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Der Palazzo Venezia, Palazzo di Venezia oder auch Palazzo Barbo ist ein an der Piazza Venezia in Rom gelegener Palast. Der Palast beherbergt das Museo di Palazzo Venezia, die nationale Kunstbibliothek (Biblioteca di Archeologia e Storia dell’Arte), das nationale Institut für Archäologie und Kunstgeschichte (Istituto Nazionale di Archeologia e Storia dell’Arte) sowie die Direktion der staatlichen Museen in der Region Latium.
Il VIVE è uno degli undici istituti di rilevante interesse di livello generale del Ministero della Cultura dotati di autonomia speciale, ovvero scientifica, finanziaria, contabile e organizzativa: istituito nel 2019, il VIVE è divenuto operativo dal 2 novembre 2020.
Il VIVE sorge a piazza Venezia, nel cuore di Roma, ed è composto dal Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II, noto anche come Vittoriano appunto o Altare della Patria, compresi la Terrazza panoramica, il Museo Centrale del Risorgimento e l’Ala Fori Imperiali, e Palazzo Venezia, con il suo Museo.
Il VIVE gestisce anche la Biblioteca di Archeologia e Storia dell’Arte, sia la sede principale di Palazzo Venezia, sia la sede distaccata, a pochi passi, nel Palazzo del Collegio Romano, ora sede centrale del Ministero della Cultura, in attesa del trasferimento a Palazzo San Felice, messo a disposizione dalla Presidenza della Repubblica.
https://vive.beniculturali.it/it
Geschichte
The history of Palazzo Venezia begins with Pietro Barbo (1417-1471). Barbo, born into an ancient and noble Venetian family, decided to pursue an ecclesiastical career when Cardinal Gabriele Condulmer, who was his mother's brother, became pope with the name of Eugene IV (1431-1447). Pietro's climb up the ecclesiastical hierarchy was also rapid for this reason: the appointment as cardinal deacon occurred in 1440, when he was only 23 years old. From an early age he showed a passion for architecture and art, which led him to put together a remarkable collection, mostly of classical objects. In August 1464, Pietro was elected pope and took the name of Paul II (1464-1471).
The area corresponding to today's Piazza Venezia, the arrival point of Via Lata, the urban stretch of the Flaminia now known as Via del Corso, remained on the edge of the medieval and sparsely populated city until the middle of the fifteenth century. Dominated to the south by the Capitoline Hill, the area’s most prominent centre was the venerable Basilica of Saint Mark the Evangelist: built in the 4th century and rebuilt several times in subsequent periods, San Marco represented the gathering point of the city’s “colony” from the Veneto region.
As cardinal, Pietro Barbo took over as titular of San Marco in 1451. He soon decided to rebuild the adjacent building from scratch, judging it to be excessively small and modest. The start date of the construction site dates back to 1455, as evidenced by some commemorative medals, still in the museum's collections today.
As soon as he became pope, in the summer of 1464, Paul II resided inside the Vatican palaces. However, he soon decided to move to the Palazzo of San Marco, which then began a new phase. The relaunch of the construction site is attested by a second medal, minted in 1465, now exhibited in the Barbo Apartment: the palace, destined to worthily welcome the new status of papal residence, would become one of the largest and most important buildings in Renaissance Rome.
The issue is still widely debated. Some attribute the project to Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472), the great humanist and architect of Florentine education or at least consider him the "mastermind" behind some ideas and solutions: various elements of the building, such as the façade, the shape of the windows or the atrium to the east in fact recall his style
Others instead think of a direct pupil of Alberti, Francesco Cereo or del Cera (circa 1415-1468), called Francesco del Borgo because he was originally from Borgo San Sepolcro, near Arezzo. Remembered for the first time in Rome in 1450, Francesco is mentioned in the documents as architectus of the palace, employed by Paul II from November 1465 until his death in June 1468.
The fundamental layout of the complex, consisting of the palace, viridarium and church, dates back to that time. The viridarium or secret garden also served as a loggia. From the loggia you could enjoy a privileged view of the Carnival shows, which in 1466 Paul II transferred from Monte Testaccio. During the Carnival festivities, the pope used to invite magistrates and citizens to a solemn banquet, set up in the two internal arcades.
The Barbo collection The palace was used to house Paul II's collection of art and antiquities, mostly consisting of coins, gems, precious stone carvings and semiprecious stone vases. Among the most important pieces, a sardonyx plate from the Hellenistic period stands out. This, formerly owned by Frederick II and known as the Farnese Cup, is now in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. According to the humanist Bartolomeo Sacchi (1421-1481), known as Platina, Paul II spent several of his nights admiring his treasures in the light of candelabra. The glare that filtered out through the windowpanes led to the popular belief that the building was inhabited by devils.
In an atmosphere of general recovery of the antiquarian heritage, Paul II began to transfer important classical artefacts to the immediate vicinity of the building. The goal was of course to increase its dignity, especially being in the presence of the Capitol, which had been the seat of the city magistrates since the Middle Ages and which embodied the residual ambitions of municipal autonomy.
The transfer of a large grey granite basin found in the Baths of Caracalla which was in the church of San Giacomo al Colosseo dates back to 1466. The basin, which for some time gave the square the name of “piazza della conca di San Marco (Saint Mark’s basin)”, would find its definitive location in piazza Farnese.
In 1467, Paul II had the Sarcophagus of Constance placed in front of the main façade of the building, facing east. This was made of red porphyry in the fourth century, probably in Alexandria in Egypt and had been located in the Roman church of Sant' Agnese until then. The new location lasted only a few years: at the death of Paul II, his successor Sixtus IV (1471-1484) returned the sarcophagus to the church. Its definitive transfer to the Vatican Museums dates back to 1788.
Paul II also toyed with the idea of moving here the equestrian monument of Marcus Aurelius, which at the time was located on the Lateran. For this reason, he had it restored by the Mantuan Cristoforo di Geremia (1410-1476), an expert in the field of medals and bronze art. In this case, however, the pontiff's plans did not take effect. Marcus Aurelius remained in its place: only in the sixteenth century would it find its final location at the top of the Capitol, within the framework of Michelangelo's layout.
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At the death of Paul II, in 1471, the great building site was still far from being completed. The task of continuing the work fell to his nephew, Cardinal Marco Barbo (1420-1491), who had already taken over as titular of the Basilica of San Marco four years earlier. The coats of arms of Barbo junior, who resided in the trapezoidal apartment located inside the viridarium, can still be admired today in many areas of the building.
Recent studies show that many works completed can be attributed to him, including the second tier of the facade of Church of Saint Mark with the Benediction Loggia, the tower above the sacristy or roof terrace, the creation of the eastern edge of the complex with the construction of a crenellated corridor along Via degli Astalli, the portico of the courtyard and some frescoes, including the frieze with the Labours of Hercules.
The death of Cardinal Marco ended the Barbo era in the palace. The baton passed on to Lorenzo Cybo de Mari (c. 1450-1503). Lorenzo was born from the extramarital affair that the Genoese nobleman Domenico Mari had with a Spanish woman: the second surname was given to him by Giovanni Battista Cybo who, once he became pope as Innocent VIII (1484-1498), favoured his ecclesiastical career, among other things, by appointing him as the titular of the Basilica of San Marco in March 1491.
Once he had moved to the palace, Cardinal Lorenzo had the Sala del Mappamondo completed and had built the apartment along Via del Plebiscito, which still bears his name. The cardinal was also responsible for the placement of Madama Lucrezia, a colossal bust of the classical era from the Iseum Campense. Madama Lucrezia, together with Pasquino, was one of the famous 'talking statues' of Rome: even today it is possible to admire it to the left of the southern entrance of the building, in the square of San Marco.
By the end of the fifteenth century the palace had already become one of the most beautiful and important buildings in Rome, capable of attracting travellers, writers and artists. The presence of the Bolognese painter Amico Aspertini (1474-1552), on a training trip to the city, was placed between 1496 and 1498 during the time of Cardinal Mari Cybo. The artist had an extraordinary passion for classical reliefs, which he used to copy on drawings. On this occasion he was attracted by a bas-relief depicting an ancient sacrifice, which was then inside the viridarium: his drawing, now preserved in the British Museum in London, bears the writing “in lo g[i]ardino de sancto marco (in San Marco’s garden)”.
The eldest son of the future doge Antonio Grimani (1434-1523), Domenico (1461-1524) embarked on a brilliant ecclesiastical career, which culminated in his appointment as cardinal, obtained at the hand of Pope Alexander VI Borgia (1492-1503) in exchange for the truly remarkable sum of 30,000 ducats. A graduate of the University of Padua and with an excellent cultural background, Grimani was one of the most eminent literati of his time. His entrance to the palace dates back to 1503, together with the appointment as titular cardinal of the Basilica of San Marco. The next twenty years corresponded to a further leap forward of the building in the field of literature and the arts.
Cardinal Domenico Grimani also distinguished himself as a collector of books, art objects and antiques. The library, which already had several thousand volumes, was enriched in 1498 by the 15,000 bought from the heirs of the humanist Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494). His collection also included paintings of extraordinary value, attributed to artists such as Hieronymus Bosch, Giorgione and Raphael.
As the sources recall, including Francesco Albertini, a large part of the collection was housed in the Roman palace of San Marco, later migrating by will to his beloved Republic of Venice. This possibly occurred with the so-called Grimani Breviary, a Flemish illuminated manuscript from the second decade of the sixteenth century, now in the Marciana Library. As for the precious collection of classical finds, it would later become the founding core of the National Archaeological Museum of Venice.
Grimani's personality and his spectacular collection contributed to give prestige to the palace, which continued to capture the interest of the main visitors to the city. On 5th May 1505 - we read in the Diaries of the Venetian historian Marin Sanudo - the cardinal welcomed here the ambassadors of the Serenissima. As they walked through the various rooms, the guests were amazed by the study adjacent to his bedroom which was filled with books and classical sculptures: several had come to light during the excavation work that the prelate had carried out to build his villa on the slopes of Monte Cavallo, later incorporated into the perimeter of the current Quirinale gardens and palace.
Four years later it was the turn of Erasmus from Rotterdam (1466/69-1536). The Dutch humanist was at the end of his stay in the Peninsula, which began in 1506 and had been spent mostly in Turin, Bologna and Venice. One of the reasons that had guided him to Italy was the desire to improve his knowledge of classical languages and to buy books and manuscripts. Arriving in Rome in early 1509, Erasmus went to visit the palace of San Marco, perhaps in the company of Pietro Bembo (1470-1547): he was able to admire the collection and above all the library of Cardinal Grimani, about which he would later compose words of admiration.
Alessandro Farnese, who ascended to the papal throne with the name of Paul III (1534-1546), was characterised by a remarkable political vocation. Among other things, he made every effort to restore centrality to the Roman apostolic Church through an energetic reaction to the Protestant creed, commonly known as the Counter-Reformation. His role was also felt within the Aurelian Walls. Judging the Vatican to be excessively decentralised, Paul III followed the line of Paul II Barbo and opted in favour of the palace of San Marco, in the very heart of the city: here Pope Farnese resided for long periods and particularly during the summer months. From this point of view, the residence of San Marco can be seen as the direct precedent of the Quirinale, which would perform the same functions from the seventeenth century.
The presence of Paul III Farnese led to a series of modifications to the fifteenth-century structure dedicated to Saint Mark. Having closed the arches of the viridarium, the pope connected it directly to the Capitoline Hill via an overhead passageway: here he built a mighty defensive tower, known as the Tower of Paul III. By so doing, he replicated the palace-passageway-fortress system characteristic of the Vatican and Castel Sant’Angelo. The pope thus intended to reaffirm his sovereignty also over the Capitol, a stronghold of the municipal courts. Most of Paul III's modifications were lost at the end of the nineteenth century, in line with the rearrangement of the square.
The main ally of Paul III Farnese in the fight against Martin Luther and the Protestants was Emperor Charles V of Habsburg (1550-1558). Following the conquest of Tunis, in June 1535, the emperor planned to make a ceremonial journey to the main capitals of the Peninsula, at the head of a victorious procession. The journey started from the south and headed north, touching Rome in 1536: just nine years after the Sack disaster, that visit had the purpose of transmitting the triumph of the greatest powers of Christianity, the Papacy and the Empire, united in the struggle against the infidels.
The preparations to welcome the emperor were particularly thorough. The epicentre was once again the palace of San Marco, where the pope received Charles V with all honours. At the corner of the building, along Via Papalis, currently Via del Plebiscito, architect Antonio da Sangallo the Younger (1484-1546) created an ephemeral triumphal arch. At least in the short term, that visit was a success: in those days the pope and the emperor decided to convene the Council of Trent.
From the very beginning, the building spoke Venetian: Thus the Basilica of San Marco and the faithful who prayed there, the founder of the palace and his immediate successor, Pietro and Marco Barbo, and almost all the titular cardinals. On 10 June 1564, Pope Pius IV (1559-1565) took a further step: the Serenissima obtained the building as a gift, on condition that it was responsible for the maintenance costs. The formal handover dates to early July: from that moment the Palazzo of San Marco began to be called Palazzo Venezia.
The official entry into the palace of the ambassadors of the Republic of Venice takes place in October 1564. The first, Giacomo Soranzo (1518-1599), settled in the wing located towards the south-east: considered of greater prestige, the wing included the Barbo Apartment and the monumental rooms over Piazza Venezia, the tower bordering the basilica and the Palazzetto, formerly the viridarium.
The previous occupants of the building reacted in different ways. Until Clement VIII (1592-1605), that is to say until the new, large residence on the Quirinale became habitable, the popes continued to be present without interruption in Palazzo Venezia, especially in summer, willingly taking advantage of the rooms which were graciously granted to them by the diplomatic staff. At that point, the Venetian ambassadors were forced to find alternative arrangements.
As for the titular cardinals of San Marco, the concession of the palace to the Serenissima aroused a sense of bitterness. Although they were themselves almost always Venetians by birth, they felt somehow cheated of an exclusive right of residence that they believed had by now been acquired. The cardinals, perched at the opposite end of the building, in the area that today belongs to the Cybo Apartment and the Altoviti Room, started a sort of 'cold war' with the ambassadors, made up of small and big slights, almost always originating precisely from issues of space.
The first San Marco titular who had to deal with the ambassadors of the Venetian Republic was Cardinal Francesco Pisani (1494-1570). Pisani, a member of a noble Venetian family, had worn the cardinal purple since 1517. Until then, in reality, his conduct had been much more inclined to pleasure and leisure than to prayer, so much so that he had already given birth to a natural daughter, Giulia. The cardinal's office, in addition to costing his parents about 20,000 ecus, radically influenced this state of affairs, transforming Pisani into a fixed star of the Roman ecclesiastical landscape, now oriented in the direction of the Counter-Reformation.
Having obtained the title of San Marco in 1527 together with the attached right of residence in the rear palace, Cardinal Pisani developed a growing and profound sense of attachment to the building. Having been denied the possibility of using the Barbo Apartment and the monumental rooms, he asked and obtained from the Republic of Venice to at least bear the costs of renovating the wing on today's Via del Plebiscito, by the Cybo Apartment and to create a new reception room, a part of which was subsequently transformed into the Altoviti Room. Many works in the palace are linked to his person, including some frescoes by Girolamo Muziano (1532-1592). Finally, in the Basilica of San Marco it is possible to admire his funeral monument, a triumph of precious polychrome marbles created in 1571 by Giovanni Marchesi da Saltrio.
The so-called Venetian Interdict occurs between 1605 and 1607; that is a dispute of a legal and then diplomatic nature that saw the Republic of Venice opposed to the Papal Curia. The war, which began with a thorny judicial case involving two priests, took on a very hard outline, so much so as to determine the breakdown of relations between the parties and also the abandonment of Palazzo Venezia by the ambassadors of the Serenissima.
Cardinal Giovanni Dolfin (1545-1622) became a part of this difficult situation. Dolfin, appointed titular of San Marco on 1 June 1605 by the new pontiff, Paul V Borghese (1605-1621), took advantage of the forced absence of the Venetian ambassadors to expand into their apartments and to expropriate them. On their return, when the representatives of the Serenissima walked into the Sala Regia they were astonished: the cardinal had closed them out, double-locking the entrance.
The history of Palazzo Venezia is often intertwined with high-profile personalities. One of the most brilliant ones was undoubtedly Cardinal Angelo Maria Querini (1680-1755), titular of the Basilica of San Marco from 1728 to 1748 and in commendam until 1755. Querini, the second son of two ancient and wealthy families of the Venetian aristocracy, particularly distinguished himself in the field of erudite studies, entering into relationships with some of the most eminent intellectuals in Europe, from Domenico Passionei to Isaac Newton and Nicolas Malebranche.
Cardinal Querini always had a particular affection for Brescia, where he had spent nine years studying at the Jesuit college between 1687 and 1696, and where he returned whenever he could. As cardinal titular, however, he also left a profound mark on Palazzo Venezia. Among other things, his name is linked to a summer residence, built using an unfinished tower and the roof of the crenelated passage along via degli Astalli, now known as the Passetto dei Cardinali (The Cardinals’ Passageway). As for the western elevation of the garden, the cardinal had a statue of San Pietro Orseolo, first doge of Venice, canonised in 1731, placed in a niche.
On 8th November 1710, the Republic of Venice appointed Lorenzo Tiepolo (1673-1742) as ambassador to the papal court. He arrived on 25th July 1711 and remained until 1713. Tiepolo had objectively more important and delicate missions to his credit: in the Paris of Louis XIV (1638-1715), he had written in one of his dispatches about a Europe devastated by wars, for which "human prudence cannot conjecture that which could be the end".
The years spent in Rome, relatively quiet from a diplomatic point of view, gave Tiepolo the opportunity to dedicate himself calmly to the renovation of Palazzo Venezia. He ordered emergency works to be carried out in the current Sala delle Battaglie, for which he turned to Carlo Fontana (1638-1714), Bernini's best student in the field of architecture.
In 1713, the Serenissima appointed Nicolò Duodo (1657-1742) as ambassador to the Holy See. Contrary to what had occurred with his predecessor Lorenzo Tiepolo, this destination represented the most important and prestigious assignment of his diplomatic career. The approximately six years he spent in Rome ended with a recognition in the field of culture: in 1719 the assembly of the Arcadians welcomed Duodo into its ranks, with the name of Aclasto Eurotano.
The ambassador left extensive traces inside Palazzo Venezia. Having permanently repaired the roofs of today's Sala delle Battaglie, he moved on to the Sala del Mappamondo: divided into two distinct rooms, the "Sala del Camin Grande" and the "Sala del Camin Piccolo", he had a partition built there, thus obtaining a mezzanine "for the convenience of family members ”, and finally modified one of the windows, in order to add a balcony overlooking Piazza Venezia.
In 1729, sculptor Carlo Monaldi (1683-1760) was commissioned a large fountain for the main courtyard of the building. The idea of bringing water directly to the palace belonged to the Venetian cardinal Pietro Ottoboni (1610-1691), titular of San Marco from 1670 to 1677: ascending to the papal throne in 1689 with the name of Alexander VIII, Ottoboni had remembered the building, giving it six fluid ounces of water from the Acqua Paola aqueduct free of charge. Forty years later, the idea was translated into a concrete work thanks to the Ambassador of the Republic Barbon Morosini. The work, completed in 1730 and still in the centre of the courtyard, transposed into marble one of the most famous and important ceremonies of the Republic, Venice’s Marriage Of The Sea Ceremony.
Forty years later, the idea was translated into a concrete work thanks to the Ambassador of the Republic Barbon Morosini. The work, completed in 1730 and still in the centre of the courtyard, transposed into marble one of the most famous and important ceremonies of the Republic, Venice’s Marriage Of The Sea Ceremony.
For the entire duration of the eighteenth century, Palazzo Venezia continued to be frequented by artists. In many circumstances they were Venetian artists, who turned to the ambassador of the time in search of protection.
This line culminated with Antonio Canova (1757-1822). The great sculptor, who arrived in Rome in 1779, was well received by ambassador Girolamo Zulian (1730-1795). Zulian went down in history as a great "art connoisseur": immediately realising the artist's quality, the diplomat offered him a "house (...) room for his studio", plus a monthly pension of 25 silver ducats. Canova immediately took advantage of the hospitality, spending the next four years in the building. There is more. Zulian provided the marble block for one of the artist's first masterpieces, Theseus and the Minotaur: the work, sculpted inside Palazzo Venezia and completed in 1782, is now in the Victoria and Albert London museum.
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The end of the Republic of Venice opened a new phase for the building: except for the revolutionary period, the palace became the seat of the ambassadors of the Austro-Hungarian Empire for over a century.
On 17 October 1797, general Napoleon Bonaparte and count Johann Ludwig Josef von Cobenzl signed a peace treaty: Bonaparte represented the Army of Italy of revolutionary France, Cobenzl the Habsburg Empire. The treaty, signed in the town of Campoformido in Friuli and therefore usually called the Treaty of Campoformio, included among the clauses the end of the Republic of Venice and the transfer to Austria of all its possessions, including of course the seat of its embassy in Rome. From 1st January 1798, Palazzo Venezia became the seat of Austrian diplomacy at the Papal State: after more than three centuries, the lion of St. Mark was lowered, giving way to the Habsburg eagle.
The Holy Roman Empire flag remained in place for a handful of years. The birth of the Kingdom of Italy on 17th March 1805, the coronation of Napoleon on 26th May 1805 and the inclusion of Venice in 1806 caused a rapid change here too. The Palazzo of San Marco thus became the seat of the representative of the Kingdom of Italy until its break-up, which took place in 1814.
The parenthesis of the Italic Kingdom was of considerable importance for Palazzo Venezia. In the short period it spent in French hands, the figure of Giuseppe Tambroni (1773-1824), a scholar and an art critic, as well as a diplomat, stands out. Appointed consul of the Kingdom of Italy in Civitavecchia on 11th March 1811, Tambroni, who had the right to reside in the building, thanks also to the support of Antonio Canova (1757-1822) worked hard in terms of artistic promotion. The result was the project for an Academy of Fine Arts in the Italic Kingdom: the Academy, located inside the Palazzetto, was to offer to the artists recommended by the Academies of Fine Arts of Milan, Venice and Bologna the opportunity to spend a three-year study period in Rome, subsequently extended to four years.
The artists supported by Tambroni through the Academy include Francesco Hayez (1791-1882). Hayez, a favourite of count and art historian Leopoldo Cicognara (1767-1834), arrived in Rome in 1809, spending here years that were very important for his stylistic training. Here he created, among other things, Rinaldo and Armida, today in the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice, where he re-interpreted the colourism of Tisiano Vecellio in a romantic key. During the period spent at Palazzo Venezia, the artist also found time to carry on a clandestine love affair with a young married woman, the daughter of the embassy butler, and for this he suffered an assault by her husband. Canova immediately ran to his aid, and, to silence the scandal advised, or rather ordered, the artist to take cover in Florence, at least for some time.
In 1815, with the Restoration sanctioned by the Congress of Vienna, the palace returned to Austrian hands. The government of Vienna kept the two main functions of the building, diplomatic and artistic, essentially unchanged. Its premises continued to house a small but thriving colony of scholarship artists: the pensionnaires (Academy pensioners). In 1871, according to the account of Count Ambassador Ferdinand von Trauttmansdorff-Weinsberg, of the total of eleven studios, seven were located in the tower, three in the rear wing of the first floor and one on the ground level, ideal for large and heavy sculptures. The many who over the years benefited from the hospitality of Palazzo Venezia also included the well-known landscape architect Othmar Brioschi (1854-1912), as revealed by the recent discovery of a series of shots by amateur photographer Paul Lindner.
Between 1856 and 1859, architect Antonín Barvitius from Prague, already living in Rome at the Vienna Academy, was entrusted with the restoration of the building: on the one hand he carried out a survey of the structural conditions and reinforced the building; on the other, he updated the façade, trying to make it as consistent and symmetrical as possible, and created partition walls in the monumental rooms starting with the Sala Regia.
A phase of profound change began between 1884 and 1888. The palace became an important pawn in the redefinition of the area of Piazza Venezia, following the construction on the southern side of the Monument to Victor Emmanuel II, or Vittoriano, based on the project by Giuseppe Sacconi (1854-1905). Among other things, the demolition of two elements that from the mid-sixteenth century had characterised the building, projecting it in the direction of the Capitol, that is the Tower of Paul III and the relative overhead corridor connecting it to the Palazzetto, dates back to that period.
On 6th May 1897, Giuseppe Sacconi delivered a project aimed at completely redefining Piazza Venezia. The architect's objectives were essentially two, to regularise the layout of the square and to open up the view of the Vittoriano to those coming from the north, along the final stretch of Via del Corso. The fate of the Palazzetto was at that point sealed. According to Sacconi's idea, the building had to be moved right in front of the Basilica of San Marco, so as to transform it into a sort of atrium, or a four-sided portico entrance. Austria, which owned the building, however, raised a series of objections: a stalemate emerged, destined to last for over ten years.
The question of the Palazzetto was resolved on 23rd June 1908, when the Foreign Minister Tommaso Tittoni and the Austrian Ambassador Heinrich von Lützow settled it through a special agreement. According to the agreement, the work would be carried out at the expense of Austria, which also for this reason reserved the right to change Sacconi's project. On the advice of architect Ludwig Baumann (1853-1936), at the end of the demolition, the Palazzetto was completely rebuilt in a position further back, following the line of the western side of Palazzo Venezia, along via degli Astalli.
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On 24th May 1915, Italy entered the First World War, siding alongside England and France against Germany and Austria. Although several hundred kilometres away from the front, in its own fashion, Palazzo Venezia also became a place of contention. Until then, the Empire had maintained two distinct embassies in Rome. The one in Palazzo Chigi, previously rented by the self-same princes, was used by the Kingdom of Italy and had been closed the day after the declaration of war. The second in Palazzo Venezia housed the embassy to the Holy See and, precisely as such, continued to remain in operation for another eighteen months.
In August 1916, with mounting frustration for the outcome of the conflict and anger at the Austrian bombing of the Serenissima, the Italian government decided to requisition the building from the enemy. The handover took place on 1st November of the same year. It was a mere bureaucratic act: at 14.00 pm sharp, as agreed, the Minister of Finance Filippo Meda, accompanied by a notary and two officials, knocked on the door of the building, to collect "the keys without opposition".
The expropriation of Palazzo Venezia also became a diplomatic issue, not so much with the Austrian enemy, but with the Vatican, which naturally claimed the rights to this embassy. In order to soften the tone of the controversy, as early as 15th October, that is even before the handover, the Italian government published a decree that designated the building as a museum.
The official name, Museum of the Palazzo di Venezia, is due to art historian Corrado Ricci (1858-1934), at the time head of the Antiquities and Fine Arts General Directorate. Ricci had great confidence in the future of the new institute: "What must triumph for us - he wrote to the Minister of Education Francesco Ruffini - is the name of Palazzo Venezia and the public will need to say, “Let's go to the Palazzo di Venezia” just as it says 'Let's go to the Louvre...'".
Housed in Palazzo Venezia, unanimously considered one of the clearest and most majestic expressions of the Italian Renaissance, the museum was born with great expectations. In line with its container, the idea arose of making it the Museum of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The position of first director fell to art historian Federico Hermanin (1868-1953), as superintendent of the Galleries and Museums of Lazio and the Abruzzi.
Already the following year, 1917, Hermanin, assisted by Corrado Ricci, was able to develop an exhibition project, according to which the museum should take on the features of a noble residence of the sixteenth century.
At that stage, the conditions of the building appeared to be critical. Over the centuries, several rooms had undergone profound tampering, which had compromised their original structures and spatiality. Just think that the Sala del Mappamondo and the Sala Regia, in addition to having been fragmented into various rooms, were simply devoid of ceilings and floors. Hermanin did a remarkable job. After demolishing the partitions, the director conducted the first research on the ancient walls: fragments of frescoes from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries emerged, which he attributed respectively to Mantegna and Bramante.
At the same time, works were selected from the deposits and exhibition rooms of the other Capitoline museums, to be sent to Palazzo Venezia. As well as towards Castel Sant'Angelo, Hermanin turned his gaze towards the National Gallery of Ancient Art, at the time located in Palazzo Corsini: his attention fell on the pieces coming from the Monte di Pietà and on those left by Henrietta Hertz (1846-1913) at her death in 1913.
The museum project therefore took shape, albeit amid growing difficulties. The main one is to be found in the setbacks suffered by the Italian army in the summer-autumn of 1917. In the weeks following the defeat of Caporetto, which took place on 24th October, the building took on the role of an emergency shelter for works of art arriving from the cities that were most vulnerable to the Austrian troops, starting with Venice. Hence the temporary presence in the palace of masterpieces transferred in haste from the Serenissima, such as the bronze quadriga of San Marco and the equestrian Monument to Bartolomeo Colleoni by Verrocchio, documented by period photographs.
The situation took a decisive turn in the autumn of 1918 with the triumph of Vittorio Veneto and the subsequent surrender of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In this new and different dimension, Palazzo Venezia, taken away from Vienna, became one of the symbols of the victorious tricolour. The museum inside travelled on the wings of this patriotic enthusiasm. In 1919, director Federico Hermanin offered a preview, setting up a selection of the works which had converged into the collections in some rooms of the Cybo Apartment. The goal was to persuade citizens that "the glorious Palace is intended to house a museum of painting, sculpture and minor arts".
In June 1921, the support of Benedetto Croce (1866-1952), then Minister of Education, allowed opening the first rooms of the museum, located inside the Barbo Apartment. However, that set-up was short-lived. After just one year, Hermanin was forced to vacate the Barbo rooms to make way for the exhibition of the works that Austria had had to return to Italy. The exhibition, marked by the tones of an increasingly accentuated nationalism, opened its doors in December 1922: with an installation designed by Armando Brasini (1879-1965), one of the enthusiastic spectators was Benito Mussolini (1883-1945), who a few weeks earlier, had taken over the reins of the government.
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The beauty and majesty of Palazzo Venezia, combined with the strong patriotic value acquired during the First World War, captured the attention of Benito Mussolini, who transformed it into an essential element of his propaganda.
Palazzo Venezia, located in the heart of the capital of Italy and by now one of the symbols of the Italian victory in the First World War, fascinated the leader of the National Fascist Party, Benito Mussolini. After the exhibition dedicated to the works returned from Austria, he declared his intention to make the building the representative seat of his new government. As a master of communication, Mussolini had understood the potential of the building and in particular of its balcony which, directly overlooking the square, allowed him to gather oceanic crowds in front of him.
Mussolini reserved the Barbo Apartment for himself and the monumental rooms, leaving the Cybo Apartment to the museum and the Palazzetto. Curiously, the subdivision of the spaces that had characterised the life of the building between the second half of the sixteenth century and the end of the eighteenth century, when it was simultaneously the residence of the cardinals of San Marco and the ambassadors of the Republic of Venice, was fished out again.
Palazzo Venezia underwent an intense restoration campaign in 1924, in order to fully fulfil its new government function. The works, completed in 1936, deeply affected the decoration and also the layout of the building: this is evidenced by the large reception rooms, the final arrangement of the Barbo Apartment, the adaptation of the second floor to Mussolini's private apartment and the Grand Staircase, built in Neo-Renaissance style. The work was the responsibility of a special committee: chaired by Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata (1877-1947), for the technical aspect the committee availed itself of art historians Corrado Ricci and Federico Hermanin, of architect Armando Brasini, at the time artistic director of the Vittoriano and of the Venetian engineer Luigi Marangoni (1872-1950).
Mussolini, who had been present in the building on an occasional basis since the mid-1920s, moved there permanently on 16th September 1929. Thereafter, the building became a part of the regime's politics and diplomacy on a permanent basis, among other things as the setting for official visits by foreign heads of state.
A photographic campaign of 7th May 1938 portrays Mussolini with Adolf Hitler and his Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop at his side, whilst greeting a cheering crowd from the balcony of the Sala del Mappamondo.
The rise of Mussolini went hand in hand with the development of the museum's artistic heritage. The collection willed by George W. Wurts (1843-1928) and his wife Henrietta Tower (1856-1933), a wealthy American couple who had chosen Rome as their second homeland for several decades, dates back to 1933.
The following year, 1934, was the turn of the collection of one hundred and nine ancient bronzes set up by art dealer Alfredo Barsanti (1877-1946), in this case donated to Mussolini by a group of industrialists. In 1936, Federico Hermanin was able to complete the preparation of thirty-four rooms, which from the Cybo Apartment extended up to the Palazzetto. However, the rooms were never opened to the public: in fact, they remained the exclusive prerogative of Mussolini, who loved to bring there his most important guests to show the treasures inside.
On the afternoon of 24th July 1943, Palazzo Venezia hosted the last meeting of the Grand Council of Fascism. At the head of a large U-shaped table in the Sala del Pappagallo Benito Mussolini sat down, with the twenty-eight convened around him. Founded in 1922, the Grand Council was the supreme organ of the regime. Although devoid of binding functions, in the early years of fascism it had played an important role, if only to acquire knowledge of the opinion of the various party currents, but over time it had ended up withering away. The last convocation dated back to 1939: since then Mussolini had made his most important decisions without consulting it, fearful of confronting his own hierarchs.
The sudden awakening of the Grand Council was due to an agenda presented by the President of the Chamber Dino Grandi (1895-1988). At that point the fortunes of the war appeared to be compromised: on 10th July the allied troops had landed in Sicily, without finding any noteworthy resistance, on the 19th the Anglo-American planes had bombed the capital. Through his agenda, Dino Grandi, with moderate tendencies and inclined towards a truce with the allies, intended to deprive Mussolini of his supreme powers and, at the same time, to steer Italy towards exiting the disaster of the Second World War.
The outcome of the ballot was known at 2.30 am on 25 July. Of the twenty-seven voters, nineteen voted in favour of Grandi, nine against, one abstained. Later, still on 25th July, Victor Emmanuel III (1869-1947), having removed all Mussolini’s powers, had him arrested by the Carabinieri, to then broadcast the news via radio at 10.45pm. But the fall began exactly here, in Palazzo Venezia.
Now that the period linked to Benito Mussolini had ended, Palazzo Venezia continued to play an active role even during the last, dramatic months of the Second World War. On 12th November 1943, the Italian authorities managed to bring to a successful conclusion the negotiations begun in August to safeguard the most relevant assets of the national artistic heritage inside the Vatican. As had already occurred during the First World War, Palazzo Venezia became the main collection place. On 20th and 21st January 1944, two rooms of the building hosted a temporary and objectively extraordinary exhibition, at the end of which the masterpieces were transferred to the Holy See.
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In the aftermath of the conflict, Palazzo Venezia once again plunges into art: a series of exhibitions, the museum and the resettlement of the heritage protection offices mark a new path, which definitively distances it from active diplomacy and politics.
One of the themes that marked the last phases of the Second World War consisted in saving the main Italian works of art from German raids. Aldo De Rinaldis (1882-1949) and even more so Emilio Lavagnino (1898-1963), are among those art historians who made every effort in this direction, sometimes risking their lives. Both one and the other pivoted on Palazzo Venezia. Among other things, Superintendent De Rinaldis organised the exhibition Masterpieces of European painting: open from 28 August 1944 to 18 February 1945 in the Barbo Apartment and commissioned by the allied military government, the exhibition featured precisely the works that had been stored in Rome and the Vatican during the preceding months.
As for Lavagnino, superintendent inspector and then director of the National Gallery of Ancient Art, he had taken on the responsibility of transferring hundreds of masterpieces from all over Italy to the Vatican, many of which had in fact passed through the halls of Palazzo Venezia. That’s not all. The founder with another staunch anti-fascist, Umberto Zanotti Bianco, of the National Association for the Restoration of War-Damaged Italian Monuments already in 1944, in 1945 Lavagnino also organised the Italian Art Exhibition at Palazzo Venezia: the initiative, the first of its kind to be conceived and set up by Italians, helped to recognise the artistic heritage as one of the main tools for rebuilding a new and democratic relationship between the culture and society of the Country, disrupted by the fascist regime and the war.
But why Palazzo Venezia? Both De Rinaldis and Lavagnino intentionally established a bridge with the now historic exhibition of art objects returned from Austria-Hungary in the post-war period, to give back to the community a heritage of art, history and culture that had been removed by a double tyrannical power, the fascist regime and the German army, for too long. Certainly not by chance, the exhibitions were held in the Barbo Apartment, the place that Benito Mussolini had taken possession of at the time.
The 1944 and 1945 exhibitions paved the way for reopening the Palazzo Venezia Museum to the public, an act which took place in the same 1945 on the main floor. The responsibility fell to the new director, Antonino Santangelo (1904-1965). During the years that followed, Santangelo worked hard to expand the collections, among other things by taking possession of the collection of Gennaro Evangelista Gorga, known as Evan (1865-1957).
Gorga, an internationally renowned tenor, was also known as a voracious collector of art and even more so of musical instruments. He had offered a taste of it in 1911, when, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the unification of Italy, over a thousand pieces were temporarily exhibited in Castel Sant’Angelo, capturing the attention and greed of the banker John Pierpont Morgan. The ministerial convention for keeping the Gorga works in Italy is dated 27th November 1949. The following year, 1950, a substantial part was transferred to Palazzo Venezia.
In the early fifties, the collections housed inside Palazzo Venezia took on a decisive slant towards applied arts, or decorative arts. The decision was certainly affected by the purchase of Palazzo Barberini in 1949 and by the decision to make it the second seat of the National Gallery of Ancient Art. By 1953, many paintings already in Palazzo Venezia were moved to Palazzo Barberini, including several from the Henrietta Hertz collection.
Within this framework, Palazzo Venezia was assigned pieces that had once belonged to the Industrial Art Museum, or MAI. The MAI, linked to the initiative of Prince Baldassarre Odescalchi (1844-1909), was born in 1874, with the aim of following in the footsteps of the South Kensington Museum in London, today's Victoria & Albert Museum, but in the end, it never really took off. Among the many MAI objects that can still be appreciated today in Palazzo Venezia, it is worth noting at least the four reliefs with the Stories of St. Jerome by Mino da Fiesole.
The particular direction assumed by the museum continued in 1959, with the purchase of the collection of Prince Ladislao Odescalchi (1846-1923). Like his brother Baldassarre, Ladislao had been one of the protagonists of artistic fin de siècle Rome, distinguishing himself for his interests in art and even more so in the weapons of all times and all countries. To put together his collection, he turned to antique dealers and collectors from all over Europe.
The so-called Odescalchi Armoury, which at the death of Ladislao was transferred to his nephew Innocenzo and reorganised in the ancestral palace of the Santi Apostoli, in 1953 numbered two thousand among firearms and blades, both offensive and defensive. About eight hundred were transferred to the Castle of Bracciano, where they are still housed today; as for the remaining twelve hundred, they were acquired by the Italian State, destined for Palazzo Venezia. In 1969, at the time of the directorship of Maria Vittoria Brugnoli (1915-2013), the weapons found temporary accommodation in the monumental rooms, through an installation whose scientific aspect was curated by Nolfo di Carpegna (1913-1996).
On June 23, 1982, the Garibaldi exhibition was inaugurated. Art and History: the exhibition was organised in two sections, one on history at the Central Museum of the Risorgimento, the other, on art, in the monumental rooms of Palazzo Venezia. Over the years the palace had continued to host temporary exhibitions, often adapting to the direction towards applied arts taken on in the meantime by its museum. These included French tapestries from the Middle Ages to today in 1953, the National historical exhibition of miniatures in 1959, curated respectively by Georges Fontaine and Giovanni Muzzioli, or, again, the Exhibition of Drawings from the English Royal Collections at Windsor in 1961.
However, presented itself in a different way, effectively opening a new era. In a climate of growing interest towards cultural heritage, the commissioner of the exhibition, the art historian Sandra Pinto (1939-2020), interpreted the building as a suitable venue for events of national and international resonance, capable of keeping together scientific quality and high dissemination. The path trodden by the Roman art historian was followed by Gianfranco Spagnesi with The colour of the city in 1988, Dante Bernini with Caravaggio: new reflections in 1989, which were followed by monographic events dedicated, among others, to Pietro da Cortona, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Caravaggio and Sebastiano del Piombo, the first curated by Anna Lo Bianco, the remaining three by Claudio Strinati.
To make room for Garibaldi, Art and history the organisers dismantled a substantial part of the museum's permanent exhibition, including the Odescalchi Armoury. The operation, which at the beginning was to be temporary, also because of the success of that exhibition, would characterise the future structure of both the Barbo Apartment and of the monumental rooms, still without furnishings. De facto, the path of setting up large exhibitions, whose occasional visitors made this worthwhile, involved confining the Palazzo Venezia museum between the Cybo Apartment and the second floor of the Palazzetto.
The museum of Palazzo Venezia therefore appeared marked in the following period by a series of specific interventions, united by the desire to enhance the individual collections. In 1983 it was decided to divide the objects into categories: hence, one after the other, we have paintings, majolica, bronzes, terracotta and so on, lined up. This course, which took up once again the direction on applied arts taken on during the fifties, was reflected in the exhibition set up by Franco Minissi (1919-1996) in the late eighties.
In July 2006, Maria Giulia Barberini inaugurated the Lapidarium of the Museum. Over time, several hundred works in marble or other stones had converged to Palazzo Venezia, ranging from the classical age to the seventeenth century. Some had come to light in the early twentieth century, during the excavations for the foundations of the new Palazzetto, others came from the Industrial Art Museum or from the Palazzo Mattei collection. The Lapidarium was set up outside the second floor of the Palazzetto, overlooking the enchanting orange courtyard.
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Between 2015 and 2020, Palazzo Venezia was part of the forty-six museums and art venues managed by the Lazio Museum Centre, together with the Vittoriano. A rare and majestic example of Renaissance architecture, for various reasons the building, with the exception of the museum, had been progressively barred to visitors. During that period, a reopening program was decided in order to allow it to be appreciated in organic and unitary terms.
The starting point was the garden. In April 2016, the garden, finally banned to cars and motorcycles, once again became the prerogative of citizens and tourists. Since then, it has welcomed hundreds of thousands of people, attracted by this green oasis in the heart of Rome no less than by the large number of cultural events organised inside it, especially in summer.
The same then occurred for other key areas of the building, such as the Barbo Apartment, the Sala del Mappamondo, the Sala delle Battaglie and the Sala Regia. Finally, guided tours have provided an extremely important and suggestive itinerary, which includes the roof-spaces, the patrol route and Marco Barbo’s panoramic roof terrace: among other things, the public has been able to enjoy a breath-taking view, with an unprecedented lengthwise view from Piazza Venezia to the Colosseum, through via dei Fori Imperiali.
On 2nd November 2020, Palazzo Venezia entered a new phase of its history. Together with the Vittoriano, the building has become part of a museum with special autonomy - the Vittoriano and Palazzo Venezia (VIVE), led by a director general of the Ministry of Culture. Once the works on the “C” underground line are completed, Palazzo Venezia will be joined to the Vittoriano, including physically, through the Piazza Venezia station.
Within the new dimension of VIVE, Palazzo Venezia is destined, among other things, to revive its traditional vocation for applied arts. The goal is to illustrate the long path that led from the "made in Italy" of medieval and Renaissance tradition to the modern Made in Italy.
Inneres
Barbo Apts
The oldest rooms in the building still tell the story of its original patron, Cardinal Pietro Barbo, who later became Pope Paul II, in 1464
The name of this area, Barbo Apartment, refers to the suite of seven private rooms that once belonged to the Venetian cardinal, Pietro Barbo (1417-1471). Built after 1455 at a cost of 15,000 scudi, they were further enriched following his election as pontiff, when he took the name Pope Paul II (1464-1471). Here, among other things, his famous collection of glyptics, numismatics and precious metalwork was kept.
The use of the Barbo Apartment changed following the donation of the building to the Republic of Venice in 1564. The suite of seven rooms became the residence of the ambassadors of the Republic of Venice. In 1921, when the palace was already annexed to the Kingdom of Italy, the art historian Federico Hermanin (1868-1953) set up the first rooms of the Museum of the Middle Ages and Renaissance here. Shortly thereafter, Benito Mussolini made it the representative seat of the fascist government. The meetings of the Grand Council of Fascism were also held here, including the last one on 25 July 1943.
After the war, the suite of seven rooms returned to their use as a museum. After housing the permanent collection, from 1982, they were used for temporary exhibitions. They turned once again part of the exhibition spaces for the museum’s permanent collections in 2016.
Barbo Apartment: first and second room Originally, these two rooms served as a hallway or antechambers to the bedroom and study of Pope Paul II (1464-1471). The coat of arms in the vault of the second room also refers to the presence of the pontiff. The walls, now bare, were probably originally covered with tapestries. The floors are the work of the Roman ceramist, Vittorio Saltelli (1887-1958): Saltelli, here clearly inspired by Renaissance examples, created them during the 1920s restorations, using terracotta tiles and polychrome majolica.
Barbo Apartment: third room At the time of Pope Paul II (1464-1471), this room was an important hub. The door on the right leads to the upper level of the Loggia della Benedizioni, the three doors across from this, which are now walled up, led to the viridarium or secret garden, later transformed into the Palazzetto. Through the smaller door on the left, Pope Paul II had access to the spiral staircase of the ancient medieval tower, which was later incorporated into the present structure, called the Torre della Biscia. The largest door took him to the so-called Camera della Torre.
The room still boasts its original fifteenth-century wooden ceiling decorated with the coat of arms of Pope Paul II. The casing around the doors leading to the viridarium and the coat of arms above are from a later period: the coat of arms, in particular, records the patronage of Cardinal Giovanni Dolfin (1545-1622), incumbent of San Marco from 1605 to 1621. In the centre of the room, you can appreciate a model showing the building and surrounding area prior to the works carried out in the early twentieth century, which, among other things, resulted in the relocation of the Palazzetto to via degli Astalli.
Barbo Apartment: fourth room or Camera della Torre The fourth room, called the Camera della Torre, precisely because it was located inside the corner tower, most likely served as the private study of Pope Paul II (1464-1471). It still features the beautiful, original fifteenth-century ceiling with the pontiff’s coat of arms.
Barbo Apartment: fourth room or Camera della Torre The marble door casings are later: the one on the left, which leads to the fifth room of the apartment, bears the name of Ambassador Niccolò Duodo (1657-1742) and the date, 1716.
Some objects that belonged to Pietro Barbo when he was a cardinal are now on display in the room. The travel case, made of leather, probably by a Venetian artist, has a floral decoration in a classical style and the cardinal’s coat of arms. Opposite this is the Bust of Pope Paul II, the work of the great Tuscan sculptor, Mino da Fiesole (1429-1484).
Barbo apartment: fifth room or Bedroom of Pope Paul II This room originally served as the bedroom of Pope Paul II (1464-1471). The ceiling belongs to the original building phase of the palace. The wooden coat of arms of Pope Paul II dominates the centre of the wall: this work, attributed to the Florentine architect and woodcarver, Giovannino de’ Dolci (historical reports: 1435-1468), shows a rampant lion on a field of azure, surmounted by the papal tiara and crossed keys. Found in the basement of the building at the beginning of the twentieth century, it has been identified as one of the coffers from the ceiling of the Sala del Mappamondo.
Barbo Apartment: sixth room or Sala del Pappagallo The name refers to Pope Paul II’s (1464-1471) parrot, an exotic animal that was extremely rare and expensive at the time. The pope also used this and the next room to receive his most trusted guests.
The wooden ceiling features ornamental motifs, putti and the pontiff’s coat of arms, with the rampant lion surmounted by the papal tiara and crossed keys. The painted frieze below is divided into two registers: the upper register shows putti holding festoons; the lower register features a leaf scroll pattern alternating with tondi containing the coat of arms of the pope’s nephew, Cardinal Marco Barbo (1420-1491). The ceiling and frieze were definitely created after 1467, since we know for certain that the ceiling was raised so it matched with the height of the new reception rooms in 1467. The upper register of the frieze may have been carried out during the pontificate of Paul II; the lower one, after 1471, for his nephew, Marco.
In one of the two display cabinets, there is a bronze medallion on display commissioned by Pope Paul II in 1465 to celebrate the beginning of the extension works of the palace: the front of the medallion shows a profile portrait of the pontiff, the back depicts the palace itself, in its late-medieval form.
This and other commemorative medals were placed in earthenware money-boxes, which were placed inside the masonry, following a custom that dates back to classical antiquity. The second display case contains some of these money-boxes, which were found during the nineteenth and twentieth century construction works. On the back wall, there is an eighteenth-century fresco representing Pope Pius IV (1559-1565) donating the palace to Giacomo Soranzo (1518-1599), ambassador of the Republic of Venice.
This and other commemorative medals were placed in earthenware money-boxes, which were placed inside the masonry, following a custom that dates back to classical antiquity. The second display case contains some of these money-boxes, which were found during the nineteenth and twentieth century construction works. On the back wall, there is an eighteenth-century fresco representing Pope Pius IV (1559-1565) donating the palace to Giacomo Soranzo (1518-1599), ambassador of the Republic of Venice.
During the Fascist period, Mussolini had the hall arranged so it could be used to hold the meetings of the Grand Council. On the night between 24 and 25 July 1943, the meeting that led to the approval of the Grandi motion took place here, which eventually led to the fall of the Italian fascist regime.
Barbo Apartment: seventh room or Sala dei Paramenti or Sala delle Fatiche di Ercole The seventh and last room of the Barbo Apartment takes its name from the sacred vestments of Pope Paul II (1464-1471). The casing of the doors with the pontiff’s coat of arms, the decoration on the wooden ceiling and the fresco frieze are from the fifteenth century. The decoration on the ceiling and the frieze certainly date from after 1467, when the ceiling was raised to match the level of the ceilings in the new reception rooms.
The upper register of the frieze with little putti holding festoons may have been carried out during the pontificate of Paul II, that is, before 1471; the lower register, on the other hand, is certainly subsequent to the death of the pope, since the pilasters bear the coat of arms of Marco Barbo.
The lower register features four fountains with cupids at play that alternate with the eight labours of Hercules. The artist responsible for this frieze is still unknown. Some believe it to be the work of the Tuscan illuminator Giuliano Amadei (1446-1496), others attributed it to Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506) or one of his followers; still others, to a Venetian artist linked to the Roman circle of the humanist Giulio Pomponio Leto (1428-1498).
The floor is from the 1930s. Its author, the ceramist Vittorio Saltelli (1887-1958), reused the original Sevillian tiles to make it, which, in turn, had been recovered during the nineteenth century by Count Palffy, a counsellor for the Austrian embassy.
Sale
A vast, majestic space that evokes great deeds and narrates the lives of people who lived over a period of more than five centuries
The room was built by Pietro Barbo, immediately after his election to the papacy under the name Paul II (1464-1471) as a reception room: the goal was to expand and embellish the palace he had lived in as cardinal to transform it into an alternative residence to the Vatican.
The name by which this room is still known today is due to a planisphere, which was originally located in the centre of the western wall, now lost. Originally believed to have been commissioned by Pope Paul II himself, and therefore, attributed to the Venetian cartographer, Girolamo Bellavista, who is documented as having been in Rome during Paul II’s pontificate, it was actually commissioned after his death by his nephew Marco Barbo (1420-1491): in 1489 he even turned to Lorenzo the Magnificent (1449-1492), ruler of Florence, to send some more up-to-date geographical maps to use as a model.
Used by the popes to welcome guests until the end of the sixteenth century – here Pope Paul III (1534-1546) met Emperor Charles V (1500-1558) and established the convocation of the Council of Trent – the room was used for a variety of purposes during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
It was used as the location of newly established Museum of the Palazzo Venezia in the first decade of the twentieth century, but it was subsequently chosen by Benito Mussolini to establish his own headquarters: he placed his desk next to the fireplace, and the dictator worked in this room, received guests and harangued the crowd from the balcony just outside. Returned to its use as a museum after World War II, the room first held the permanent collections. Then, starting in the 1980s, it was used for temporary exhibitions, and in 2016, it became a permanent part of the rooms open to the public.
Decorated in the second half of the fifteenth century, the room underwent numerous changes in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Beginning in 1917, the art historian, Federico Hermanin (1868-1953), then Superintendent of the Galleries and Museums of Lazio and Abruzzi, restored the fifteenth-century layout and rearranged the space to look like a Renaissance residence. The Renaissance-style layout was dismantled after World War II, and the room is admired today for the grandeur of the space and its decorations.
The walls feature fake architectural details that create the illusion of an even larger space. These details include a portico with eight columns on bases in the form of a classical temple and a frieze decorated with medallions with the Doctors of the Church. This decoration, started under Marco Barbo (1420-1491), was completed by Lorenzo Cybo (1450-1503) during the pontificate of Innocent VIII (1484-1498), as the three coats of arms on the western wall record. Subsequently whitewashed, or rather, covered with a layer of plaster and painted over with other images, it was brought to light in the first decade of the twentieth century: Federico Hermanin salvaged the few surviving fragments, attributed them to Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506) and entrusted their restoration and reintegration to the painter-restorer Giovanni Costantini (1872-1947).
The door casings and the monumental fireplace bear the cardinalate coat of arms of Marco Barbo and are attributable to his patronage. Embellished with a frieze containing ribbons, leaves and fruit, the fireplace has been attributed to Mino da Fiesole (1429-1484) and Giovanni Dalmata (1440-1515).
A series of windows pierce the western wall: one of these, along with its marble balcony, was added in 1715 at the behest of Ambassador Niccolò Duodo (1657-1742). This allowed the residents and guests of the palace to enjoy a magnificent view during the Carnival celebrations, especially of the arrival of the Berber horse race.
The ceiling, the chandelier and the mosaic floor were added during the 1920s by Frederick Hermanin. The ceiling is based on a model from 1496, which still exists today in the church of San Vittore in Vallerano, near Viterbo: the only difference, besides the size, being the addition of medallions with the coats of arms of Rome and Venice. Only a single coffer from the original ceiling remains, now exhibited in the Barbo Apartment.
The floor, the work of Pietro D’Achiardi (1879-1940), depicts The Rape of Europe with marine gods and zodiac signs along the border; it was inspired by the mosaics in the Baths of Neptune in Ostia Antica.
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Un’altra delle spettacolari sale del palazzo, capace nel corso dei secoli di suscitare l’ammirazione di personaggi famosi: tra i tanti anche Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart e Gioacchino Rossini
La sala fa parte della sequenza di spazi monumentali fatti costruire dal cardinale Pietro Barbo subito dopo la sua elezione a papa con il nome di Paolo II (1464-1471) come sale di rappresentanza: l’obiettivo era di trasformare il palazzo cardinalizio in una residenza pontificia alternativa al Vaticano.
L’ambiente, per molto tempo noto come Sala del Concistoro, perché il collegio dei cardinali era solito tenere qui le proprie riunioni - l’ultima risale 1597 – assunse a grande notorietà nel diciottesimo secolo: a quel tempo lo illuminavano cinque grandi lampadari fatti venire appositamente da Murano e per questo era detto Sala dei Cinque Lustri. Fu sotto questi lampadari che nel 1770 il quattordicenne Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) tenne uno dei suoi leggendari concerti. A qualche anno di distanza, nel 1842, con il palazzo ormai passato all’Austria, Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868) vi diresse per la prima volta lo Stabat Mater. Dopo aver ospitato nel 1922 la mostra delle opere d’arte recuperate dall’Austria, la sala fu scelta come sede di rappresentanza da Benito Mussolini. Nel secondo dopoguerra l’ambiente ha accolto prima le collezioni permanenti del museo e poi, dagli anni Ottanta, mostre temporanee: dal 2016 fa parte stabilmente del percorso di visita.
Perduta ogni traccia quattrocentesca o settecentesca, le pareti presentano una decorazione ideata negli anni Venti del Novecento dall’architetto Armando Brasini (1879-1965) ed eseguita nel 1929 dal pittore Giovanni Costantini (1872-1947). Brasini immaginò una finta architettura neorinascimentale ispirata a quella della Sala del Mappamondo. Colonne, poste in cima ad alti stilobati, si alternano a specchiature e a finte nicchie: clipei e targhe contengono i nomi delle battaglie combattute dall’Italia nel corso della Prima guerra mondiale. Proprio a queste battaglie, dal Monte Grappa a Vittorio Veneto, si deve il nome corrente della sala. Il pavimento in marmo e il soffitto sono ugualmente degli anni Venti del Novecento. Il soffitto a cassettoni, in particolare, anch’esso di evidente ispirazione rinascimentale, è impreziosito da un lampadario su disegno di Giorgio Liebe.
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La terza e ultima stanza monumentale del palazzo è anche una delle più vaste di Roma: per questo veniva spesso chiamata Aula Maxima
La sala fa parte della sequenza di tre ambienti monumentali voluti dal cardinale Pietro Barbo subito dopo la sua elezione a papa con il nome di Paolo II (1464-1471), per rendere il palazzo una residenza alternativa al Vaticano. Il nome si deve alla funzione originaria: qui venivano accolti e sostavano i reali, gli ambasciatori e i personaggi potenti che si recavano in udienza dal papa. Con i suoi 37 metri di lunghezza e i 430 mq di superficie la Sala Regia è la più grande del palazzo e una delle più ampie di Roma: per questo motivo i documenti la segnalano spesso come Aula Maxima.
Ancora in fase di costruzione al tempo del cardinale Marco Barbo (1420-1491), la sala venne conclusa sotto il cardinale Lorenzo Mari Cibo (c. 1450-1504). Profondamente modificata nei secoli successivi, essa fu oggetto di un integrale ripristino in stile rinascimentale nel corso degli anni venti del Novecento, su direzione del primo direttore del Museo di Palazzo Venezia, Federico Hermanin (1868-1953).
Le pareti presentano una grandiosa architettura dipinta: al centro di ciascuna delle tre pareti senza finestre compare la figura della Fama, alata e in piedi su di un globo; nella quarta parete, gli strombi delle finestre superiori accolgono medaglioni in chiaro-scuro ispirati ai bassorilievi dell’Arco di Costantino. Questa decorazione quattrocentesca, scialbata nei secoli successivi e coperta da altre pitture, fu riportata alla luce a partire dal 1917 da Federico Hermanin (1868-1953): questi restaurò i pochi frammenti superstiti – ch’egli attribuì a Donato Bramante e datò 1499 – e ne affidò la reintegrazione al pittore-restauratore Pietro de Prai.
Il pavimento e il soffitto appartengono ugualmente agli anni Venti del Novecento. Il pavimento in marmo segue il disegno dell’architetto Luigi Marangoni (1872-1950). Quanto al soffitto a cassettoni, il suo disegno spetta a Ermenegildo Estevan (1851-1945): Estevan prese a modello quello della navata centrale della vicina Basilica di San Marco, ma sostituì le insegne di Paolo II con gli stemmi del Comune di Roma, del Regno d’Italia e del leone di San Marco, simbolo di Venezia.
Apt Cibo
Una preziosa residenza di cardinali posta lungo l’antica via Papale, l’odierna via del Plebiscito
Con la denominazione di Appartamento Cibo si intendono le sette sale situate nell’ala settentrionale del palazzo, subito dopo la Sala Regia, in alcuni casi affacciate sul giardino interno, in altri sull’antica via Papale, l’odierna via del Plebiscito.
Esse risalgono al passaggio fra quindicesimo e sedicesimo secolo, allorché furono realizzate come propria residenza dal cardinale Lorenzo Mari Cibo (c. 1450-1504), titolare della Basilica di San Marco tra il 1491 al 1503.
Con la donazione del palazzo alla Repubblica di Venezia, nel 1564, l’appartamento accolse i cardinali titolari della Basilica di San Marco. Negli anni Venti del Novecento lo storico dell’arte Federico Hermanin (1868-1953) destinò le sette sale al Museo: a tal fine le rinnovò in stile rinascimentale, utilizzando per i soffitti a stucco e dorature bozzetti di Ludovico Seitz (1844-1908).
Dal secondo dopoguerra le sale dell’Appartamento Cibo ospitano le collezioni permanenti del Museo: fra i pezzi di straordinario valore si segnalano il Cristo Pantocrator, la Lunetta della Nicchia dei Palli, la Madonna di Acuto, la Testa femminile di Nicola Pisano, il Volto di Cristo di Beato Angelico, i quattro rilievi con Storie di San Girolamo di Mino da Fiesole. La cappella, con decorazione cinquecentesca di Girolamo Muziano (1532-1592), ospita il Busto di Innocenzo X di Alessandro Algardi.
Scalone
Progettata negli anni Venti del Novecento, la grande scala rievoca attraverso il materiale e il linguaggio il grande Rinascimento italiano
Aperto su via del Plebiscito, lo scalone risale agli anni Venti del Novecento. Palazzo Venezia naturalmente aveva già in precedenza diverse e importanti vie per accedere ai piani superiori e in particolare al più importante, il piano nobile.
Oltre a quella tuttora esistente su piazza Venezia, in questa specifica zona del complesso i documenti attestano nel corso dei secoli ben tre scale: una “cordonata” tardo quattrocentesca, che permetteva fra l’altro la salita a cavallo, una settecentesca e una progettata da Camillo Pistrucci (1856-1927) nel 1911, vale a dire al tramonto del periodo austro-ungarico.
Lo scalone, altrimenti detto Scala Nova, venne realizzato fra il 1924 e il 1930, su disegno di Luigi Marangoni (1872-1950). A Marangoni va ascritto anche il progetto della decorazione plastica, poi scolpita da Benedetto D’Amore (1882-1960), lo scultore attivo anche nel Vittoriano.
Marangoni e D’Amore s’ispirarono al lessico della fase quattrocentesca del palazzo, quella dominata dalle figure di Paolo II (1464-1471) e di suo nipote, il cardinale Marco Barbo (1420-1491): effettivamente ancor oggi molti di primo acchito ritengono lo scalone un originale del Rinascimento. Ma osservando meglio le strutture in travertino e l’apparato plastico è facile accorgersi che si tratta di una riproposizione moderna: i capitelli celebrano le vittorie ottenute dal Regno d’Italia contro l’Austria durante la Terza Guerra d’Indipendenza del 1866 e la Prima guerra mondiale (1915-1918).
Giardino
Le macchine e il caos della città sembrano adesso lontani. Fermatevi un istante e ascoltate: gli unici suoni sono il quieto scroscio delle fontane e lo stormire delle palme
Il cortile del palazzo quattrocentesco, nel corso dell’Ottocento si trasformò in un giardino. Forse sotto l’impulso dell’Accademia di Belle Arti di Vienna – l’edificio era allora sede dell’Ambasciata austriaca – esso fu impreziosito da una ragguardevole varietà di piante: al noto botanico pavese Pietro Romualdo Pirotta (1853-1936) spetta l’inserimento delle quatto specie di palme, comprese quelle che ancor oggi svettano nell’aiuola centrale, fra le più alte di Roma.
Recentemente sgomberato dalle automobili, il giardino rappresenta il fulcro dell’intero complesso. Da qui si gode infatti la vista su alcuni elementi chiave del palazzo.
Sul lato orientale spicca il fianco della Basilica di San Marco, con il suo parato medievale, il campanile romanico e le ampie finestre del quindicesimo secolo.
Il portico su due ordini che occupa il lato nord-orientale viene tradizionalmente ricondotto a Paolo II (1464-1471) e al nipote Marco Barbo (1420-1471) per via della presenza degli stemmi di entrambi, ossia tiara pontificia e chiavi decussate per il primo, cappello cardinalizio con nappe e croce astile del patriarcato di Aquileia per il secondo. Di recente, tuttavia, si è proposto di identificare il committente con il solo Marco Barbo: questi ne avrebbe ordinato la costruzione dopo la morte dello zio e vi avrebbe posto i suoi stemmi per onorarne la memoria.
La costruzione mostra una chiara matrice classica: la fonte d’ispirazione più evidente è il Colosseo. Alcuni, per questo, pensano a un diretto coinvolgimento di Leon Battista Alberti. Altri identificano invece l’architetto con Francesco del Borgo. Essa rimase comunque incompiuta come dimostra l’ultima arcata sulla sinistra del lato meridionale.
l lato orientale del primo ordine dà accesso all’ingresso laterale della Basilica di San Marco; quello settentrionale al Refettorio quattrocentesco. All’interno del secondo ordine sono collocati pezzi di scultura erratici, comprese le quattro sculture antropomorfe, forse rappresentanti Teste di venti, provenienti dal viridarium. Subito dietro il profilo della loggia si può intravedere la torretta sopra la sagrestia o altana voluta da Marco Barbo (1420-1471).
Al centro del giardino si trova una bella fontana commissionata nel 1730 a Carlo Monaldi (c. 1683- 1760) dall’ambasciatore Barbon Morosini. La fontana, che raffigura Venezia sposa il mare, richiama una delle cerimonie tradizionali della Serenissima.
Il prospetto occidentale del giardino, dove si apre l’ingresso di via degli Astalli, venne rifatto nel 1733 da Angelo Maria Querini (1680-1755), cardinale titolare della Basilica di San Marco. Nella nicchia al centro – poi spostata di lato – fu collocata la statua di San Pietro Orseolo, primo doge di Venezia, canonizzato nel 1731; al di sopra domina il Passetto dei Cardinali.
Palazzetto
Costruito nella seconda metà del quindicesimo secolo come viridarium, o giardino segreto del papa, il Palazzetto venne spostato e rimontato pietra su pietra ai primi del ventesimo, per far spazio a piazza Venezia
Il Palazzetto è il secondo corpo di fabbrica principale del complesso che va sotto il nome di Palazzo Venezia. Concepito nel quindicesimo secolo, esso ha oggi collocazione, funzioni e anche forme piuttosto differenti dalle originarie. Il progetto e la costruzione sono da fissarsi nei mesi successivi al 1464, ovvero dopo l’elezione di Pietro Barbo al soglio pontificio con il nome di Paolo II (1464-1471). A quel tempo esso sorgeva qualche decina di metri più a est – vale a dire ben dentro l’odierna piazza Venezia – e costituiva una sorta di avancorpo del palazzo: lo spigolo di collegamento si trovava in coincidenza della Torre della Biscia.
Il pontefice lo intese come viridarium o giardino pensile segreto, cui poteva accedere direttamente dal proprio appartamento. Egli inoltre vi sistemò l’appartamento di suo nipote, il cardinale Marco Barbo (1420-1491). L’impianto leggermente trapezoidale era cinto da un doppio ordine di logge porticate, aperte sia verso l’interno che verso l’esterno.
Al riparo dei portici il papa aveva raccolto antichità classiche. Al centro dei bracci del primo ordine erano collocate quattro sculture antropomorfe, forse rappresentanti Teste di venti, oggi nella Loggia grande. La zona centrale verdeggiava grazie a un agrumeto e a siepi di forma geometrica: qui, nel novembre-dicembre 1466, Antonio da Brescia (notizie dal 1464 al 1475) collocò una vera da pozzo con le armi di Marco Barbo.
Profondi cambiamenti vennero apportati da Paolo III (1534-1546), il quale, chiuse le arcate del loggiato, attraverso un passetto, cioè un corridoio sopraelevato, collegò questo corpo di fabbrica a una torre fortificata posta in cima al Campidoglio, la Torre di Paolo III. Sia il passetto che la torre furono demoliti già allo scadere del diciannovesimo secolo: oggi possono riconoscersi solo in dipinti e vecchie fotografie.
Con il passaggio nel 1564 del palazzo alla Repubblica di Venezia, anche il viridarium diventò appannaggio degli ambasciatori. Durante l’epoca napoleonica il console del Regno d’Italia Giuseppe Tambroni (1773-1824) e Antonio Canova (1757-1822) crearono proprio all’interno del Palazzetto l’Accademia di Belle Arti del Regno Italico: qui dovevano trovare ospitalità i migliori artefici provenienti dalle Accademie di Belle Arti di Milano, Venezia e Bologna.
L’insieme subì profonde alterazioni fra il 1910 e il 1913, necessarie per realizzare piazza Venezia. Dopo una serie di opzioni alternative, si decise di smontare il Palazzetto pietra su pietra e di rimontarlo nella sede odierna. Il romano Camillo Pistrucci (1856-1927), l’austriaco Ludwig Baumann (1853-1936) e l’ungherese Jaques Oblatt diressero i lavori. Ogni elemento venne numerato per poi essere ricollocato nella sua posizione originaria.
La ricostruzione novecentesca risultò leggermente più piccola e a pianta quadrata, cosa che fra l’altro costrinse a rinunciare alle mensole con Teste di venti, ricoverate nella Loggia grande. All’interno del giardino, intorno alla vera da pozzo quattrocentesca di Antonio da Brescia, gli architetti ricrearono l’ambientazione rinascimentale piantumando siepi di alloro in forma geometrica e alberi di agrumi. La presenza di cipressi particolarmente grandi si deve al contrario alla moda otto-novecentesca.
Attualmente il Palazzetto ospita una parte della splendida raccolta di opere d’arte applicata del Museo. Fra le maioliche vale segnalare il bacile con lo stemma del cardinale Marco Barbo (1420-1491) proveniente dall’altana, il Piatto di Francesco Xanto Avelli e il Corredo da spezieria proveniente da Montefiascone.
Fra i bronzetti le collezioni già di Alfredo Barsanti (1877-1946) che comprendeva il Caprone del Riccio, e di Giacinto Auriti (1883-1969). Fra le terrecotte e cartapeste I miracoli di San Marco di Jacopo Sansovino e le collezioni dello studioso Ludwig Pollack (1868-1943) e del cantante Evan Gorga (1865-1957).
La collezione Gorga, in particolare, comprende 120 bozzetti e modelli dal XVII al XVIII secolo, tra cui alcuni di Alessandro Algardi (1598-1654) e Gian Lorenzo Bernini, come l’Angelo con il Titolo per ponte Sant’Angelo e il Modello per la memoria di suor Maria Raggi.
All’esterno della loggia al secondo piano è esposto il cosiddetto Lapidarium, qui sistemato nel 2006 da Maria Giulia Barberini. Si tratta di una raccolta di marmi dall’antichità al Rinascimento, provenienti dagli sterri eseguiti per lo spostamento del Palazzetto e da alcune collezioni, come quella del Museo Artistico Industriale. Fra gli altri si segnalano una Vera da pozzo, databile tra il IX-X secolo, già nella chiesa di Sant’Agata al Quirinale, la Transenna di Santa Maria dell’Aracoeli, datata 1372 e la Vasca da lavabo attribuita a Mino da Fiesole (1429-1484).
Passetto
Passetto dei Cardinali e Appartamento Querini Un antico braccio di collegamento e l’Appartamento del cardinale Querini ospitano importanti opere d’arte applicata
Il Passetto, ovvero il braccio di collegamento tra l’ala nord e quella sud di Palazzo Venezia, risale ai tempi del cardinale Marco Barbo (1421-1490): questi infatti definì il confine occidentale dell’edificio lungo via degli Astalli costruendo un camminamento di ronda, scoperto e merlato. Fu però il cardinale Angelo Maria Querini (1680-1755) a coprirlo e dotarlo di finestre, trasformandolo in un vero e proprio corridoio per raggiungere il nuovo appartamento che si era fatto costruire nell’ala nord-occidentale del palazzo.
Dal 2004 il Passetto ospita nelle sue vetrine una parte delle collezioni di porcellane: i pezzi, di manifattura orientale ed europea, sono pervenuti per lo più attraverso la donazione Ruffo di Motta Bagnara del 1919 e la donazione Tower-Wurts del 1933.
Al termine del Passetto si trova l’Appartamento Querini. Il cardinale Querini, sfruttando una torre rimasta incompiuta, vi ricavò una piccola residenza estiva che, costituita da tre ambienti e da un’altana, era appunto riservata ai cardinali titolari. In una sala dell’Appartamento Querini è esposta una selezione della ricca collezione di argenti nord-europei e italiani tra sedicesimo e diciannovesimo secolo.
Geschichte akt
Der venezianische Kardinal Pietro Barbo ließ 1455 einen kleineren Palast neben der Kirche San Marco, seiner Titelkirche, durch einen Neubau erweitern, der 1467 vollendet war. 1464 wurde Barbo als Paul II. zum Papst gewählt. Zunächst verlegte er seine päpstliche Residenz hierhin, zog aber 1470 in den Vatikan zurück.
Der Palast ging in der Folge in die Hände seines Neffen, Kardinal Marco Barbo, über. Von 1567 bis 1797 war der Palast unter dem Namen Palazzo San Marco im Besitz der Republik Venedig und diente dem venezianischen Botschafter beim Heiligen Stuhl als Amtssitz. Während dieser Zeit beherbergte der Palast eine Reihe illustrer Gäste, wie Borso d’Este, Herzog von Ferrara oder den französischen König Charles VIII. Kaiser Karl V. traf sich hier mit Papst Paul III. Farnese und vereinbarte mit ihm die Einberufung des Konzils von Trient. Papst Clemens VIII. leitete hier 1597 das letzte von ihm einberufene Konsistorium.
Mit dem Frieden von Campo Formio (1797) gelangte auch der römische Palast der Serenissima in österreichischen Besitz. Während der kurzen Oberherrschaft Napoleons über Italien zwischen 1806 und 1814 verwahrloste der Palast, der Innenhof wurde als Markt benutzt, bis er während der Zeit der Restauration unter die Obhut der französischen Museumsverwaltung kam. 1814 kehrten die österreichischen Besitzer wieder zurück, der Palast wurde vorübergehend als Botschaft genutzt, die jedoch bald wegen der Baufälligkeit des Gebäudes verlegt wurde. Der Bau wurde anschließend unter Leitung des Wiener Architekten Anton Barvitius restauriert. Im Kriegsjahr 1916 wurde der Palazzo vom italienischen Staat eingezogen. Die vertragliche Regelung mit den Staaten Österreich und Ungarn erfolgte ab 1919.[1][2]
Bis 1943 war er Regierungssitz Mussolinis, der vom Balkon des Palastes seine Reden an die Römer hielt und unter anderem 1940 den Eintritt Italiens in den Krieg gegen Frankreich und Großbritannien proklamierte.
Architektur
Der Palast hat während seiner verwickelten und langjährigen Baugeschichte immer wieder gravierende Veränderungen erfahren. Der ursprüngliche Kardinalspalast mit seinem mächtigen Turm über einem quadratischen Grundriss und der anschließende Palast entsprach dem damals für römische Stadtpaläste üblichen Bautyp.
Für die folgenden Umbauten und Erweiterungen als päpstliche Residenz werden Giuliano da Maiano, Bartolomeo Bellano und Bernardo Rosselino vermutet. Die Hypothese, dass auch Alberti am Konzept beteiligt war, teilt der Palast mit anderen römischen Bauten der Zeit, es gibt aber dafür keinerlei Belege. Als Baumeister wird in der neueren Literatur Francesco da San Sepolcro genannt.[3] Zunächst wurde das Areal des alten Kardinalspalastes von rund 700 m² auf 11.000 m² erweitert, einschließlich der Anlage eines Gartens, der von den päpstlichen Gemächern einzusehen war. Er wurde begrenzt von einer mit Zinnen bekrönten Loggia die wenig später durch eine weitere aufgestockt wurde.
Die heutige exponierte Lage des Palastes ergab sich erst durch die Neugestaltung der Piazza Venezia im Zuge der Errichtung des monumentalen Nationaldenkmals für Viktor Emanuel II., die zwischen 1885 und 1911 ausgeführt wurde und für die Teile der alten Nachbarbebauung abgerissen wurden. Ab 1911 wurde als Gegenstück zum Palazzo Venezia das Gebäude der Versicherungsgesellschaft Assicurazioni Generali, ebenso mit mächtigem Turm und mit Zinnen ausgestattet und einem Portal, das wie das des Palazzo mit dem geflügelten Markuslöwen bekrönt wird, erbaut.
Zur Piazza Venezia ist die breitgelagerte Front mit dem alten zinnenbekrönten Eckturm bestimmend. Die Nordseite des Palastes erstreckt sich entlang der Via del Plebiscito, auf der Westseite wird der Palastbezirk mit dem dahinterliegenden Garten allein durch eine Mauer mit Wehrgang begrenzt. An der Südseite schließt sich die Kirche San Marco an, die beim Bau des Palazzo in den Komplex miteinbezogen wurde.
Im östlichen Teil des Piano nobile befindet sich das Appartamento Barbo. Bedeutend sind in diesem Bereich drei sehr große Repräsentationssäle: die sala del mappamondo mit ihrem Balkon zur Piazza Venezia hin, in der Mussolini seine Regierungsgeschäfte führte; die sala del concistoro an der Ecke zur Via del Plebiscito, in der einst Konsistorien abgehalten wurden; und zur Via del Plebiscito hin die sala regia für die bedeutendsten Zeremonien. Auf die sala regia folgt in westlicher Richtung eine monumentale Ehrentreppe, danach folgen kleinere Säle, die heute vom Museo di Palazzo Venezia genutzt werden.[4]
Der Palazzo gilt als erstes großes Bauwerk der Frührenaissance in Rom. Seine von drei Fensterreihen aus weißem Marmor geschmückte, bräunliche Fassade mit abschließendem Zinnenkranz verleiht ihm einen mittelalterlichen Charakter. Die Fenster des oberen Stockwerks tragen die Form des welfischen Kreuzes. Der eigentliche Aspekt der Renaissance wird erst in der Hofloggia ersichtlich. Dort wurde die Säulenordnung des Kolosseums, typisches Merkmal der Antikenrezeption, übernommen.
Unter dem Palazzo befindet sich in 16 m Tiefe ein Luftschutzkeller Mussolinis.[5][6]
Das Museum
Schon seit dem Mitte des 15. Jahrhunderts wurden im Palazzo antike Statuen aus dem Besitz Kardinal Barbos, der ein begeisterter Sammler antiker Fundstücke war, ausgestellt. Vermutlich wurden die meisten Antiken nach seinem Tod von Barbos Nachfolger Sixtus IV. in die Engelsburg überführt, ihr weiterer Verbleib ist nicht mehr nachzuweisen. 1503 wurde jedoch mit der Ernennung Domenico Grimanis eine neue Sammlung von Antiken im Palazzo begonnen. Grimani, einer der bedeutendsten Kunstsammler und Mäzene der Renaissance, richtete eine erstrangige Sammlung im Palast ein. Nach seinem Tod 1523 bemächtigte sich die Serenissima des Erbes, das den rechtmäßigen Grimani-Erben erst nach juristischen Auseinandersetzungen mit der Republik teilweise zurückerstattet wurde. Einige Stücke gelangten in der zweiten Hälfte des 16. Jahrhunderts in den Vatikan. Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts schließlich wurden die letzten Antiken auf Veranlassung des venezianischen Botschafters nach Venedig gebracht.
Das Museum zeigt neben Beispielen aus seinem Lapidarium eine bedeutende Waffensammlung, einer Sammlung von Wandteppichen, Münzen und Medaillen, Stoffen, Gläsern, Emailarbeiten sowie einer Sammlung von Silberarbeiten und Holzschnitzereien. Bemerkenswert ist Gianlorenzo Berninis Gedenken an Schwester Maria Raggi sowie die Portraitbüste Papst Paul II. von Paolo Romano (Abb.)
Die Gemäldesammlung umfasst Bilder aus dem 13.–18. Jahrhundert, darunter Filippo Lippis „Mariä Verkündung mit Stiftern“ und Werke von Carlo Maratta, Guercino, Guido Reni, Domenichino, Giorgione und Giotto.
Literatur
- Anton Barvitius: Bericht über den Bestand der Baulichkeiten des K. K. Botschaftshotel in Rom genannt il Palazzo di Venezia. Mit einer Geschichte des Palastes als Einleitung zum Berichte, Rom 1858 (Digitalisat)
- Centro Stampa Editoriale (Hrsg.): Rom und der Vatikan. Casa Editrice Perseus, ISBN 88-7280-521-X.
- Maria Giulia Barberini, Giulia Quintiliani, Filippo Raimondo: Palazzo Venezia, il Palazetto e il suo lapidarium. Roma 2006.
Weblinks
- LKIT2/Scriptorium. In: archINFORM.
- Offizielle Seite (ital./engl.)
Einzelnachweise
- ↑ Artikel 37 des Vertrag von Trianon lautet: Italien hat aus dem Titel der Besitznahme des "Palazzo Venetia" in Rom keinerlei Zahlung zu leisten. (Beleg)
- ↑ Staatsvertrag von St. Germain, Artikel 40. Bundeskanzleramt der Republik Österreich, 10. September 1919, abgerufen am 1. Mai 2016.
- ↑ Barberini, Maria Giulia: Le origini: La dimora privata del cardinale Pietro Barbo e il palazzo di Paolo II in: Palazzo Venezia, il Palazetto e il suo lapidario. Roma 2006. S. 17.
- ↑ Beschreibung auf museopalazzodivenezia.beniculturali.it
- ↑ Mussolinis geheime Bunker-Festungen entschlüsselt (Memento vom 26. Oktober 2014 im Internet Archive)
- ↑ Paul Badde: Rom: Wie kommt frische Luft in den Bunker des "Duce"? In: welt.de. 28. März 2013, abgerufen am 7. Oktober 2018.
