Sunday, October 1, 2017

SCIARRA PALACE

Reconstruction as a palace of the homes of the Colonna family, of which the Sciarra constitute a branch
The palace was called Palazzo Sciarra in honor of Sciarra Colonna, who gave the famous “slap” of Anagni in 1303 to Pope Boniface VIII (1294/1303)
Reconstruction began after 1550, continued in 1610 maybe with Flaminio Ponzio (1560/1613) and ended in about 1641 with Orazio Torriani (about 1601/about 1657)
Library 1745 by Luigi Vanvitelli (1700/73) who restored also other rooms for Cardinal Prospero Colonna
Restoration in the years 1875/82 by Francesco Settimj (active 1875/88) and 1882/95 by Giulio De Angelis (1850/1906) who also built in the block of the building the Teatro Quirino (it had originally built in wood in 1871) the first theater of united Italy and the Galleria Sciarra
Giulio De Angelis reduced considerably the size of the building with the opening of Via Minghetti and the construction of theater and gallery
Beautiful PORTAL 1641 by Orazio Torriani which, according to popular tradition, was carved from a single huge block of marble
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it was considered one of the four wonders of the city with Palazzo Farnese, Palazzo Borghese and the Caetani Staircase in Palazzo Ruspoli
In 2010 the work of restoration of the interior finished. It was sponsored by the FONDAZIONE ROMA (Rome Foundation), which has its headquarters in the building and made it home to temporary exhibitions with the nearby Palazzo della Cassa di Risparmio di Roma also called Palazzo Cipolla
The Rome Foundation has a permanent art collection in the palace with many important works ranging from the fifteenth century to present day. Most of the works have a close connection, for the subject or for the artists responsible for them, with the city of Rome, the focus of the activity of the foundation
Among the masterpieces:
 Tempera on wood “Imago Pietatis” about 1480/82 maybe by Piermatteo Lauro Manfredo aka Piermatteo d'Amelia (1446-48/about 1506)
“The attribution to the painter from Amelia is supported by iconographic and stylistic comparison with works of different nature, but of the same subject, in Orvieto and Terni. (...) This Christ shows, in the exquisitely linearity that pervades it, the close relationship with Florentine culture, to which refers indirectly also the clear luminosity similar to the one of Piero Della Francesca and the strong geometric presence of the uncovered tomb, which is the only spacial element of the work. (...) The strong plastic emphasis seems to prove the progressive approach of the artist towards Antoniazzo Romano, with whom he worked closely in the second half of the eighties in Rome” (Laura Auciello)
Oil on board “Pieta” by Marcello Venusti (about 1512/79)
Oil painting “Madonna reading and Child with Sts. Elizabeth and John the Baptist” by Francesco de' Rossi aka Francesco Salviati (1510/63)
Oil on canvas “Moses frees the daughters of Jethro” by Ciro Ferri (1634/89)
“The oldest sources document in the biography of the artist, his outstanding erotic inclinations: “He was very dedicated... to love... He painted with great assiduity, and delight, when surrounded by vague maidens was flattered by some sweet sight...” (Passeri) (...) It is interesting to examine his overwhelming production (...) of works for private buyers, partly still on the antiquities market, painted in fifty years of activity. They attest to a plurality of interests and to an eclectic background that would associate Caroselli to the naturalists of the third decade (Valentin, Régnier, Paolini), or to Venetian models, or even to the formal paradigms of the painters from Bologna (Annibale Carracci, Domenichino). An explicit archaic will determines in some of his most beautiful works (Madonna enthroned with the Archangels Michael and Raphael) an impressive neo-Renaissance scheme (the references are to Piero Della Francesca, Bronzino, Allori, to the sixteenth century Venetian painters), as a conscious attitude of rejection and failure against the triumphant baroque absolutism” (Anna Ottani Cavina - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)
Oil on canvas “Achilles meets Teti near the Centaur Chiron” by Bernardino Cesari (1571/1622) brother of the Cavalier d'Arpino
Oil on canvas “Landscape with Roman ruins” by the Flemish Willem Van Nieulandt II (1584/1635)
Oil on canvas “Landscape with idealized view of Rome” by the Flemish who settled in Rome Jan Frans van Bloemen aka Orizzonte (1662/1749)
Two oils on canvas “View of St. Peter's Square” and “View of Monte Cavallo” by Giovanni Paolo Pannini (1691/1765)
Oil on canvas “Portrait of Giacinta Orsini Boncompagni Ludovisi” by the great Pompeo Batoni (1708/87)
Oil on canvas “Start of the race of Berbers in Piazza del Popolo” by the English Thomas Jones Barker (1813/82)
There are also works of the twentieth century:
“Cabins in the Pontine Marshes” by Onorato Carlandi (1848/1939)
“Pollarole (Fight of commoners)” by Alberto Ziveri (1908/90)
“Training in Parioli” by Ferruccio Ferrazzi (1891/1978)
“Hunting the Tiger I” and “Hunting the Tiger II” by Marino Mazzacurati (1907/69)
“Lungotevere Ripetta” and “S. Giorgio in Velabro” by Francesco Trombadori (1886/1961)
Bronze sculpture “Twentieth Century” by Arnaldo Pomodoro (1926)
“Allstars” by Mario Schifano (1934/98)
“The room unvoiced” by Emilio Tadini (1927/2002)
“Mirror” by Enrico Baj (1924/2003)
“Michelangelo” Tano Festa (1938/88)

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