Tuesday, September 20, 2016

PALACE OF THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

PALAZZO DEL MINISTERO DEGLI ESTERI

Also known as La Farnesina from the name of the area that was property of the Farnese family
Begun in 1938 as Palazzo del Littorio (Palace of the Lictor, the officer bearing the fasces in ancient Rome) by Enrico Del Debbio (1891/1973), Arnaldo Foschini (1884/1968) and Vittorio Ballio Morpurgo (1890/1966)
Discontinued in 1943 due to the war and completed in 1956
“In a sense, it resumed the self-contradictions of Italian architecture towards the end of the thirties, when the stimuli and the openings to a renewal that had seemed possible in some cases, were in fact undermined and resized by the monumental involution of rhetorical and representative architecture desired by the fascist regime” (Enrico Valeriani - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)
In front of the palace FOUNTAIN by Enrico Del Debbio with “Big Sphere” 1968 by Arnaldo Pomodoro (1926)
PIAZZA DELLA FARNESINA (Farnesina Square) driveway opened in the years 1998/2002 by Umberto Riva (1928)
It is the largest palace in Rome with about 1,200 rooms on 120,000 square meters (29.6 acres) and 720,000 cubic meters (25.4 million cubic feet)
The cubic square footage is similar to that of the Royal Palace of Caserta and they share tied the record for the largest palace of Italy
Ceilings of the main rooms decorated with gilded stucco by the Hungarian Amerigo Tot (1909/84) and by Alberto Bevilacqua and with wood by Giorgio Quaroni (1907/60)
Since 2000, it houses a collection of Italian contemporary art with over 200 works including paintings, sculptures, mosaics and installations

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