PANTHEON (second part)

Porch

33 x 16 m (108 x 52 feet) with “Sixteen monolithic columns in Egyptian granite gray and pink” 13 m (43 feet) high

The Egyptian origin of these huge columns would immediately be recognized in antiquity by the inhabitants of the Roman Empire, unlike now, accustomed as we are to so many different types of materials

Marble of this type does not exist in Italy or in Europe and the mere fact of having been able to bring the columns to Rome on barges all the way from Egyptian quarries that are even distant from the Nile, was a statement and a display of enormous power on the part of the Roman government

The columns are surmounted by a pediment on which there was a bronze relief representing an enormous crowned eagle, the eagle of the apotheosis of Romulus, the true symbol of Rome

The big inscription reads: Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius did this during his third consulship

The small inscription reads: Emperor Caesar Septimius Severus and Emperor Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus restored with great care the Pantheon ruined by ancientness

The porch (pronaos) was preceded by a staircase which has recently been found and buried again. The illusion of being in front of a classic Greek style temple was also due to the fact that the dome could not be seen from the large square surrounded by a portico in front of the Pantheon

Therefore Hadrian had obviously wanted to surprise those who would enter the building and find themselves surrounded by a spherical and modern interior

DOORS

The doors were restored at the time of Pius IV Medici (1559/65) but the structure is most likely the original, perhaps that of Augustus, kept as a sort of relic in the reconstruction of Hadrian

They are huge: 7.53 x 4.45 m (24.7 x 14.6 feet)

On the sides of the doors there are two niches where there were maybe statues of Augustus and Agrippa

BRICK WALLS

They have the incredible thickness of 6.2 m (20.4 feet) and are marked by niches and arches to lighten the structure

Dome

Internal diameter of 43.30 m (142.06 feet) of height from the floor to the top

The perfect proportions give the impression of walking into a huge ball

It was raised using a single extraordinary wooden hemisphere centering filled with a jet of conglomerate containing volcanic pumice to lighten it up

The Romans invented concrete the use of which disappeared after the fall of the Roman Empire. It was rediscovered only a thousand years later and it began to be used extensively, as the Romans did, only from the end of the eighteenth century onward

This dome is one of the most extraordinary examples in the world of the capacity of human ingenuity

The hole (oculus) has a diameter of about 9 m (29.52 feet) and is trimmed with bronze

It is still the dome with the largest diameter in Italy:

The dome of the Basilica of St. Peter, albeit higher, has a diameter of 42.52 m (139.50 feet), the dome of Florence Cathedral has a real diameter of 41.47 m (136.05 feet), although the major diagonal of the octagon is 44.97 m (147.53)

Outside Italy, the Capitol Dome in Washington has a diameter of 29.26 m (96 feet) and the Cathedral of St. Paul's in London has a diameter of 31 m (102.10 feet)

A greater dome without internal supports was only built in 1881 in England as part of the Devonshire Royal Hospital building: 44.20 m (145.01 feet)

Now the largest dome in the world is that of the Cowboys Stadium finished in 2009 and located in Arlington, Texas with a diameter of 275 m (902 feet)

The Pantheon is oriented with the façade to the north and it was built in such a way that, on every April 21^st, the birthday of Rome, at noon, the light rays passing through the hole in the dome would strike precisely on the big doors

“It is significant that the Pantheon is located exactly opposite the Mausoleum of Augustus, 500 steps (740 meters - 2,428 feet) away and maybe it used to be visually connected to the Mausoleum itself with a path that would open the view of the two obelisks at the sides. Now this correspondence, if it really existed, must have dated back to the Augustan system, because in the second century other buildings arose obstructing the view. So the world of cosmic references involved the whole system consisting of Pantheon, Mausoleum, Sundial and Ara Pacis: if we accept the identity of the site of the Pantheon and the Palus Caprae, the place of the apotheosis of Romulus, there is a clear correspondence between the apotheosis of the founder of Rome and that of Augustus” (Francesca de Caprariis and Fausto Zevi)

FOURTEEN MONOLITHIC FLUTED COLUMNS 8.9 m (29 feet) high in ancient yellow marble from Tunisia and pavonazzetto marble from Turkey

ATTIC ABOVE THE ENTABLATURE

Rebuilt in 1747 by Paolo Posi (1708/76) for Benedict XIV Lambertini (1740/58)

A restoration in 1930 has revived, over the last niche on the right, the original decoration with polychrome marble derived from Renaissance drawings

The FLOOR also made of polychrome marble, including porphyry from Egypt, is largely original

Aediculae and Chapels

1^st AEDICULA ON THE RIGHT

Altarpiece “Madonna of the Girdle and St Nicholas of Bari” 1686 by an anonymous seventeenth-century artist

1^ST CHAPEL ON THE RIGHT

At the center:

“Annunciation” maybe by Melozzo degli Ambrosi aka Melozzo da Forlì (1438/94)

On the sides:

On the right “Incredulity of St. Thomas” by Pietro Paolo Bonzi aka the Hunchback of Carracci (about 1576/1636)

On the left “Ss. Lorenzo and Agnes” by Clemente Maioli (1634/73) from Ferrara, a painter influenced by Pietro da Cortona and close to the style of Giovanni Francesco Romanelli

On the sides there are also “Four marble busts of prelates” and “Two angels in marble” 1696 of Bernini school

2^nd AEDICULA ON THE RIGHT

Fragmentary fresco “Coronation of the Virgin Mary” of the fourteenth century

2^nd CHAPEL ON THE RIGHT

“Tomb of Victor Emmanuel II” 1878 by Manfredo Manfredi (1859/1627) sculpted by Adolfo Laurenti (1856/1944)

“The execution of the work (...) did not correspond precisely to the design of Manfredi, who had planned the placement of an altar of porphyry, never made, and a richer decoration of the frame of the large bronze plaque. The project, which effectively makes use of the most essential elements of the classical language, is well weighted according to the monumentality and the prestige of the architectural context” (Raffaella Catini - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)

The golden lamp hanging in front of the tomb is a symbolic reminder of Victor Emmanuel III who died in exile in Alexandria, Egypt in 1947

3^rd AEDICULA ON THE RIGHT

Statue “St. Anne and the Virgin Mary” 1715/16 by Lorenzo Ottoni (1648/1736)

3^rd CHAPEL ON THE RIGHT

Fresco “Madonna and Sts. Francis and John the Baptist” XV sec. by an artist from Umbria or Lazio regions. It is known as Our Lady of Mercy or of the Gate because it was located until 1837 in a niche of the pronaos protected by a gate

On the right canvas “Consecration of the Pantheon” 1750

4^th AEDICULA ON THE RIGHT

Statue “S. Rasio martyr” in 1725 by Bernardino Cametti (1669/1736)

MAIN ALTAR

Rearranged at the beginning of the eighteenth century by Alessandro Specchi (1668/1729)

Copy of the Roman-Byzantine “Madonna and Child” of the seventh century coated in silver that had been placed on the altar during the consecration of the Pantheon to the Virgin Mary in the year 609. It replaced the original in the early twentieth century

During the refurbishment of Alessandro Specchi the relics of the saints Rasio and Anastasio were found and were put in a medieval bronze box which is shown to the faithful during the most important celebrations

Clement XI Albani (1700/21), who had wanted to carry out the work, commissioned then the statues of the two saints located in the aediculae to the right and to the left of the altar

He also commissioned the MOSAIC MADE OUT OF GOLD AND LAPIS LAZULI, which replaced a sixteenth century fresco by Giovanni Guerra

“Wooden Choir” 1840 by Luigi Poletti (1792/1869)

PANTHEON (first part)

PANTHEON

Piazza della Rotonda

The original Pantheon, rectangular, smaller and corresponding to the site of the porch was built in the years 27/25 BC at the behest of MARCUS VIPSANIUS AGRIPPA, Augustus' son-in-law

It was restored after the fire of the year 80 AD by Domitian (81/96) and again by Trajan (98/117)

According to ancient Roman tradition it was the Palus Caprae, the place where the apotheosis of Romulus happened, that is, his ascent to heaven carried by an eagle

The name comes from the Greek and it means all the gods, indicating the kind of worship that used to be carried out here

It was completely rebuilt in the years 118/125 by Hadrian (117/138), who perhaps was directly involved in the architectural design and revisited the original inscription confusing the dating for archeologists until the excavations in 1892

On that year the French architect Georges Chedanne found out that all the bricks, including the ones in the basement, have marks pinpointing the dating between 120 and 125 AD

The works were completed in the period of Antoninus Pius (138/161)

In 202 Septimius Severus (193/211) and his son Caracalla carried out restorations mentioned in the small relief of the pediment under the main one

Many scholars since the fifteenth century consider the Pantheon as the starting point and the most important work of all western architecture

“Notwithstanding the interpretation of the building as a sort of covered Forum where Adriano was holding court, the sacredness of the Pantheon seems unquestionable if the great oculus at the top of the vault has the function, typical of a templum, to maintain the relationship between heaven and earth. The interpretation of the building as a kind of microcosm on earth, in whose conception the Chaldean astrologer Dionysius of Miletus would have had part alongside Hadrian, has as its corollary the repeated and even authoritative modern attempts to interpret individual elements of the structure in an astral way: 7 exedras = 7 planets, 28 pilasters = 28 days of the lunar phases; 5 rows in the coffered vault = 5 planets except the sun and moon and so on” (Francesca de Caprariis and Fausto Zevi)

'The Pantheon is primarily a dynastic shrine with a cosmic vocation. Dio Cassius says that Adrian loved to administrate justice in it, so that it also had the palatial function of a Royal Hall. It is the largest covered space without intermediate supports that have been implemented before the invention of reinforced concrete” (Andrea Carandini)

Among the STATUES OF GODS there was the famous “Diana of Nemi” with a crown adorned with twenty-topaz, eighty other precious stones, a tiara, nine earrings, eight necklaces, and bracelets with beryl and other gems of which there is a written catalog

The statues in here would have been of course painted with bright colors, just like most of the statues in antiquity originally were

The Pantheon after the Fall of the Western Roman Empire

In 608 it was given by the Emperor Phocas to Pope Boniface IV (608/615) and in 609 it was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and all the martyrs as S. Maria ad Martyres (St. Mary near the Martyrs)

It is said that on this occasion Pope Boniface IV brought from the catacombs twenty-eight wagons full of bones of martyrs that were buried in the altar area

The emperor of the Byzantium, Constantius II (641/668), in 663 stripped it of the gilded bronze covering of the roof which was redone in lead at the behest of Gregory III (731/741) in 735

It ended up becoming a palace with additional buildings around it and it was even used as a papal residence by Anastasius IV (1153/54)

In 1625 Pope Urban VIII Barberini (1623/44) took the bronze coating the beams of the porch (about 200 long tons - about 220 short tons) to make 80 cannons for Castel Sant'Angelo and the columns of the canopy of S. Peter's Basilica

He also had the column on the left corner replaced and had Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598/1680) build in 1626/27 two bell-towers known as “donkey ears” who were destroyed in 1882

The removal of the bronze by Urban VIII resulted in the famous lampoon written on the “talking statue” Pasquino: “In Rome, what the barbarians didn't do, the Barberini did”

Alexander VII Chigi (1655/67) replaced other two columns on the left side and had the level of the square lowered. It is the lowest point of Rome, 13.40 m (44 feet) above sea level

Clement IX Rospigliosi (1667/69) in 1668 surrounded the porch with a fence to keep out the market that took place on the square

Pius VII Chiaramonti (1800/23) began restorations and Pius IX Mastai-Ferretti (1846/78) continued the job renewing part of the interior floor

In 1870 it became the sanctuary of the kings of Italy

In the years 1881/83 it was restored by removing the fence, isolating the sides, digging around it and demolishing the two bell-towers

In 1906 the square was paved with wood from Argentina trees donated by the Italian emigrants “to surround with religious silence the venerated tombs of the first kings of Italy” Naturally, the wooden floor did not last long

The Pantheon was for centuries the scene of actual staged events in the days of religious celebration of the Assumption of Mary and the Ascension of Christ: statues of Mary and Christ were raised to the sky through the large hole in the dome, creating an evocative dramatic effect

During the celebration of Pentecost, an impressive ceremony is still celebrated nowadays during which rose petals are thrown inside through the hole of the dome with the symbolic meaning of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the faithful

At the beginning of the seventeenth century a butcher shop run by a couple used to sell very successfully sausages of incredible and peculiar quality in Piazza della Rotonda

Investigators of Urban VIII discovered that the incredible and peculiar quality was due to the fact that the sausages were made of human flesh: the couple used to draw the victims in the basement of their shop and there they would kill them and turn into sausages. They were sentenced to death and executed in 1638

WEDEKIND PALACE

PALAZZO WEDEKIND

Piazza Colonna 366

1838 Pietro Camporese the Younger (1792/1873) as the Post Office building for Gregory XVI Cappellari (1831/46)

Camporese built it after having demolished a building of 1659 belonging to the Ludovisi family, in turn, built on medieval houses

It was renovated in 1879 by G.B. Giovenale (1849/1934) when it was purchased by the banker Wedekind

It is now the HEADQUARTERS OF THE NEWSPAPER IL TEMPO

This was the approximate area where once stood the TEMPLE OF MARCUS AURELIUS of which no trace remains

Twelve pillars in the PORTICO of which “Eleven ancient columns” in Carrara marble, found in 1817 in the ruins of the city of Veii

The four columns on each side of the main entrance are also ancient and were originally on the sides of the door of the Basilica of St. Paul destroyed by fire in 1823

“In 1880, under the portico was opened the Sommariva Cafè, called 'alle colonne' (at the columns), a meeting place for Romans night owls. The so called Kellerine used to serve here, in imitation of the Viennese Beer Houses, waitresses in Bavarian costume which were a first for Rome. The one of them who was the most successful was a French girl named Hannah. Curious people that did not want to spend for drinks were content to crowd in front of the entrance for the busty girls dressed in black, with cuffs and white apron, moving between the tables smiling, collecting substantial tips” (Cinzia Dal Maso - specchioromano.it)

VISCARDI CELSI PALACE

PALAZZO VISCARDI CELSI

Corso Vittorio Emanuele II 18

End of 1500 for the Celsi family

FAÇADE renewed in 1678 by Giovanni Antonio De Rossi (1616/95)

When the Celsi family finished in the early 1700s, it passed to the Viscardi family who changed the entire façade

Today it belongs to the Mercantili Bernetti family

RECTANGULAR COURTYARD

Ancient sculptures and a fountain composed of a “Strigillated sarcophagus with lion heads” that serves as a tank in which water flows from the mouth of a mask

ROOM WITH ARCHITECTURAL PERSPECTIVES

Beautifully painted by Giovanni Paolo Pannini (1691/1765)

“His importance consisted in the timely reception of the necessity, even in his specific genre, to break away from the drama and rhetoric of his predecessors of the seventeenth century, by means of a language that would be more agile and brilliant, implemented with a painting drive loose and mushy. The technical implementation is coupled, however, with taste of a man of theater, who knows how to make come alive his whims with the basic animation of human presence and of subsidiary details, informing the viewer of the memory or of the suggestions of a very much alive rapport, lived in direct contact with his views in the eternal city. His views, in fact, with their subtle balance between reality and fantasy, are always on a human scale, not taking the ever looming and impending timeless grandeur of Piranesi” (Giancarlo Sestieri)

VIDONI PALACE

PALAZZO VIDONI

Corso Vittorio Emanuele II 116

Built in1515 as Palazzo Caffarelli for Bernardino Caffarelli

Giorgio Vasari attributed to Lorenzo Lotti aka Lorenzetto (1490/1541) who is said to have followed the advice of Raffaello Sanzio (Raphael) (1483/1520)

Expanded in 1550 and in 1770 by Nicola Giansimoni (active from 1766/d. 1800) for the Stoppani family

At the end of the eighteenth century it was bought by Cardinal Pietro Vidoni. Later it belonged to the Giustiniani Bandini family

The original FAÇADE is on Via del Sudario

It was raised with an EXTRA FLOOR and given a NEW FAÇADE ON CORSO VITTORIO EMANUELE II in the years 1886/87 by Francesco Settimj (active 1876/88), who opened a new main entrance in what was once the back of the building

Here took place the historic meeting between Pope Paul III (1534/49) and the German Emperor Charles V key to future relations between empire and papacy

It was the German Embassy and the administrative headquarters of the National Fascist Party. At that time it was renamed PALAZZO DEL LITTORIO

At the end of the Second World War it was the headquarters of the French Army

Now it houses the Ministry for Reforms and Innovation in Public Administration

In the foundations of the palace the “talking” statue Abate Luigi was found. It originally decorated the Curia of Pompey over which the palace was built

ROOM CHARLES V

In the frieze paintings “Stories of Charles V” by the school of Pietro Bonaccorsi aka Perin del Vaga (1501/47)

ROOM OF MIRRORS

Also called the Lady's Cabinet, the lady being the Duchess Giustiniani Bandini. A delightful delirium of Rococo style

Ceiling “Cupid with Doves” by Prospero Piatti (1842/1902)

ROOM OF AUDIENCES

Ceiling “Allegory of painting, sculpture and architecture” maybe by Anton Raphael Mengs (1728/79), more likely by Tommaso Maria Conca (1734/1822) who was a pupil of his uncle, the great Sebastiano Conca

VEROSPI PALACE

PALAZZO VEROSPI

Via del Corso 374

In 1565 the Verospi family bought a house and later the building was expanded and renovated by Girolamo Rainaldi (1570/1655)

Completed in about 1610 by Onorio Longhi (1568/1619) who made courtyard, loggia and gallery

Restored at the beginning of the eighteenth century by Alessandro Specchi (1668/1729)

At the end of 1800s it was raised of one floor

On the front there is a plaque commemorating the stay of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792/1822)

The palace belonged in the nineteenth century to the Torlonia family and since 1902 it belongs to the Italian bank CREDITO ITALIANO (now Unicredit)

LOGGIA

Frescos “Apollo and the Gods of Mount Olympus” 1607/08 spectacular masterpiece by Francesco Albani (1578/1660) for Cardinal Fabrizio Verospi

“The feverish knowledge of the almost mythical, to him, Raphael is transformed, because of the obvious imitation of compositional scheme, in the decoration of the gallery of Palazzo Verospi. Francesco Albani there follows the partition wall and the same scenes from the Loggia of Raphael in the Farnesina Villa. But the center rectangle of the vault (between Hesperus and Lucifer, Apollo goes from Spring and Summer to Autumn and Winter to signify the Allegory of Time) is a newer and yet nostalgic temptation to be returned to the ancient flavor of a Hellenistic cameo. Precious memories of culture and classical ardor, steeped in the absolute modernity of a new landscape” (Antonio Boschetto - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)

VENEZIA PALACE - MUSEUM OF VENEZIA PALACE (third part)

Altoviti Room

Frescoes and stuccos detached from the studio destroyed in 1888 of the Florentine banker Bindo Altoviti near Ponte Sant'Angelo and restored in 2004:

“Inventions of the twelve months” with, at the center, “Homage to Ceres” and at the short ends “Arno River crowned by Florence” and “River Tiber crowned by Rome” 1553 by Giorgio Vasari (1511/74)

Pastels

Twenty-two pastels 1700/mid-1800s including “Woman with child dressed in a Turkish way”, “Portrait of Maria Leczczyuska”, “Portrait of Mr. Kinchant in hunting costume”, “Tsarina Maria Fiodorowna” maybe by G.B. Lampi

On display there are also fans and miniatures, and at the center of the room, a painted Neapolitan sedan

Room 10 - Wooden Statues of the German School

“Virgin Mary” end of the fifteenth century maybe by Jorg Syrlin the Younger (about 1455/after 1521)

“St. Helena” early 1500 by Ivo Strigel (1430/1516)

Table carved early 1500 with “Death of the Virgin Mary”

“St. Michael defeating Satan” by Michael Pacher

Corridor of the Cardinals

Collection of pottery and porcelain from Austria, Germany, England, Japan, Russia, China and Italy, including “St. Peter” and “St. Andrew” half of 1700s by the manufacture of Capodimonte

Room 12 - Middle Ages

Plate of colored enamel “Christ Pantocrator” about XII/XIII century

“The plate, of considerable size, was accidentally found in Rome near S. Maria in Trastevere (...). This is a great product of medieval art made with a unique and highly refined technique. The hieratic pose of the figure was considered a hint of the Byzantine origin of this Christ Pantocrator, even if the art historians have repeatedly considered the enamel similar to the products of the school of Limoges. Recently the work has been attributed to a workshop active in central-southern Italy in the fourteenth century” (Official website of the Museum of Palazzo Venezia - www.museopalazzovenezia.beniculturali.it)

Byzantine ivories “Casanatense Triptych with Deesis (intercession) with Christ, the Virgin, St. John the Baptist and other saints” of the tenth century made for the emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus

“Wedding Box” with reliefs representing the stories of David

“Terracina Chest” piece of furniture of the tenth or eleventh century in which vestments and liturgical documents were kept

“It is one of the oldest chest extant today (...). The theme of the eternal battle between Good and Evil is the basis of the fight scenes inserted within the arches that decorate the panels, and the same meaning is also emphasized by the Original Sin of Adam and Eve in the center of the lower part. There are many influences that are gathered in this chest, both of Western and Eastern origin” (Official website of the Museum of Palazzo Venezia - www.museopalazzovenezia.beniculturali.it)

Room 14

Four reliefs with “History of St. Jerome” by Mino da Fiesole (1429/84) formerly in S. Maria Maggiore

Barsanti Collection

1100 bronzes donated in 1934 by the antiquarian Alfredo Barsanti including “Aries” by Andrea Briosco aka Riccio (about 1470/1532)

Bronze Pieces

113 bronzes pieces donated in 1963 by Ambassador Giacinto Auriti including “Bagpiper” and “Wanderer” by Jean Boulogne aka Giambologna (1529/1608)

“Female Bust” by François Duquesnoy (1597/1643)

“Reliefs of the portrait of Clement X Altieri (1670/76)” by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598/1680)

Models in Terracotta

“Two plates with stories of St. Mark” by Jacopo Tatti aka Jacopo Sansovino (1486/1570)

“Head of Christ” about 1506 by Baccio da Montelupo (1469/about 1523)

Studies for the Trevi Fountain: “Ocean” by Pietro Bracci (1700/73) and “Abundance” by Filippo Della Valle (1698/1768)

Various models by Alessandro Algardi (1598/1654)

“Head of Black Man” for the fountain in Piazza Navona, “Angel holding the sign INRI for the Cross of Jesus” for Ponte Sant'Angelo and “Golden Papier Mache with Maria Raggi” for S. Maria sopra Minerva by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598/1680)

“Head of Seneca” maybe by Guido Reni (1575/1642)

“St. Eustace among the lions of St. Agnes in Agony” by Melchiorre Caffà (1636/67)

In this collection there are also works by:

Ercole Ferrata (1610/86), Antonio Giorgetti (active since 1660/d. 1669), Pierre Legros (1666/1719), Camillo Rusconi (1658/1728), Giuseppe Mazzuoli (1644/1725), Cosimo Fancelli (1620/88), Camillo Pacetti (1758/1826), Francesco Mochi (1580/1654), Pierre-Étienne Monnot (1657/1733) e Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741/1828)

Lapidarium

In the upper gallery impressive collection of marble fragments ranging from antiquity to the Renaissance

Odescalchi Armory

Incredible collection of arms and armor that counts about 1,200 pieces put together by Prince Ladislao Odescalchi (1846/1922) the same man who founded in 1888 and named after himself Ladispoli, town of 42.000 inhabitants 20 miles from Rome

Studio Rooms

Collection of silver about 800 pieces of the period 1500s/1800s from northern Europe, Russia and Italy

Collection of oriental porcelain and glass about 150 pieces of the period 1400s/1700s from Venice, Persia and China

Collection of oriental porcelain about 400 pieces of the period 1600s/1800s from China and Japan

Collection of early medieval and medieval European porcelain and majolica

Paintings Section “The Incredulity of St. Thomas” by the Dutchman Dirk Van Baburen (about 1595/1624) and “Catherine II of Russia” about 1763 by Stefano Torelli (1712/84)

VENEZIA PALACE - MUSEUM OF VENEZIA PALACE (second part)

MUSEO DI PALAZZO VENEZIA

Museum of Venezia Palace

In the rooms of the Cybo Apartment and in the premises of the Palazzo Venezia formerly Viridarium of Paul II Barbo (1464/71), which was dismantled and moved in 1911 of about 100 m (330 feet)

Ceilings 1916 by Ludovico Seitz (1844/1908) in imitation of the style of the sixteenth century

VESTIBULE and ANTEROOM

“Bust of Pope Paul II” by the workshop of Paolo Taccone aka Paolo Romano (about 1415/77)

Venetian Paintings

“Double Portrait” about 1502 maybe by Giorgio Zorzi or Giorgio da Castelfranco aka Giorgione (1477-78/1510)

Mysterious and extremely beautiful painting where the light shines differently on the two characters, creating an effect of almost photographic realism

The young man in the foreground holds a wild orange bitter and sweet at the same time that the Renaissance was associated with the sufferings and the joys of love

“Madonna and Child” and “Head of a Young Woman” maybe by Antonio Pisano aka Pisanello (about 1390/about 1455)

The head of a young woman maybe was part of the lost decoration of the Basilica of St. John Lateran that Pisanello had carried out with Gentile da Fabriano in the first half of the fifteenth century and which was destroyed during the works of Francesco Borromini for the Jubilee of 1650

“Madonna and Child” by Paolo Veneziano (active about 1320/62)

Emilia-Romagna Paintings

“Crucifixion” first half of 1400s by Stefano da Ferrara

There are few biographical information regarding this painter and there is much uncertainty in the attributions. In this painting the expressions of torment of the faces are remarkable and innovative

“Christ Carrying the Cross” by Bernardino Zaganelli (about 1465/about 1511)

“Adoration of the Magi” by Lorenzo Sabatini (about 1530/76)

“Pieta” about 1579 by Lelio Orsi (1511/87)

“In this work there are influences of Correggio's poetry, especially in the pathos expressed by the figure of St. John the Evangelist, whereas the plasticity of the body of Christ is livid expression of a strong influence by Michelangelo, disseminated through engravings. Not to mention that from an elaboration of an idea by Michelangelo, namely the Deposition for Vittoria Colonna, comes the pose of Christ lying in the lap of the Mother” (Official website of the Museum of Palazzo Venezia - www.museopalazzovenezia.beniculturali.it)

Lazio, Umbria and Marche Regions Paintings

“Head of the Redeemer” from an artist of the school of Pietro de' Cerroni aka Pietro Cavallini (about 1240/about 1325)

“Great Painted Cross” from the church S. Tommaso dei Cenci

Processional banner “Virgin Mary of Mercy” by the Master of Staffolo

Rooms 4 and 5 - Tuscan Paintings

“Marriage of St. Catherine” by the Master of the Coronation of Christ Church

Small panel “Prophet Hosea” by Gherardo di Jacopo aka Starnina (active 1387/1409)

“Nativity” end of 1400s by the school of Filippo Lippi and Pesellino with a portrait of Lorenzo the Magnificent in the lower right

Remarkable “Head of the Redeemer” maybe by Benozzo di Lese aka Benozzo Gozzoli (1420/97), more probably by Fra' Giovanni da Fiesole aka Fra Angelico (about 1395/1455), maybe from the destroyed Chapel of Eugene IV Coldumer (1431/47)

“Episodes from the life of St. Catherine of Alexandria” by Bicci di Lorenzo (1373/1452)

“Vision of St. Bernard” by Francesco di Ubertino Verdi aka Bachiacca (1494/1557)

“Madonna and Child with Angels and Saints” by Mariotto di Cristofano (1393/1457)

Paintings on Canvas

Oldest and largest part of the collection added in 1919 from the collection Ruffo of Motta Bagnara:

“Marriage of St. Catherine” by Ciro Ferri (1634/89)

“Dance of the Nymphs” 1725 by Donato Creti (1671/1749)

“Restless temperament, haunted by an almost obsessive anxiety for perfection, Creti offers a varied range of expressive accents ranging from Veronese inclinations to his own classicism sometimes full of mannerism moods, some other times sublimated in purist formulas, almost neoclassical, largely ahead of its time. This work is a significant blend of his experiences: the party atmosphere is evoked with a Frenchified gallant grace, the traditional Arcadian landscape here is imbued with a rediscovery of more refined ways of the Emilian Mannerism, which give a more decanted and thin grace to this idyll” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)

“David and Abigail” and “Finding of Moses” by Giuseppe Maria Crespi known as the Spanish (1665/1747) from Bologna

“Dead Christ” by Orazio Borgianni (1578/1616)

“The sons of Francesco Orsini” 1597 maybe by Tiberio Titi (1578/1637), the son of the painter Santi di Tito and official portraitist of the Medici Grand Dukes

“Wedding at Cana” by Francesco Solimena (1657/1747)

“Cleopatra” by Carlo Maratta (1625/1713) who represented the Egyptian queen with the face of his daughter Faustina as she dissolves a pearl in vinegar to prove her indifference to luxury

“St. Peter weeping” by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri aka Guercino (1591/1666)

Golden terracotta “Baptism of Jesus” and “Terracotta bust of Pope Innocent X Pamphilj (1644/55)” by Alessandro Algardi (1598/1654)

VENEZIA PALACE - MUSEUM OF VENEZIA PALACE (first part)

PALAZZO VENEZIA

Piazza Venezia 3

The first great work of civic Renaissance architecture in Rome, begun in the years 1455/64 for Cardinal Pietro Barbo

Expanded over the years 1465/68 after the election of Cardinal Pietro Barbo as Pope Paul II Barbo (1464/71)

1468/71 WING ALONG VIA DEL PLEBISCITO and COURTYARD which remained incomplete. Later on Cardinal Marco Barbo and Cardinal Lorenzo Cybo, nephew of Innocent VIII Cybo (1484/92), completed it

Intervention of Pope Paul III Farnese (1534/49) who connected it to his tower on Capitol Hill

It was used as a summer residence of the popes, before the construction of Palazzo del Quirinale, until 1564, when Pius IV Medici (1559/64) sold it partly to Venice to be the residence of their Ambassadors

It later became wholly owned by the Republic of Venice

In 1797 it passed to France and in 1814 to Austria

In 1916 it was confiscated by the Italian government and, after a restoration in the years 1924/30, it became a museum

Between 1929 and 1943 the reception rooms housed the office of Benito Mussolini and the Fascist Grand Council here on June 25, 1943 voted against Mussolini and took his political power away from him

The architect of the palace is unknown, but it is the first example in Rome from the model of a Renaissance Tuscan building according to the principles of Leon Battista Alberti

In the VAULT OF THE VESTIBULE there is the first example ever of modern use of cast concrete, a construction technique that had not been used since the ancient times: a crucial step for the development of technical architecture, fruit and expression of Western civilization

Among the artists who worked here for sure, using also travertine taken from the Colosseum: Giacomo da Pietrasanta (active since 1452/d. about 1497), Francesco da Borgo S. Sepolcro and Meo del Caprino

BALCONY

1714 for the Venetian ambassador Niccolò Duodo

CHAPEL OF OUR LADY OF GRACE

1600, rebuilt in 1911

Altar 1682 by G.B. Contini (1641/1723)

“Madonna and Child” by Bernardino Gagliardi (1609/1660)

On the right “Flight into Egypt” by Francesco Cozza (1605/82)

GARDEN

Fountain “Marriage of Venice to the Sea” 1729 by Carlo Monaldi (about 1690/1760), restored in 1930 by Giovanni Prini (1877/1958)

LOGGIA

1467/68 maybe by Baccio Pontelli (about 1450/92)

STAIRCASE

1930 by Luigi Marangoni (1872/1950)

ROOMS OF THE PAULINE PALACE

Royal Hall, Hall of Battles (originally Consistory), Hall of the Globe and Apartment Barbo subdivided and altered over the eighteenth and nineteenth century, restored in the years 1924/30

These rooms are currently used for temporary exhibitions

The painted decoration was widely integrated

In the Hall of the Globe, with the famous balcony from which Mussolini used to address the Italians, the painted architecture is attributed to Andrea Mantegna

VARESE PALACE

PALAZZO VARESE

Via Giulia 16

Built in 1495

Rebuilt incorporating earlier buildings in the years 1617/18 by Carlo Maderno (1556/1629) for Monsignor Diomede Varese

At the end of the seventeenth century it was acquired by the Atti family, and, when their line ended in 1770, it was occupied by the Congregation of Propaganda Fide

In the last century it was bought by the Mancini Jacobini family

“Maderno is remembered chiefly for two Roman works: the façade of S. Susanna and the completion of St. Peter's in the Vatican, but the catalog of his work is large and complex, and includes not only religious buildings. He was indeed one of the protagonists the process of renewal of residential and civil architecture of the early seventeenth century, as evidenced by his work in several Roman palaces. (...) Many attributive issues are still open: the fundamental point of reference is the 1971 monograph of Hibbard, the conclusions of which were, in some cases, updated and corrected by more recent studies (...). Hibbard had spread to the most the catalog of his works, intentionally confirming the attribution of numerous buildings, religious and civil, in which the actual contribution - if any - of Maderno was made​more complex by the intervention of several artists“ (Maria Cristina Loi - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)

VALENTINI PALACE

PALAZZO VALENTINI

Via IV Novembre 119

1583/85 Fra' Domenico Paganelli for Cardinal Michele Bonelli nephew of St. Pius V Ghislieri (1566/72) and known as Palazzo Bonelli

Expanded in the first half of the seventeenth century maybe by Francesco Peparelli (active from about 1626/d. 1641)

In the years 1705/13 it was rented to the Marquis Francesco Maria Ruspoli who opened a theater in the building and hosted musicians such as George Frideric Handel, Alessandro Scarlatti and Angelo Corelli

In 1752 it was bought by Cardinal Giuseppe Renato Imperiali who arranged a rich library with 24,000 volumes also visited by Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717/78)

From 1827 it belonged to the banker Vincenzo Valentini who had the FAÇADE FACING THE FORUM OF TRAJAN built in about 1830 by Filippo Navone (active first half of XIX century)

The Valentini family had in it a great picture gallery and lived here until 1870

Since 1873 it is the headquarters of the PROVINCE OF ROME, which transformed the courtyard and the interior in 1878 by Luigi Gabet (active 1858/78)

In the COURTYARD there are four ancient statues with modern changes:

“Valentini Aphrodite”

“Man with breastplate and head of Marcus Aurelius” maybe not relevant

“Hermes of Andros with head of Pertinax” not relevant

“Naked man with head of Caracalla” not relevant

The palace houses a collection of ancient statues and paintings which belonged to Vincenzo Valentini with works by artists such as Carlo Cignani and Ludovico Stern (1709/77) as well as many anonymous seventeenth century artists 

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS

1,800 square meters (20,000 square feet) residential district comprising

Two richly decorated houses (domus) of the fourth century AD maybe owned by a judge or a senator: walls decorated with polychrome panels and polychrome mosaic floors

Small private baths

The excavations were made from 2006 to 2010

Landfill of the sixteenth century known as BUTTO (throw) where ceramic plates were discovered, as well as everyday objects and even food scraps

Two sculptures of “Togati” of the second century AD without head that had been used as a fill for foundations in the sixteenth century

Stretch of paved Roman road very well preserved

Two “Fragments of huge monolithic columns” in Egyptian granite similar to the one near the Column of Trajan and probably part of the Temple of Trajan, whose exact topographic location is still the focus of academic debate. The columns had to have a minimum height of 15 m (49 feet) and perhaps it was even 20 m (65 feet) high

The area is beautifully accessible with very effective reconstructions using virtual reality and an exciting archaeological trail that goes up to the front of the Trajan's Column

An example that should be imitated in many other archaeological sites, almost a waking dream for those who love Rome, made possible thanks to the initiative of the great popularizer Piero Angela

TORLONIA PALACE

PALAZZO TORLONIA

Via della Conciliazione 30

Begun about 1500 by Cardinal Adriano da Corneto Castellesi secretary of Alexander VI Borgia (1492/1503) with a project maybe by Donato Bramante (1444/1514)

The works were completed in about 1520 maybe by Andrea Bregno (1418/1503)

It was donated unfinished in 1505 to the King of England, Henry VIII, who had commissioned the now disappeared external paintings to Polidoro Caldara aka Polidoro da Caravaggio

It was the seat of the English Embassy and was seized by the apostolic chamber after the Anglican schism

Between 1609 and 1635 it belonged to the Borghese family

In 1760 it was bought by the French bankers Giraud and was called PALAZZO GIRAUD

Since 1820 it belongs to the Torlonia family who restored it and built the rear wing. They are still the owners to this day