Palazzo Farnese
Roman Palaces
Palazzo Farnese, etching by Piranesi
Description
The palace was begun for cardinal Alessandro Farnese in 1516/1517 by Antonio Sangallo the Younger. It is one of the most important Renaissance palace which did not only influence the later Roman palaces like the Lateran palace, but the whole palatial architecture in Europe. When Farnese was elected as Pope Paul III in 1534, the palace project was extended. While Bramante's Palazzo Caprini and its successors are characterized by the contrast between a bossed ground floor and a light upper floor, the formal vocabulary of Palazzo Farnese is totally different: three floors with even wall surfaces, only separated by cornices and lacking tectonic elements like pilasters. The piano nobile windows with columns on piedestals shows pediments with alternating arched and triangular pediments, the second floor windows with columns on consoles have a lower width and triangular pediments only.
When Michelangelo was chareged with the building in 1546, he did not only increase the height of the second floor and add his marvelous and richly decorated cornice, but also did an important modification of the central piano nobile window by enlarging the opening and adding two columns with a new architrave surmounted by a huge crest. This motive was then repeatedly used in the European profane architecture.
Between 1550 and 1557, Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola was architect of Palazzo Farnese. His most important modification was the enlargement of the Sala Grande (or Sala d'Ercole), which is located behind the five leftmost window axis of the facade. The hall takes up the height of both upper floors and has a width of 14,30 meters, a length of 20,65 m and a height of 14.50m. Its coffered ceiling, made of cypress timber was created before 1565; its motive is the Jerusalem cross and Ranuccio Farnese's crest (six lilies crowned by a cross). After Vignolas death in 1573, Giacomo della Porta became his successor. It was not before 1589 that Palazzo Farnese was completed.
Regarding the development of Roman palatial apartments, the remodeling of our palace from 1540 on was an important step. The initial compact core apartment (including a wooden staircase) in the southwest corner only had a width of five axis. After the election of Paul III, the rooms on the Piazza Farnese were enlarged. The new floor plan shows a large Sala taking up nearly the whole space of the former core apartment, then a salotto, decorated with frescoes, a anteroom with chapel and finally the audience room.
Among the numerous decorated romms of the palace, the barrel vaulted Galleria, taking up the central part of the garden front and frescoed by Annibale and Agostino Carracci, is perhaps the most important one.
After the extinction of the Farnese, the palace passed to the Bourbon dynasty. From 1874, France rented the palace as its embassy. Since 1936, it is property of the Italian state and rented for 99 years to France.
Literature
Cherubini, Laura Caterina: Restauri in Palazzo Farnese a Roma, in: Frommel, Christoph Luitpold (ed.): Vignola e i Farnese, Roma 2003, pp. 60-72
