See also Palazzo Doria Pamphilj

Palazzo Pamphilj, also spelled Palazzo Pamphili, is a palace facing onto the Piazza Navona

Piazza Navona

Piazza Navona is a city square in Rome, Italy. It is built on the site of the Stadium of Domitian, built in 1st century AD, and follows the form of the open space of the stadium. The ancient Romans came there to watch the agones , and hence it was known as 'Circus Agonalis'...

 in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

. It was built between 1644 and 1650.

Since 1920 the palace has housed the Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

ian Embassy in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, and in 1964 it became the property of the Federative Republic of Brazil.

History

In 1644, Cardinal

Cardinal (Catholicism)

A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...

 Giambattista Pamphilj of the powerful Pamphilj family

Pamphili

The Pamphili are one of the papal families deeply entrenched in Roman Catholic Church, Roman and Italian politics of the 16th and 17th centuries ....

, who already owned a palace between the Piazza Navona and the Via Pasquino, became Pope Innocent X

Pope Innocent X

Pope Innocent X , born Giovanni Battista Pamphilj , was Pope from 1644 to 1655. Born in Rome of a family from Gubbio in Umbria who had come to Rome during the pontificate of Pope Innocent IX, he graduated from the Collegio Romano and followed a conventional cursus honorum, following his uncle...

. With this election came the desire for a larger more magnificent building to reflect his family’s increased prestige. Further land was bought, the architect Girolamo Rainaldi

Girolamo Rainaldi

Girolamo Rainaldi was an Italian architect who worked on the whole in a conservative Mannerist style, often with collaborating architects, yet was a successful competitor of Bernini...

 received the commission and construction began in 1646. The new project was to incorporate some existing buildings, including the former palace of the Pamphilj (whose decoration by Agostino Tassi

Agostino Tassi

Agostino Tassi was an Italian painter, mostly of landscapes and seascapes, who is now best known as the rapist of Artemisia Gentileschi....

 was partially preserved) and the Palazzo Cibo.

In 1647, the Baroque architect Francesco Borromini was consulted about the design and he made a series of new proposals for the palace. However, the prevailing preference was for Rainaldi’s more staid and conservative design. Borromini’s limited contributions included the stucco decoration of the salone (the main room) and design of the Gallery, located at first floor level between the rest of the palace and the church of St. Agnese next door. The Gallery extends through the width of the block with a large Serliana window at either end.

Between 1651 and 1651, the painter Pietro da Cortona

Pietro da Cortona

Pietro da Cortona, by the name of Pietro Berrettini, born Pietro Berrettini da Cortona, was the leading Italian Baroque painter of his time and also one of the key architects in the emergence of Roman Baroque architecture. He was also an important decorator...

 was commissioned to decorate the Gallery vault. His secular fresco cycle depicts scenes from the life of Aeneas

Aeneas

Aeneas , in Greco-Roman mythology, was a Trojan hero, the son of the prince Anchises and the goddess Aphrodite. His father was the second cousin of King Priam of Troy, making Aeneas Priam's second cousin, once removed. The journey of Aeneas from Troy , which led to the founding a hamlet south of...

 as recounted by Virgil

Virgil

Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...

, the legendary founder of Rome, from whom the Pamphili claimed to be descended. Unlike the large spacious volume of the Palazzo Barberini in which he had painted his fresco celebrating the reign of Innocent’s predecessor, Urban VIII Barberini, the Pamphilj Gallery was long with a low vault which meant that a single viewpoint to see the frescoes was not possible. So Cortona devised a series of scenes around a central painted framed ‘Apotheosis of Aeneas’ into the Olympian heavens. The elaborate doorframes regularly spaced along the longer walls of the Gallery display a combination of motifs typically used by Borromini and by Cortona

The plan has three courtyards. The rooms on the piano nobile (the first floor) have frescoes and friezes by artists such as Giacinto Gimignani

Giacinto Gimignani

Giacinto Gimignani was an Italian painter, active mainly in Rome, during the Baroque period.Gimignani was born in Pistoia, where his father, Alessio was also a painter and former pupil of Jacopo Ligozzi...

, Gaspard Dughet

Gaspard Dughet

Gaspard Dughet , also known as Gaspard Poussin, was a French painter born in Rome.A pupil of Nicolas Poussin, Gaspard Dughet was the brother of Poussin's wife...

, Andrea Camassei

Andrea Camassei

Andrea Camassei was an Italian Baroque painter and engraver, who was mainly active in Rome under the patronage of the Barberini.He was born in Bevagna. He was active in painting in the Palazzo Barberini as well as in Antonio Barberini's favored church, Santa Maria della Concezione, where he...

, Giacinto Brandi

Giacinto Brandi

Giacinto Brandi was an Italian painter of the Baroque era, active mainly in Rome and Naples.Born in Poli, in the Lazio, he was trained in Rome in the studio of Alessandro Algardi, a noted sculptor, who noted that Brandi was more suited to painting. He joined the studio of Giovanni Giacomo Sementi...

, Francesco Allegrini, and Pier Francesco Mola

Pier Francesco Mola

Pier Francesco Mola was an Italian painter of the High Baroque, mainly active around Rome.-Biography:Mola was born at Coldrerio . At the age of four, he moved to Rome with his father Giovanni Battista, a painter...

.

Carlo Rainaldi, the son of Girolamo, completed the building around 1650.

The new palazzo

Palazzo

Palazzo, an Italian word meaning a large building , may refer to:-Buildings:*Palazzo, an Italian type of building**Palazzo style architecture, imitative of Italian palazzi...

 became the home of Innocent's widowed and unpopular sister-in-law Olimpia Maidalchini

Olimpia Maidalchini

Olimpia Maidalchini , also spelled Olympia and known as Donna Olimpia, was the sister-in-law of Pope Innocent X .- Early life :...

, who was his confidante and advisor and, more scurrilously, reputed to be his mistress

Mistress (lover)

A mistress is a long-term female lover and companion who is not married to her partner; the term is used especially when her partner is married. The relationship generally is stable and at least semi-permanent; however, the couple does not live together openly. Also the relationship is usually,...

. She was the mother of Camillo Pamphilj, the one time cardinal

Cardinal (Catholicism)

A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...

, who through his marriage came into the possession of the Palazzo Aldobrandini, now known as the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj.

Confusingly, until the unification of the Doria

Doria

Doria, originally de Auria , meaning "the sons of Auria", and then de Oria or d'Oria, is the name of an old and extremely wealthy Genoese family who played a major role in the history of the Republic of Genoa and in Italy, from the 12th century to the 16th century.-Origins:According to legend, a...

 and Pamphilj surnames both palazzi were known as Palazzo Pamphilj, or in the case of today's Doria Pamphilj sometimes "Palazzo Pamfilio". Both spellings Pamphilj and Pamphili are in common Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

usage, even though the family prefers Pamphilj.

External links

• Brazilian Embassy in Rome Official website
• Palazzo Pamphilj Virtual tour