Origins and Splendors of the Farnese Collection in 17th Century Rome

The exhibition Origins and Splendors of the Farnese Collection in 17th-Century Rome at the Capitoline Museums-Villa Caffarelli, curated by Claudio Parisi Presicce and Chiara Rabbi Bernard, is dedicated to a moment of profound urban transformation of the city of Rome, promoted by Pope Paul III Farnese (r. 1534-1549). After the devastating Sack of Rome by the Lanzichenecchi in 1527, the city found itself faced with the need for a rapid rebirth. It is thanks to this pope, therefore, that we owe some grandiose large-scale interventions, including the monumentalization of the Piazza del Campidoglio, entrusted to the genius of Michelangelo; as well as the famous bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, transferred in 1538, again by will of the pope, from the Piazza del Laterano, placed in the centre of the square on the Capitoline Hill; around it, a symbol of the past glories of Rome, Michelangelo designed a scenographic and monumental backdrop.

Paul III is also responsible for the most important collection of art and antiquities in 16th-century Rome: the discovery of some marble colossi in the Baths of Caracalla dates back to 1545-1546, including Hercules, the Bull and Flora Farnese; these statues were immediately transferred to the courtyard of the Palazzo Farnese in Campo de’ Fiori. The heir to the collection upon the death of the Pope was his nephew Alessandro (1520-1589), who transformed Palazzo Farnese into a very elegant and refined residence, a symbol of the Farnese family’s power in Rome, which collected sculptures, inscriptions, ancient gems, precious furnishings, drawings, engravings, paintings and frescoes by the greatest artists of the time, including Titian and the Carracci brothers. 

If the Campidoglio monumentalized by Michelangelo therefore constitutes the maximum expression of the Farnese family’s public power, the palace in Campo de’ Fiori represents their private power.

Divided into six sections, the exhibition presents works representing the moment of greatest splendor of the Collection, which goes from the first decades of the 16th century to the beginning of the 17th century and includes one hundred masterpieces coming mainly from the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, the Capodimonte Museum, the National Library and other public and private collections. The exhibition itinerary begins with the presentation, through plans and engravings, of the transformation interventions of the city on the eve of the Jubilee of 1550; here the starting point for an initial reflection on the relationship between the public and private collection is offered by the comparison between the bronze Camillo of the Capitoline collections, part of the nucleus of the Lateran bronzes donated to the “Popolo Romano” by Sixtus IV in 1471 and its bronze copy made by Guglielmo della Porta for Cardinal Alessandro Farnese in the 1560s.

The next section, entitled The Farnese and the Passion for Antiquity, presents an important portrait gallery of the protagonists of the collection during the years of its greatest splendor, from Pope Paul III to his nephews Alessandro and Ottavio (1524-1586). The large marbles found in the Baths of Caracalla mentioned above, which are among the first ancient sculptures to find a place in the courtyard of Palazzo Farnese in Campo de’ Fiori, are remembered by small bronzes, drawings and engravings. Visitors are therefore invited to “enter” the original layout of the ancient collection of Palazzo Farnese, walking through the “Hall of the Philosophers”, characterised - in the sixteenth century - by the presence of statues, such as the famous Venus Callipigia of the Archaeological Museum of Naples, and the splendid Gallery frescoed by the Carracci, here recalled by the precious preparatory drawings of the frescoes and by some of the most important sculptures exhibited in the large reception room, today at the Archaeological Museum of Naples, which are once again visible in Rome after their transfer during the last decade of the eighteenth century.

The journey inside the palace also continues through the reconstruction of the “Camerino” and the Galleria dei Quadri of Palazzo Farnese. The exhibition ends with a room dedicated to the comparison between two collections, that of the Farnese and that of the Orsini, which belonged to the famous antique dealer close to the noble family, both united by a common destiny of dispersion. 

The exhibition project is promoted by Roma Capitale, Department of Culture, Capitoline Superintendence of Cultural Heritage and organized by Zètema Progetto Cultura in collaboration with Civita Mostre e Musei.

Photo credits: courtesy of the Capitoline Museums official site