Rome National Gallery. Palazzo Barberini: from the papal residence to the National Gallery of Ancient Art From the papal residence to the National Gallery
Rome National Gallery
Rome is called the ancient and eternal city. Its thousand-year-old monuments are rightly considered the heritage of all mankind. Millions of people from all over the world come to Rome every year to see them. And also to see the famous works of art collected in its rich museums. One of them is the Roman National Gallery.
It is housed in two buildings, one of which is Palazzo Barberini. In 1625, Pope Urban V (of the Barberini family) bought the palace from the Duke of Sforza for his nephews, and the reconstruction of this palace immediately began. The old building plan was preserved, and stones and marble from the destroyed Colosseum were used for the new construction.
The famous artist Pietro da Cortona took a great part in the interior decoration of the palace. To this day, his famous painting of the ceiling of the main hall has been preserved in the Barberini Palace, where Christian and mythological allegories are intertwined in complex paintings full of unbridled imagination. The ceilings of other halls of the palace were also covered with paintings, and their walls were decorated with tapestries.
These tapestries were produced by the factory, which was located in a neighboring building and was founded in 1635 by one of the pope’s nephews, Cardinal Francesco Barberini. He also collected a rich library, in which, among priceless manuscripts and manuscripts, equally priceless letters from the most prominent people of that time and previous eras were kept. In 1902, this library was transferred to the Vatican, and the palace itself was acquired by the Italian state in 1930. Soon its second floor with the famous paintings of Pietro da Cortona was given over to the National Gallery.
The Gallery's art collections arose from the merger of several large private collections, and its foundation was laid in the 18th century by Cardinal Nero Corsini, whose ancient palace is the second part of the Roman National Gallery. The cardinal bought his palace in 1737 and immediately ordered the famous architect Ferdinando Fuga to remodel it. To decorate the halls and rooms of the new palace, by order of the cardinal, the best works of fine and applied art were purchased, and by 1740 Corsini’s collection numbered 600 paintings.
Almost a century and a half later, princes Tommaso and Andrea Corsini sold their palace to the state and gave it a valuable collection of paintings. The palace housed the Accademia dei Lincea and a collection of paintings and sculptures. This collection was then replenished with the collection of Duke G. Torlonia, and then 187 paintings from the Galleria del Monte di Pietà were added to this collection. This is how several large collections came together in Palazzo Corsini, so the question immediately arose about combining them into one collection. And in 1895, the National Gallery of Ancient Art was formed, which immediately began to be replenished through purchases and gifts from private individuals.
The Palazzo Barberini now houses a collection of paintings from before the 17th century, while the Palazzo Corsini exhibits more recent paintings. Despite the fact that extensive alterations have been made to the Palazzo Corsini, many of the paintings are very difficult to see, distinguish and admire, as they are located at an almost dizzying height. In the room dedicated to the work of artists from the school of Caravaggio, the paintings almost touch the ceiling. Such placement makes it very difficult for visitors to see the paintings from the lighting angle that the artists dreamed of when creating their works.
And yet the National Gallery reveals such treasures to visitors that all minor inconveniences do not count. And one of these masterpieces is Titian’s famous painting “Venus and Adonis,” painted in 1554 by order of King Charles V. This painting was such a stunning success that the artist repeated this plot with minor variations several times. The Roman National Gallery houses just one of these options.
Titian took the plot for the painting from ancient mythology. Turning to the theme of the love of Venus and Adonis, Titian develops this motif in his own way, introducing into the canvas a dramatic motif of experience, which was characteristic of the later works of the great master. Venus is depicted at the moment when she tries to hold Adonis in her arms, striving to the call of the hunting horn. Due to the sudden movement of the goddess, a golden vessel overturned, and a string of precious pearls came out of her hair.
The general mood of the picture is alarming, and it is in tune with the agitated landscape with dark trees, a vague outline of the hills, a sky covered with heavy clouds, through which uneven sunlight barely streams.
The painting comes from the collection of Queen Christina of Sweden. After her death in 1689, it was in several collections, and then was acquired by the Duke of Torlonia and donated by him to the state.
Tintoretto is represented in the National Gallery with the painting “Christ and the Sinner,” imbued with a state of anxious tension. It depicts the moment when Christ, in response to a woman’s accusation of the Fall, offers to throw a stone at her.
Depicting the gospel story, Tintoretto is interested not so much in the event itself as in the state of the human crowd that gripped it after the words of Jesus Christ. The anxiety that gripped people also fills nature. Despite the fact that the action takes place under a gigantic portico, the viewer gets the impression that it is taking place in an endless space. This is facilitated by the sea visible in the spread of giant arches, merging with the expanse of the sky, along which lead clouds float. To increase expression, Tintoretto uses the technique of lengthening human figures, characteristic of mannerism.
El Greco uses the same technique in his canvases. Greek by origin, he was born in Crete and here, apparently, he studied with local icon painters. After 1560 he went to Venice and then moved to Spain. Here he first settles at the court of King Philip II, but not recognized by the king and his court, he moves to Toledo, the old capital of Spain.
At the end of 1596, El Greco received an order for three large canvases for the altar of the School of the Shoed Augustinians of Doña Maria of Aragon in Madrid - “The Annunciation”, “The Adoration of the Shepherds” and “The Baptism of Christ”. Subsequently, all three paintings ended up scattered among different museums, and the Roman National Gallery now houses two of them - “The Adoration of the Shepherds” and “The Baptism of Christ.” According to some art historians, they are a repetition of altar paintings or sketches for them.
The action of the gospel plot of the painting “The Adoration of the Shepherds” takes place against the backdrop of an area with fantastic ruins. The arches of the destroyed building, as if swayed by the wind, shot up, and a dark sky with flashes of lightning appeared in the opening of the ruins. The action itself - the shepherds’ worship of the infant Christ - takes place in the foreground of the picture.
El Greco attaches the main importance to color. The combination of Madonna's bright pink dress with the lemon yellow shirt of the shepherd standing next to her, the ultramarine clothing of the angel and the cool green color of the other shepherd's dress creates an unusual range of color shades. The colors seem to fade out, then flare up again with a bright light and reach their greatest intensity of glow in the sheets on which the divine baby lies, and which emit a silvery glow around him.
The action of the painting “The Baptism of Christ” takes place as if in the other world. At the top, flooded with a bright stream of sunlight, surrounded by angels, God sits, and in the foreground at the bottom of the picture, a baptism ceremony takes place. Next to the kneeling Christ there is a disproportionately small figurine of an angel holding the Savior’s clothes above the head.
El Greco resorts here to his favorite technique of combining figures of different scales. The entire figurative structure of the painting, with a pronounced, sharp deformation of human figures and the extraordinary richness of bright, seemingly luminous colors, reaches its utmost expressiveness on the canvas.
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One of the youngest art collections of the capital is located in its eastern part in Palazzo Barberini. The creations of Italian painters from the 16th to 19th centuries, the magnificent collection of porcelain, majolica and antique furniture make an indelible impression on every visitor to the National Gallery of Ancient Art.
The huge palace building, a majestic mixture of Baroque and Mannerism, is located on the Street of the Four Fountains in the east of Rome. The palazzo, which now houses the National Gallery of Ancient Art, was intended to become the papal residence and another symbol of the greatness of the Catholic Church.
Pages of history
From the very beginning, the Barberini Palace was designed almost as a royal residence, since it was here that Pontiff Urban VIII was going to live with his family. High-ranking guests were also supposed to be received here, and therefore the building had to be majestic and glorify the entire Barberini family.
In the Middle Ages, the territory where the palazzo is located today belonged to the wealthy Sforza family. It was they who built the first small palazzeto here in 1549. But in 1625, financial difficulties forced Cardinal Alessandro Sforza to sell the lands to Maffeo Barberini, then already elected to the position of Pope. Urban VIII immediately began to rebuild the palace, work lasting from 1627 to 1634. Initially, the management of the project was entrusted to Carlo Maderno, he was replaced by Francesco Borromini, and construction was completed by Gianlorenzo Bernini with the assistance of Pietro da Cortona.
The large building of the palace consisted of a main building, to which two side wings adjoined. For the first time in the history of the papal capital, a large park was laid out around the Barberini Palace, but over time, however, it was destroyed. To ensure that the construction of the new papal residence, which was carried out by Cardinal Francesco Barberini, was completed on time, Urban VIII even introduced new taxes throughout the country.
Construction work proceeded quickly. According to Borromini's design, the rear façade, windows and spiral staircase were first realized. Further on, in the left wing, Bernini's large staircase appeared, enclosed in a square well. Bernini also worked on the design of the front façade facing the Street of the Four Fountains. Now on this side there is the main entrance and a metal fence with eight pillars depicting the 19th century Atlantes, Francesco Azzurri.
Today's Via San Nicolo da Tolentino became the site for the stables, and from the modern Via Bernini there was a theater with a Manezhny courtyard. Unfortunately, all the buildings to the left of Piazza Barberini were destroyed during the construction of Via Barberini.
For decades, the Barberini family was famous for its philanthropic activities, and the current Barberini Gallery in the 17th century became a center of attraction for many representatives of the art world. Giovanni Ciampoli and Gabriello Chiabrera visited the Barberini salon, the author of the poem “The Wrath of the Gods” Francesco Bracciolini was a frequent guest here and, naturally, Lorenzo Bernini, who also turned out to be a good theater director, regularly visited the palazzo.
From the heights of today, Barberini's patronage of the arts looks like the use of artists to decorate the residence and exalt themselves. This can be felt very well in the left wing of the palace, the halls of which were painted by Pietro da Cortona. The huge ceiling lamp in the central salon on the second floor, called “The Triumph of Divine Providence,” is worthy of special attention. The fact that the giant painting is dedicated to the “holy family” is clearly demonstrated by the keys of Urban VIII, the papal tiara and the heraldic symbols of the Barberini bee. Another luxurious ceiling painted by Andrea Saki is called “The Triumph of Divine Wisdom.” Of course, it is also dedicated to Urban VIII.
The right wing of the palace can boast of no less luxurious decor. The best proof of this is the Marble Hall or Hall of Statues, which presented excellent examples of classical sculpture collected by the Barberini. The Hall of Statues was famous in Italy, as it once again demonstrated the superiority of the pontiff's family over mere mortals.
From 1627 to 1683, a workshop for making tapestries operated within the walls of the palace. It was from its walls that the first Flemish fabrics came out, decorating the walls of many Baroque buildings. These were real works of art: the tapestries were made according to da Cortona’s sketches under the direction of Giacoppo delle Rivere, who was specially invited from Flanders by Francesco Barberini.
On the top floor of the palace was the library of the pope's nephew Cardinal Francesco, which consisted of 10,000 manuscripts and 60,000 volumes.
The death of the pontiff in 1644 led to the confiscation of the palace, which was ordered by the next pope, Innocent. The heirs of Urban VIII were suspected of banal embezzlement. However, already in 1653 the majestic palazzo again became the property of the Barberini family.
The economic crisis of the early 20th century forced the heirs to abandon the “family nest.” In 1935 the old wing was purchased by the Finmare shipping company and completely rebuilt. The entire architectural complex was bought by the state in 1949, and in 1952 the Barberinis sold all the paintings and sculptures that belonged to the family. A little later, a Roman gallery was located in the left wing, and officers’ meetings of the armed forces were held in the right wing.
A little about the collection of the National Gallery of Ancient Art
The modern gallery of ancient art is located in two palaces at once: Palazzo Barberini and Palazzo Corsini. It was formed by the merger of several large private collections. The basis was the collection of works of art by Nero Corsini, a cardinal, whose family “nest” gave shelter to the second part of the collection. Nero Corsini acquired the palace in 1737, and all the sculptures, paintings and tapestries were bought to decorate the building. Already in 1740, his art collection numbered more than 600 works. A century and a half later, a magnificent collection of works of fine and applied art was donated to the state by Andrea and Tommaso Corsini. Somewhat later, the collection was supplemented by the collection of the Duke of Torlonia and 187 paintings from the Monte di Pietà gallery. These private collections were combined into one collection, and in 1895 the National Gallery of Ancient Art was located in the Palazzo Corsini, which eventually became part of the National Gallery of Rome.
At this stage, the Corsini Palace offers the public paintings from the period of the 17th - 18th centuries, and the Barberini Palace offers works by masters who worked during the Renaissance. The Barberini Gallery is especially proud of Raphael's Fornarina and Caravaggio's Judith and Holofernes. In addition to them, here you can enjoy the works of Tintoretto, Poussin, Titian, Guido Reni, Murillo, Rubens, Garofalo and other masters of the brush. 
Palazzo Barberini is located at Via delle Quattro Fontane, 13, 00186 Roma, Italy and welcomes visitors from 8.30 to 19.00, closed on Mondays.
Similar materials
One of the most visited and landmarks in Rome is the National Gallery of Ancient Art. The richest collections of works of art are collected here. The gallery occupies the Barberini Palace, located in the square of the same name, and the Corsini Palace, which is located on the opposite bank of the Tiber River, which crosses Rome.
Here you can get acquainted with the works of Filippo Lippi, who is a representative of Italian painting of the 15th century, as well as with the works of Raphael, Tintoretto, Titian, Bronzino, Andrea del Sarto and other Italian artists, both famous and unknown.
History of origin
The Barberini Palace, in which part of the Gallery is located, was built at the beginning of the 17th century (1633). More precisely, it was rebuilt from the Palace bought by Barberini from the Duke of Sforza.
In 1930, the building of the Barberini Palace was transferred to the state, which opened the National Gallery on its second floor.
The second palace that houses the Gallery is the Corsini Palace. It was built in the 15th century and belonged to Cardinal Riario. In the 18th century the building was rebuilt. The exhibition presented here is also called the Corsini Gallery. The Palace itself was built at the beginning of the 14th century (1519).
The basis of the collection of the National Gallery of Ancient Art was many works by artists that consisted of private collections. They were brought together by Cardinal Nero Corsini. He used them to decorate the palace he bought at the beginning of the 18th century and named after him. Corsini's descendants, Princes Andrea and Tommaso, handed over the Corsini Palace to the state, along with the collection of works of art that decorate it.
The official year of formation of the National Gallery of Ancient Art is 1895, when it united the collections collected in both Palaces.
Architecture
The Barberini Palace is the creation of the architect Carlo Maderno and his nephew Francesco Borromini, as well as the great Italian sculptor and artist Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini.
It is made in Baroque style. The exhibition on its first floor consists of a large collection of paintings from the 13th and 14th centuries, by Titian, El Greco and others.
The ceiling and walls of the Grand Salon of the Barberini Palace, where part of the exhibition of the National Gallery of Ancient Art is located, was painted by Pietro da Cortona. Here is his work of art entitled “Allegory of Divine Providence”, executed in the early 17th century.
In this part of the Gallery you can see the “snail-shaped” staircase, which was created by Borromini, as well as part of the Palestrina mosaic, the age of which is dated, by some scientists, to the first century BC.
The Corsini Palace is designed in a neoclassical style. It is decorated with balustrades and pilasters, as well as sculptures and the main staircase, which are the work of the architect Ferdinando Fugue.
Note to tourists
You can visit the National Gallery of Ancient Art daily from 08:30 to 19:30. Monday is considered a day off.
You can get here by buses No. 36, No. 38, No. 40, No. 90, No. 105 and others, as well as metro lines “A” and “B”.
Neighborhood
Not far from the Barberini Palace, which houses part of the National Gallery of Ancient Art, there is another National Gallery, which houses ancient art. It was discovered by Carlo Maderno at the beginning of the seventeenth century.
In the same area is the Church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, which is a striking architectural monument.
February 16, 2019
The project of the magnificent building, located today on the Via des Four Fountains, was developed by Carlo Maderno (1556-1629), whose name is inextricably linked with the implementation of the ideas of Bramante and Michelangelo when completing the facade of St. Peter's Basilica. Cardinal Maffeo Barberini, known as Pope Urban VIII, who headed the Papal Throne in 1623, commissioned the architect to rebuild the villa bought from the Sforza family to arrange his apartments in it, and also to use part of the building as a representative office of Tuscan families in Rome. Since then, Palazzo Barberini has become an integral part of the architectural heritage of the Eternal City, transforming over several centuries from the papal residence into the National Gallery of Ancient Art.
Palazzo Barberini
In his project, Maderno expanded the Renaissance building of the Villa Sforza, turning it into a real palace worthy of the most noble Roman families.
Palazzo Barberini
Bernini VS Borromini: collaborators or rivals
However, the architect did not have a chance to see the implementation of his plans with his own eyes. After his death in 1629, the work was led by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) in collaboration with Maderno's grandson, the sculptor Francesco Borromini (1599-1667). How accurately the original project of Carlo Maderno was preserved in the joint work of two architects is still debated by many researchers.
The contradictory attributes of some parts of the building are visible even at a superficial glance. Bernini prescribed the concept of creating a spacious loggia on the facade above the main entrance, a large hall and a monumental staircase in the left wing of the palace.
Bernini staircase
Fragment of Bernini's staircase
In contrast, Borromini erected an elegant spiral staircase leading to the upper floors in the right wing of the building, which later housed the library of the cardinal, collector of antiquities and philanthropist Francesco Barberini.
Fragment of the Borromini staircase
Frescoes for the Pope
To design the vault of the great hall, which occupies two entire floors of the palace in height, Pope Urban VIII invited the most revered artist, architect and sculptor of the Barberini family, Pietro da Cortona. The exceptional size of the room itself and the complexity of the plot of the monumental fresco “The Triumph of Divine Providence” required several years of complex work carried out by the master in the period 1632-1639.
Fresco by Pietro da Cortona in Palazzo Barberini
Fragment of the fresco by Pietro da Cortona “The Triumph of Divine Providence”
The artist expressed the apotheosis of Maffeo Barberini through an allegory of a number of depicted mythological figures. The central place in the scene is occupied by Providence, dressed in a golden mantle and surrounded by a halo of light, emphasizing the divine nature. With a gesture conveying the Truth, it welcomes many allegorical figures around - Prudence, Justice, Fairness, Mercy and Beauty. Below is a powerfully built naked god Chronos with wings - time devouring its children. To his right are the three Fates: Clotho, Atropo and Lacesi, holding in their hands, according to Roman mythology, the thread of human existence. To the left of the figure of Providence is Immortality approaching in greeting with a wreath of bright stars. The famous coat of arms of the Barberini family is a laurel wreath with three bees in the middle, according to the spiritual government of the pontiff.
Fresco "The Triumph of Divine Providence" 1632-1639
For the interior decoration of numerous rooms of the palace, Pietro da Cortona invited his student Giovanni Francesco Romanelli and the artist Andrea Sacchi (1599-1661). His fresco “The Triumph of Divine Wisdom” (1629-1633), painted at the request of Taddeo Barberini, the nephew of Pope Urban VIII, can still be seen today in one of the halls.
Fresco by Andrea Saki “The Triumph of Divine Wisdom” (1629-1633)
Around the Palazzo
An integral part of Maderno's project was the garden at the rear of the palace, decorated with flower beds and ornate hedges. Occupying a rather impressive area - from the Church of San Nicola da Tolentino on the north side to the intersection of the Four Fountains on the south, its territory housed the papal stables, the Manezhny Courtyard and even a theater.
To improve the vast territory, Cardinal Francesco Barberini, the Pope’s nephew, attracted the botanist and naturalist Cassiano dal Pozzo, who cultivated a large number of exotic plants and animals here, including deer, ostriches and camels. However, starting from the end of the 19th century, which was marked by the annexation of Rome to the Kingdom of Italy, the marginal plots of the Barberini Garden along via XX Settembre began to be sold for the development of ministerial buildings, and in 1936, by order of Mussolini, a significant part of the land plot was transferred to the ownership of Count Ascanio Savorgnian di Brazza. As a result, the magnificent garden today has quite miniature dimensions.
Over its long history, the Palazzo Barberini building itself has undergone virtually no changes. The only additions that decorated the entire palace complex were a fountain in front of the central entrance and an elegant metal fence designed by the architect Francesco Azzurri, developed by him in 1848.
Fountain at the entrance to the palace
The palace fence from the Four Fountains Street
The fence along the Street of Four Fountains and the main entrance gate were erected only in 1865. The monumental statues of the Atlanteans were sculpted for her by Scipione Tadolini (1822-1893), a hereditary architect of the famous family of sculptors for four generations, a student and spiritual heir of Antonio Canova.
Sculptures decorating the palace fence
Fence at the entrance to Palazzo Barberini
From the Papal Residence to the National Gallery
After the unification of Italy and the inclusion of Rome into the Kingdom, in the wake of large-scale transformations, the heirs of the Barberini family were involved in numerous land speculations, provoked by a lack of funds to maintain a luxurious residence. The magnificent park was divided into plots and sold off. The library, founded by Cardinal Francesco Barberini and containing more than 60 thousand volumes and manuscripts, became the property of the Vatican, not without compensation, along with some furniture items made according to Bernini’s sketches.
The advent of the 20th century also did not bring financial stability to the heirs of the eminent family. In the 30s, a significant part of the right wing of Palazzo Barberini had to be leased on a long-term basis to the Italian Ministry of the Armed Forces for an officers' club, and in 1949 the entire palace complex was purchased by the state in order to expand the National Gallery of Ancient Art (Gallerie Nazionali di Arte Antica di Roma) .
This is interesting!
The National Gallery of Ancient Art was officially founded in 1893, after Prince Corsini donated a large collection of paintings to the state. Initially it was located in his villa. Over time, the lack of free space to accommodate the constantly growing collection forced the Ministry of Cultural Heritage to look for new areas for it. Today the Gallery occupies two buildings - Palazzo Corsini and Palazzo Barberini.
The purchase of the building provided for the placement of the collection throughout the spacious halls of Palazzo Barberini, but a significant obstacle to this was the notorious officers' club of the armed forces, the lease with which expired only in 1953. Although the agreement was not renewed and no rent was collected until 1965, much of the building continued to be operated by the Department of Defense. Since 1974, this state of affairs has led to a real war between two government departments. Only in 1997, taking into account the upcoming anniversary year 2000, a memorandum of understanding was signed providing for the vacancy of the premises due to the need for restoration and restoration of the palace.
One of the halls of the palace
Between these events, in 1984, the Corsini collection was moved back to its original place in the villa, and the remaining collection of works of art was somewhat rearranged and left in the left wing of Palazzo Barberini.
In 2011, at the end of five years of restoration work, another floor was opened to the public in the palace, thus increasing the number of halls in it to 34.
An endless series of palace halls
