Begun in
1485 and finished between 1511 and 1513 (about 27 years) for Cardinal Raffaele
Riario, nephew of Sixtus IV Della Rovere (1471/84)
In 1483 Cardinal
Riario had become the titular cardinal of the church of S. Lorenzo in Damaso around
which the palace was built
Cardinal
Riario had won 14,000 gold ducats (the equivalent of almost one million Euros
today) in one night of gambling with Franceschetto Cybo the nephew of his
uncle's successor, Innocent VIII Cybo (1484/92) but the works for the palace
required more than double that figure
Some of the marble
used to build it was taken from the Colosseum,
the Arc of Gordian and other
ancient Roman monuments
FAÇADE 1495
Towards
Campo de' Fiori CORNER WITH CURVED BALCONY finely carved maybe by Andrea Bregno (1418/1503)
PORTAL of
1589 by Domenico Fontana (1543/1607) with columns
and heraldic elements of Cardinal Alessandro Peretti
Influence
of Donato Bramante (1444/1514) who almost
certainly designed the courtyard and maybe participated in the final
phase of construction, with maybe Antonio Montecavallo
brother of Andrea Bregno as director of the works
Surely
there was also the influence of Leon Battista Alberti
(1406/72), even though he died in 1472, but the attribution of the architect of
this masterpiece of the Renaissance “is one of the greatest mysteries of
Italian architecture” (Peter Murray)
In 1517 it
was confiscated to the Riario family who was involved in the conspiracy against
Leo X Medici (1513/21) and became the seat of the Cancelleria Apostolica (Apostolic Chancery), known as “new” to
distinguish it from the “old” that was in the nearby Palazzo Sforza
Internal
works and renovations at the end of the sixteenth century by Domenico Fontana (1543/1607) for Sixtus V Peretti (1585/90),
in the seventeenth century and especially in the eighteenth century when
Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni built a small theater designed by Filippo Juvarra (1678/1736) no longer existing
In 1789 it
was the seat of the Tribunal of the Roman
Republic proclaimed by Napoleon
In 1849
here was proclaimed the Roman Republic and it was the Seat of the Constituent Assembly
After 1870
it was the Seat of the Cardinal Chancellor
with extraterritoriality confirmed by the Lateran Pacts of 1929
Now the
palace is the seat of the TRIBUNAL OF THE ROMAN ROTA, of the PONTIFICAL ROMAN
ACADEMY OF ARCHAEOLOGY and of the PONTIFICAL COMMISSION FOR THE CULTURAL
HERITAGE OF THE CHURCH
Michelangelo
Buonarroti lived here for about five years when he arrived in 1496 at the age
of 21 in Rome, the period when he sculpted the “Pietà”
“The refined
monumentality of Palazzo Riario is not dependent, but certainly in relation
with the structural rhetoric and the tendency for grandeur of the paintings of
Melozzo da Forlì as well as with the type of archaeological culture that
prevailed in Rome at the end of 1400s” (Giulio Carlo Argan )
FIRST FLOOR
RIARIA ROOM
(or AULA MAGNA)
It was
decorated in 1718
On the back
wall “Clock Dial” by G.B. Gaulli aka Baciccio (1639/1709)
HALL OF THE
100 DAYS
Frescoes on
the walls “Allegories and
stories of Paul III Farnese (1534/49)” 1546 by Giorgio Vasari
(1511/74) and assistants
It is said
that when Vasari showed Michelangelo the frescos boasting that he painted them
in only 100 days, the master replied, “It shows!”
In the
apartment of the cardinals CHAPEL OF THE PALLIUM with stucco and paintings “Saints”
and three little scenes: “Beheading of John the Baptist”, “Conversion of St.
Paul” and “Martyrdom of St. Lawrence” 1548 by Francesco de' Rossi aka Francesco Salviati (1510/63)
“Especially
in the Martyrdom the breakdown of the figures comes alive according to the
model of the ancient reliefs: this provides a further peculiarity to the
fresco, that is, the extension in length of the format. (...) In the Beheading
there is a pleasing harmony between figures and background” (Hermann Voss)
STUDIO
In the vault “Biblical Scenes” by Pietro Bonaccorsi aka Perin del Vaga (1501/47)
HEATER
Bath in the
shape of a Greek cross 1515/20 maybe by Antonio Cordini aka Antonio da Sangallo the Younger (1483/1546)
In the
vault “Pergola” maybe by Baldassarre Peruzzi
(1481/1536)
ARCHAEOLOGICAL
EXPLORATIONS
In about
1940 important ancient pieces were found: the “Altar of the Vicomagistri”
and “Relief of the Chancellery” now in the Gregorian Profane Museum in the
Vatican, a Mithraeum, a section of the Eurispes, artificial canal
that connected the Stagnum Agrippae with the Tiber and the “Tomb of Consul
Aulus Hirtius”
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