BRASCHI PALACE - MUSEUM OF ROME (second part)

MUSEO DI ROMA

Founded in 1830 by the will of Antonio Muñoz (1884/1960) in the Pantanella Palace in Piazza Bocca della Verità and moved here in 1952

In 1990 the property was transferred from the Italian government to the municipality of Rome

It was closed from 1987 until 2002, when it was partially reopened. The new exhibit is currently being completed

The works of painting, sculpture and applied arts have primarily an iconographic and documentary relevance regarding the topography and the history of Rome

It houses, especially in the storage rooms, about 40,000 works including: about 800 paintings by artists working in Rome in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, about 1,700 paintings by artists of the nineteenth and twentieth century and about 1,100 sculptures from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century

In the entrance sculptures by Francesco Mochi (1580/1654):

“St. John the Baptist baptizing Jesus” 1633/44 originally sculpted for the church S. Giovanni dei Fiorentini, but never put in place. It then ended up in front of the Milvian Bridge, where there are copies since 1980

“St. Peter” and “St. Paul” 1635/38 for St. Paul outside the Walls. After having been rejected, they were placed in the Porta del Popolo, where there are now copies

STAIRCASE

1804 designed by Cosimo Morelli but maybe completed by Giuseppe Valadier with “Eighteen columns of Oriental granite” from the Portico of Caligula in the area of the Ospedale S. Spirito (Hospital of the Holy Spirit)

There are ancient statues and it is decorated with fine stucco reliefs with the “Myth of Achilles and Iliad” by Luigi Acquisti (1745/1823)

On the landing of the first floor important sarcophagus with “Endymion dying” about 250 AD

BRASCHI PALACE (first part)

PALAZZO BRASCHI

Piazza S. Pantaleo 10

1791/96 Cosimo Morelli (1732/1812) for Pius VI Braschi (1775/99) who wanted a home for his nephew Luigi Braschi Onesti

A previously existing building dating to 1435 which belonged to the Orsini family was demolished. It had been enlarged in 1501 by Cardinal Carafa and had a tower by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger

Cosimo Morelli was from Imola, the same area from which the pope came, and he was also the architect of the Cathedral of Imola and those of Macerata and Fermo, as well as the theaters of Imola, Fermo and L'Aquila

“Morelli drew models from famous Roman buildings of the sixteenth century, with citations of works in Emilia, through a selection process aiming to reduce everything to a simple and correct style. Trying to blend simplicity and monumental, in the façades made in travertine and brickwork, with use of ashlar, he made the architectural elements busier and reversed what had been the Renaissance grandeur” (Davide Righini - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)

Completed 1802/11 by Giuseppe Valadier (1762/1839) for the Duke Luigi Braschi Onesti

It was the last Roman palace to be commissioned by a family of popes

It was sold by the heirs of the family Braschi to the Italian State in 1871, and for fifty years it was the headquarters of the Ministry of Interior

In 1930 it became the seat of the Fascist Federation of Rome

Immediately after the armistice of 8 September 1943 it was occupied by the minions of Gino Bardi and Guglielmo Pollastrini, two fascist thugs who reconstituted the Fascist Federation of Rome. So a reign of terror began and the palace was the seat of prison and torture at the hands of the so-called banda di Palazzo Braschi (gang of Palazzo Braschi)

After the war three hundred homeless families lived in the palace until 1949, causing serious damage to the decorations

PAINTED DECORATIONS ON ALL THREE FLOORS OF THE BUILDING by the painter Liborio Coccetti (1739/1816) from Foligno, begun as early as 1791. The four rooms on the first floor cannot be attributed to him with certainty

“In his early work in Umbria he expressed himself in a language that shows full participation to the rococo culture, with remarkable results for panache and finesse, and shows, especially in the paintings on historical themes, relations with the Roman culture of the first half of the eighteenth century, especially with Sebastiano Conca. On an unspecified date he moved to Rome, where the patronage of Pope Braschi won him important commissions. (...) Since 1779 he had a succession of prestigious jobs in Rome and Lazio, in which shows a progressive approach to the neoclassical style. It can be said that there was no Roman family wishing to upgrade their townhouse or country that did not ask for his work” (Vittorio Casale - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)

OTHER FRESCOES

“Stories of Love and Psyche” about 1610 by Ludovico Cardi aka Cigoli (1559/1613) and “Annunciation of the Virgin” school of Federico Zuccari (about 1542/1609) and Taddeo Zuccari (1529/66)

FIRST FLOOR

CHAPEL designed by Giuseppe Valadier

During the fascist regime it became the chapel of the fallen fascists

On the right “St. Francis” by Guido Reni (1575/1642)

On the altar “Ivory Crucifix” of the eighteen century

Every Sunday morning at 11 Mass is celebrated here

BRANCONIO DELL'AQUILA PALACE

PALAZZO BRANCONIO DELL'AQUILA

Piazza S. Pietro - demolished

1515/20 Raffaello Sanzio (Raphael) (1483/1520) for his friend G.B. Branconio chamberlain of Leo X Medici (1513/21)

It was demolished in the seventeenth century to open the new Piazza Rusticucci which took its name from the palace

It was one of the architectural masterpieces of the Renaissance, the archetype of an architectural style derived from ephemeral scenes of parties and theater

“The prestige of the owner suggested to Sanzio a reference to a precise classical model, the exedra of the Trajan's Markets. Correspondence between the virtues of the emperor saved from limbo and the contemporary patron are part of a wider symmetry established between the old Roman Empire and the monarchy of the popes” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)

BRANCACCIO PALACE

PALAZZO BRANCACCIO

Largo Brancaccio 82

Begun in the years 1879/83 by Gaetano Koch (1849/1910) for Mary Elisabeth Field Princess Brancaccio renovating existing structures consisting of church, convent, orchard and garden of the Franciscan Sisters of St. Clare Mary of the Purification in the Monti neighborhood

1886/90 last and most impressive work by Luca Carimini (1830/90) completed, after his death, in the years 1893/1922 by Carlo Sacconi and Rodolfo Buti

The interiors were designed and furbished in the years 1909/12 by Francesco Gai (1835/1917) with new architectural details, paintings, a nympheum and a coffee-house in the garden

“Gai was an uninhibited decorator, who knew eclectically how to combine the rigor of the classical tradition of the sixteenth and seventeenth century with the unrefined taste of the owners, often undecided between the already dated atmosphere of Paris during the Second Empire, the neo-rococo more Austro-German than French, the temptation for the pagination and refinement of the late Piedmontese Baroque and finally the splendor of the Tuscan and Roman Baroque” (Official website of the museum - www.museorientale.beniculturali.it)

The palace includes the TEATRO BRANCACCIO (Brancaccio Theatre) 1913/16 by Carlo Sacconi

Seat of the Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente (Italian Institute for Africa and the East) with a library of about 53,000 books and the

MUSEO NAZIONALE D’ARTE ORIENTALE “GIUSEPPE TUCCI”

National Museum of Oriental Art 'Giuseppe Tucci'

The most important of its kind in Italy. It opened in 1958

It has been dedicated since 2005 to Giuseppe Tucci (1894/1984) one of the greatest scholars of Eastern Art of the twentieth century

It houses objects found by Italian archaeological expeditions in Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, as well as items purchased by Giuseppe Tucci in Nepal and Tibet

FIFTEEN ROOMS WITH SIX SECTIONS

Ancient Near and Middle East (2 and 3)

The ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean, the Iranian plateau and Central Asia are represented by ceramics, bronzes, precious metals and semiprecious stones dating from the sixth millennium BC to the seventh century AD

Sculpture “Queen of Palmyra” third century AD from Syria

Tibetan and Nepalese (4)

Paintings on cloth, metal alloy statues, ritual and everyday use objects, jewelry and furniture parts, from twelfth through nineteenth century

“Polychrome Golden Cup Mina'i” with Iranian knight about twelfth/thirteenth century

Gandhara Art (5 and 8)

The works, mostly from the excavations of the Italian Archaeological Expedition in Pakistan depict scenes from the life and history of previous lives of the Buddha, first/fourth centuries AD

“Maitreya seated in the lotus position” about second/fourth century from Pakistan (formerly Gandhara)

Islamic (1, 6 and 10)

Metals, glass and especially ceramics from Iran, from the early Islamic period to the Qajar (eight/nineteenth centuries) and artifacts from the palace of Mas'ud III at Ghazni in Afghanistan (twelfth century)

Indian (9)

Sculptures from different parts of the Indian subcontinent, which are mainly Brahmanical deities of the pantheon, such as Shiva and Vishnu and images of Buddha and Bodhisattvas dating from the eight to the eighteenth century AD

Southeast Asia, China and Japan (7 and from 11 to 15)

Rich collection of about 4,000 pieces dating from the third millennium BC to the end of the nineteenth century AD shown in rotation

It includes Neolithic vases, archaic ritual vessels, figurines of Buddha and bronze mirrors, paintings, prints, textiles, as well as glazed ceramics and porcelain

“Guanyin” about twelfth century, Chinese sculpture carved in wood with traces of gold

ACTIVITIES OF THE MUSEUM

Photographic archives, specialized library, restoration workshop, archive of the eastern collections in Italy, service of bio-archaeology and electronic microscopy

BORGHESE PALACE

PALAZZO BORGHESE

Piazza della Fontanella Borghese 22

Begun in 1560 by Jacopo Barozzi aka Vignola (1507/73) for the Della Genga family

In 1586 it was bought by Cardinal Pietro Deza who employed Martino Longhi the Elder (1534/91) to continue the construction

Completed in the years 1605/14 by Flaminio Ponzio (1560/1613) for Cardinal Camillo Borghese who became Pope Paul V (1605/21). Carlo Maderno (1556/1629) also worked on the project

“Inside the Palazzo Borghese, the arrangement of the doors, which allow in the side facing the Piazza Borghese, to see a succession of nine consecutive environments and at the far end, framed in the escape of doors, a particular image of the garden is evidence of an attentiveness to illusive optical values, which reveals the orientation of Ponzio toward a Baroque trend” (Paolo Portoghesi)

It is known as the clavicembalo (harpsicord) for its shape and it is one of the largest palaces of Rome

In the famous FAÇADE TOWARDS THE RIVER TIBER 1612/14 by Flaminio Ponzio, corresponding to the “keyboard” of the great harpsichord, there is a PORTAL built in the years 1671/75 by Carlo Rainaldi (1611/91)

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries this palace was considered one of the four wonders of the city along with the Palazzo Farnese, the Caetani stairs in Palazzo Ruspoli and the gate of Palazzo Sciarra

It is in part the office of the Spanish Embassy and of the Hunting Club

COURTYARD

Designed by Martino Longhi the Elder with two rows of arches supported by “Ninety-six wonderful columns in pairs” and “Ancient statues” including some that adorned the stage of the Theatre of Pompey

NYMPHAEUM

“Bath of Venus” and fountains by Giovanni Paolo Schor (1615/74) and Carlo Rainaldi

ROOM OF THE FOUR PARTS OF THE WORLD

Superb paintings representing the “Four Continents” by Ludovico Stern (1709/77), his masterpiece

Ludovico Stern (son of Ignazio Stern) served with almost no interruption from 1748 to 1777 for the Prince Paolo Borghese Aldobrandini

“He worked for patrons of the utmost importance and became the most popular painter of altarpieces. Of high rank, although limited in number, was also the decorative cycles for noble residences, culminating in his masterpiece, the four paintings in Palazzo Borghese. His mature style, finally, presents characteristics of refinement of color, essentiality of stroke and simplicity of composition that place him along a line in Roman art of late eighteenth century leading up to Giuseppe Cades, Antonio Cavallucci and Domenico Corvi” (Francesco Petrucci - www.news-art.it)

IN THE OTHER ROOMS

Frescoes by the Roman Ciro Ferri (1634/89), by Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi (1606/80) from Bologna, by Domenico Corvi (1721/1803) from Viterbo and by the Venetian Paolo Piazza (1557/1621)

Fresco in the ground floor “Birth of Venus” by Gaetano Lapis (1706/76)

The huge collection of paintings was transferred in 1891 to the Casino Borghese

Part of the building (about 1,000 square meters) was owned by the entrepreneur Vittorio Cecchi Gori from whom it was confiscated in 2009 following the bankruptcy of the football team Fiorentina of which he was president

BONCOMPAGNI PALACE

PALAZZO BONCOMPAGNI

Via Vittorio Veneto 119 a

1886/90 Gaetano Koch (1849/1910) for Rodolfo Boncompagni Ludovisi after the Boncompagni Ludovisi Palace in Piazza Colonna had been destroyed

Also known as Palazzo Piombino for the principality of Piombino in Tuscany belonging to the Boncompagni Ludovisi family or as Palazzo Margherita because it was the residence of Queen Margherita of Savoy, mother of King Victor Emmanuel III

She lived here after the death in 1900 of her husband and cousin King Umberto I (sovereign of Italy from 1878 to 1900) until 1924

The Savoy family had bought the palace from the Boncompagni Ludovisi in financial difficulties

On the occasion of a visit of Queen Margherita of Savoy in Naples, the Neapolitan pizza makers invented PIZZA MARGHERITA with the colors of the Italian flag: mozzarella for white, tomato for red and basil for green

It is the seat of the U.S. embassy since 1931

At the center of the hall “Nude Venus” by the Flemish sculptor Jean Boulogne aka Giambologna (1529/1608)

“The building, in eclectic mold, is the result of the research project of Koch, who experiences a form of abstract neoclassicism, derived from the work of Sangallo, where the architectural elements of classical derivation are subject to an intensive work of figurative simplification” (Giorgio Muratore)

Palazzo Grande di Villa Ludovisi

Great Palace of Villa Ludovisi

Incorporated and leaning against the back of Palazzo Boncompagni

Beginning 1600, maybe by Carlo Maderno (1556/1629) or Domenico Zampieri aka Domenichino (1581/1641) for Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi nephew of Gregory XV Ludovisi (1621/23)

BONAPARTE D'ASTE PALACE

PALAZZO BONAPARTE D'ASTE

Piazza Venezia 5/angolo Via del Corso

1658/65 Giovanni Antonio De Rossi (1616/95) for Giuseppe and Benedetto D'Aste

“Only the Borromini-inspired rounded corners and the pure, unorthodox arrangement in three rows, which includes the four sides are mildly progressive. All the decorations, including the curved pediments of the windows, are quite simple. Confidentiality and an immaculate sense of proportion are the virtues of this style. The intelligent fusion carried out by Rossi of the decorative details inspired by Pietro da Cortona and Francesco Borromini and the transformation of this into a personal idiom relatively light and pleasant foretold his important part in the development of the architecture of the eighteenth century” (Rudolf Wittkower)

In 1760 it was sold to the Marquis Ranuccini of Florence

From 1818 it belonged to Letizia Bonaparte, Napoleon's mother, who lived and died here in 1836

She notoriously used to peep through the famous corner balcony, known in Italian as mignano

In 1972 it became the property of the Assicurazioni d'Italia (Insurance of Italy)

BLUMENSTHIL PALACE

PALAZZO BLUMENSTHIL

Lungotevere Mellini 1

1888/89 Luca Carimini (1830/90)

Last palace to be built for noble Roman families, along with Palazzo Brancaccio also by Carimini

It is now the headquarters of the ISTITUTO POLACCO DI ROMA (Polish Roman Institute) whose main objective is the dissemination of the culture and history of Poland, as well as the fostering of dialogue between Poland and Italy in the field of culture, education, research and social life

On the ground floor there is the excellent ANTONINI PASTRY SHOP, formerly Ruschena

“Carimini was among those who posed the problem of inventing a style befitting the new buildings of Rome new Italian Capital. From a first love for the Middle Ages, he passed to a strong interest in the architecture of the fourteen hundreds, finally locating in Sangallo (the Younger), one of great inspirations for an architecture apt to the new task of the city. He had a great sensitivity for materials, a direct result of his beginnings as a stonemason, and he used it both in his religious and civic architecture. (...) It has been reported that the activity of Carimini should be seen in the so-called 'clerical wing' of Roman architecture, with his late adoption of that primitive fourteen hundreds style that had emerged in the mid-nineteenth century. Among other technicians close to the papal court (Busiri and Vespignani) he is described as a belated exponent of purism in architecture” (Cultural Association Itinera - www.itinera.biz)

BESSO PALACE

PALAZZO BESSO

Largo di Torre Argentina 11

It was built in the sixteenth century

It belonged to the Rustici and Olgiati families for whom it was renovated by Carlo Maderno (1556/1629)

In mid-1600s it passed to the Strozzi family from whom it was expropriated in 1882 by the Italian government to build Corso Vittorio Emanuele II

It was radically changed but the PORTAL at nº 26 built by Carlo Maderno in 1620 was kept

Since 1905 it belonged to the economist Marco Besso who housed in it an important cultural center and seat of the Foundations Ernesta and Marco Besso with a library of about 75,000 volumes about Dante Alighieri, Rome and studies about Italian proverbs

After some restoration in the gallery facing the church of SS. Stimmate di S. Francesco (SS. Stigmata of St. Francis) a frieze was discovered recently with “Eight virtues” and “Villages with hermits” 1606 by Tarquinio Ligustri (about 1563/1621) from Viterbo

“The exaltation of the life of a hermit, defined here as a peaceful relationship between the man of faith and a hospitable nature, is linked to S. Lucia Filippini's religiosity, to which the landlord had been particularly close. The demonstrated attribution to Ligustri of these landscapes will to do some clarity in the complex panorama of landscape painting in Rome at the beginning of the seventeenth century, often generically considered pertaining the school Brill” (Maria Barbara Guerrieri Borsoi - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)

BENNICELLI SPADA PALACE

PALAZZO BENNICELLI SPADA

Piazza dell'Orologio 7

Designed in 1660 by Francesco Borromini (1599/1667) for Monsignor Virginio Spada, Commander of the Bank of St. Spirit

He would have liked the palace to become the headquarters of the bank against the advice of the board of the bank

At his death in 1667 the Spada family was forced to buy the palace and the old Palazzo della Zecca (Palace of the Mint) by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger was chosen as the headquarters of the bank instead

Transformed and raised in late 1800s by Gaetano Koch (1849/1910) for the Bennicelli Counts

Traces of the seventeenth-century Borromini's work remain only in the courtyard

Count Adriano Bennicelli (1860/1925) was a very popular character in Rome at the time of king Humbert I and was nicknamed Conte Tacchia

“Tacchia” in Roman dialect is a piece of wood and the nickname refers to the activity of the Bennicelli family who had become rich by trading in timber. He was a very peculiar kind of person, famous for the contrast between his elegant appearance and his very vulgar attitudes

BARBERINI PALACE - NATIONAL ART GALLERY (twenty-eighth part)

Other Works in the Museum Storage

“St. Sebastian between Onorato II and Pietro Bernardino Caetani d'Aragona” about 1481 by Antonio Aquili aka Antoniozzo Romano (about 1435-40/1508)

“This painting on board is revealing of the versatility of Antoniazzo in different areas of his artistic production (...): a versatility that is expressed in the production of frescoes as well as in the paintings for private devotion or in the sceneries for religious events, always accommodating the needs of his clients, using an entrepreneurship approach which is probably the main reason for the difficulty of rebuilding the catalog of the artist. (...) The painting in Palazzo Barberini synthesizes, for example, his familiarity with the tradition of icons and his knowledge of classical art, evident in the vivid representation of St. Sebastian, and at the same time suggests the skills of the painter for portraits and landscape compositions. (...) The setting is similar to the plain of Fondi and the mountain in the background was recently recognized as being Monte Sant'Angelo near Terracina” (Daniele Ferrara)

“Juno and Argus” by the so-called Maestro della Betulla (Master of the Birch) (active 1630/40)

“Allegory of Peace” maybe by Simon Vouet (1590/1649)

“Sacrifice of Isaac” about 1625 by Orazio Riminaldi (1593/1630)

“Rest on the Flight into Egypt” about 1640 by Angelo Caroselli (1585/1652)

“The Flight into Egypt” about 1625 by Andrea Ansaldo (1584/1638)

“Judith and Holofernes” about 1636 by the Florentine Francesco Furini (1603/46)

“Influenced by Guido Reni, he produced paintings of soft sensuality. The tones of flesh made with ultramarine blue and shaded to give his pictures a sweet taste, soft, but no one can deny that he had a special gift to play the melodic line of the body women, thus revealing its attachment to the Mannerist tradition” (Rudolf Wittkower)

“Still Life with Tuberous Root” maybe by Luca Forte (about 1600/70)

“Cain and Abel” by Pietro Novelli aka Monrealese (1603/47)

“Samson and Delilah” by the Dutchman Matthias Stom (about 1600/50)

“The doughnut maker” 1630 by the so-called Bamboccio (Puppet) Pieter Van Laer (about 1595/1642)

“Country scene” and “Figures in a tree lined road” about 1640/50 landscapes by Angeluccio (fl. 1640/50) and figures by Michelangelo Cerquozzi (1602/60)

Four gouache on paper for Cardinal Francesco Barberini's tapestries now at the Philadelphia Museum of Art:

“Constantine destroying idols”, “Naval Battle of Crispus against Abate”, “Constantine kills the lion” and “Constantine burns the Decretals” about 1631 by Pietro Berrettini aka Pietro da Cortona (1597/1669)

“The massacre of Niobe” 1638/39 and “The Hunt of Diana” 1638/39 by Andrea Camassei (1602/49)

Four anamorphosis: “Portrait of Louis XIII”, “St. Francis of Paola”, “Scene of Marriage” and “Louis XIII before the crucifix” about 1635 by Jean François Niceron (1613/46)

BARBERINI PALACE - NATIONAL ART GALLERY (twenty-seventh part)

Room XXXIV - Artistic Presence in Northern Italy between 1600s and 1700s

Oval “Satyr and Cupid” about 1742/45 by G.B. Tiepolo (1696/1770)

“His art is the ultimate expression of the great European rococo, of international dimension and a triumph of painting skills from which the subsequent developments of painting, even with the new neoclassical style, would not prescind” (Lorenza Mochi Onori)

“Portrait of a young smoker” about 1736 by Giacomo Cerruti aka Pitocchetto (1698/1768)

“It's a kind of representation that is separated from the moral implications of the pauperism genre and from the human depth of the portrait. (...) It is interesting to compare this portrait, which has the characteristics of everyday life pose and clothing, combined with a background city which shows the working life and everyday life, with the conception of the portrait of courtly parade, which prevails in Rome and includes archaeological elements to symbolize the cultural and antiquarian interests of the sitters, in a context that is intended to be emblematic and away from everyday life” (Lorenza Mochi Onori)

“Allegory of architecture” by the Bolognese Giuseppe Maria Crespi aka the Spanish (1665/1747)

“It features the image with a contrast between the dark shadow of the background and the relief given by the diagonal light that strikes the figure” (Lorenza Mochi Onori)

“Beheading of St. John the Baptist” by Pierre Louis Cretey (about 1635/about 1702)

“Bacchanal” by Giulio Carpioni (about 1613/78)

“Friar tempted by demons” and “Hermits tempted by demons” by Sebastiano Ricci (1659/1734)

“St. Bruno” and “Hermits at Prayer” by the Genoese Alessandro Magnasco (1667/1749)

“The disintegration of the figure in the fast and light touches of the brush suggest immediacy of execution and design, but the popularity of this kind of compositions of the painter is documented by the large number of variants that are known of this theme on which he practiced especially in the years between 1710 and 1720” (Lorenza Mochi Onori)

Beautiful pastels “Portrait of a Young Woman” and “Portrait of a Young Man” by the great Venetian artist Rosalba Carriera (1675/1757)

“She worked for the major European courts specializing in the technique of pastel portrait, in which she showed extraordinary abilities. In Rome she was received in the Academy of St. Luke in 1705. (...) To the pastel technique that allows subtle nuances of colors, the artist combines the sensibility of touch which transfigure delicacy of feeling in the transparency of the material, making clear the inner feelings of the characters portrayed, a technique that left a determining imprint in French painting for artists such as Liotard” (Lorenza Mochi Onori)

“Portrait of a Lady indoors” by Pietro Longhi (1701/85) and his son Alessandro Longhi (1733/1813)

“Young woman crying” and “Young woman laughing” by Pietro Antonio Rotari (1707/62) from Verona

“These paintings are part of the painter's rich production of female heads, reproducing usually a state of mind according to a sentimental typology. These half-figures 'of expression' were so successful that Catherine II, the Russian empress, after the painter's death, bought from his widow the entire production of this kind. Rotari produced about 250 works of this kind during his stay in Russia between 1756 and 1762 collected by the Russian nobility as well as the Empress. (...) He keeps a range of soft feelings and passages of mood with expressions only hinted pathetically” (Lorenza Mochi Onori)

“Portrait of a Man” and “Portrait of the painter Antonio Cifrondi” by Vittore Ghislandi aka Fra' Galgario (1655/1743)

“If you compare the portraits of Ghislandi, which also often have an official quality with the parade portraits of the Roman school, from Maratta to Batoni, the difference that appears immediately is the most effective and detached description of the psychological nature of the sitter, even if it affects the officiality of the image at the expense of feelings and expression. Ghislandi also utilizes the power of color, which he incorporates from Venetian models, rather than the magnificence of the details, in order to emphasize the image” (Lorenza Mochi Onori)

BARBERINI APARTMENT

East wing of the second floor

Beautifully decorated in the years 1750/70 in rococo style for Cornelia Costanza Barberini who married a member of the noble family Sciarra Colonna when she was twelve

The last descendant of the Barberini lived here until her death in 1960, although the building was owned by the state since 1947

In addition, section of decorative arts of the eighteenth century with costumes, furniture and porcelain