists responsible for them, with the city of Rome, the focus of the activity of the foundation

Among the masterpieces:

 Tempera on wood “Imago Pietatis” about 1480/82 maybe by Piermatteo Lauro Manfredo aka Piermatteo d'Amelia (1446-48/about 1506)

“The attribution to the painter from Amelia is supported by iconographic and stylistic comparison with works of different nature, but of the same subject, in Orvieto and Terni. (...) This Christ shows, in the exquisitely linearity that pervades it, the close relationship with Florentine culture, to which refers indirectly also the clear luminosity similar to the one of Piero Della Francesca and the strong geometric presence of the uncovered tomb, which is the only spacial element of the work. (...) The strong plastic emphasis seems to prove the progressive approach of the artist towards Antoniazzo Romano, with whom he worked closely in the second half of the eighties in Rome” (Laura Auciello)

Oil on board “Pieta” by Marcello Venusti (about 1512/79)

Oil painting “Madonna reading and Child with Sts. Elizabeth and John the Baptist” by Francesco de' Rossi aka Francesco Salviati (1510/63)

Oil on canvas “Moses frees the daughters of Jethro” by Ciro Ferri (1634/89)

Oil on wood “Madonna and Child enthroned with the Archangels Michael and Raphael” by Angelo Caroselli (1585/1652)

“The oldest sources document in the biography of the artist, his outstanding erotic inclinations: “He was very dedicated... to love... He painted with great assiduity, and delight, when surrounded by vague maidens was flattered by some sweet sight...” (Passeri) (...) It is interesting to examine his overwhelming production (...) of works for private buyers, partly still on the antiquities market, painted in fifty years of activity. They attest to a plurality of interests and to an eclectic background that would associate Caroselli to the naturalists of the third decade (Valentin, Régnier, Paolini), or to Venetian models, or even to the formal paradigms of the painters from Bologna (Annibale Carracci, Domenichino). An explicit archaic will determines in some of his most beautiful works (Madonna enthroned with the Archangels Michael and Raphael) an impressive neo-Renaissance scheme (the references are to Piero Della Francesca, Bronzino, Allori, to the sixteenth century Venetian painters), as a conscious attitude of rejection and failure against the triumphant baroque absolutism” (Anna Ottani Cavina - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)

Oil on canvas “Achilles meets Teti near the Centaur Chiron” by Bernardino Cesari (1571/1622) brother of the Cavalier d'Arpino

Oil on canvas “Landscape with Roman ruins” by the Flemish Willem Van Nieulandt II (1584/1635)

Oil on canvas “Landscape with idealized view of Rome” by the Flemish who settled in Rome Jan Frans van Bloemen aka Orizzonte (1662/1749)

Two oils on canvas “View of St. Peter's Square” and “View of Monte Cavallo” by Giovanni Paolo Pannini (1691/1765)

Oil on canvas “Portrait of Giacinta Orsini Boncompagni Ludovisi” by the great Pompeo Batoni (1708/87)

Oil on canvas “Start of the race of Berbers in Piazza del Popolo” by the English Thomas Jones Barker (1813/82)

There are also works of the twentieth century:

“Cabins in the Pontine Marshes” by Onorato Carlandi (1848/1939)

“Pollarole (Fight of commoners)” by Alberto Ziveri (1908/90)

“Training in Parioli” by Ferruccio Ferrazzi (1891/1978)

“Hunting the Tiger I” and “Hunting the Tiger II” by Marino Mazzacurati (1907/69)

“Lungotevere Ripetta” and “S. Giorgio in Velabro” by Francesco Trombadori (1886/1961)

Bronze sculpture “Twentieth Century” by Arnaldo Pomodoro (1926)

“Allstars” by Mario Schifano (1934/98)

“The room unvoiced” by Emilio Tadini (1927/2002)

“Mirror” by Enrico Baj (1924/2003)

“Michelangelo” Tano Festa (1938/88)

VATICAN MUSEUMS - SISTINE CHAPEL (fifth part)

Ceiling
 

Between May 1508 and November 1, 1512, with one break of 11 months, Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475/1564) was commissioned by Julius II Della Rovere (1503/13) to repaint the ceiling depicting gold stars on a blue sky by Piermatteo Lauro di Manfredo aka Piermatteo d'Amelia (1446-48/about 1506)

800 m² (8611 square feet) including lunettes and pendentives.

In the FOURTEEN LUNETTES (originally sixteen) and in the EIGHT PENDENTIVES above the lunettes on the long sides “Ancestors of Christ”

There were forty ancestors, according to the listing of the Gospel of Matthew, and the figures are ninety-one of which only twenty-eight adults, so twelve out of thirty-six children must be ancestors

CORNER PENDENTIVES

“Four miraculous episodes of the salvation of Israel”

The two on the altar wall were painted first:

“Judith cutting off the head of Holofernes” with self-portrait of Michelangelo as Holofernes

“David and Goliath”

“The abnormal form of the pendentives and their concave surface demanded Michelangelo to give his best talent. In Judith and Holofernes, for example, the wall separating Judith and her maid from the room where Holofernes, lies naked beheaded on the bed, leans sideways into the pictorial space. The direction of the wall, therefore, is opposed to the concave curvature of the pendentive” (Frank Zöllner)

On the entrance wall:

“The Punishment of Amam for wanting to exterminate the Jewish people”

In the Bible Amam dies hanged, but Michelangelo was inspired by Dante who in his Purgatory describes Amam as crucified

“The Brazen Serpent”

The Brazen Serpent represents the liberation of the people of Israel and salvation obtained through the sacrifice of Christ

“In the Punishment of Amman Michelangelo pushes to the far end the bold painterly artifice of foreshortening, and it is possible to trace the cause of this choice in the genesis of the assignment itself. As reported by Piero Rosselli in a letter of 1506, Bramante had expressed to the Pope his doubts about the ability of Michelangelo to paint figures of large size and foreshortened. So Michelangelo gave the rebuttal in the pendentives” (Frank Zöllner)

GIANT FIGURES SITTING AT THE SIDES OF THE VAULT, alternating:

“Seven prophets”: Jonah, Zechariah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Isaiah and Joel

“Five sibyls”: Libyan, Persian, Cumana, Erythraean and Delphic

They are those who foretold the birth of Christ, each accompanied by two children who maybe represent allegorically, with the main figure memory, intellect and will

According to Heinrich W. Pfeiffer the different colors would represent different qualities and capabilities

“In his selection, the artist depict merely the major prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel, for their higher hierarchical level. The criterion of choice of the three other minor prophets, Joel, Zechariah and Jonah remains controversial. ( ...) It is possible however to provide a full explanation for the choice of the Sibyls. The Divinae Istitutiones by Lattanzio had handed down the names of ten ancient seers, and Michelangelo painted those mentioned first in the edition of the fifteenth century” (Frank Zöllner)

“It still gets credit the opinion, spread by Michelangelo himself, according to which the original program would have included paintings of the Twelve Apostles. (...) However, in this case, the Apostle depicted above Christ on the wall behind the altar, would have been in an untimely opposition, both from an aesthetic point of view and in symbolic terms (...). Jonah as a prophet, belongs to another era, occupies a different position in the history of Salvation, embodying also a reference to the Resurrection of Christ. (...) This was probably the real reason why the considered project of the Apostles, was quickly abandoned. (...) This idea could have been conceived only by competent theologians, responsible for developing the program and not by the artist himself” (Heinrich W. Pfeiffer)

VATICAN MUSEUMS - PIUS CLEMENTINUS MUSEUM - Gallery of the Busts

Galleria dei Busti

 

Made under Clement XIV Ganganelli (1769/74) by combining four rooms of the Palace of Innocent VIII Cybo (1484/92) with arches on columns

ROOM I

In the vault panels with “Figures and two peacocks” maybe by Piermatteo Lauro di Manfredo aka Piermatteo d'Amelia (1446-48/about 1506) the author of the blue sky with stars on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, covered by Michelangelo's masterpiece

From the right up “Caracalla” about 212

“It expresses all the pathos and drama of the new absolutist conception of power, to which is no stranger the way of representation of the Hellenistic dynasties, notably that of Alexander the Great. Designed for this purpose are the twisting of the head and the strong tendency of expression. (...) We are seeing a shift away from equilibrium and expression of austerity, that the classical language gave to the face of the sovereign, replaced by a desire for immediate and instinctive expression of energy, almost transcendent” (Simona Fortunella/Gianluca Grassigli - TMG)

“Young Octavian” end of first century BC maybe from Ostia, the only existing portrait of young Octavian later to become Augustus

The identification however is not certain and some scholars identify it as a portrait of one of the two grandchildren and adopted sons of Augustus, Gaius Caesar and Lucius

They were sons of Augustus' daughter Julia, later disowned, and Agrippa

This portrait had a huge success which is testified by the large amount of modern copies produced particularly in the nineteenth century

“Julius Caesar” about 25 BC one of the most beautiful portraits of Caesar, very realistic with wrinkles and sunken cheeks

Despite the veracity of the work, adhering to the stylistic features of Roman art, it remains nevertheless a clear idealized expression, following the common Greek style appropriate to the regime's propaganda

“The model for the creation of this portrait, repeats some of the known patterns in the representation of the Hellenistic rulers: very similar, for example, is the portrait of Antiochus III of Syria, called the Great (late third century BC). The portrait of Caesar is associated with the so-called type II of the portraits of Caesar, also called, on the basis of this and another example in Pisa, “Chiaramonti-Pisa Cemetery type”. This model - which has both realistic tones and a clear idealization - seems to be a replica of a posthumous portrait of the dictator, a “piece of art propaganda” presumably created in the early years of the principate of Augustus” (Giandomenico Spinola)

ROOM II

Vault as in Room I

“Saturn” from original of the end of the fifth or early fourth century BC

“Head of a Warrior” school of Pergamum, from a votive offering of King Attalus

“Menelaus” from the group of Menelaus supporting the body of Patroclus, maybe similar to the famous Pasquino

In the middle of the room “Rectangular base with neo-Attic reliefs” with the visit of Dionysus to Icarius, Eros and Thanatos burning one soul (in the form of a butterfly) and country scenes with Hercules and a goddess

ROOM III

Ceiling “Allegories of the Four Seasons” by Cristoforo Unterberger (1732/98)

In the niche seated statue of “Zeus aka Verospi” end of the third century or early fourth century AD. It is called Verospi because it used to be kept in the Verospi Palace

It is a copy of the cult statue of Capitoline Jupiter and it was found near the Basilica of St. Agnes Outside the Walls

The statue of Jupiter Capitolinus was chryselephantine (made of gold and ivory) and it was destroyed by fire in 85 BC. The next statue had the same fate as it went up in flames in 69 AD

“Celestial globe with zodiac and stars”

SMALL ROOM IV

“Mask of Jupiter Ammon” from the original of the early fourth century BC

“Woman praying aka Mercy” maybe Augustus' wife Livia

“Head of Juno” from an original of the fifth century BC

In the lunette over the passage “Fresco with singers” of the 1400s