Thursday, September 7, 2017

PRIMOLI PALACE - NAPOLEONIC MUSEUM and MARIO PRAZ MUSEUM

PALAZZO PRIMOLI
Built in the sixteenth century
It was bought in 1820 by Count Luigi Primoli
It was transformed in the years 1909/11 by Raffaele Ojetti (1845/1924) for Count Giuseppe Primoli with the NEW FAÇADE ALONG THE RIVER TIBER
The ground floor was buried and the gardens, that had occupied the area up to the river, disappeared
ROOMS
Some ceilings of the eighteenth century with painted beams
Friezes in three rooms of early 1800s, in two rooms of the second half of 1800s
“Interpreter of the aspirations of his client, Ojetti the original building in the new palace, transforming it into a stately neo-fifteen hundreds residence with a Roman flair, typical of the fin de siècle. With great mastery, he united in one design distinct elements corresponding to different functions, creating an ordered façade, despite its irregularities and asymmetries, thanks to the skillful use of brick and travertine, soberly dosed with polychrome marble. Towards the bridge, a new section was added at the wing on Via Zanardelli. The architect, with a successful and very unique formal solution, pierced the corner in an elegant double Serlian, surmounted by a linteled loggia, providing to the spaces for public use (the Grand Salon, the Great Library) a magnificent view of the river, of the new bridge, of the new district of Prati di Castello” (Sito web della Fondazione Primoli - www.fondazioneprimoli.it)
MUSEO NAPOLEONICO
Napoleonic Museum
Donated to the city in 1927 by Giuseppe Primoli (1851/1927), son of Pietro Primoli and Charlotte Bonaparte. He was the grandson of Lucien Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, who moved to Rome in 1807
Napoleon, however, never set foot in Rome
Three distinct phases:
1) Napoleonic period
2) Roman period after the fall of Napoleon
3) Second Empire
Room I - The First Empire
Portraits of “Napoleon” by Joseph Chabord (1786/1848)
“Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi and her daughter Elisa” by François Gerard (1770/1837)
“Empress Josephine” and “Letizia Bonaparte Ramolino” by Robert Lefèvre (1755/1830)
Room II - The First Empire
Portrait of “Lucien Bonaparte” by François-Xavier Fabre (1766/1837)
Room III - The Second Empire
“Napoleon III” and “The Empress Eugenie” by the German Franz-Xavier Winterhalter (1805/73), famous for his ability to represent realistically and in detail the folds of clothing and hairstyles details
Room IV - The King of Rome, son of Napoleon and Marie Louise of Austria
“The Duke of Reichstadt” by Luigi Schiavonetti (1765/1810)
Curved saber that belonged to Napoleon and the Duke of Reichstadt awarded at birth with the title of King of Rome. He died at age 21 and was never able to reign over Rome
Room V - The Roman Republic
Room VI - Pauline Bonaparte
“Bust of Pauline” in 1805/07 by Antonio Canova (1757/1822)
“Pauline Bonaparte” by the Flemish artist François-Joseph Kinson (1771/1839)
Plaster cast of the breasts of Pauline Bonaparte
Room VII - The Kingdom of Naples
Jewelry of Caroline Bonaparte, Napoleon's sister and Queen of Naples
“Julia Clary and her daughters Zenaide and Charlotte” by Jean-Baptiste Wicar (1762/1834)
Room VIII - Watercolors and caricatures
Room IX - Zenaide and Carlotta
“Zenaide” and “Charlotte Bonaparte” by Jacques-Louis David (1748/1825)
Room X - Lucien Bonaparte
Room XI - The “Roman” branch of the Bonaparte family
“Charlotte Bonaparte Gabrielli” as a farmer by Jean-Baptiste Wicar (1762/1834)
Room XII - Giuseppe Primoli and Matilde Bonaparte
In the museum there are also refined pieces of furniture, jewelery and miniatures
LIBRARY
30,000 volumes of history, literature and French art and valuable collection of photographsof the end of the nineteenth century
MUSEO MARIO PRAZ
Mario Praz Museum
One of the few Italian historic house museums: collection of about 1,200 pieces of furniture and works of art assembled by the famous Anglicist, critic and Roman essayist Mario Praz (1896/1982)
He was an avid collector and put together his collection of art pieces in more than sixty years of research
He lived from 1934 to 1969 at Palazzo Ricci in Via Monserrato and in this building from 1969 to 1982, the year of death
The house was bought by the state in 1986 and the museum opened to the public in 1995
Entrance hall, three rooms of exhibitions, gallery, bedroom, dining room and corridor
“Head” maybe by Antonio Canova (1757/1822) and works by Italian, French, Austrian, Swiss and German including:
“Portrait of Princess Vittorina Spinola near the bust of Augustus d'Arenberg” 1792 by the Swiss Jacques Sablet (1749/1803)
“View of Cava near Salerno” by Anton Sminck Pitloo (1791/1837) Dutch painter who lived mainly in Rome and Naples. He was a leading exponent of the School of Posillipo and is considered a precursor of Impressionism
More than 400 sheets of watercolors, prints and drawings are exhibited on rotation

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