Palazzo Aragona Gonzaga
Palazzo Aragona Gonzaga, also known as Palazzo Negroni, is a sixteenth-century palace in Rome, Italy. It was once the residence of Cardinal Scipione Gonzaga. During that time his cousin Luigi Gonzaga (later Saint Aloysius) also lived there, as did the poet Torquato Tasso from 1587 to 1590. In the nineteenth century it belonged to the Galitzin family, and so is also known as Palazzo Galitzin.[1]: 208 [2]
The building is sited at the junction of the via della Scrofa and piazza Nicosia, adjacent to the Collegio Clementino. It was originally built in the late Renaissance style but was given Baroque embellishments in the mid-eighteenth century.
Architecture
The ground plan of the building is irregular in order to fully occupy its street corner location. At first glance it appears to be rectangular, but closer inspection reveals that it is in fact an irregular pentagon.
The palace comprises five floors above a semi-basement. Its style is broadly based on Palazzo Farnese; the lower floors exemplifying the architecture of the late Renaissance found in Rome and throughout Lazio. The principal façade comprises five bays. The ground floor is pierced centrally by the entrance to a porte-cochère leading to an internal courtyard. The corners of the irregular building are accentuated by quoining, while shallow pilasters divide the five bays from the first floor upwards.
Externally, the ground floor shows banded rustication (very similar to that found in the Roman Palazzo Vidoni Caffarelli, built in 1515 and attributed to Raphael), while the floors above are of rendered ochre ashlar. In the custom of the time, the ground floor was designed for occupation by only horses, servants and domestic offices. Here on the first floor, the piano nobile, were the principal rooms. As in most Renaissance palazzi, the upper floors are reached by a broad stone staircase rising from the cloisterlike inner courtyard, this negated the need for the upper floor's noble occupants to ever visit the menial ground floor rooms.
The piano nobile contains an enfilade of principal reception rooms; the importance of these rooms is denoted on the exterior by the large size of the windows and their alternating segmental and pointed pediments.
The second floor is aesthetically divided from the first by a double band and it is quite possible that all above this band is a later addition. If this were the case, then the palace would have originally followed the simple two-storey design, which so appealed to Raphael.[3]
The early architectural history of the building is poorly documented. What is known is that in 1701, architect Carlo Francesco Bizzaccheri added the top floor.[4] However, the architect was either not working in his usual style or it has been subsequently altered, for the uppermost floor appears of no more architectural merit than those added to many other palazzi during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.[5]
It may be that Bizzaccheri's work was altered; circa 1746 the building was acquired by the newly ennobled Negroni family who sometime between acquiring ownership and 1759 modernised the principal façade, creating its present-day appearance.[6] This work included the Baroque pediments of the second floor windows and the pediments of the mezzanine floor. The latter were decorated with sheaths and arrows from the Negroni coat of arms, while the central pediment of the piano nobile was given extra prominence by the addition of a Negro's head in bas relief, the armorial crest of the Negroni.[4]
The edifice is built around a central courtyard, which contains one of the palace's two fountains. The court fountain depicts the Virgin Mary; this is not contemporary with the building, [7] and it was probably replacing an existing fountain during the Galitzin era of the later nineteenth century. The second fountain is on the external corner of the palace which tapers to the confluence of via dells Scrofa and piazza Nicosia. This is a more simple utilitarian tough fountain for the use of animals and people on the street. The ready supply of water to the building came from the re-opened the Acqua Vergine aqueduct, which had been restored in 1453.
Occupancy
The building was most notably the residence of Cardinal Scipione Gonzaga, a scion of the Gonzaga family, who had ruled Mantua in Northern Italy from 1328. However, it is not for his piety or noble connections that the cardinal is chiefly remembered, but for his friendship and patronage of the troubled poet Torquato Tasso and his support, against other family members, for his cousin Saint Aloysius Gonzaga. Saint Aloysius stayed in the building from 20 November 1585 before renouncing his worldly possessions and rank and joining the Society of Jesus. To both Gonzaga and Tasso, the Cardinal's residence was a refuge in time of trouble.
Following the cardinal's death in 1593, the building changed ownership, and thus its name, several times. Passing through the hands of the Casate and Astalli o Staglia families, before being acquired by the Negroni and undergoing renovations and alteration. Following the Negroni it passed to the Vecchiarelli family.[8] In the nineteenth century, it became the residence of Prince Theodore Alexandrovich Galitzin, the son of Prince Alexander Mikhailovich Galitzin (1772–1821), Russian Ambassador to Rome. Today, much of the building is sub-divided into offices and apartments. It is not open to the public.
Notes
- ^ Alessandro Cruciani (1977). Roma e dintorni (in Italian). Milano: Touring Club Italiano ISBN 8836500161>
- ^ Pietro Perugino, The Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saint John, Saint Jerome, and Saint Mary Magdalene [left panel]: Provenance. Washington: National Gallery of Art. Archived 1 September 2011.
- ^ Raphael not only lived himself in such a two-storey house (designed by Bramante), but also designed the Palazzo Vidoni Caffarelli, Rome, and the Palazzo Pandolfini, Florence, in the same manner.
- ^ a b Mallory, p41
- ^ Mallory, p41. opines that this floor is totally without merits and also ascribes this view to Charles Percier in his Palais, maisons et autres edifices modernes dessinés à Rome (Paris, 1798); the better known Palazzo Vidoni Caffarelli has a near identical upper floor. Copplestone, p245.
- ^ The approximate date of the work has been calculated from various sources by Mallory, p41
- ^ Pulvers, p. 705
- ^ Monumenti Roma
Sources
- William Cooke, Henry Humphries (1840). Rome and its surrounding scenery. London: Charles Tilt.
- Copplestone, Trewin (1963). World Architecture. Hamlyn
- Carlo Francesco Bizzaccheri (1655-1721), by Nina A. Mallory and John L. Varriano. 1974. Society of Architectural Historians.
- Monumenti Roma Retrieved 5 May 2010. (in Italian)
- Life of St. Aloysius Gonzaga. Retrieved 25 April 2010.
- Pulvers, Marvin (2002). Roman fountains: 2000 fountains in Rome. Roma: L'Erma di Bretschneider. ISBN 978-88-8265-176-3.
External links
- Hawthorne's words Retrieved 28 April 2010.
- Today Rome Art Lover Retrieved 28 April 2010.
Media related to Palazzo Aragonia-Gonzaga at Wikimedia Commons
Preceded by Castel Sant'Angelo | Landmarks of Rome Palazzo Aragona Gonzaga | Succeeded by Palazzo Barberini |
- v
- t
- e
landmarks
Triumphal arches | |
---|---|
Aqueducts | |
Sewers | |
Public baths | |
Religious |
|
Fora | |
Civic | |
Entertainment | |
Palaces and villae | |
Column monuments | |
Commerce | |
Tombs |
|
Bridges |
basilicas
- Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran
- Basilica of Saint Mary Major
- Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls
- Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican
- S. Lorenzo fuori le mura
- S. Agnese fuori le mura
- S. Agostino
- S. Anastasia al Palatino
- S. Andrea delle Fratte
- S. Andrea della Valle
- S. Antonio da Padova in Via Merulana
- S. Apollinare alle Terme
- Ss. Apostoli
- S. Balbina
- S. Bartolomeo all'Isola
- Ss. Bonifacio ed Alessio
- S. Camillo de Lellis
- S. Carlo al Corso
- S. Cecilia in Trastevere
- Ss. Celso e Giuliano
- S. Clemente
- Ss. Cosma e Damiano
- S. Crisogono
- S. Croce in Via Flaminia
- S. Croce in Gerusalemme
- S. Eugenio
- S. Eustachio
- S. Francesca Romana
- S. Giovanni a Porta Latina
- S. Giovanni dei Fiorentini
- Ss. Giovanni e Paolo
- S. Lorenzo in Damaso
- S. Lorenzo in Lucina
- S. Maria Ausiliatrice
- S. Marco
- S. Maria degli Angeli
- S. Maria in Montesanto
- S. Maria in Cosmedin
- S. Maria in Domnica
- S. Maria in Aracoeli
- S. Maria del Popolo
- S. Maria sopra Minerva
- S. Maria in Trastevere
- S. Maria in Via
- S. Maria in Via Lata
- S. Maria della Vittoria
- S. Martino ai Monti
- Ss. Nereo e Achilleo
- S. Nicola in Carcere
- S. Pancrazio
- Pantheon
- S. Pietro in Vincoli
- S. Prassede
- S. Pudenziana
- Ss. Quattro Coronati
- S. Saba
- S. Sabina
- Sacro Cuore di Maria
- Sacro Cuore di Cristo Re
- Sacro Cuore di Gesù a Castro Pretorio
- S. Sebastiano fuori le mura
- S. Silvestro in Capite
- S. Sisto Vecchio
- S. Sofia a Via Boccea
- S. Stefano Rotondo
- S. Teresa
- S. Vitale
- Arx
- Casa dei Cavalieri di Rodi
- Castel Sant'Angelo
- Domus Internationalis Paulus VI
- Palazzo Aragona Gonzaga
- Palazzo Barberini
- Palazzo Barberini ai Giubbonari
- Palazzo Borghese
- Palazzo della Cancelleria
- Palazzo Chigi
- Palazzo Colonna
- Palazzo della Consulta
- Palazzo Farnese
- Palazzo Fusconi-Pighini
- Palazzo Giustinani
- Lateran Palace
- Palazzo Madama
- Palazzo Malta
- Palazzo di Giustizia
- Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne
- Palazzo Mattei
- Palazzo del Quirinale
- Palazzo Pamphilj
- Palazzo Poli
- Palazzo Riario
- Palazzo Ruspoli
- Palazzo Spada
- Palazzo Valentini
- Palazzo Vidoni-Caffarelli
- Palazzo del Viminale
- Palazzo Wedekind
- Palazzo Zuccari
- Villa Farnesina
- Villa Giulia
- Villa Madama
- Api
- Acqua Felice
- Acqua Paola
- Babuino
- Barcaccia
- Il Facchino
- Marforio
- Moro
- Nasone
- Navicella
- Neptune
- Nettuno
- del Pantheon
- Pianto
- di Piazza d'Aracoeli
- di Piazza Colonna
- di Piazza Farnese
- della Piazza dei Quiriti
- di Piazza Nicosia
- in Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere
- di Ponte Sisto
- Quattro Fiumi
- Quattro Fontane
- Tartarughe
- Trevi Fountain
- Tritons
- Tritone
- Altare della Patria (Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of Italy)
- Campo Verano
- Capocci Tower
- Column of the Immaculate Conception
- Conti Tower
- Hospital of the Holy Spirit
- Milizie Tower
- Sisto Bridge
- Spanish Steps
and public spaces
- Appian Way
- Campo de' Fiori
- Clivus Capitolinus
- Piazza Colonna
- Piazza d'Aracoeli
- Piazza del Popolo
- Piazza della Minerva
- Piazza della Repubblica
- Piazza Farnese
- Piazza Navona
- Piazza San Pietro
- Piazza di Spagna
- Piazza Venezia
- Via dei Coronari
- Via del Corso
- Via della Conciliazione
- Via dei Fori Imperiali
- Via Sacra
- Via Veneto
and zoos
art galleries
- Boncompagni Ludovisi Decorative Art Museum
- Capitoline Museums
- Casa di Goethe
- Doria Pamphilj Gallery
- Galleria Borghese
- Galleria Comunale d'Arte Moderna
- Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica
- Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna
- Giorgio de Chirico House Museum
- Galleria Spada
- Jewish Museum of Rome
- Keats–Shelley Memorial House
- MAXXI
- Museo Archeologico Ostiense
- Museo Barracco di Scultura Antica
- Museo Civico di Zoologia
- Museo delle anime del Purgatorio
- Museo delle Mura
- Museo di Roma
- Museo di Roma in Trastevere
- Museo nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia
- Museo Nazionale Etrusco
- Museo Nazionale Romano
- Museo Storico Nazionale dell'Arte Sanitaria
- Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome
- Museum of Roman Civilization
- Museum of the Ara Pacis
- Museum of the Liberation of Rome
- National Museum of Oriental Art
- Palazzo Colonna
- Palazzo delle Esposizioni
- Pigorini National Museum
- Porta San Paolo Railway Museum
- Santa Cecilia Musical Instruments Museum
- Venanzo Crocetti Museum
Seven Hills | |
---|---|
of Rome Capital