Palazzo Barberini
Palazzo Barberini | |
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General information | |
Architectural style | Baroque |
Location | Rome, Italy |
Coordinates | 41°54′13″N 12°29′25″E / 41.90361°N 12.49028°E |
Construction started | 1625 |
Completed | 1633 |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | Gian Lorenzo Bernini Carlo Maderno Francesco Borromini |
The Palazzo Barberini (English: Barberini Palace) is a 17th-century palace in Rome, facing the Piazza Barberini in Rione Trevi. Today, it houses the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, the main national collection of older paintings in Rome.
History
Around 1549
Three great architects worked to create the Palazzo, each contributing his own style and character to the building.[2] Carlo Maderno, then at work extending the nave of St Peter's, was commissioned to enclose the Villa Sforza within a vast Renaissance block along the lines of Palazzo Farnese;[3] however, the design quickly evolved into a precedent-setting combination of an urban seat of princely power combined with a garden front that had the nature of a suburban villa with a semi-enclosed garden.
Maderno began in 1627, assisted by his nephew Francesco Borromini. When Maderno died in 1629, Borromini was passed over and the commission to oversee construction was awarded to Bernini,[4] a young prodigy then better known as a sculptor. Borromini stayed on regardless and the two architects worked together, albeit briefly, on this project and at the Palazzo Spada. Works were completed by Bernini in 1633.
The palace was inhabited mainly by Pope Urban VIII’s two nephews Francesco and Taddeo with Taddeo and his family living in one wing and Francesco in the other. Francesco established there the Arazzia Barberini or Barberini Tapestry works in 1627 which remained open until 1679.[5]
In February 1634, a revised version of
After the
Christina of Sweden visited Rome in December 1655. Nobles vied for her attention and treated her to a never-ending round of fireworks, jousts, mock duels, acrobatics, and operas. She was welcomed at the Palazzo Barberini on 28 February by a few hundred privileged spectators, as she watched an amazing carousel in the courtyard.[9]
Architecture
Maderno envisioned a floor plan in the shape of an "H", with the Sforza wing facing the piazza. A second parallel wing is connected by a central hall. Flanking the hall, two sets of stairs lead to the piano nobile, a large squared staircase by Bernini to the left and a smaller oval staircase by Borromini to the right.[4] The main block presents three tiers of great arch-headed windows, like glazed arcades, a formula that was more Venetian than Roman. On the uppermost floor, Borromini's windows are set in a false perspective that suggests extra depth, a feature that has been copied into the 20th century.
As well as Borromini's false-perspective windows reveals, other influential aspects of Palazzo Barberini that were repeated throughout Europe include the unit of a central two-storey hall backed by an oval salone and the symmetrical wings that extended forward from the main block to create a
The garden is known as a giardino segreto ("secret garden"), for its concealment from an outsider's view. It houses a monument to
Frescoes
The salon ceiling is graced by
The rooms of the
Modern history and attractions
Hidden in the cellars of the rear part of the building, a Mithraeum was found during the construction work of Villa Savorgnan di Brazzà in 1936, dating probably from the second century AD.
Around the mid 18th-century a Rococo-style apartment was decorated on the top floor. Descendants of the Barberini family lived in the 1700-style apartment in the palazzo until 1955.[4]
Today, Palazzo Barberini houses the
In addition to paintings, the palazzo houses sculptures including Corradini's work Vestal Virgin Tuccia.
The palace also houses the Italian Institute of Numismatics.
The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which created the European Court of Human Rights, was signed here on 4 November 1950, a milestone in the protection of human rights.
See also
References
- ^ Blunt, Anthony. "The Palazzo Barberini: The Contributions of Maderno, Bernini and Pietro Da Cortona". Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes vol. 21, no. 3/4, 1958, pp. 256–87. JSTOR
- ^ "Palazzo Barberini", Turismo Roma, Major Events, Sport, Tourism and Fashion Department
- ^ Hibbard, Howard. Carlo Maderno and Roman Architecture, 1580-1630, 1971.
- ^ a b c "Palazzo Barberini", Barberini Corsini Gallerie Nationali
- ^ ‘Barberini Tapestry Workshop’, Oxford Art Online
- ISBN 3-492-02413-0, pp. 407-409.
- ^ "Cardinal Francesco Barberini", The Mask, Volume 14, Number 2, April 1928
- ^ Magnuson, Torgil. Rome in the Age of Bernini, volume 1, Stockholm, 1982, p.239
- ISBN 9781349112944. Retrieved 10 July 2017 – via Google Books.
Sources
- JSTOR 750826
External links
- Palazzo Barberini: official site
- Rome Art-Lover: Palazzo Barberini
- Italian army ends museum stand-off, BBC News, Friday, 13 October 2006
- Google Maps. The complex constituting the Palazzo Barberini is in the center, set back from the road on all sides, and askew. On the lower side of the image are the start of the Triton Fountain.
- The National Gallery of Ancient Art at Barberini Palace
Media related to Palazzo Barberini (Rome) at Wikimedia Commons
Preceded by Palazzo Aragona Gonzaga |
Landmarks of Rome Palazzo Barberini |
Succeeded by Palazzo Borghese |