Galleria Farnese

Giovanni Volpato - Galleria Farnese

The Galleria Farnese is a gallery with frescoes and ancient sculptures in the Piano Nobile of Palazzo Farnese in Rome. The frescoes on the ceiling and the side walls are by the Bolognese artists Annibale Carracci and his brother Agostino . Her client was Cardinal Odoardo Farnese (1573-1626), the last male descendant of the Farnese family who lived in the palazzo. With this work, the artists succeeded in creating a new type of fresco painting and thus one of the groundbreaking decorative cycles of the Seicento . Many elements of the great decoration of the 17th century found their origin here.

history

Location of the Galleria in the Piano Nobile

Cardinal Odoardo Farnese was a direct descendant of Pope Paul III. and came from the ducal house of Farnese, ruling in Parma and Piacenza . After the death of his uncle, the Great Cardinal Alessandro Farnese in 1589, he was bequeathed the right of disposal to all possessions in Rome, including the Palazzo Farnese. In 1591 he was promoted to cardinal. His endeavor was to continue the interior design of the family palace and, in particular, to have the Great Hall and the gallery decorated with frescoes in order to immortalize the achievements of his father, Duke Alessandro Farnese (1545–1592) . The image program was supposed to include the family epics already shown in other rooms. For this purpose, Odoardo Farnese summoned the two Bologna painters Annibale and Agostino Carracci to Rome in 1594. They had created numerous works in their hometown with their cousin Ludovico and founded the Accademia dei Desiderosi , an art school. The Farnese's relationship with the Carracci brothers came from orders from the Duke of Parma, Ranuccio I Farnese , the cardinal's brother. The first room that Annibale Carracci painted with a Hercules cycle from the summer of 1595 was the cardinal's bedroom and study, hence known as Camerino d'Ercole . The plans to decorate the Great Hall (today Salone d'Ercole ) were finally abandoned after 1602, after the ceremonies on the occasion of the wedding in May 1600 of Ranuccio Farnese with the niece of Pope Clement VIII , Margherita Aldobrandini, at the behest of the Pope not in Palazzo Farnese had taken place.

Immediately after completing this first work, Annibale was commissioned to fresco the ceiling of the gallery on the back of the Palazzo Farnese facing the Tiber. Before Giacomo della Porta completed the palace, this was an open loggia and was now intended to house part of the Farnese's famous ancient sculpture collection. At times, Agostino Carracci also worked in his brother Annibale's workshop. In particular, the two erotic depictions Aurora and Cephalos and the entourage of the sea goddess go back to his hand. In 1600 he left the workshop and Rome and went to Parma, where he died 2 years later. In May 1601, Cardinal Odoardo invited the Pope's nephew, Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini, to the inauguration of the finished frescoes. He was so enthusiastic that he immediately commissioned the painter Annibale Carracci for a painting.

Annibale probably executed the frescoes on the side walls between 1602 and 1604 with Domenichino and other collaborators such as Giovanni Lanfranco , Sisto Badalocchio and Annibale's nephew, Antonio Carracci . Dominichino is assigned the unicorn on the long side of the room.

Annibale Carracci had received poor compensation from the client for his extensive work and was exhausted from so much creative energy that had been used up over the years that he only provided the preliminary drawings for the two large frescoes on the legend of Perseus on the narrow sides.

The frescoes in the Galleria were extensively restored in 2014/2015.

The Galleria and its frescoes

The gallery has the shape of an antique loggia with a length of about 20 m and about 6.5 m wide. The room is spanned by a deep-drawn barrel vault almost 10 meters high at its apex, which is supported by wide covings and bordered by two false cornices. On both long sides there are niches in which important ancient sculptures from the Farnese Collection were placed. Three glass windows on the southwest long side illuminate the interior of the room.

The generous spatial impression that should be offered to a viewer is achieved through the interplay of various means. The surface of the vaulted ceiling is drawn down, the ceiling is divided into a multitude of fields, which are separated from each other by a complex-looking, ornamental and figurative frame system. The effect of the central, long main picture is enhanced by the two vertical pictures on both sides in golden frames. Pairs of atlases in grisaille are the bearers of the vault, as in the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo , with naked, muscular men at their feet. Partially covered medallions made of fake bronze create the impression of depth, as does the repeatedly appearing blue sky, which conveys space and infinity and underlines the impression of serenity, exuberance and freedom. The side walls are determined by the rhythm of pilasters and niches and serve as a personified homage and representation of important members of the Farnese family.

Models for the design of the mock architecture on the ceiling and side walls can be found in the frescoes created by Pellegrino Tibaldi in the Palazzo Poggi in Bologna (1550/51), as well as in the Palazzo Ricci-Sacchetti (1551–1554) in Rome by Francesco Salviati , the Annibale Carracci were known and which he used for his designs. Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel and Raphael's frescoes for the Villa Farnesina were also the inspiration for the work.

In 13 scenes and 12 medallions on the ceiling, the diverse, erotic love life of the ancient world of gods is told. The side walls with the 4 family coats of arms, the 4 impreses and the 10 antique statues, on the other hand, serve the representation and family policy of the Farnese. In the decoration of the Galleria, painting takes over the principles of representation as possible from all other arts. Sculpture and architecture, music and dance as well as literature appear fused into one unit in Carracci's pictures.

The iconographic determinations and the central action situations are essentially taken from the book Das Bildprogramm der Galleria Farnese in Rome by Iris Marzik.

The ceiling frescoes

Ceiling frescoes	title	Description of the ceiling frescoes
1	Triumphal procession of Bacchus and Ariadne .	The center and climax of the entire picture program of the Galleria is the fresco with the triumphal procession of Bacchus and Ariadne, the victory of love and thus the famous motto of antiquity, giving Virgil's "amor vincit omnia" expression. Bacchus, returning victorious from his campaign in India, meets on the island of Naxos, the Cretan king's daughter Ariadne , who has been abandoned by Theseus . He falls in love with her and takes her as his wife. The illustration shows, in the foreground left, the god Bacchus, wreathed with ivy, in a golden chariot drawn by two leopards. In his right hand he holds the Thyrsos -rod, in his left hand a bunch of grapes. The elephant in the background refers to his return from India. Behind Bacchus, in a blue robe, Ariadne appears in a silver chariot, pulled by two white billy goats. The Corona Borealis , her morning gift , whose precious stones have been transformed into stars, shines above her head as a sign of her deification. A naked youth with its crook, dancing beating with a tambourine Mänade , establishes the connection to a Thiasos of rendered Bakchanten forth on the right half. In the center of the group rides a drunken Silenus who can only keep himself on his donkey, supported by the fauns. Two repoussoir figures lying on the left and right edge of the picture, watch the Bacchanalian goings-on.
2	Pan and Diana	Diana (Luna) lets herself be lured into a grove by Pan, the god of Arcadia, with snow-white wool and seduced ( So Pan, the god of Arcadia, secretly lured you Luna into deep forests with a gift of snow-white wool, if you can believe him and you did not refuse. ). The subject is taken from Virgil's Georgica .
3	Mercury brings Paris the golden apple	On the occasion of the wedding of Peleus and Thetis , Eris , the goddess of discord, who is not invited to the festival, throws a golden apple into the crowd with the request that the most beautiful should take it. The three goddesses Juno, Venus and Minerva get into such a heated argument that Jupiter commissions the messenger of the gods Mercury to Paris, son of the Trojan king Priam , to bring the apple to Mount Ida and to pronounce his judgment. The apple becomes the subject of the fateful Paris judgment that will trigger the Trojan War. The beautiful Helena, for whom Paris is courting, is already married to Menelaus, King of Sparta. In the scene shown, Mercury holds a trumpet in one hand and the golden apple in the other, which he hands over to the seated shepherd Paris. The story from Greek mythology is told by Lukian .
4th	Venus and Anchises	Venus sits naked and seductive on a gold bed. Her side is the youthful Anchises, son of the Trojan King Kapys , who lifts the goddess' right leg with one hand and removes her shoe with the other. Amor hugs her left leg, one foot on a stool with the inscription GENUS UNDE LATINUM; an indication that Aeneas , King of Troy and the progenitor of the Romans emerged from this connection . The representation is taken from Homer's hymn to Aphrodite .
5	Aurora and Cephalus	Aurora, the goddess of the dawn, falls in love with the beautiful but mortal hunter Kephalos. In the scene shown, Aurora holds Kephalos in her golden car, he turns away and tries to evade her embrace. His loyal dog Laelaps lies at his feet and looks up at him. The flower-scattering Lucifer (Phosphorus) , Aurora's son, hovers over the two white horses, while old Tithonus , the Trojan prince and Aurora's husband sleeps huddled in the right corner. This image is attributed to Agostino Carracci .
6th	Heracles and Omphale	Omphale, the queen of the Lydians, who entered into a marital relationship with Hercules and after having had some adventures in her slave service, has swapped clothes with him. She wears the fur of the Nemean lion and leans on the club in her right hand, while Hercules' muscular body is sparsely covered by a cloth. He is holding a tambourine in his left hand. The close connection between the two is reinforced by Cupid in the background and the intertwined legs. This image is attributed to Agostino Carracci.
7th	Polyphemus and Galateia	The one-eyed Cyclops Polyphemus, son of Neptune , is a man-eating giant in Sicily. He falls in love with the beautiful Nereid Galateia and begs her for love while playing the pan flute . Galateia, despite her love for Acis , is obviously flattered. Supported by two companions, she listens to his wooing.
8th	Apollo and Hyakinthos	Apollo loves the young man Hyakinthos. During the competition he unintentionally kills it with a discus. In his pain, the god lets a flower sprout from the blood of his beloved, which is named after him, the hyacinth , and thus makes him immortal. Hyakinthos holds this blue flower in his right hand. The scene is framed on the sides by two satyrs. The perspective representation creates the impression that the actual vault is visible behind the picture.
9	Diana and Endymion	The moon goddess Diana loves the beautiful shepherd Endymion, who grazes his flocks on Mount Katmos in Caria. Jupiter grants him, the beloved of a goddess, a wish, after which he chooses everlasting sleep and eternal youth. Diana bends down from a cloud in the picture and kisses the sleeping Endymion. His dog is sleeping at his feet. Two putti watch the action from a safe distance. The topic, which was very well known in antiquity, is not described in detail in any literary work, but there are numerous pictorial works.
10	Entourage of the sea goddess	A naked woman, carried by marine animals, is surrounded by a triton . Three blonde women on their sea mounts accompany them and put them in the spotlight, while naked erotes buzz around the group. The subject of the picture has not yet been identified with certainty. Bellori calls the picture Galatea . Agostino Carracci, to whom this work is ascribed, could have served as a model for Raphael's triumph of the Galateia in the Villa Farnesina. Hans Tietze calls it lake thiasos . Various stories from Greek mythology could be used as literary sources: the sea deities Portunus and Salacia in The Golden Donkey of Apuleius , or the story of Peleus and the nereid Thetis by Ovid as well as Thetis and Peleus or Venus and Triton, as Charles Demsey did executes.
11	Jupiter and Juno	In Book 14 of the Iliad , Homer describes how Juno, accompanied by her symbolic figure the peacock, tries to distract her husband Jupiter from the events of the Trojan War on Mount Ida and to turn fate in favor of the Greeks. She asks Venus for the magic belt , which no man, not even the highest god, can resist, and so turns the war.
12	Polyphemus and Acis	The Cyclops Polyphemus is in love with Galatea. When he surprises her with her lover Acis, he hurls a boulder of Mount Etna at the two of them and kills them. Galatea transforms the beloved's blood into the Acis river .
13	Abduction of Ganymede by the eagle	Jupiter, the father of the gods, falls in love with the beautiful Ganymede, son of King Tros of Troy, and kidnaps him, transformed into an eagle, to Mount Olympus. The picture shows a harmonious scene, the youth turns his head to Jupiter, who returns the look and puts his arm around his neck.

The medallions

	title	Description of the grisaille medallions
a	Cupid defeats Pan medallion	Omnia vincit amor , et nos cedamus Amori The representation is a kind of play on words, i. H. by depicting Cupid (or love)overpowering Pan , in Greek Πάν, a word similar to πᾶν, whichmeans everything . So love wins over Pan, in a figurative sense: love wins over everything.
b	Hermaphroditos and Salmakis	Salmakis is a nymph who is seized with a violent passion for the very young Hermaphroditos, son of Mercury and Venus. He firmly rejects Salmaki's loving attention. Salmakis prays to the gods that the two can become inseparable. The invocation is heard and their bodies are fused into a single being who has male and female attributes at the same time. The medallion depicts the nymph's forced embrace that will bring about the union between the two.
c	Pan and Syrinx	Pan, the god of shepherds, chases after the naiad Syrinx, a servant of the goddess Diana. But the latter disdains his love and is turned into a reed to escape his persecution. Pan then cuts the reed and uses it to make his shepherd's flute called "Syrinx" .
d	Hero and Leander	According to legend, Hero was a priestess of Venus on the western bank of the Hellespont Strait. Since her lover Leander lives on the opposite bank of Asia Minor and can only visit Hero in secret, he swims through the Hellespont every night. An oil lamp that Hero lights in a tower is supposed to show him the way. One night a storm extinguishes the lamp, Leander gets lost and drowns. The next morning, Hero discovers her dead lover on the bank and falls from the tower to her death.
e	Jason gets the golden fleece	Jason wants his uncle Pelias to regain control of Iolkos. He made it a condition for him to get the Golden Fleece in Colchis, which is guarded by a dragon there. After numerous adventures and trials, which Jason can pass through the magic drug Medea, the king's daughter who is in love with him, he returns with the Golden Fleece. The tondo reproduces the scene when Jason removes the fleece from the tree while the dragon sleeps through Medea's spell. The heavily trimmed medallions on the narrow sides of the ceiling (Figs. E, f, k, l) are mentioned in only a few publications. They are difficult to interpret as only a few characteristic attributes can be identified.
f	Raptus scene	To the left of the wild, amorous Polyphemus, a warrior is depicted on the grisaille medallion dragging a defending woman after him.
G	Europe on the bull	Jupiter falls in love with Europe, the daughter of Phoenix . To kidnap her, he turns into a bull and hides in her father's herds. Jupiter seizes the opportunity at the right moment and carries Europe across the sea to Crete, where he makes her his lover. Europe holds the horns on the medallion with both hands and looks back to the coast at home.
H	Orpheus and Eurydice	Orpheus is shocked by the untimely death of his wife Eurydice, ends up in Hades and convinces Pluton and Proserpina with a passionate song to the sound of the zither to let Eurydice return alive to earth. However, there is one condition: until they have left the underworld (the Averno crater), Orpheus must never fix his eyes on the Eurydice who follows him. Orpheus, however, cannot resist the desire to see his wife again and turns around. At the same moment - as shown in the medallion - Eurydice is finally thrown back into Hades, despite her husband's desperation.
i	Boreas kidnaps the nymph Oreithyia	Boreas, the wind god, is in love with the beautiful Oreithyia, the daughter of King Erechtheus . First, Boreas tries to get Oreithya by asking her father for her hand. However, since the king refuses to give his consent, Boreas kidnaps Oreithya and takes her under his wing. A landscape from the bird's eye view shows the flight of the two to Thrace.
j	Apollon and Marsyas	The satyr Marsyas challenges Apollo in a competition on the reed flute. Apollon wins the competition because he repeats the melody on his lyre that is at his feet and thus wins over the muses. As previously agreed, the victor may deal with the vanquished as he sees fit and therefore pulls the skin off Marsyas while still alive. Out of compassion he is turned into a river by God.
k	Bucolic scene	A satyr or pan, recognizable by its goat legs, wears fur over its back, its head is no longer in the picture. A woman stands behind him.
l	Seated Shepherd	The left medallion next to the violent Polyphemus shows another bucolic scene, a seated shepherd with a shepherd's staff.

The side walls

The side walls of the Galleria were built a few years after the ceiling frescoes, starting around 1602. Compared to the ceiling frescoes, the pictures on the side walls show a break in style. The depictions are stricter and more abstract than those on the ceiling. The difference is partly due to the fact that Annibale Carracci brought in some of his students from Bologna as assistants - as the first Domenichino.

On the narrow sides, carried by atlases in Grisailles, representations from the legends of Perseus are reproduced. They take up almost the entire wall surface and thus dominate the visual impression of the room. On the side south-east wall is the entrance to the Salon Rouge , which also contained valuable antiquities in Odoardo's time.

The design of the long sides is strictly symmetrical. The coats of arms of four members of the Farnese family, to which the imprints correspond, are found on the respective ends : Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (1520–1589), Duke Alessandro Farnese (1545–1592) , Duke Ranuccio I (1569–1622) and Cardinal Odoardo Farnese (1573-1626). The only difference between the two cardinal coats of arms is a cross beneath the cardinal's hat; Cardinal Alessandro has a cloverleaf cross; Cardinal Odoardo is assigned the coat of arms with the small cross and smooth arms. The ducal coat of arms of Ranuccio I can be recognized by the additional coat of arms of Portugal, whose mother was Mary of Portugal . Below the coat of arms, the four virtues Caritas (charity), Temperantia (moderation), Fortitudo (bravery) and Justitia (justice) are depicted in an oval frame . They do not all correspond to the four general virtues and only Caritas can be assigned to the Christian context. Possibly they are deliberately assigned to correspond to the individual coats of arms.

Two pilaster strips with Corinthian capitals form the frame for a richly stuccoed niche with an ancient sculpture. Above the statue there are stucco angels and medallions with the imprints in two different shapes. In the zone under the cornice there are four scenes, in between niches or the windows, which are decorated by niches with portrait busts. Over the central window is the inscription ODOARDVS CAR. FARNESIVS painted on. In the center of the north-east wall is the main entrance, through which you can get from the inner gallery. Above is the fresco Virgin with the unicorn .

The long sides

South-west wall (window side)

	title	description
coat of arms	Cardinal Odoardo coat of arms
Display of virtue	Caritas	In the Christian context, charity .
Production design	The rescue of Arion from Lesbos	The singer Arion rents a Corinthian ship. The sailors decide to rob and kill him. He throws himself into the sea and is saved by a dolphin.
Imprese	Cardinal Alessandro	An elaborately forged shield hangs from a gnarled tree, the center of which is pierced by an arrow and surrounded by a ribbon. In a study it was shown that the tape originally met the motto So! (Greek βάλλ 'ούτως), which comes from the Iliad .
statue	Ganymede	The king's son, who is loved by Jupiter, is part of the image program of the Galleria in the picture "Abduction of Ganymede by the eagle" (picture 10).
Production design	Minerva and Prometheus	The scene shows the titan Prometheus with the creature he made from clay in the image of the gods. The goddess Minerva shows him the heavenly fire that gives the figure life and soul.
Imprese	Imprese Duke Alessandro	The Duke's imprint depicts a city that is marked by a prominent tower. The motto is identical to its imprint on the opposite wall. The motto is Invitus Invitos (against the will against the unwilling), which, in the spirit of the times, expresses the will of the rulers for peace, despite adverse circumstances. A second, different imprint is dedicated to him. Different interpretations of the vedute can be found in the literature. Possibly they each represent a city in France and the Netherlands to symbolize the Duke's two spheres of activity.
statue	Mnemosyne	The statue is called "Antonia" in older literature. The identification as Mnemosyne , the mother of the nine muses from the gods of the titans, is made for the first time by Iris Marzik. In the inventory of 1653 she appears as "un'altra statua di donna armata" (another female, armed statue).
Production design	Hercules fights with the dragon Ladon	Hercules, sent to bring the golden apples to the Hesperides, fights with a club against the keeper of the tree, the dragon Ladon.
Imprese	Imprese Cardinal Odoardo	Odoardos Imprese was designed by Fulvio Orsini for the young cardinal. Three lilies are wrapped in a banner with the motto I flourish with God's help (Greek δεόδεν ανςάνομαι).
statue	Demeter	The goddess represents the wealth and prosperity of the earth.
Production design	Hercules and Prometheus	Hercules frees Prometheus, who is tied to the rock, by killing the eagle with an arrow.
Imprese	Imprese Duke Ranuccio	The wind god blows a big cloud in front of him. The motto is: Pellit et attrahit (He drives out and attracts), which can also be interpreted as the ideal of a prince. Given the difficult situation in Parma and Piacenza, this can also be understood as a warning to those who do not bow to the ducal will.
statue	Cupid	The god of love as a naked youth is completely lost in his thoughts. The heavily restored statue was bought by Cardinal Alessandro in 1562.
coat of arms	Coat of arms Duke Ranuccio I.
Display of virtue	Lady Justice	Justice is one of the cardinal virtues .

North-east wall (gallery side)

	title	description
coat of arms	Coat of arms Duke Alessandro
Display of virtue	Temperantia	Moderation or prudence is one of the cardinal virtues.
Production design	Daidalos and Icarus	Daidalos made artificial wings for himself and his son Icarus. Before take-off, he admonishes his son not to fly too high so that the wax does not melt from the sun, but also not too low so that the rain does not weigh down the feathers - he should stick to the middle course. Both fly through the air. When Icarus, incited by his youthful arrogance, comes too close to the sun, the wax on his wings melts and he falls to his death.
Imprese	Imprese Cardinal Alessandro	The imprints are identical on both walls.
statue	Faun with Bacchus child	The faun holds the Bacchus child on a cloth filled with fruit. The panther, the companion animal Bacchus, lies at his feet and watches the two of them. The fauns, who are of divine descent, produce heroes, from whom then humans are descended.
statue	Antinous	There are numerous busts and sculptures of the youth Antinous, who was the companion of Emperor Hadrian, through Hadrian's cult of worship. The specimen from the Farnese collection is composed and supplemented from an Antinous head and a Doryphoro torso in the Farnese restoration workshop. The meaning of Antinous in the Renaissance is not clearly understood.
Production design	Diana and Callisto	Diana and her nymphs (left) prepare to take a bath in a forest spring. The beautiful nymph Callisto (right), seduced by Jupiter, does not want to undress and tries to hide the signs of her guilt.
Imprese	Imprese Duke Alessandro	A city is depicted on the Duke's imprese, which is different from the city on the imprese on the opposite wall. The motto is identical.
statue	Apollo	The god of light has an exposed position on the right side of the main entrance, under the imprese of Duke Alessandro. He can already be found in the picture on the ceiling "Apollon and Hyakinthos" (picture 8). The statue was added to the collection by Ottavio Farnese in 1546.
Imprese	Virgin with unicorn	The picture in the center of the wall reproduces the harmonious scene in which a young girl hugs a unicorn in the middle of a wide landscape. The unicorn was already Pope Paul III at the time. an emblem of the Farnese family, the imprese probably even goes back to the medieval family history. It is used next to the lily. The many possible interpretations made it suitable for both clerical and ducal branches of the family. The fresco is by Domenichino , based on a cardboard box by Annibale Carracci.
Production design	Juno, Diana and Callisto	Callisto is transformed into a she-bear by Juno as punishment for her devotion to Jupiter.
Imprese	Imprese Cardinal Odoardo	The imprints are identical on both walls.
statue	Mercury	On the left side of the main entrance of the Galleria is the statue of the god Mercury, who already appears on the ceiling "Mercury brings Paris the golden apple" (picture 3). It can be assumed that the Farnesian princes saw themselves embodied in the ideal rulership of the two deities.
statue	Bacchus	The statue comes from the legacy of Margaret of Parma .
Production design	Mercury gives the lyre to Apollo	Apollo, sitting on a stump, tells Mercury, standing in front of him, the tragic story of the death of his beloved Hyakinthos.
Imprese	Imprese Cardinal Ranuccio I.	The imprints are identical on both walls.
statue	Faun with Bacchus child	The second faun carries Bacchus on his shoulders, who is holding a large grape in his hand. The god Bacchus symbolizes immortality in the form of the child - he allegorically stands for the cycle of nature.
coat of arms	Coat of arms Duke Alessandro
Display of virtue	Fortitudo	The depiction of bravery under the coat of arms of Duke Alessandro corresponds to the image of the ruler for posterity.

The narrow sides

title	description
Perseus and Andromeda	Fresco on the south-east wall: Cassiopeia , Andromeda's mother, boastfully claims that her daughter is more beautiful than the Nereids. Neptune punishes this arrogance with floods. If the king's daughter sacrifices herself to the sea monster Cetus, the land will be saved. Then Andromeda is forged on a rock in the sea and exposed to the sea monster. Perseus sees them, kills the monster and sets them free. As a reward he receives Andromeda from King Cepheus as his wife.
Perseus and Phineus	Fresco on the northwest wall: Perseus celebrates the wedding with Andromeda, who was saved by him. Phineus, her former fiancé and her father's brother, feels betrayed. During the wedding, he and his followers enter the ballroom and unleash a wild fight. Perseus, already surrounded by his enemies, saves himself by revealing the head of the Medusa he killed , thus turning the enemy into stone.

The image program and its interpretations

In art-historical research it is undisputed that the decoration of the Galleria is based on a complex program, worked out by one or more humanistically educated scholars, as can often be found at the court of the Farnese. The following could be considered: Fulvio Orsini , librarian, advisor and educator to Cardinal Odoardos and author of the program for the Camerini of the Palazzo Farnese, and Giovanni Battista Agucchi , a diplomat at the Curia, patron of the arts and promoter of the Carracci brothers, who, like himself, came from Bologna . But it is possible that they only assumed a mediating position, similar to the development of the program for the Palazzo Farnese in Caprarola and given the artist and his workshop a free hand as part of their commission. To date, however, no written testimony has become known.

On the other hand, the artistic development of the decoration, with the love scenes from the life of the ancient gods, such as Apollon, Bacchus, Mercury, Ganymede - whose statues adorn the niches of the gallery - as well as the figurative frames, the atlases and erots, can be seen on the basis of numerous, Track received Disegnos .

The art theorist Giovanni Pietro Bellori (1613–1696) wrote one of the first detailed descriptions of the frescoes. He tries to give the representations a moralizing interpretation and describes the struggle between earthly and heavenly love in the sense of Plato. Later interpreters followed this view.

Reception in art history

Agostino Caracci - Omnia Vincit Cupid

Heracles and Omphale, engraving by Carlo Cesio, after Annibale Carracci, around 1657, Galleria Farnese, Palazzo Farnese, Rome

The frescoes in the gallery, which are regarded as the groundbreaking decorative cycle of the Seicento, will become the benchmark for numerous painters of subsequent generations. One of the first imitators of the new, living style can be found in Domenichino and his frescoes in the castle of Bassano Romano (1609).

In printmaking, the gallery and the individual images were often reproduced. The first engravings are by Agostino Carracci, which he drew at the same time as the decoration of the vault. One of his most famous stitches is Cupid defeating Pan - Omnia vincit Amor . Further drawings were made by the French Nicolas Mignard around 1636. Jaques Belly presented the first extensive panel work with 32 sheets for the pictures (quadri riportati) from the Galleria around 1641 and also made reference to the two artists Annibale and Agostino Carracci. However, the etchings are reversed. In 1657, the font Belloris, entitled Argomento della Galeria Farnese , appears, together with 44 etchings by Carlo Cesio , which form the main focus of the publication. In the large-format panels, the engravings, which in addition to the pictures also contain the figurative frame representations, are numbered consecutively and distributed on 30 panels. Cesio works as a painter, engraver and etcher in Rome. The etchings based on the Farnese Gallery are one of his main works. The compendium was published several times, but without the text by Bellori. Other engravings, for example by Louis de Châtillon (1660) and Pietro Aquila , the Sicilian painter and draftsman (1677), follow. Towards the end of the 18th century (1777), engravings by Giovanni Volpato appear , which were made after drawings by Francesco Panini and Lodovico Tesio . With the help of these engravings, the original composition and arrangement of the antiquities can be clearly understood today.

Peter Paul Rubens was not only in Rome and in the Palazzo Farnese, his style was decisively influenced by his stay in Italy from 1600-1608. Annibale Carracci was particularly influential on him. He owned a collection of drawings that was significant in terms of volume and quality, including the drawing "Stocking-Dressing Boys" by Annibale Carracci.

The antique collection

The gallery was designed from the outset to accommodate the extensive collection of antiquities for which the Farnese family was known. On the long walls there are 6 round niches for busts and 10 niches for statues, which are part of the room design and program. The inventory of Palazzo Farnese from 1653 contains a list of the sculptures, so that a reliable assignment and designation is possible. The busts, on the other hand, are not described in more detail and a scientific evaluation has so far been difficult. Under the Bourbons Charles III. and his son Ferdinand I , the originals are brought from Rome to Naples. Today the originals are in the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, the sculptures have been replaced by plaster casts.

literature

• Giovanni Pietro Bellori : Le Vite de'pittori, scultori et architetti moderni. Party great; Rom 1672, pp. 44-66.
• Charles Dempsey: Annibale Carracci. The Farnese Gallery, Rome . George Braziller, New York 1995, ISBN 978-0-8076-1316-0 .
• Julian Kliemann, Michael Rohlmann: Wall paintings in Italy, High Renaissance and Mannerism 1510–1600. Hirmer Verlag, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-7774-2255-X .
• John Rupert Martin: The Farnese Gallery . Princeton 1965
• Iris Marzik: The image program of the Galleria Farnese in Rome. (= Frankfurt Research on Art, Volume 13). Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-7861-1422-6 .
• Alfons Reckermann: Amor Mutuus - Annibale Carraccis Galleria Fresken and the image thinking of the Renaissance. Böhlau, Cologne, Vienna 1991, ISBN 3-412-01589-X .
• Hugo Schmerber : Carracci, Annibale . In: Ulrich Thieme (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists from Antiquity to the Present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 6 : Carlini-Cioci . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1912, p. 235–237 ( Text Archive - Internet Archive ).
• Markus Kiefer: The Galleria Farnese from a platonic point of view. Bellori's interpretation of 1657 and its historical value . In: Sebastian Schütze (Hrsg.): Art and its viewer in the early modern times. Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-496-01320-6 , pp.? - ?.
• Hans Tietze : Annibale Carracci's gallery in the Palazzo Farnese and his Roman workshop . In: Yearbook of the Art History Collections in Vienna . Volume 26, Issue 2, Vienna, 1906.
• Roberto Zapperi : Annibale Carracci - Portrait of a Young Artist. Wagenbach, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-8031-3557-5 .
• Roberto Zapperi: Envy and Power - The Farnese and Aldobrandini in Baroque Rome. CH Beck, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-406-38136-7 .
• Roberto Zapperi: Odoardo Farnese, principe e cardinale. Publications de l'École Française de Rome.

Web links

Commons : Galleria Farnese  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• G. Bellori; La vita di Annibale Carracci
• Virtual tour of the Palazzo Farnese French, Italian
• Italian side of the French embassy
• Visit to the Galleria Farnese (en, fr, it)
• Palazzo Farnese (architecture information)
• Hans Tietze: Annibale Carracci's gallery in the Palazzo Farnese and his Roman workshop
• King George III's personal collection
• Studies on the Nereids "Entourage of the Sea Goddess" (Fig. 10)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ R. Zapperi: The envy and the power. P. 117.
2. ↑ R. Zapperi: The envy and the power. P. 120.
3. ^ R. Zapperi: p. 141
4. ↑ Painting: noli me tangere (Don't touch me!) - today: London, National Gallery
5. ↑ Connaissance des'arts
6. ↑ Sopraindendenza Speciale per il Patrimonio Storico e Polo Museale della Città di Roma
7. ↑ Julian Kliemann, Michael Rohlmann: Wall paintings in Italy, High Renaissance and Mannerism 1510-1600, p. 452 ff.
8. ↑ Kurt Zeitler: Exhibition catalog of the State Graphic Collection Munich: Grande Decorazione, Italian monumental painting in print graphics, Deutscher Kunstverlag, Berlin, Munich, 2018, ISBN 978-3-422-07489-7
9. ↑ Tietze: page 73 f.
10. ↑ f Dionysica, Volume 3, 287: Nonnos of Panopolis.
11. ↑ In antiquity the leopard was an important iconographic attribute of the god Bacchus / Dionysus
12. ↑ On the various legends and interpretations of Ariadne's Corona: Hyginus Mythographus , Poeta Astronomica II.5, p. 188 f.
13. ^ Virgil: Georgica III, 391, p. 144 f.
14. Jump up ↑ Lukian: Gods Conversations XX The judgment of Paris
15. ↑ from this family comes the Latin - Virgil; Aeneid I, 6.
16. ↑ Homer: Hymn V to Aphrodite, verses 155 ff.
17. ↑ Hyginus, Fabeln 189, pp. 145 ff.
18. ↑ Diodorus Siculus, IV, 31, pp. 405 ff.
19. ↑ Philostrat II.18, p. 228 ff.
20. ^ Ovid "Metamorphoses X", 162 ff.
21. ↑ Ovid: Heroides XVIII; 61-65.
22. ↑ Hans Tietze: Annibale Carraccis Gallery: p. 75 f.
23. ↑ Apuleius: The golden donkey; IV book, 31 ff .: There are Nereus' daughters singing in a choir, there is Portunus with a blue, shaggy beard and Salacia, the lap heavy with fish and the little dolphin knight Palämon ...
24. ↑ Ovid, Metamorphosen XI, 257ff .: Thetis shows herself in her true form. After she has revealed herself in this way, the hero embraces her ...
25. ↑ Ch. Dempsey: Two Galateas by Agostino Carracci re-identified, in: Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 29 (1966), p. 67ff.
26. ↑ Homer: Ilias, XIV, 153-355, pp. 236 ff.
27. ^ Ovid: Metamorphoses XIII
28. ↑ Ovid: Metamorphoses X.152 ff.
29. ^ Virgil: Bucolica X, 69.
30. ↑ Everything conquers love, if we too want to give in to love
31. ↑ The same allegorical theme can be found in the cycle of frescoes in the Orisini Palace in the Roman Rione Parione , painted by Cavaliere d'Arpino on the basis of an iconographic program developed by Torquato Tasso . On a thematic level, this is considered a possible forerunner of the Farnese Gallery.
32. ^ Ovid: "Metamorphoses IV"
33. ^ Ovid: Metamorphosen I., pp. 689-712.
34. ↑ Ovid: Heroides XVIII ff.
35. ↑ Ovid: Heroides XII
36. ↑ Iris Marzik: Das Bildprogramm p. 230.
37. ^ Ovid: "Metamorphoses II, 846-875"
38. ^ Ovid: Metamorphosen X, 269 ff.
39. ^ Ovid: "Metamorphoses VI, 675-720.
40. ^ Ovid: "Metamorphoses Book VI, 382-391" or Hyginus 165, p. 128 f.
41. ↑ Iris Marzik: Das Bildprogramm p. 231 f.
42. ↑ Iris Marzik: Das Bildprogramm p. 231 f.
43. ↑ Donald Posner, Annibale Carracci: A Study in the reform of Italian Painting around 1590, London, 1971, Vol. I, pp. 123-125.
44. ↑ Hans Tieze: Annibale Carraccis Gallery in the Palazzo Farnese. P. 71.
45. ↑ Herodotus: Historien 1, 23 ff.
46. ↑ JR Martin: The Farnese Gallery, p. 132 f.
47. ^ Etymologicum magnum, p. 471.
48. ^ Hesiod: Theogony, p. 215.
49. ↑ JR Martin: The Farnese Gallery, p. 41 f., P. 134.
50. ↑ Hesiod: Theogony, pag.523.
51. ^ Ovid: Metamorphoses VIII
52. ↑ ^{a b} Ovid: "Metamorphoses II"
53. ↑ Tietze: page 88 f.
54. ↑ Lukian of Samosata: Stories of Lies and Dialogues - chap. 90, XIV.
55. ^ Ovid: "Metamorphoses IV"
56. ^ Ovid: "Metamorphoses V", 1-325.
57. ↑ JR Martin: p. 52 f.
58. ^ Giovanni Pietro Bellori: Le Vite ... Pages 47 ff.
59. ↑ Markus Kiefer: The Galleria Farnese in a Platonic view, p. 179 ff.
60. ↑ Veronika Kopecky: The inscriptions of Peter Paul Rubens , dissertation University of Hamburg, Department of Cultural History and Cultural Studies, 2008/2012
61. ^ Charles Dempsey: Annibale Carracci: The Farnese Gallery, p. 237
62. ↑ JR Martin: The Farnese Gallery, p. 69

Coordinates: 41 ° 53 ′ 40.7 "  N , 12 ° 28 ′ 14.6"  E