Odoardo Farnese (cardinal)

Odoardo Farnese (6 December 1573 – 21 February 1626) was an Italian nobleman, the second son of

Duchy of Parma and Piacenza for his nephew Odoardo

from 1622 to 1626.

Annibale Caracci

.

Cardinal Odoardo is probably best known today for commissioning the Bolognese artist

Farnese Gallery

in the same palace.

The Camerino

The Camerino was Farnese's private study. The subject of the central scene in the ceiling is The Choice of Hercules. The scene is surrounded by a painted frame, an example of quadro riportato, which gives the illusion of a framed oil painting hung on the ceiling when in reality both the scene and its frame were frescoed. This quadro riportato device was brought to fruition by Carracci in the Farnese Gallery a few years later.

In addition, Farnese commissioned various oil paintings from Carracci, including his Rinaldo and Armida now in the

Capodimonte Museum in Naples and Christ in Glory with Saints and Odoardo Farnese now in the Galleria Palatina in Florence. It was on Carracci's recommendation that he commissioned Domenichino to fresco the Chapel of St Nilo in the abbey at Grottaferrata.^[1] Farnese also commissioned Carracci's Sleeping Venus.^[2]

His patronage of architecture was less extensive but included the

church of the Gesu in Rome, by the architect Girolamo Rainaldi.^[3]