1802/06 Giuseppe Valadier (1762/1839) for Giovanni Torlonia
who in 1797 had bought the Vigna Colonna (the vineyard of the Colonna family) with
dilapidated buildings previously belonging to the Pamphili family
Continued
and completed in the years 1832/40 by G.B. Caretti (1803/after
1850) for Alessandro Torlonia, son of Giovanni Torlonia
G.B.
Caretti added the portico with the terracotta relief "Bacchus returning
triumphant from the Indies on a chariot pulled by tigers" by Rinaldo Rinaldi (1793/1873), the two porticos on
either side with doric columns and rebuilt and decorated personally (being both
architect painter ) the interior of the building
After about
twenty-five years of neglect the villa became the private residence of Benito Mussolini for eighteent years (1925/43)
by paying a symbolic annual rent of one cent only
Mussolini
and Prince Torlonia built a refuge from the bombing in the Jewish catacomb of
the third and fourth century AD which is below the villa, extending for about 9
km (6 miles)
TWO
OBELISKS made out of pink granite from Baveno, dedicated to the memory of the
parents of Alessandro, Giovanni and Anna Maria Torlonia
Since 1978
the area of the villa is a public park
Casino Nobile
Twenty rooms on the first two floors:
Atrium -
Bookshop. Entrance room
FIRST
VESTIBULE
"Gable
of aedicula with symbols of Fortune" of the Trajan period (98/117) from
the Mausoleum of Claudia Semne on the Appian Way
BATHROOM
Inspired by
the so called stufe (stoves) of the
Renaissance period
Decorations
designed by G.B. Caretti (1803/after 1850), with
grotesques paintings on a red background and panels with mythological stories
of erotic subjects or subjects representing the sea, painted with the unusual
technique of oil on wall, except "Galatea" painted with the mezzo fresco (half fresco) technique by
the painter from Belluno Pietro Paoletti (1801/47)
LIBRARY
Ceiling
" Dante led by Virgil in limbo to meet the great poets of antiquity"
by Pietro Paoletti
ROOM A
"BERCEAU"
"Three
stucco reliefs: Socrates drinking hemlock (from Plato's Phaedo), the Death of
Priam (from Virgil's Aeneid) and the Dance of the Phaeacians (from Homer's
Odyssey)" by Antonio Canova (1757/1822)
PORTICO
"Athena
Parthenos" mid-third century AD
"Statue
of the type of the Great Ercolanense
or Ceres" second century AD, both restored by Bartolomeo Cavaceppi
ROOM OF
PSYCHE
Frescoes
"Stories of Psyche" by Pietro Paoletti
ROOM OF THE
ITALIAN POETS AND ARTISTS
32
portraits and painted architecture in Gothic style by Pietro
Paoletti
SECOND
VESTIBULE
Five
sculptures faux-antique by the Studio Cavaceppi
DANCE HALL
Vault
"Stories of Love" by Domenico Toietti (active
1840/62) and Leonardo Massabò (1812/86)
Lunettes
"Flight of the Twelve Hours" and "Flight of the Three
Graces" by Leonardo Massabò,
"Parnassus" by Francesco Coghetti (1801/75)
STAIRS
"Torso
of Herakles on modern herm" of the Hadrian period (117/138)
ANTICHAMBER
In the
ceiling "Aurora, Day and Night" by Decio
Trabalza (1804/42)
HALL OF
BACCHUS
"Stories
of the myth of Bacchus, the Seasons and the Three Continents" by Francesco Podesti (1800/95) within a decorative frame
with grotesque masks and minutes landscapes by G.B.
Caretti (1803/after 1850)
GOTHIC ROOM
"Fake
Gothic loggia punctuated by false windows" by G.B.
Caretti
Two round
panels into the ceiling with episodes of the poem Jerusalem Delivered: by Torquato Tasso: "Erminia among the
shepherds" and "Armida abducts sleeping Rinaldo" by Pietro Paoletti
CABINET OF
VENUS
Small room
with painted coffered ceiling. In the square panel in the center "Toilet
of Venus" attributed to the Roman painter Luigi
Coghetti only namesake of Francesco Coghetti who was from Bergamo
BEDROOM
Mussolini's
bedroom with original furniture already owned by Giovanni Torlonia junior
ROOM OF
PASSAGE
Chapel
until 1905, then Boudoir
EGYPTIAN
ROOM
Study of Benito
Mussolini
Within the
decorative motifs painted by G.B. Caretti there
are panels with stories of Cleopatra: "Meeting of Antony and Cleopatra",
"Coronation of Antony and Cleopatra", "Cleopatra kneeling in
front of Antonio" by Luigi Fioroni (1793/1864)
ROOM OF ALESSANDRO
Lunchroom
Vault
"Stories of Alexander the Great" by Francesco
Coghetti (1801/75)
Frieze below
the vault in low relief "Triumph of Alexander in Babylon" by Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770/1844) derived from the
original in marble at the Quirinal
Palace
Along the
walls paintings "Allegorical Figures" alluding to the attributes of
the hero and in the niches "Marble statues of Apollo and the Muses"
by young artists working in the circle of Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770/1844) and
his pupil Peter Tenerani (1789/1869)
Top floor:
Museum
of the Roman School
Works of
art dating from the period between the First and Second World War
"Magic
Realism":
Francesco Trombadori (1886/1961), Antonio Donghi (1897/1963), Riccardo
Francalancia (1886/1965), Ferruccio Ferrazzi (1891/1978)
“Scuola
di Via Cavour” (School of Via Cavour):
Antonietta Raphaël Mafai (1895/1975), Mario Mafai (1902/65) and Scipione
(Gino Bonichi) (1904/33)
"Although
it lasted only a few years, from 1927 to 1930/31, the expressive story of the
School of Via Cavour provides a sense of an experimental and anti-Novecento
style idea, very modern in the way of renewing the Italian figurative research
with violent coupling of light, with a strong sense of color and an ability to
understand the changing nature of forms in the mysterious atmosphere of
everyday realism" (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)
"The Thirties":
Tonal
painters such as Corrado Cagli (1910/76), Giuseppe Capogrossi (1900/72), Emanuele Cavalli (1904/81), Roberto Melli
(1885/1958) and Guglielmo Janni (1892/1958)
Painters who
developed a new "realist language” in the years just before the war: Alberto Ziveri (1908/90),
Fausto Pirandello (1899/1975), Renato Guttuso (1911/87), the young Renzo Vespignani (1924/2001)
Sculptures:
Pericle Fazzini (1913/87), Mirko (Mirko Basaldella)
(1910/69), Leoncillo Leonardi (1915/68) and Luigi Bartolini (1892/1963) master of engraving
Casina delle Civette
Mansion
of the Owls
1916/19 Vincenzo Fasolo (1885/1969) who transformed the
preexisting SWISS HUT 1840 by Giuseppe Jappelli (1783/1852)
It was the
residence of the extravagant prince Don Giovanni Torlonia (1873/1938) who lived
here alone
Museum of Liberty Style Stained
Glass Windows
The windows
were all installed between 1908 and 1930 and are unique in the international
art scene
They were
all produced by the laboratory of Cesare Picchiarini (1871/1943)
from designs by Duilio Cambellotti (1876/1960), Umberto Bottazzi (1865/1932), Vittorio
Grassi (1878/1958) and Paolo Paschetto (1885/1963)
The stained
glass windows were restored and some reconstructed from original models by the
company Vetrate d’Arte Giuliani
Casino
dei Principi
Mansion
of the Princes
1835/40 G.B. Caretti (1803/after 1850) who rebuilt a previous
building which had already been modified by Giuseppe Valadier
It is used
for temporary exhibitions
On the
ground floor ARCHIVE OF ROMAN SCHOOL
Other
facilities at the villa (currently in restoration)
Greenhouse,
Moorish Tower, Tournaments Course all by Giuseppe
Jappelli (1783/1852)
"He
showed that effective spectacular taste which enabled him to make a garden,
albeit small in size, look big. Jappelli therefore anticipated that trend towards
stylistic contamination that was typical of the century; and on the other hand he
also anticipated that attention to new construction techniques and new
materials which would soon spark controversy" (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano
Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)
Theater
Decorated in
1844 with no less than about 4,000 m² (1 acre) of frescoes in purist style by Costantino Brumidi (1805/80)
Brumidi
later went to Washington and painted in the Capitol for 25 years
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