DORIA PAMPHILJ PALACE - DORIA PAMPHILJ GALLERY (fourth part)

Room of the 1600s

“Still life with oysters, flowers, fruits and animals” and “Still life with flowers, fruits and animals” by Jan van Kessel the Elder (1626/79)

“Sleeping Endymion” by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri aka Guercino (1591/1666)

“Daedalus and Icarus” maybe by Andrea Sacchi (1599/1661)

“Penitent Magdalene” 1594/95 by Michelangelo Merisi aka Caravaggio (1571/1610)

“It didn't even look like a religious painting: simply the study of a common modern girl sitting on a low wooden chair intent on drying her hair. Where was the meaning? Where the prostitute repentance, her suffering, the promise of salvation? That single barely visible tear that ran down her nose seemed insufficient. (...) The broken string of pearls and other ornaments looked like having been ripped, not forsaken by herself, and more than the regret and renunciation of the holy prostitute, they reminded the punishment given to courtesans in Rome, the lashes that a girl was threatened to get from the police” (Peter Robb)

“Rest on the Flight into Egypt” about 1596/98 another great masterpiece by Caravaggio

The music of the lullaby that the angel holds in his hands is Quam pulchra es with words from the Song of Songs and music of the Flemish Bauldewyn, symbolizing the mystical marriage between Christ and the Virgin, and therefore between Christ and the Church

“In this work, the feeling of the divine and the feeling of reality live together in perfect harmony. Structure, still that of the juvenile phase, has the space developed in parallel levels within which the shapes are clearly outlined almost flat. Light here is not creator of forms, but as an element to give extreme clarity to the scene: it is falling on the Angel and it enhances the whiteness of the veil and it is spread instead on the faces of the characters. This canvas can be considered one of the first statements anti-mannerist style against the religious bombast of Roman painting official” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)

“Seven Mother and Child by Caravaggio remain, and, for how the face, the body, the movements of the newborn, and the way in which the mother is holding him, were seen by the painter, none of the other hundreds of thousands of images of this kind produced in Italian painting would have ever surpassed them” (Peter Robb)

“Sibyl” by Massimo Stanzione (1585/1656)

“St. Sebastian” by Ludovico Carracci (1555/1619)

“Portrait of a Franciscan friar” maybe by Pieter Paul Rubens (1577/1640)

“Marina rock arch” by Salvator Rosa (1615/73)

Room of the 1500s

“Salome with the Head of John the Baptist” by Tiziano Vecellio (Titian) (about 1490/1576)

“Double Portrait maybe of Agostino Beazzano and Andrea Navagero” by Raffaello Sanzio (Raphael) (1483/1520)

“The field where the penetration and psychological confidence of Raphael are more happily combined with his sense of subtle values, subdued ranges, is the portrait. (...) In these portraits of writers Raphael seems to have expressed himself representing more an ideal than a character: the vocation of poetry and love. The authority of the artist has so created a sort of portrait-type” (André Chastel)

“Portrait of a couple” by Sofonisba Anguissola (about 1531/1626)

“Portrait of a Young Gentleman” by Jacopo Robusti aka Tintoretto (1518/94)

“Return of the Prodigal Son” by Francesco da Ponte aka Bassano the Younger (1549/92) and Jacopo da Ponte aka Jacopo Bassano (about 1510/92)

“Portrait of Niccolò Machiavelli” by Cristofano dell'Altissimo (?/1605)

“Portrait of Girolamo Beltramoto” circle of Giovanni Luteri aka Dosso Dossi (about 1486/1542)

Room of the 1400s

“Pietà (Mercy)” and “Massacre of the Innocents with Rest on the Flight into Egypt” by Ludovico Mazzoli aka Ludovico Mazzolino (about 1479/about 1529)

“Madonna and Child” by an artist of the school of Antonio Aquili aka Antoniazzo Romano (about 1435-40/1508)

“Holy Family” and “Visitation” by Benvenuto Tisi aka Garofalo (about 1481/1559)

“Nativity with Sts. Francis, John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene” by Giovanni Battista Benvenuti aka Ortolano (1487/after 1524)

“Sts. Anthony Abbot and James the Apostle” and “Sts. Christopher and John the Baptist” by Bicci di Lorenzo (1373/1452)

Two “Stories of St. Anthony Abbot” and “Temptation of St. Anthony” by Bernardo Parentino (1434 or 1437/1531)

“The triptych is dated in the mature phase of the master, in the ninth decade of the fifteenth century, when he was at the court of Mantua. The panels, perfectly preserved, have a strong relationship with Andrea Mantegna and the relief with putti reminds of a sarcophagus painted by an artist in the circle of Squarcione. Moreover Bernardo himself executed drawings inspired from ancient artworks very similar to the works of Mantegna and of the circle of Squarcione, while some torment in the contours also recalls the works of Cosmè Tura and Ercole de' Roberti from Ferrara” (Official Website of the Galleria Doria Pamphilj - www.dopart.it)

“Lamentation over the Dead Christ with a donor” by Hans Memling (1435-40/1494)

“Two old men in prayer (the hypocrites)” by the Belgian Quinten Massys (1466/1530)

“Marriage” and “Birth of the Virgin Mary” by Giovanni di Paolo (about 1400/82)

DORIA PAMPHILJ PALACE - DORIA PAMPHILJ GALLERY (third part)

Third Corridor

“Allegory of Virtue” by Antonio Allegri aka Correggio (1489/1534)

Beautiful unfinished painting that was perhaps a source of inspiration for the sculpture by Gian Lorenzo Bernini Truth Unveiled by Time also unfinished

“Landscape with rest of the flight into Egypt” by Claude Lorrain (1600/82)

“The Holy Family with Saints Elizabeth and John the Baptist”, “Holy Family with Saints Joachim and Anna” and “Marriage of St. Catherine of Alexandria” by Benvenuto Tisi aka Garofalo (about 1481/1559)

“Penitent Magdalene” by Domenico Fetti (1589/1623)

“It caused a stir this sober and remorseful prototype of great fortune, (...) loose, nervous, impeccable union of Rubens' style and Venetian color scheme” (Gabriel Milantoni - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)

“Juno sets Argo's eyes in the peacock's tail” by Orazio Riminaldi (1593/1630) from Pisa

“St. Francis in Ecstasy” by Francesco Albani (1578/1660)

“St. Jerome” by Lorenzo Lotto (about 1480/1556)

“Study of head (St. Jude?)” by Federico Fiori aka Barocci (1535/1612)

“Barocci had a real passion for the subtle gradations ranging from clearer and brighter gray until the purest white, for the more transparent color of complexion and especially for the refractions of the color tone through the poignant intensity of light. Sometimes his works remind of pastel paintings magnified” (Hermann Voss)

“Return of the Prodigal Son”, “St. John the Baptist in the desert” and “Martyrdom of St. Agnes” by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri aka Guercino (1591/1666)

“Boy with bat in hand”, “Girl pouring oil from a lamp”, “Young singer” and “Young singer crowned with laurel” of the Master of the Candle (first half of 1600s)

“Satyr and Shepherd” maybe by Annibale Carracci (1560/1609)

“Madonna adoring the Child” and “Fight of Putti” by Guido Reni (1575/1642)

“Woman with a lamp” and “Man with oil lamp” by Wolfgang Heimbach (about 1615/about 1678)

“Battle in the Port of Naples” and “Garden of Eden” by Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1526-31/1569), father of Jan Brueghel the Elder

“Christ led to Calvary” by Alessandro Allori aka Bronzino (1533/1607) pupil of Agnolo di Tori Cosimo aka Bronzino

“Crucifixion” by Marcello Venusti (about 1512/79) from a lost original by Michelangelo Buonarroti

“Holy Family” and “Madonna in prayer” by G.B. Salvi aka Sassoferrato (1609/85)

“The great popularity of inventions by Sassoferrato painting comes from the ability to create images of essential beauty and immediate emotional perception. Accordingly he stands on the continuation of Scipio Pulzone from Gaeta and on the line of his great Florentine follower Carlo Dolci” (Maria Antonietta De Angelis)

“Adoration of the Shepherds” by Francesco da Ponte aka Bassano the Younger (1549/92)

“Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist” by Giovanni Bellini (about 1432/1516) and workshop

“Seascape with shipyard and good luck” by Agostino Tassi (1578/1644)

“Allegory of Taste” by Giovanni Francesco Romanelli (1610/62) from Viterbo, a pupil of Pietro da Cortona

“Garden of Eden” by Jacopo da Ponte aka Jacopo Bassano (about 1510/92)

“Preaching of St. John the Baptist” by Giuseppe Passeri (1654/1714)

“Birth of the Virgin Mary” by Francesco Trevisani (1656/1746)

“Bust of Pope Innocent X” by Alessandro Algardi (1598/1654)

Room of the 1700s

Two “Views of Venice” by Gaspar van Wittel (1653/1736)

Great painter Dutch landscape painter who worked for the Colonna family. He had his name translated in Italian as Vanvitelli and was the father of the great architect Luigi Vanvitelli

“He was perhaps the first true 'landscape painter' of art history. Often remembered as a forerunner of Italian Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto, the Dutch painter is famous for his so-called exact views of many Italian cities and landscapes, to which Canal himself will refer to. Like Canaletto later, (...) Gaspar made extensive use of the camera obscura, a pre-photographic tool strikingly modern at that time, which allowed the artist to have before his eyes the reflection of the inverted image to paint. It was a portable cabin, completely blacked out, with a hole at the top and a mirror which, when tilted, projected inside the room, the live image, an 'exact' vision of the subject that the artist painted and modeled on” (Paolo Gallinaro - ilmediano.it)

“Magdalene” by Sebastiano Conca (1680/1764)

Four “Landscapes”, formerly panels placed above doors, by Paolo Anesi (1697/1773)

DORIA PAMPHILJ PALACE - DORIA PAMPHILJ GALLERY (second part)

GALLERIA DORIA PAMPHILJ

This splendid private collection is taken good care of by the Doria Landi Pamphilj family who still lives in the building and owns the works

The exhibition is well maintained and the splendor of the rooms invariably provokes amazement and admiration in the visitors

A gallery with magnificent and spectacular exciting peaks such as the Rest on the Flight into Egypt by Caravaggio, the Double Portrait by Raphael, Susanna and the Elders by Annibale Carracci and the extraordinary Portrait of Innocent X, the member of the family who became pope, by Velásquez

Aldobrandini Room

Restored in 1956 after the collapse of the roof due to snow

There are ancient statues found mainly in Villa Pamphilj:

“Sarcophagus with Selene and Endymion”

“Odysseus under the ram”

“Bacchus” in porphyry marble restored by Alessandro Algardi (1598/1654)

“Centaur” in polychrome marble found in the mid-1800s in Albano in one of the residences of the Pamphilj

Marble relief with putti “Amor sacred profane love breaks down” about 1630 by François Duquesnoy (1597/1643)

“In the representations of cherubs he really gave something of the soul of children and he molded their bodies so round, soft and delicate that they seem to be alive and breathing. It was Duquesnoy's conception of the child which became a general European property and, consciously or unconsciously, the majority of the following representations of children derived from him” (Rudolf Wittkower)

Paintings:

“Descent from the Cross” by Giorgio Vasari (1511/74)

It was bought by Camillo Pamphilj in 1661 from the church of S. Augustine where he had funded some works

“Gale at sea” by the school of Pieter Mulier

Seventeenth-century copy of the old “Aldobrandini Wedding” now in the Vatican Museums

“Sacrifice of Noah” by Ciro Ferri (1634/89)

“Landscape with rest of the flight into Egypt” by Pier Francesco Mola (1612/66)

Green Room

“Annunciation” about 1445/50 by Filippo Lippi (about 1406/69)

“Typical example of telescope perspective which limits the space to the visual field and organizes it in function of the transmission of light. But, in turn, light must have internal sources in the framework, and is therefore produced by the opposed intensification of light and dark as well as by the relationship between the colors” (Giulio Carlo Argan)

“Mystical Marriage of St. Catherine” by Domenico Beccafumi (1486/1551)

“Battle of Castro” by Jacques Courtois aka Borgognone (1628/79)

“Crucifixion” from Michelangelo maybe by Annibale Carracci (1560/1609)

“St. Joseph” and “Allegory of Spring” by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri aka Guercino (1591/1666)

“Circumcision” school of Giovanni Bellini (about 1432/1516)

“Christ Carrying the Cross” by Sebastiano Luciani aka Sebastiano Del Piombo (1485/1547)

“In the years following the sack of Rome Sebastiano reaffirmed in sacred painting the needs of piety and austerity that some circles were shown to agree with before their official affirmation, which took place at the Council of Trent. Christ Carrying the Cross, repeatedly replicated by Sebastian is an early example of this religious feeling that inspired devotional images drawn up according to a severe style, convenient to the tragedy of the Roman climate shaken by the terrible story of the sack” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)

“Flood” by Carlo Saraceni (1579/1620) and Jean Le Clerc (about 1585/1633)

“Religion rescued from Spain” by Tiziano Vecellio (Titian) (about 1490/1576) and workshop

“Portrait of a man of thirty-seven” perhaps self-portrait of Lorenzo Lotto (about 1480/1556)

“In Venice painting kept true to the more mature and reflective spirit which had succeeded the luminous vapors to the early Renaissance. A spirit that led artists to see life with less enthusiasm and less illusions. Quieter pleasures were sought: the pleasures of friendship and sincere affection. It is not surprising that the Venetian artist who first expressed these new attitudes, was one who had been brought into contact with the miseries of Italy during long journeys, as it was not possible to those who stayed in Venice. Lorenzo Lotto, at his best, do not celebrate the dominance of man over things that surround him, but, in altarpieces, and even more in portraits, shows us people who needs to be comforted and supported, either by religion or by healthy ideologies, friends and loved ones. His figures look from the canvas almost asking for benevolence” (Bernard Berenson)

“St. Jerome” by Jusepe de Ribera aka Spagnoletto (1591/1652)

“Bust of Pope Innocent X” by Domenico Guidi (1625/1701)

DORIA PAMPHILJ PALACE (first part)

PALAZZO DORIA PAMPHILJ

Via del Corso 304

The first small palace was built in mid-fifteenth century for Cardinal Nicolò Acciapacci

Rebuilt in 1505/07 for the Cardinal Giovanni Fazio Santoro who was expelled by Pope Julius II Della Rovere (1503/13) in favor of his nephew, Francesco Maria I Della Rovere

It was bought in 1601 by Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini and expanded

It was brought as a dowry in 1647 by Olimpia Maidalchini to Camillo Pamphilj for whom it was enlarged in 1659 by Antonio Del Grande (about 1625/79) who also designed the TWO FAÇADES ON PIAZZA DEL COLLEGIO ROMANO

“The rhythm adopted is complex and discontinuous: to respect it, taking account of the interior spaces, Del Grande was forced to introduce false windows. The best results are achieved in the details, where, despite giving up substantial innovations, he gave proof of considerable subtleties of interpretation. The most interesting episode however, is the large vestibule, whose oval is divided by two pairs of free columns. (...) The arrangements of the vaults and of the free supports creates a fluid and indeterminate space: the staircase, grafting the vestibule with an oval smaller space, leaves intact the levitation effect, which has no direct precedent in the Roman architecture of the seventeenth century” (Manfredo Tafuri - Biographical Dictionary of Italian Treccani)

FAÇADE ON VIA DEL CORSO 1731/34 masterpiece by Gabriele Valvassori (1683/1761)

“He designed an unprecedented solution for the front main composition. Notwithstanding the Borromini matrix, the undisputed leading role played by the windows, the varied and imaginative forms they take, the wise rhythmic score, the attention to details, make the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj unique in eighteenth-century Roman palace style” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)

WING AND FAÇADE ON VIA DEL PLEBISCITO 1739/44 and noble staircase 1748/49 by Paolo Ameli (1739/49)

Latest additions were in 1846 until the end of 1800 including the FAÇADES ON VICOLO DORIA E VIA DELLA GATTA by Andrea Busiri Vici (1818/1911)

PALACE OF TIZIO DI SPOLETO

PALAZZO DI TIZIO DI SPOLETO

Piazza S. Eustachio 53

Built in the second half of the sixteenth century for Tizio di Spoleto, the butler of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese

On the FAÇADE very elegant stuccos with lilies, symbol of the Farnese family, and frescoes with “Stories from the life of Saint Eustace” painted before 1575 by Federico Zuccari (about 1542/1609)

It is one of the few remaining painted façades in Rome

In the sixteenth century many buildings were painted and all these colorful decorations were a major source of wonder for visitors to the city

PALACE OF SPAIN

PALAZZO DI SPAGNA

Piazza di Spagna 44

Formerly known as Palazzo Monaldeschi and rented to the Spanish ambassadors

From 1647 is the Spanish Embassy to the Holy See

It was transformed in 1647/55 by Antonio Del Grande (about 1625/79). Maybe he used drawings by Francesco Borromini (1599/1667) to whom a project had been requested in the first place

Borromini couldn’t follow up his project because he was busy doing other works

It was renovated in 1815 by the Spaniard Antonio Celles (1775/1835) who rebuilt the façade

The palace has given its name to the square (Piazza di Spagna) and even to the Scalinata di Trinità dei Monti, Spanish Steps in the English translation, although it would have been more correct to call it French Steps because the staircase was commissioned and paid for by the king of France, Louis XV who so had the square connected to the French church of Trinità dei Monti

ENTRANCE STAIRCASE

Fresco “The keys of Granada” 1898 by A. Ballester

CHAPEL

Vault “Gods of Olympus” by Marco Benefial (1684/1764)

IN THE ROOMS

Extraordinary sculptures “Damned Soul” and “Blessed Soul” 1620 works by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598/1680)

Paintings by Pier Leone Ghezzi (1674/1755), Felice Giani (1758/1823), Liborio Coccetti (1739/1816), Vicente Lopez (1772/1850) and Mario Nuzzi aka Mario de' Fiori (1603/73)

St. FELIX PALACE

PALAZZO DI S. FELICE

Via della Dataria 21

1860 Filippo Martinucci (?/1862) for Pius IX (1846/78) on the area of the destroyed Capuchin convent attached to the church of S. Croce e S. Bonaventura dei Lucchesi

It was dedicated to St. Felix of Cantalice since the saint had lived in the convent

It now houses offices of the Presidency of the Republic

In the COURTYARD:

Structures belonging to the Upper Church of S. Nicola de Portiis

It is described as upper because it was built at the end of the fourteenth century above the older church of the twelfth or thirteenth century

TOMB OF SEMPRONII

On one side of the courtyard. It dates back to the half of the first century BC. Tomb with façade in travertine blocks placed on a high plinth now underground

CELLA in bricks, one of the oldest examples of this technique

The inscription attributes it to one Gneus Sempronius, his sister and his mother

St. CALLISTUS PALACE

PALAZZO DI S. CALLISTO

Piazza S. Maria in Trastevere 24

Built at the end of the fourteenth century as home of the cardinals of S. Maria in Trastevere

Restorations 1434 and 1505

Rebuilt 1618 by Orazio Torriani (about 1601/about 1657) for the Benedictines Friars

Restored again in the years 1854 and 1937

It was built on the site of the martyrdom of St. Callistus:

According to Christian tradition, he was found where the adjacent Church of St. Callistus is now, during the persecutions of Alexander Severus (222/235), he was thrown from a window and then drowned in a well, still preserved in the garden of the convent

The palace is one of the properties of the Vatican with extraterritorial status, meaning the state of being exempt from the jurisdiction of local law

It is now home to the following Catholic organizations that are part of or are directly linked with the Holy See:

Pontifical Council for the Laity

Pontifical Council for the Family

Secretary General of Caritas Internationalis

Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace

International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services

PALACE OF PROPAGANDA FIDE - CHURCH OF THE THREE WISE MEN (third part)

Chiesa dei Re Magi

1660/66 masterpiece by Francesco Borromini (1599/1667)

It replaced the church built in 1634 by Bernini which was elliptical with a main entrance directly on Via di Propaganda

“It is a radical revision of the structures of St. Mary of the Seven Sorrows and of the Oratorio dei Filippini. Articulation is here in an order large and small derived from the Capitoline Palaces. A continuous system ties together all parts of the building in all directions. The line-skeleton structure has become of the utmost importance - there is almost no wall between the tall pillars! - and even the dome was sacrificed to the structure. No post-Renaissance building in Italy has come so close to the Gothic structural principles. It was truly a new and challenging solution and its compelling simplicity and logic ends properly Borromini's activity in ecclesiastical architecture” (Rudolf Wittkower)

Borromini's stuccos completed after his death by Francesco Fontana (1668/1708) Carlo Fontana's son

Subsequent interventions in 1815 and 1955 painted arbitrarily Borromini's surfaces

Restoration in 1955 by Clemente Busiri Vici (1887/1965) who got rid of some nineteenth-century additions

According to an unconfirmed anecdote Borromini would have taunt Bernini sculpting a papal Chigi coat of arms with the donkey ears on a corner facing the Palace of Bernini

The coat of arms was actually made and was present until at least 1722, when Filippo Juvarra (1678/1736) drew it. Bernini would have replied by carving a penis on the shelves of a balcony of his palace overlooking one side of the Palazzo di Propaganda Fide

 1^st CHAPEL ON THE RIGHT

“Conversion of St. Paul” about 1634 by Carlo Pellegrini (1605/49) although some sources cite it as designed by Bernini

2^nd CHAPEL ON THE RIGHT

“Madonna with Sts. Charles Borromeo and Filippo Neri” about 1665 by Carlo Cesi (1626/86)

MAIN ALTAR

“Adoration of the Magi” by Giacinto Gimignani (1606/81)

Above “Delivery of the Keys to St. Peter” about 1673 by Lazzaro Baldi (about 1624/1703)

Stuccos in the upper part and over the window of the choir by Cosimo Fancelli (1620/88)

2^nd CHAPEL ON THE LEFT

“Crucifixion between Sts. Francis Xavier and Francesco di Paola” by Ludovico Gimignani (1643/97) son of Giacinto

1^st CHAPEL ON THE LEFT

“The Calling of Sts. Peter and Andrew” 1634 by Andrea Camassei (1602/49) copy from the original of Giorgio Vasari

IN THE NICHES

“Six seventeenth-century busts of benefactors of the Congregation” of high quality and generic attribution to school of Alessandro Algardi with “Basis of black marble from Belgium” by Francesco Borromini

PROPAGANDA FIDE PALACE - MISSIONARY MUSEUM OF PROPAGANDA FIDE (second part)

Museo Missionario di Propaganda Fide

It opened in December 2010 by the will of the new prefect, Cardinal Ivan Dias

Multimedia temporary exhibit space on the missionary activities of the Catholic Church and rooms with an interesting collection of paintings owned by the congregation

The interiors were largely designed by Francesco Borromini, with beautiful decorative solutions

Among the works:

“Pentecost” by Corrado Giaquinto (1703/66)

“Flood” by Salvator Rosa (1615/73)

“Romulus and Remus” by Marco Tullio Montagna (1594/1649)

“Massacre of the Innocents” maybe by Marco Benefial (1684/1764)

“In 1750, Count Nicola Soderini had assured his protection to the painter: this allowed Benefial to paint quietly during the last period of his life, drinking again and again at the inexhaustible source of the Bolognese seventeenth century art, impetuous and raw in tragedy as in the Massacre of the Innocents now in the Palace of Propaganda Fide, idyllic and almost frivolous in the mythological scenes now in Palazzo Corsini, but always aiming to search for historical truth, in a clarification of the detail, never giving in to decorative frills, and proceeding alone on the scene of contemporary painting. He died in April 1764, without pupils of merit and, if not forgotten, certainly underestimated until today” (Evelina Borea - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)

“Annunciation” maybe by the Flemish Denijs Calvaert (1540/1619)

“St. George” maybe by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri aka Guercino (1591/1666)

“Portrait of Ezzelino Romano” by Antonio Canova (1757/1822) who made this portrait as a joke trying to make it look as a sixteenth century painting

Some “Landscapes” by Jan Frans Van Bloemen aka Orizzonte (1662/1749)

BORGIA ROOM

Some objects and paintings from the collection of Cardinal Stefano Borgia (1731/04) from Velletri distantly related to the infamous Spanish family

It was an extraordinary collection of antiques of all kinds and origins disparate now dispersed between the Vatican Museums, the Vatican Library, the Museum and the Museum Luigi Pigorini Capodimonte in Naples

BARBERINI LIBRARY

Monumental shelving of the eighteenth century and seventeenth-century ceiling in wooden beams with bees of the Barberini family. The anteroom by Francesco Borromini is spectacular in its simplicity

NEWMAN CHAPEL

Refined room by Francesco Borromini with questionable small later adjustments. Dedicated to the English Cardinal John Henry Newman who was declared blessed in 2010

PROPAGANDA FIDE PALACE (first part)

PALAZZO DI PROPAGANDA FIDE

Piazza di Spagna 48/Via di Propaganda 1

1586 for Bishop Bartolomeo Ferratini

In 1626 Urban VIII Barberini (1623/44) seconded the request of Bishop Juan Baptista Vives, one of the subsequent owners, and assigned it to the CONGREGAZIONE DI PROPOGANDA FIDE (Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith), powerful propaganda tool of the Church which was established in 1622 by Gregory XV Ludovisi (1621/23)

The congregation moved into the palace in 1633

WING ON VIA DUE MACELLI 1639/45 by Gaspare De Vecchi (active 1628/1643) for Cardinal Antonio Barberini

FAÇADE ON PIAZZA DI SPAGNA 1644 by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598/1680)

Extraordinary FAÇADE ON VIA DI PROPAGANDA and FAÇADE ON VIA CAPO LE CASE 1646 by Francesco Borromini (1599/1667)

“As in the Oratory of the Filippini the façade, parallel to the longitudinal axis of the internal church, is at the same time the front of the church and of the palace. Borromini continues here his studies about making the most of the available space, taking into account the urban location of his building: the narrow Via di Propaganda Fide gives a dramatic tone to the strong plasticity of the façade” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)

“The overwhelming weight of this façade produces an almost nightmarish effect. Everything here is outside the norm. The movement of the window frames is not dictated simply by a desire for picturesque variety, but it is set up as a fugue, with the subject, response and variations. By these means Borromini created a surprising and alarming palace façade that has no precedent or followers” (Rudolf Wittkower)

Since 1967, the congregation took the name of CONGREGATION FOR THE EVANGELIZATION OF PEOPLES

In this palace all the missionary activity of the Catholic Church is organized

In the historical center of Rome there are large and expensive real estate belonging to the Vatican which refer to both the congregation and the APSA, the heritage of the Apostolic See. Added to this are the numerous extraterritorial buildings that are part of the Vatican City State

In 2010, Cardinal Sepe, prefect of the congregation from 2001 to 2006, was entered in the register of suspects by prosecutors in Perugia, with the former Transport Minister Pietro Lunardi, for inconsistencies regarding maintenance of the façade of the Palace of Propaganda Fide. Investigations are still ongoing