PROPAGANDA FIDE PALACE - MISSIONARY MUSEUM OF PROPAGANDA FIDE (second part)

Museo Missionario di Propaganda Fide

It opened in December 2010 by the will of the new prefect, Cardinal Ivan Dias

Multimedia temporary exhibit space on the missionary activities of the Catholic Church and rooms with an interesting collection of paintings owned by the congregation

The interiors were largely designed by Francesco Borromini, with beautiful decorative solutions

Among the works:

“Pentecost” by Corrado Giaquinto (1703/66)

“Flood” by Salvator Rosa (1615/73)

“Romulus and Remus” by Marco Tullio Montagna (1594/1649)

“Massacre of the Innocents” maybe by Marco Benefial (1684/1764)

“In 1750, Count Nicola Soderini had assured his protection to the painter: this allowed Benefial to paint quietly during the last period of his life, drinking again and again at the inexhaustible source of the Bolognese seventeenth century art, impetuous and raw in tragedy as in the Massacre of the Innocents now in the Palace of Propaganda Fide, idyllic and almost frivolous in the mythological scenes now in Palazzo Corsini, but always aiming to search for historical truth, in a clarification of the detail, never giving in to decorative frills, and proceeding alone on the scene of contemporary painting. He died in April 1764, without pupils of merit and, if not forgotten, certainly underestimated until today” (Evelina Borea - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)

“Annunciation” maybe by the Flemish Denijs Calvaert (1540/1619)

“St. George” maybe by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri aka Guercino (1591/1666)

“Portrait of Ezzelino Romano” by Antonio Canova (1757/1822) who made this portrait as a joke trying to make it look as a sixteenth century painting

Some “Landscapes” by Jan Frans Van Bloemen aka Orizzonte (1662/1749)

BORGIA ROOM

Some objects and paintings from the collection of Cardinal Stefano Borgia (1731/04) from Velletri distantly related to the infamous Spanish family

It was an extraordinary collection of antiques of all kinds and origins disparate now dispersed between the Vatican Museums, the Vatican Library, the Museum and the Museum Luigi Pigorini Capodimonte in Naples

BARBERINI LIBRARY

Monumental shelving of the eighteenth century and seventeenth-century ceiling in wooden beams with bees of the Barberini family. The anteroom by Francesco Borromini is spectacular in its simplicity

NEWMAN CHAPEL

Refined room by Francesco Borromini with questionable small later adjustments. Dedicated to the English Cardinal John Henry Newman who was declared blessed in 2010

CORSINI PALACE - CORSINI GALLERY (third part)

Room II - First Gallery

“Known in the eighteenth century as 'Second Antechamber', the First Gallery was added, along with the Antechamber, to the apartment of Neri Maria Corsini during the extension work carried out in the years 1750/53 by the architect Ferdinando Fuga” (Official Website the Corsini Gallery - galleriacorsini.beniculturali.it)

The decorations of the room 1736/38 are by Ginesio del Barba (1691/1762)

Small bronze statues “Baptism of Jesus” and “Fauns on a goat with parrots” by Alessandro Algardi (1598/1654) and “Lion Biting a Bull” copy by Antonio Susini (1580/1624) from an ancient original statue

Impressive and visually disturbing “Agony of Prometheus Bound to the Rocks”, “Marina with lighthouse” and six other paintings by Salvator Rosa (1615/73)

“A man of brilliant talents but eternal rebel, ruthless in his criticism of society, obsessed with a pre-Romantic egotistical concept of genius, he used to take offense when praised as a painter of landscapes, seascapes and battles. But it is on the successes in this field more than on the large historical compositions that his posthumous fame is resting. The 1700s saw in the landscapes of Salvator Rosa and Claude Lorrain, the quintessence of the contrast between the sublime and the beautiful. In the words of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Claude leads us to the tranquility of the scenes of Arcadia and fairyland, while the style of Rosa has the power to inspire feelings of grandeur and sublimity” (Rudolf Wittkower)

“Landscape with St. John the Baptist” and “Landscape with Horse Riders” XVII century, by an unknown Dutch painter

“Pietà (Mercy)” by Francesco Cozza (1605/82)

“Cozza, a figure painter, favors narrative moments, by subordinating the landscape to the arrangement of characters, expressing consequently a very individual style in the landscape painting of the seventeenth century” (Ludovica Trezzani)

“Hare” by Hans Hoffman (d. 1592)

“Jacob's Ladder” by Donato Creti (1671/1749)

“Together with the senior Marco Antonio Franceschini, Creti was the last significant exponent of the doctrine of classical-idealism in Bolognese painting. He was deeply engaged in what we might call the metaphysics of ideal form, i.e. the search for the perfect shape in nature. For him the important thing was to make the invention of the individual figure and outline its concept perfectly. He was clearly a fanatical perfectionist” (David Miller - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)

“Finding of Moses” by Luigi Garzi (1638/1721) a pupil of Andrea Sacchi later influenced by Carlo Maratta

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

“Wouwerman's oeuvre consists mainly of small cabinet pieces with horses, such as battle and hunting scenes, army camps, smithies and interiors of stables. He also painted sensitively executed silvery-grey landscapes, genre pieces and a few original representations of religious and mythological scenes. Wouwerman was also exceptionally prolific. Although he only lived to the age of 48, more than a thousand paintings bear his name. Even when one bears in mind that a number of these paintings should actually be attributed to his brothers Pieter and Jan, Philips left an extraordinarily large oeuvre” (from the web site www.wouwerman.org)

“Tamar and Judah” by Giovanni Lanfranco (1582/1647)

“Architectonical Perspective” by Viviano Codazzi (1604/70)

“Adoration of the Shepherds” and “Adoration of the Magi” by Jan Miel (1599/1664)

“Shepherds and Flock by Some Ruins” by the Dutch Cornelis Van Poelenburgh (about 1586/1667)

“Cornelis van Poelenburgh was a founder of Dutch Italianate landscape painting. He studied under the Utrecht Mannerist Abraham Bloemaert, but his years in Rome, from 1617 to 1625, were more decisive for his development. An early member of the schildersbent, the club for Rome's Netherlandish painters, he was nicknamed “Satyr.” In Rome, a friend noted that Poelenburgh “exerted himself to the utmost to paint his figures in the manner of Raphael.” Poelenburgh also copied German artist Adam Elsheimer's Italianate landscapes, which were usually painted on copper. (…) After returning from Italy, he became one of Utrecht's leading artists, honored as Peter Paul Rubens's guide during his 1627 visit to the city. At the king's invitation, Poelenburgh worked in England from 1638 to 1641. (…) Poelenburgh painted some history paintings, but his fame rests on the enamel-smooth landscapes, often depicting romantic ruins and statuary fragments, that he created after 1620. He was among the first artists to render Italian sunlight and atmosphere convincingly. His highly detailed figures were so admired that he was hired to paint them in other artists' works” (The J. Paul Getty Museum Web Site – www.getty.edu)

“Holy Family with S. Anna” by Pietro de’ Pietri (1655/1716)

“Holy Family” by Simone Cantarini (1612/48)

“Triumph of Ovid” by Nicolas Poussin (1594/1665)

“History was for Poussin of the highest value, the ideal to which he gave vision. He faced historical, biblical and mythological subjects, from which his spiritual inclinations, which led to the denial of the purposes of the most striking Baroque style, appear abundantly clear” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)

“Head of agonizing man” by an unknown artist probably a pupil of Guercino

“Winter Landscape” and “Landscape with Pond” by the Flemish artist Lucas Van Uden (1595/1672-73)

“Portrait of Pope Urban VIII Barberini (1623/44)” about 1636 by Guidobaldo Abbatini (1600/56)

“He can combine with remarkable balance, the 'friendliness' of Matteo, highlighted by a colorist opulence influenced by Pietro da Cortona, but still supported by considerable technical qualities, with the description of a physical decline that shines through, without drama, backlit. There is no doubt on Abbatini's ability, as evidenced by how he can detect the golden embroidery stole, or how casually he describes the lace and the folds of the clothes and he is able to forge with a few touches, the heavy tissue that garnish the seat of the chair. Surely these were the qualities that Bernini appreciated in the Umbrian painter and that led him often to use his cooperation” (Sivigliano Alloisi)

“The departure of Jacob” by Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione aka Grechetto (about 1611/65)

“Battle”, “Blindman’s Buff”, “The watering hole” and “St. John the Baptist Preaching” by the so-called bambocciante Michelangelo Cerquozzi (1602/60)

“Portrait of a Man” by Federico Fiori aka Barocci (1535/1612)

“For a long time this painting was considered a self-portrait also by contemporary historiography, until Olsen has expressed doubts about its authenticity. Indeed, both inventory information and comparisons with the identified self-portraits of the painter don't help to clarify the issue. (...) The beautiful head alive and alert is in front of us with no conventionalities, with an immediacy that goes beyond the conventional pose. It is framed by a white collar, soft and smooth, which helps to give life to the face free and gentle of the character. Even in the portrait, Barocci anticipates the demands of the truth of many artists of the seventeenth century” (Sivigliano Alloisi)

“Winter Landscape” and “Woodland Landscape” by the Flemish Franz de Momper (1595/1673)

Spectacular “Denial of St. Peter” by the so called Master of the Judgment of Solomon (XVII century) or maybe by Jusepe de Ribera aka Spagnoletto (1591/1652)

“Hunt of Wild Beasts” XVII century, copy from an original by Rubens

“Bivouac of soldiers in a cave” and “Breakfast outside” by the Flemish Anton Goubau (1616/98)

“Landscape with peasants” and “Landscape with figures” by the Roman Andrea Locatelli (1693/1741)

“Sposalizio mistico di S. Caterina” di Carlo Maratta (1625/1713)

“Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine with Baby Jesus at the Presence of St. Anthony of Padua” by Ippolito Scarsella aka Scarsellino (1551/1620)

“St. Peter weeping” by Francesco Solimena (1657/1747)

“The ransom” by the Flemish Christoffel Jacobsz Van Der Lamen (about 1606/about 1652)

BARBERINI PALACE - NATIONAL ART GALLERY (twenty-first part)

Oval Room
Designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598/1680)

Prime example of a room designed for civilian use with elliptical transversal plan

In the four niches ancient sculptures “Palémon”, “Igeia”, “Hour” and “Athlete”

The busts in the upper part are of uncertain identification

“This room is peculiar expression of the climate of Neoplatonic speculation to which Cardinal Francesco Barberini adhered. He organized in this very hall meetings with distinguished scholars. From here, guests, exiting through the large doorway on the opposite side to the Hall of Pietro da Cortona, could enjoy the beauty of the private gardens” (Official website of the Barberini Gallery - www.galleriabarberini.beniculturali.it)

SECOND FLOOR

Room XXV - Painters in Naples from Ribera to Luca Giordano

“St. James” by Jusepe de Ribera aka Spagnoletto (1591/1652)

“Portrait of his wife Lucretia” about 1657, “Poetry” and “Music” by Salvator Rosa (1615/73)

“Having abandoned the sense of clarity and balanced tone of the first works, he later invented the genre of the fantastic view: landscapes with ruins with dark scenes of magic or alchemy. Inspired from iconographic and stylistic experiences of the Flemish and the Germans, the artist proposes unconventional subjects, polemic against the official culture and painting and expresses a taste of horror that alludes to a world in crisis” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)

“Pietà” by Massimo Stanzione (1585/1656)

“His Caravaggio influence is more allied to that of Simon Vouet, Carlo Saraceni and Artemisia Gentileschi than that of G.B. Caracciolo and Ribera. In his best works that belong to the decade 1635/45, he exhibits a sharp sense for the refined chromatic values, melodic lines, figures built with grace as well as gentle and lyrical expressions. Stanzione became known as the Neapolitan Guido Reni” (Rudolf Wittkower)

“St. Peter and the centurion Cornelius” about 1647 and “Departure of Tobias” by Bernardo Cavallino (1616/about 1656)

“A pupil of Massimo Stanzione strongly influenced by Caravaggio and Artemisia Gentileschi, Cavallino made his best paintings in small format. His work is in a class by itself; great colorist, his tenderness, elegance, grace and finesse are unparalleled at this time” (Rudolf Wittkower)

“Aeneas and Anchises” about 1635, “The Dinner of the Rich Glutton” and “Resurrection of Lazarus” about 1655 by Mattia Preti (1613/99)

“With Enea and Anchises Preti shows to have gone beyond subjects suggested by the 'Manfredi methodus' i.e. interior scenes with players and musicians, where the Caravaggio matrix is evident (...) and chose a historical dimension of broad influence influenced by Poussin and by Vouet (Vodret 1999). The emergence of the group in diagonal from the shadows into the light (...) is as a powerful dramatic effect, stressing the ultimate meaning of history: the escape from a world in ruins towards a new destiny of salvation and glory” (Angela Negro)

“St. Onuphrius” by G.B. Caracciolo aka Battistello (1570/1637)

“He learned first the lesson of Caravaggio and initiated a renewal of the local language that gave birth to a new figurative school. He enriched his draughtsmanship culture of research in the use of light offering a personal capacity of reading Caravaggio's experience. If for Caravaggio light was the main component of the things themselves, for Battistello is a formal means to give vision to clear and statuesque forms” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)

“Hermit follower of S. Bruno” by Aniello Falcone (1607/56)

“Allegory of Time (Chronos and Love)” and “Saul and the witch Endor” by Johann Heinrich Schoenfeld (1609/83)

“The Philosopher Crates” about 1559, “Self Portrait” and “Foreman” by Luca Giordano (1634/1705)

ALTIERI PALACE

PALAZZO ALTIERI

Piazza del Gesù 49

1650/55 masterpiece by Giovanni Antonio De Rossi (1616/95) with Mattia De Rossi (1637/95) for Cardinal G.B. Altieri

With the election of Emilio Altieri as Pope Clement X (1670/76) widening and completion by De Rossi with the purchase of adjacent houses, except that of a lady known as “Mrs. Bertha” who refused to sell her house to the pope and ended up having it surrounded and incorporated in the palace

Renewed later by Alessandro Speroni, Clemente Orlandi (1694/1775) and, in the years 1787/94, by Giuseppe Barberi (1746/1809) for the Paluzzi Albertoni family

“The rooms were architecturally and decoratively executed from projects and under the direction of Barberi, who tempered the eighteenth century style with a wonderful pre-neoclassical taste. For exquisite elegance, proportions, color harmony and refinement we do not know in Rome any example of a higher quality of interior architecture in the second half of the eighteenth century. The work (...) gives the idea of the balance, great inventive and artistic capability of Barberi, who, succeeded as architect of the Altieri to Clemente Orlandi, began work as early as February 1787, directing operations for seven years” (Andrea Busiri Vici - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)

It is currently a building occupied in part by the Italian Banking Association ABI, and by other two banks FINNAT and Banca Popolare di Novara, in part by private owners including descendents of the Altieri, whose direct line became extinct in 1955

Here lived the writer Carlo Levi

The actress Anna Magnani lived in the attic for 20 years and died there in 1974

STAIRCASE

Statue of “Barbarian prisoner” found at the Theatre of Pompey

ANTECHAMBER OF THE HALL

In the vault spectacular “Apotheosis of Romulus” 1676 by Domenico Maria Canuti (1626/84) in a quadrature by Enrico Haffner (1640/1702)

HALL OF THE HEARINGS OR OF THE CLEMENCY

In the vault “Triumph of Mercy” or sacred and Christian Rome accompanied by Peace and Virtue crowned by Honour during the reign of Clement X 1674/77 by Carlo Maratta (1625/1713)

“Maratta wished to restore the autonomous nature of the painted surface: once more the painting is framed in a clear and simple way. He also wanted to restore the autonomy of the individual figure. He returned to the classic principle of composing with a few figures and with an evenly lit palette that invites you to focus attention on the figure designed plastically, on its attitude and gestures. He almost abandons upside down perspectives, but, characteristic fact, he doesn't rediscover either the austere classicism of the set out framework of early Baroque. Moreover, his figures are themselves more baroque and less Raphael-like than he liked to believe. Maratta had gone quite forward towards the reconciliation of two opposing tendencies, the baroque and classical. He followed a nice middle ground” (Rudolf Wittkower)

APARTMENTS

Vaults and lunettes painted by Salvator Rosa (1615/73), Felice Giani (1758/1823), Cristoforo Unterberger (1732/98) and Francesco Cozza (1605/82)

ROOM OF THE MOSAIC

Cabinet in the apartment of Prince Paluzzo Altieri

In the vault painting “Apotheosis of Romulus” by Stefano Tofanelli (1752/1812)

Above the doors “Scene of the Rape of the Sabines” of four important painters of the second half of 1700s: Giuseppe Cades (1750/99), Francesco Manno (1752/1831), Anton von Maron (1733/1808) and Antonio Cavallucci (1752/95)

On the floor “Mosaic of Mars and Rhea Silvia” found in Ostia Antica in 1783

HALL OF MIRRORS

In the vault “Chariot of the Sun” 1675 by Fabrizio Chiari (about 1615/95) and paintings by Giuseppe Cades and Salvator Rosa

“Landscapes” 1794/95 by Giuseppe Barberi (1746/1809) and Francesco Di Capua

LIBRARY

Now it is the Altieri family archive

“Bust of Pope Clement X” by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598/1680) with spectacular curtain stucco supported by angels in flight by Giacomo Filippo Schor son of Giovanni Paolo Schor