GALLERIA DEI CANDELABRI
Built in 1761 as an open loggia on both
sides and closed in the years 1785/88 by Michelangelo
Simonetti (1724/87) and Giuseppe Camporese
(1763/1822) for Pius VI Braschi (1775/99)
80 m (262 feet) long
It was decorated in the years 1883/87 for
Leo XIII Pecci (1878/1903) in the first three bays by the Roman Domenico Torti (XIX century)
and Annibale Angelini (1812/84) from
Perugia:
In
the middle of the vault of the second bay:
“Arts pays homage to Religion” with curious
inclusion of the allegory of Photography represented holding an old-fashioned
camera
In
the side areas:
In
the middle of the vault of the third bay:
The remaining bays were painted by the Roman Ludovico Seitz (1844/1908), son of the German Nazarene
painter Alexander Maximilian Seitz, who continued the work after the death of
Torti and Angelini
In
the middle of the vault of the fourth bay:
In the side areas:
The spectacular inlaid marble floor has been put together by Luigi Medici, his son Paolo Medici and Giuseppe Rinaldi under the direction of the architect Cav. Mannucci for Leo XIII using marbles found during
excavations at the ancient trading port of the Tiber River in Testaccio
The “Coat of arms of Pope Leo XIII” in the middle
of the gallery was made using precious lapis lazuli the cost of which in
ancient times was comparable to that of gold as the only known mines were those
of Sar-e-Sang in Badakhshan, a region of Afghanistan, also mentioned by Marco
Polo
The gallery takes its name from the pairs
of ancient marble candlesticks placed in the
arches
“In the history of collecting and evolution
of places for collections, the gallery reflects the shift from humanistic
introspection, well represented by the 'private space' of the studiolo (little
studio), to the late-Renaissance taste for exposure that results in the
creation of a 'public' and representative environment intended to mark a path
of self-celebration of the patron. In Italy the galleries were born in the
mid-sixteenth century and the first in the Vatican Apostolic Palace to be built
was that the one of the maps” (Andrea Pomella)
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