CORSINI PALACE - CORSINI GALLERY (ninth part)

Room VIII - Room of paintings for canonizations

“The room houses a large group of paintings executed for the solemn ceremony of beatification and canonization which took place in 1737 in the Basilica of St. John Lateran under Pope Clement XII. This is a unique in Roman collectibles that demonstrates the willingness of Neri Maria Corsini to group paintings in a dedicated room for this specific function and celebrate the role of 'procurator fidei' he played during that ceremony” (Official Website of the Galleria Corsini - galleriacorsini.beniculturali.it)

At the center of the room “Fragment of red amber” that may have come from the Baltic Sea

“Ecstasy of S. Caterina de' Ricci” 1737 or 1746 by Agostino Masucci (1691/1758) who also painted “S. Andrea Corsini” 1733/34 copy of an original by Guido Reni which was also copied as a mosaic by Pietro Paul Cristofari in the Corsini Chapel in the Basilica of St. John Lateran

“The staging of the miraculous event highlights a compelling desire to historicize the sacred drama, ahead of French paintings of the second half of the century. (...) (In the S. Andrea Corsini) Masucci reached a high level of extraordinary mimetic virtuosity, but not giving up in his own interpretation of the seventeenth-century model in his absolute clarity of design and cool color tones” (Valerio Da Gai - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)

“Preaching of S. Vincenzo de' Paolis” 1737 by Giacomo Zoboli (1681/1767)

“Vision of S. Caterina Fieschi” by Marco Benefial 1737 (1684/1764)

“Everything is polished, thoughtful and tangible in the sacred appearance. The serious heaviness of Christ walking under the weight of the Cross, trampling his own blood, is opposed to the stylish sophistication of the dress of the woman, an antithesis that perfectly captures the node of the story (the conversion of the frivolous lady from Genoa) outside of any formal flattery, playing only with the obvious concreteness of things shown. A compositional rigor unique in Rome at the time” (Angela Negro)

“Death of S. Giuliana Falconieri” by Pier Leone Ghezzi (1674/1755)

Mosaic with “Portrait of Pope Clement XII Corsini and Cardinal Neri Maria Corsini” about 1731 by Pietro Paolo Cristofari (1685/1743) who in 1727 founded the institution known as Studio del mosaico al Vaticano (Vatican Mosaic Studio) still operating today

“The prototype of the mosaic also executed by Masucci is kept in the Corsiniana Library. With the easy comparison between the two works it is possible to admire the technical capacity of Cristofari, able to reproduce with great fidelity the model even in the colors” (Sivigliano Alloisi)

Some of the Works Kept in Storage

“Portrait of Bernardo Clesio” by Joos Van Cleve (about 1485/1540)

“Portrait of a Man” about 1540 by Pier Francesco Foschi (about 1502/67)

“Hunters” by the Dutch Philips Wouwerman (1619/68)

“St. John and Angels” and “Flight into Egypt” by Carlo Maratta (1625/1713)

“St. Agnes” by the Florentine Carlo Dolci (1616/86)

“Portrait of James III Stuart, pretender to the English throne” by the French François De Troy (1679/1752)

“St. Francis resurrects a dead man” by Andrea Sacchi (1599/1661)

“St. Joseph” by Guido Reni (1575/1642)

“Lamentation over the Dead Christ” by Sisto Badalocchio (1585/1645)

“Jupiter sends Mercury to Apollo” maybe by Francesco Albani (1578/1660)

“Nymphs and Satyrs” by Francesco Trevisani (1656/1746)

“Country” by Paolo Anesi (1697/1773)

CORSINI PALACE - CORSINI GALLERY (eight part)

Room VII - Green Room

“Cardinal Andrea Corsini used the room as a new Audience Hall and for this purpose he placed here a series of paintings of great quality and indicative of his aesthetic taste. The current exhibit, unable to reproduce the original layout, includes a selection of works that entered the collection after the death of Neri Maria (1770). The date in mosaic under the window (1858) recalls the reconstruction of the floors in Venetian style” (Official Website of the Galleria Corsini - galleriacorsini.beniculturali.it)

Marble sculpture “Psyche carried by the Zephyrs” by the Welsh pupil of Canova John Gibson (1790/1866)

Marble sculpture “Dancer with Finger on her Chin” by Luigi Bienaimè (1795/1878)

Precious “Corsini Cup” in silver dating back to the first century BC

“St. John the Baptist” 1606 by Michelangelo Merisi aka Caravaggio (1571/1610)

“The figure of three quarters of this precursor dark and handsome dandy turns his head out of the field, observing something, while the intensity of his gaze, felt just below the thick mass of hair, is perhaps the poetically higher moment of the composition” (Vincenzo Pacelli)

“Madonna and Child” by Bartolomè Esteban Murillo (1618/82)

“Undisputed protagonist of the second half of the seventeenth century, he ushers in a new pictorial language. He opposes to the local tradition a conventional narrative representation made with delicate chiaroscuro, far away from the strong contrasts of light of Zurbaran. His appearance on the scene of Seville was in opposition to the current style, showing novelties from his knowledge of contemporary Neapolitan and Genoese production. An anti-rhetorical vein characterizes the production of religious subjects, where the sacred episodes are similar to scenes from everyday life” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)

“Venus and dead Adonis” 1637 by Jusepe de Ribera aka Spagnoletto (1591/1652)

“The original myth told in Ovid's Metamorphoses is enriched from the fourteenth century of new metaphorical meanings, which compare the figure of Adonis that of Jesus. As G.B. Marino, who in his famous poem Adonis (1623) explicitly alludes to the sacrifice of Christ, Ribera representing Adonis with an obvious wound on the side takes up the theme of the Passion” (Official Website of the Galleria Corsini - galleriacorsini.beniculturali.it)

“Entry of Christ in Jerusalem” by Luca Giordano (1634/1705)

“Herodias with the Head of St. John the Baptit” about 1625 by Simon Vouet (1590/1649)

“Particular attention is paid to the material quality of fabric and to the expression of the face of the protagonist, who shows his macabre trophy. Declined in the painting are the many different stimuli and influences in the formation of the French painter: the realism of Caravaggio's matrix on one hand, and the colors, the drapery and the preciousness of the Venetian school on the other “(Official website of the Corsini Gallery - galleriacorsini.beniculturali.it)

“Judith with the Head of Holofernes” by the Flemish painter Gerard Seghers (1591/1651)

“Annunciation” by Marcello Venusti (about 1512/79). It is a copy of a lost original by Michelangelo Buonarroti for the Cesi Chapel in S. Maria della Pace

“Tribute of money” by Mattia Preti (1613/99)

“St. George and the Dragon” by Francesco Raibolini aka Francia (1450/1517)

“Sinite Parvulos” the Frenchman Nicolas Tournier (1590/post 1657)

“Homer” by Pier Francesco Mola (1612/66)

“Mary Magdalene” by Francesco Trevisani (1656/1746)

“In Rome since 1678 he got closer to the circle of Carlo Maratta and of the Arcadia, developing a rococo style composed and refined, with tones graceful and pathetic” (Enciclopedia Treccani)

“Nativity” about 1748 by Pompeo Batoni (1708/87) with a spectacular frame

“Resurrection of Lazarus” by Giuseppe Cesari aka Cavalier d'Arpino (1568/1640)

“Madonna of the Rose” by Massimo Stanzione (1585/1656)

“In Rome, the knowledge of the works by Caravaggio and the Carraccis, as well as Domenichino and Guido Reni (present in those years in Naples) led him to an attempt to mediate between the two modes. Following the sharp naturalism of the early works (...), looking at Simon Vouet and Guido Reni, he developed a style characterized by elegant and refined shapes of color, light and bright tones. Leading personality in Naples, he had a profound influence also in the opening to the baroque, clear in his later works” (Enciclopedia Treccani)

“St. Peter freed by the Angel” by Johann Heinrich Schoenfeld (1609/83)

“The crowning with thorns” copy from Antoon Van Dyck (1599/1641)

Panel “Madonna with Child, Saints and scenes from the life of Christ” an early work by Giovanni di Jacopo di Guido aka Giovanni da Milano (active 1346/69)

Panel with “Coronation of the Virgin Mary” by Andrea di Cione aka Orcagna (active 1343/68)

Two panels long and narrow with “Apostles” by the Venetian Niccolò di Pietro (active 1394/1430)

Triptych “Madonna and Child, Saints and Crucifixion” by the Master of S. Verdiana (active 1370/1400)

“Madonna and Child” and “Madonna and Child with Sts. Jerome and Francis” by an unknown artist of the Florentine school

“Triptych” by an unknown artist of the Florentine school

“Madonna and Child” by an unknown artist of the Viterbo-Umbrian school of the fifteenth century

“Still life with fish and shellfish” by the mysterious Neapolitan Marco de Caro (Eighteenth century)

“Still Life with Peaches” and “Still life with peaches and grapes” by Jan Decker (Eighteenth century)

Above the doors “Flowers and fruit (Autumn and Winter)” and “Flowers and fruit (Spring and Summer)” by the Flemish Abraham Brueghel (1631/97)

Seven beautiful still lives by the German Christian Berentz (1658/1722): “The elegant snack”, “Clock”, “The Fly”, “Roman Vegetables”, “Still life with Mascherone (Big Mask)”, “Fruit”, “Preparations for Dinner” and “Casino dell’Aurora (Aurora Lodge)” where it is possible to recognize the Aurora Casino of the Ludovisi family

CORSINI PALACE - CORSINI GALLERY (seventh part)

Room VI - Green Cabinet

“The room was one of the reception rooms of the apartment of Neri Maria and, together with the two following room, it was destined to receive guests. At the time of Cardinal Andrea Corsini (1735/95), who succeeded his uncle as the owner of the apartment, the room had undergone a series of transformations (1777/79). (...) The current structure of the hall dates back to 1907 when, to gain a greater exhibition space for portraits, the living room and the adjacent chapel were demolished” (Official Website of the Galleria Corsini - galleriacorsini.beniculturali.it)

“Marble funerary urn of M. Servilius” first century AD

“Marble head of Silenus” second century AD

“Bust of Pope Clement XII Corsini (1730/40)” by Pietro Bracci (1700/73) who immortalized precisely and mercilessly the severe and frowning grin of Pope Corsini

“Portrait of Cardinal Neri Corsini senior (1599/1678)” by G.B. Gaulli aka Baciccio (1639/1709)

Beautiful “Madonna and Child” by the specialist G.B. Salvi aka Sassoferrato (1609/85)

“Portrait of a Knight of the Order of Sts. Maurice and Lazarus” by Agostino Carracci (1557/1602) brother of Annibale

“In the painting movement which he founded with his brother and that had in his heart the Accademia dei Desiderosi (Academy of Desiring), later Incamminati (Walkers), he was the theoretician and the researcher. Of this critical attitude and interpretation of the formal values of the great masters are proof his engravings” (Enciclopedia Treccani)

Sketch by Francesco Cozza (1605/82) for the “Pieta” in Room II

“Portrait of Cardinal Giacomo Savelli” by Scipione Pulzone (about 1550/98)

“Pupil perhaps of Jacopino del Conte, he reached fame with his portraits of famous Roman people, inspired by the sixteenth-century Flemish portraiture, portrayed with great technical ability and virtuosic attention the physical characteristics and social attributes of the subjects” (Enciclopedia Treccani)

“St. Anthony of Egypt” by Antonio Allegri aka Correggio (1489/1534)

“Portrait of Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici” school of Alessandro Allori aka Bronzino (1533/1607) pupil of Agnolo di Cosimo aka Bronzino

“Portrait maybe of Guercino” by Guido Cagnacci (1601/63), a pupil of Guido Reni but influenced by Caravaggio

“After a start vaguely influenced by Caravaggio he approached Guido Reni, accepting Venetian influences in a personal way. He did not disdain strong baroque effects only to compose himself eventually in a measured classicism” (Enciclopedia Treccani)

“Portrait of Luigi Scaramuccia” by Francesco Cairo (1607/65)

“Portrait of Cosimo Medici III” by the Flemish Giusto Susterman (1597/1681)

“Portrait of Cardinal Antonio Barberini junior” and “Self-Portrait” by Simone Cantarini (1612/48)

“Cantarini was the best student of Guido Reni and the only painter of his circle to be able to formulate a highly personal style: his rich palette, the colors slightly graduated and new inflections in the poses of the figures helped to introduce in Bologna the painting more delicate and intimate of the last decades of the seventeenth century. His influence is evident in particular with the work of his pupil Lorenzo Pasinelli, and of the younger Donato Creti” (Dwight C. Miller - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)

“In the self-portrait of Simone Cantarini the message is clear and direct: the viewer observes the painter who observes himself and wonders in the mirror pretending to look at the model. Art, therefore, is a mirroring of life, a pattern or a project to follow with passion and absolute dedication” (Sivigliano Alloisi)

“Portrait of a Man” copy from Francesco di Cristofano aka Francabigio (1484/1525)

“Portrait of a Man possibly Pietro Strozzi” by Pier Francesco di Jacopo Foschi (1502/67)

“Portrait of a Man” by the French Claude Lefebvre (1637/75)

“Portrait of Michele Peretti” about 1608 by Pietro Fachetti (1535/post 1616)

Michele Peretti was the great-nephew of Sixtus V Peretti (1585/90)

“While not free from the influence of Scipio Pulzone, this painting stands out for the richness of colors, dense and condensed in the game of the flesh which results in a plastic-linear firmness that is linked to a nagging of lights of enhanced accuracy. It is a testimony of a complex training in which the influence of Caravaggio's portraits are grafted onto a culture that is still affected by memories of Mantua, Flemish and even from Rubens” (Sivigliano Alloisi)

“Portrait of a Man” by Ottavio Leoni (1578/1630)

“Portrait of a Man” by Carlo Maratta (1625/1713)

“Portrait of a Man” by Bartolomeo Passerotti (1529/92)

“Portrait of a Man” by Franz Pourbus the Younger (1569/1622)

“Portrait of a Man” by an artist of the French school of the seventeenth century

“Portrait of a Nun” by an artist of the Bolognese school

“St. John the Baptist as a young man” by an artist of the Emilia school

“Portrait of two Young Princes” and “Portrait of a Woman” maybe by an artist of the Parma school

“Portrait of a Gentleman” by an artist of the Venetian school of the sixteenth century

“Bay with fishermen” and “Bay with fishermen pulling nets to dry” by Jacob de Heusch (1656/1701)

“Jacob De Heush is one of the Italianate painters less sensitive to his culture of origin (...). His landscapes are affected by Salvator Rosa, but do not have the vigor and inventiveness of the Neapolitan painter. He mainly painted marine and deep bays animated by fantastic rocks, towers, canals and gesticulating figures who exercised a certain influence on the Roman painters of the next generation” (Sivigliano Alloisi)

“Shepherd with herd” by the Roman Andrea Locatelli (1693/1741)

“Landscape with marina and ruins”, “Landscape with marina and lighthouse”, “Landscape with cliff” and “Landscape with ruins” by Salvator Rosa (1615/73)

CORSINI PALACE - CORSINI GALLERY (sixth part)

Room V - Room of the Alcove

“The room (...) owes its name to the fact that it has been used as a bedroom by Queen Christina of Sweden until her death. Following the purchase of the building by the Corsini family, the room remained the bedroom of the new owner, Cardinal Neri Maria. Underscoring the link between the room and the Queen, the Swedish State gave the Gallery (1991) a painting that depicts her in the guise of Diana the huntress, the work of the Flemish Justus van Egmont and six commemorative medals” (Official Website of the Galleria Corsini - galleriacorsini.beniculturali.it)

Decorations in the ceiling with “Stories of Solomon” and “Stories of Moses” maybe by artists of the school of Federico Zuccari (about 1542/1609)

“Terracotta bust of G.B. Blanchis” 1680 by Fabrizio Arriguzzi (active 1630/80)

Small bronze statue “Ganymede and the Eagle” by the Florentine Antonio Montauti (1685/1740)

Outstanding portraits “Christ Crowned with Thorns”, “Our Lady of Sorrows” and “St. John the Evangelist” by Guido Reni (1575/1642)

Terracotta bust “Alexander VII Chigi (1655/67)” by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598/1680)

“Queen Christina of Sweden as Diana” by Justus Van Egmonts (1601/74)

“Meeting of Rebekah and Eliazar at the source” by Carlo Maratta (1625/1713

“It is a masterpiece of the maturity of Carlo Maratta and stands as an exemplum of academic eclecticism of the artist” (Official Website of the Galleria Corsini - galleriacorsini.beniculturali.it)

“Ruins with baths” and “Ruins with shepherds” by Giovanni Paolo Pannini (1691/1765)

“St. Sebastian Tended by Angels” by Peter Paul Rubens (1577/1640)

“It belonged to the collection of Cardinal Neri Maria Corsini senior and it dates back to the early years of the artist's stay in Rome (1601/02)” (Official Website of the Galleria Corsini - galleriacorsini.beniculturali.it)

“St. Sebastian” by an anonymous artist of the seventeenth century inspired by Palma il Giovane

“Madonna and Child” by Angelo Caroselli (1585/1652)

“Hunting coots” and “Hunters in the woods” by Angeluccio (active mid-seventeenth century) who painted the landscapes whereas the figures were probably painted by the Roman bambocciante Michelangelo Cerquozzi (1602/60)

“The attribution of the figures to the Roman painter raises some doubts indeed because of their street fighting and thugs attitude that would seem more appropriate to Pieter Van Laer” (Sivigliano Alloisi)

“St. Apollonia” by Carlo Dolci (1616/86)

Two paintings made with oil on copper and blackboard: “Interior of Antwerp Cathedral during the day” and “Interior of Antwerp Cathedral at night” by Frans Francken III (1606/after 1667) with Peter Neefs the Younger (1620/post 1675)

“Justice” by Cesare Gennari (1637/88)

“Ecstasy of St. Francis” by Filippo Lauri (1623/94)

“Temple of Vesta with Roman monuments” and “Pantheon and Roman monuments” by the French Charles Louis Clerisseau (1721/1820)

“Clerisseau was also an architect and an elegant draftsman. Following a period of travel to follow the English architect Robert Adam, he returned to Rome in the early sixties and it was well received for his friendship with Piranesi. Here he undertook the decoration of the coffee house in Villa Albani where he met Winckelmann and a little later he made the famous room of the convent of Trinità dei Monti, which immediately became one of the curiosities of Rome” (Sivigliano Alloisi)

“Holy Family”, also known as “Our Lady of Silence” by Marcello Venusti (about 1512/79)

“The Assumption of Mary Magdalene” copy by an unknown seventeenth-century artist from an original by Giovanni Lanfranco

“The Holy Family with John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene” copy by an unknown sixteenth-century artist from an original by Parmigianino

“Landscape with waterfall and figures” by Pandolfo Reschi (1643/99)

“Concert” by the Flemish artist Theodor Rombouts (1597/1637)

“The Holy Family with St. John” by the Emilian Bartolomeo Schedoni (1578/1611)

“The comprehensive training of Schedoni led, in contact with the painting of Ludovico Carracci and Giovanni Lanfranco (in Parma since 1610), to a very personal style, where the direct and contrasted light isolates and highlights the solid and almost geometrically constructed forms and emphasizes the vivid and brilliant colors” (Enciclopedia Treccani)

“Adoration of the Shepherds” by an artist of the school of Jacopo Bassano

Significant “St. Jerome” by an artist of the school of Jusepe de Ribera

“Deposition of Christ from the Cross” by a sixteenth century artist of the Tuscan school

“Portrait of Vittoria Della Rovere as Faith” by the Flemish artist Giusto Sustermans (1597/1681)

“Landscape with Satyrs” by Pietro Testa (1612/50) engraver from Lucca who sadly committed suicide in the Tiber for his disappointments in his job as a painter

“Fruit Seller” by Jacob Van Steverden