Rome in the Footsteps of an XVIIIth Century Traveller

You may wish to see a page on the town and the exterior of the palace first.

Sala degli Avi (Hall of the Ancestors): ceiling depicting Aurora, a personification of Dawn, by a painter of the school of Carlo Maratta (after 1671)

The decoration of the palace is mainly due to the Santacroce (Giorgio II and his son Onofrio III) in ca 1580-1604 and to the Altieri who made changes especially when they bought the palace in 1671 and in 1780-1815. The ceiling of the main hall was repainted in the fashion of the late XVIIth century with fake architectures creating an illusionistic effect. The depiction of Aurora was a reference to the splendour of the Altieri and the eight-pointed stars their heraldic symbol.

Sala degli Avi: (left) Pope Clement X Altieri by Giovanni Battista Sivizziri (1790 - based on portraits and busts by il Baciccio, Bernini and others); (right) Maria Anna di Sassonia by Giacomo Concia (1809)

Sala degli Avi is thus named because of large family portraits. That of Maria Anna di Sassonia in a Neoclassic attire and background stands out and it testifies to a period of wealth of the Altieri. She was the daughter of Prince Francis Xavier of Saxony whose sister was the mother of Kings Louis XVI, Louis XVIII and Charles X of France. Prince Francis Xavier fled France at the beginning of the French Revolution and settled in Rome. Maria Anna married Prince Paluzzo Altieri in 1793 and they promoted the refurbishment of some rooms of the palace. The Prince was a loyal supporter of the Papal cause and in 1819 he was appointed Senator of Rome by Pope Pius VII.

Sala dell'Eterno (Room of the Lord): (ceiling) Creation of the Sun, of the Moon and of the Stars

Genesis 1 (NCV): 14 Then God said, "Let there be lights in the sky to separate day from night. These lights will be used for signs, seasons, days, and years. 15 They will be in the sky to give light to the earth." And it happened. 16 So God made the two large lights. He made the brighter light to rule the day and made the smaller light to rule the night. He also made the stars. 17 God put all these in the sky to shine on the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness.
The room was part of the Santacroce building, but its ceiling was painted at the initiative of the Altieri. The stars are placed according to the family coat of arms. Some changes and enlargements of the palace were designed by Carlo Fontana, the leading architect in Rome after the death of Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

Sala degli Stemmi (Room of the Coats of Arms): decoration of the upper parts of the walls

The Santacroce decorated this room with the coats of arms of members of the family. Those belonging to the rulers of Oriolo, or Vejano or of other fiefdoms include also the coats of arms of their wives (e.g. an Orsini). The coats of arms have on top the symbol of a knight or of an ecclesiastical dignitary. Some of the Santacroce held important positions in the Catholic Church: Scipione Santacroce was Bishop of Cervia in 1545-1576; he erected a funerary chapel at Vejano. Ottavio Santacroce (1542-1581) was Governor of Fermo and Nunzio (Ambassador) to the Duke of Savoy and to the Austrian Emperor. Prospero Santacroce (1514-1589), Nunzio in Portugal and Spain, was made cardinal in 1565. He was the first European to cultivate tobacco in his garden for the purpose of smoking it. He is buried with three other Santacroce cardinals at S. Maria in Publicolis in Rome.

Sala dei Paesaggi (Room of the Landscapes): painting (Santacroce) and wooden ceiling (Altieri)

The decoration of the palace is characterized by the large presence of grotesques, paintings depicting a variety of subjects on a white background. They are named after the paintings discovered in the halls of Domus Aurea which resembled grottoes. In this room they framed small landscapes and the coat of arms of the Santacroce and their heraldic symbol, a mother pelican striking her breast with the beak to feed her young with her own blood, a symbol of the Passion of Jesus Christ.

Stanza delle Metamorfosi (Room of the Metamorphoses): Diana, surprised in her bath, curses Actaeon

The Metamorphoses by Ovid provided Renaissance artists with many opportunities to depict young women and men in their nudity, not only inside private palaces, e.g. Villa la Farnesina, but even in a bronze door of S. Pietro. The myth of Diana and Actaeon and that of Venus and Adonis were often chosen because the owners of the palaces enjoyed hunting and these subjects allowed the depiction of their hounds.

Sala di Giuseppe (Hall of Joseph): Joseph sold to the Merchants and a fox plays dead in order to trick the birds

Genesis 37 (NCV) 23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they pulled off his robe with long sleeves 24 and threw him into the well. It was empty, and there was no water in it. 25 While Joseph was in the well, the brothers sat down to eat. When they looked up, they saw a group of Ishmaelites traveling from Gilead to Egypt. Their camels were carrying spices, balm, and myrrh. 26 Then Judah said to his brothers, "What will we gain if we kill our brother and hide his death? 27 Let's sell him to these Ishmaelites. Then we will not be guilty of killing our own brother. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood." And the other brothers agreed. 28 So when the Midianite traders came by, the brothers took Joseph out of the well and sold him to the Ishmaelites for eight ounces of silver. And the Ishmaelites took him to Egypt.
In 1577, during the pontificate of Pope Gregory XIII, Cardinal Carlo Borromeo issued guidelines on the layout and decoration of churches and religious buildings. These stressed the importance of conveying Christian concepts through the depiction of events of the Holy Scriptures and of martyrdoms. The Santacroce were a very devout family and they decided to decorate some halls with events related to the Old Testament. They did not want however to give them a sombre aspect, thus the paintings did not show gruesome details and the grotesques included also references to fables. You may wish to see a painting depicting The Sacrifice of Elijah in a page covering Mount Carmel.

Sala del Sogno di Giacobbe (Hall of Jacob's Dream)

Genesis 28 (NCV): 10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. 11 When he came to a place, he spent the night there because the sun had set. He found a stone and laid his head on it to go to sleep. 12 Jacob dreamed that there was a ladder resting on the earth and reaching up into heaven, and he saw angels of God going up and coming down the ladder. 13 Then Jacob saw the Lord standing above the ladder, and he said, "I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your grandfather, and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are now sleeping. 14 Your descendants will be as many as the dust of the earth. They will spread west and east, north and south, and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. 15 I am with you and will protect you everywhere you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."
The decoration of the Old Testament halls was coordinated by Francesco Morelli, a Florentine painter of whom we know very little, apart from a short mention by Giovanni Baglione who was his pupil in 1581-1582 and later on wrote a book on the "Lives of the painters, sculptors, architects, from 1572 to 1642". Several letters have been found in which Morelli wrote to Onofrio Santacroce, claiming that payments to him were overdue.

Sala di Giosuè (Hall of Joshua): The Fall of Jericho

Joshua 6 (NCV): The people of Jericho were afraid because the Israelites were near. They closed the city gates and guarded them. No one went into the city, and no one came out. 2 Then the Lord said to Joshua, "Look, I have given you Jericho, its king, and all its fighting men. 3 March around the city with your army once a day for six days. 4 Have seven priests carry trumpets made from horns of male sheep and have them march in front of the Ark. On the seventh day march around the city seven times and have the priests blow the trumpets as they march. 5 They will make one long blast on the trumpets. When you hear that sound, have all the people give a loud shout. Then the walls of the city will fall so the people can go straight into the city."
The overall decoration of the halls shows the influence of that of Palazzo Farnese di Caprarola by Taddeo Zuccari and his brother Federico. It is possible that Morelli and some of his assistants had worked there.

Sala di David (Hall of David): David and Goliath

1 Samuel 17: (NCV): 32 David said to Saul, "Don't let anyone be discouraged. I, your servant, will go and fight this Philistine!" 33 Saul answered, "You can't go out against this Philistine and fight him. You're only a boy. Goliath has been a warrior since he was a young man." 34 But David said to Saul, "I, your servant, have been keeping my father's sheep. When a lion or bear came and took a sheep from the flock, 35 I would chase it. I would attack it and save the sheep from its mouth. When it attacked me, I caught it by its fur and hit it and killed it. 36 I, your servant, have killed both a lion and a bear! This uncircumcised Philistine will be like them, because he has spoken against the armies of the living God. 37 The Lord who saved me from a lion and a bear will save me from this Philistine." Saul said to David, "Go, and may the Lord be with you." (..) 40 He took his stick in his hand and chose five smooth stones from a stream. He put them in his shepherd's bag and grabbed his sling. Then he went to meet the Philistine.
The decoration of this hall includes many mythological references and it is stylistically different from the others. Some art historians suggest that it was painted by Ventura Salimbeni aka il Bevilacqua, a painter from Siena (1568-1613).

Sala di Eliseo (Hall of Elisha): Elisha orders to spare the Aramean army

2 Kings 6: (NCV) 21 When the king of Israel saw the Aramean army, he said to Elisha, "My father, should I kill them? Should I kill them?" 22 Elisha answered, "Don't kill them. You wouldn't kill people whom you captured with your sword and bow. Give them food and water, and let them eat and drink and then go home to their master." 23 So he prepared a great feast for the Aramean army. After they ate and drank, the king sent them away, and they went home to their master. The soldiers of Aram did not come anymore into the land of Israel.
The Orsini who acquired the palace in 1606 did not make major changes to it; in this hall however they replaced the Santacroce coats of arms with theirs. That to the left most likely belonged to Ippolita Ludovisi, wife of Flavio Orsini, Duke of Bracciano and that to the right to Cardinal Virginio Orsini, Flavio's brother.
You may wish to see Palazzo Giustiniani of Bassano, very near Oriolo which was decorated at approximately the same time as Palazzo Altieri.

Galleria dei Papi

Cardinal Paluzzo Paluzzi Altieri decorated a long gallery with portraits of all the popes, similar to what had been done at S. Paolo fuori le mura. When it was completed the gallery included 241 popes, but it has been updated to the present day. We do not know the names of the painters who worked for Cardinal Altieri, anyhow they all had to comply with a fixed format and for some popes they had simply to copy portraits made by famous painters from Raphael (Leo X) to Titian (Paul III) (they open in another window).

Galleria dei Papi: (above-left) St. Peter and the long inscription which can be read in the dome of S. Pietro; (above-right) Celestine V; (below-left) Paul V; (below-right) Gregory XV

Each portrait included the coat of arms of the Pope, the dates of his election and of his death and a sentence which starting from Celestine II (1143-44) was the Prophecy of Malachy, an attribute of the future pope. Some of these attributes required a lot of ingenuity to be interpreted. Gens Perversa, the prophecy related to Pope Paul V, meant "wicked family", but it was explained as "changed family" and referred to the fact that the Pope changed the name of Scipione Caffarelli, his nephew, into Scipione Borghese.

Sala degli Ori (Dining Room): wall with a view of Oriolo

An interesting part of the palace is a series of small halls with an elaborate XVIIIth century decoration which were designed by Giuseppe Barberi. The Dining Room includes views of other nearby fiefdoms belonging to the Altieri e.g. Canale Monterano, Vejano (Viano) and Monterosi.

Sala degli Ori: (left) Summer; (right) personification of a river

The paintings by Barberi in Sala degli Ori were made with a French technique known as marouflage, i.e. they were canvasses which were affixed on the walls and the ceiling by means of a strong adhesive known as maroufle. The small stucco statues were executed by Raffaele Secini. The image used as background for this page is based on a detail of the decoration of a shutter of this room.

Sala di Giuseppe (Hall of Joseph): portraits of "le Belle" (beautiful women)

Ortensia Mancini (1640-1708), niece of Cardinal Jules Mazarin was regarded as the most beautiful woman of her time. She had four sisters and two female cousins, the Mazarinettes as they were called in Paris, all very nice. A collection of the portraits of the seven women was first made to decorate a hall of Palazzo Chigi di Ariccia and eventually other noble families placed portraits of beautiful women in their palaces.

Sala del Sogno di Giacobbe (Hall of Jacob's Dream); views of Roman gardens

Barberi modernized the decoration of some rooms by adding small paintings depicting fantastic views of Roman gardens and scenes of the history of Rome, including the The Fire and Destruction of Carthage.

Fountain in a small rear garden with the coat of arms of Cardinal Altieri

From Civitavecchia to Civita Castellana - other pages:
Civitavecchia, Allumiere and Tolfa
Civitavecchia - Terme Taurine
Archaeological Museum of Civitavecchia
Oriolo Romano and Capranica
Sutri
Bassano, Monterosi and Campagnano
Bassano - Palazzo Giustiniani
Nepi and Castel Sant'Elia
Civita Castellana
Museum of Agro Falisco at Civita Castellana