Villa Albani
The Villa Albani (also Villa Albani-Torlonia ) in Rome was built on Via Salaria for Cardinal Alessandro Albani , the nephew of Pope Clement XI. , built between 1747 and 1767 by the architect Carlo Marchionni .
In addition to the actual building, the villa includes an Italian-style garden, numerous fountains and smaller buildings, including a dilapidated temple which, as a built ruin, integrated fragments of ancient architecture and served as a kind of aviary. The villa itself opens up to the visitor with a building prospect, the basement of which consists of a Serliana , the piano nobile of which is formed from a row of architraved windows between pilaster strips . The entire complex shows references to Villa Hadriana near Tivoli .
The main purpose of the villa was to display the cardinal's outstanding, extensive and constantly changing collection of antiques and paintings, the significant parts of which consisted of items from the Villa Hadriana. For their construction, the cardinal gradually sold part of his collection, which - like the " Antinous Albani " - is now in the Capitoline Museums . The remaining antiquities include Greek originals, Roman herms, reliefs and marble vessels as well as the frescoes of the Tomba François from Vulci . The painting collection brings together works by Perugino , Jacopo Tintoretto , Giulio Romano , Luca Giordano , Jacques-Louis David , Anthonis van Dyck , Gerrit van Honthorst , Jusepe de Ribera , Jacques Courtois , Luigi Vanvitelli and others.
In 1761, Anton Raphael Mengs , mediated by Johann Joachim Winckelmann , received the order for the artistic design of the villa, for which he created the ceiling fresco The Parnassus in the salon of the villa . It is considered a central work of German classicism . Winckelmann, friend and advisor to the Cardinal and greatly encouraged by him, played a key role in drafting the program, which Paolo Anesi also helped to implement. Winckelmann himself was appointed as the cardinal's librarian and was primarily entrusted with cataloging the collection of antiquities.
When Napoleon's general Louis-Alexandre Berthier captured Rome on February 10, 1798 , the villa was confiscated as the property of the Albani, and numerous items from the collection, such as the colossal bust of Pallas Athene and the relief of Antinous, were moved to Paris. What could not be transported was often smashed. In 1815 the confiscated pieces were returned from France.
The villa remained in the family's possession until the last Albani, Antonietta Litta Albani, married Principe Carlo Castelbarco. In 1866 Cesare Pompeo Castelbarco ceded the villa to the banker Alessandro Torlonia and the Torlonia family , who still own it today. When the owner changed, numerous items from the collection were moved to the Museo Torlonia , and the layout of the remaining collection was restructured. The cardinal's collection of coins and medals was bequeathed to the Vatican Apostolic Library . Sarcophagi, columns and other sculptures have been distributed in different locations, but the Antinous relief and numerous other antiquities are still in the Villa Albani, where the surrender of Rome was signed in 1870.
As a private property, the villa is not accessible to the public and is only open to scholars and students with special permission.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Friederike Brun : Roman life . Vol. 2. Leipzig 1833, p. 10.
literature
- Stefano Morcelli, Carlo Fea , Ennio Quirino Visconti : La Villa Albani descritta . 3. Edition. Rome 1869, pp. VII – XV ( Google Books ).
- Peter C. Bol : Research on Villa Albani. Catalog of ancient sculptures. 5 volumes. Mann, Berlin 1989–1998.
Web links
Coordinates: 41 ° 54 ′ 54.6 ″ N , 12 ° 30 ′ 0.2 ″ E