"Ponte Farnese" Photonews

Farnese Palace

In 1517, Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (1468-1549), who later became Pope Paolo III, approved the start of construction of the imposing residential palace designed by Antonio da Sangallo in the purest Renaissance style at Campo dei Fiori, today known as the Farnese Palace, seat of the French Embassy in Rome.

The Farnese Collection

The Farnese Collection, created during the Renaissance, includes one of the biggest selections of antique sculptures. The collection is intact even though it is far from its original place, held at the National Archeological Museum of Naples and the Museum and Royal Park of Capodimonte in Naples.  

The first antiquities to join the collection of Pope Paolo III and his grandchildren – the second Duke of Parma Ottavio Farnese (1524-1586) and cardinals Alessandro (1520-1589) and Ranuccio (1530-1565) come from archeological digs conducted in Rome. For more than two centuries, they have inspired admiration and astonishment among visitors to the Farnese Palace.  

These statues, excluding the so-called Farnese Bull, were put on display in niches and under the arches of the court, as well as in the rooms of the Farnese Palazzo to evoke a sense of dynasty. Odoardo (1573-1626), the grandnephew of the Gran Cardinal, oversaw the organising of the entire sculpture complex as part of a project to decorate the Farnese Palace, including the famous Gallery. Located in the southwestern wing of the palace and frescoed with mythological themes between 1597 and 1600 by Annibale and Agostino Carracci, it became the focal point and the heart of the statue decor of the Palace.  

The Farnesina Villa

On July 6, 1579, the Palace of the garden, owned by the Sienese banker Agostino Chigi, was sold for 10,500 ducats to Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, who joined it with his adjacent property, Casino Farnese, which consisted of a house with an antique Roman garden acquired at the end of the 1400s.  

From that moment, the palace of the Sienese banker Agostino Chigi became known as the Farnesina.  

After the acquisition of the Villa, the place was embellished with a number of sculptures in the inside the building and in the garden. In the Chigi Gardens, sarcophaghi, reliefs, architectural elements and statues were placed in them.  

The frieze fragment of the so-called Maritime Theater of the Villa Adriana was placed in a fountain, which was fed by Tritone Marino, a River god which still stands to this day, in the Chigi Gardens. According to a project by Michelangelo Buonarroti, a bridge over the Tiber would have connected the two properties on either shore.

The Farnesiani Botanical Gardens at the Palatine

Other properties were acquired - in addition to the Madama Villa, Farnese Palace and Caprarola – including the vines on the palatine, known as the Farnesiani Botanical Gardens at the Palatine by the Farnese family to adhere to the style of the 1500s. Other adjacent vines and gardens were later acquired. The propriety rested on an antique Romand ground: an imperial residence known as Domus Tiberiana.  

Designed along many levels and linked among each other by scenic stairs, the Farnesiani Botanical Gardens had an elegant portal by Vignola which looked onto the Massenzio Basilica. The upper terraces of the internal garden were above the valley of the Roman Forum.  

With the Farnesinian lineage extinguished, the collection was handed over to the Bourbons of Naples through a complex operation of inheritance between Parma and Spain. Between 1786 and 1800 the former residences of the Farnese were emptied of their statues. The Farnese sculptures arrived in Naples but went to different destinations: the Porcelain Factory of Capodimonte, the Royal Palace, the Reggia di Caserta, and the gardens of the Royal Villa at Chiaia. They would eventually settle for good at the New Museum of Antique Studies, renamed in 1816 as the Royal Bourbon Museum (today known as the National Archeological Museum of Naples).  
 

The permanent exhibit at the National Archeological Museum of Naples, curated by Professor Carlo Gasparri, attempts to present the collection as it was conceived and organised between the 1500s and 1600s.

By Virgina Lapenta, Curator of Villa Farnesina – Accademia dei Lincei