Palazzo Barberini

In Palazzo Barberini, which still dominates Piazza Barberini, Rione Trevi, Rome, three great architects worked to create a harmonious whole: Carlo Maderno, who began it in 1627, his nephew and assistant Francesco Borromini in his first important commission, and a young sculptor, Gian Lorenzo Bernini. When Maderno died in 1629 his assistant Borromini was passed over in favor of Bernini, an untried young prodigy. The two architects worked briefly in harmony on this project, as at Palazzo Spada, but before long, competition for commissions turned them into bitter enemies.

Related Topics:
Piazza Barberini - Rione Trevi - Carlo Maderno - 1627 - Francesco Borromini - Gian Lorenzo Bernini - 1629 - Palazzo Spada

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The sloping site had passed from one cardinal to another during the 16th century, with no project fully getting off the ground. The villa built by Alessandro Cardinal Sforza on this still semi-suburban site came onto the market when Sforza suffered some reverses and was bought in 1625 by Maffeo Barberini, who had come to the papal throne as Urban VIII in 1623. He first commissioned from Carlo Maderno, who was at work on the extended nave of St Peter's Basilica, a design that would enclose the Villa Sforza within a vast Renaissance block, such as Palazzo Farnese; however, the design quickly evolved into a precedent-setting combination of just such an urban seat of princely power with a garden front that had the nature of a suburban villa.

Related Topics:
Alessandro Cardinal Sforza - Urban VIII - 1623 - St Peter's Basilica - Palazzo Farnese - Villa

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The plan of the palazzo is disposed around a forecourt centered on Bernini's grand two-storey hall backed by an oval salone, with an extended wing that dominated the piazza, still unformed, which lies on a lower level. At the rear, a long wing protected the garden from the piazza below, above which it rose from a rusticated basement that was slightly battered like a military bastion. The main block presents three tiers of great arch-headed windows, like glazed arcades, a formula that was more Venetian than Roman. On the uppermost floor, Borromini's windows are set in a false perspective that suggests extra depth, a feature that has been copied into the 20th century. Flanking the hall, two sets of stairs lead to the piano nobile, a large squared staircase by Bernini to the left and a smaller oval staircase by Borromini to the right.

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Aside from Borromini's false-perspective window reveals, among the other influential aspects of Palazzo Barberini, ones that would be repeated throughout Europe, were the unit of a central two-storey hall backed by an oval salone and the symmetrical wings that extended forward from the main block to create a cour d'honneur. Once meticulous engravings of details of the Palazzo had been made available by Domenico de' Rossi (Quarto Libro del Nuovo Teatro delle Fabriche, et Edificii, In Prospettiva di Roma moderna ["Quarto Book of the New Theatre of the Buildings and Edifices, In Prospect View of Modern Rome" c. 1699), architects and patrons no longer needed to make the trip to Rome in person: through engravings they could grasp the details.

Related Topics:
Cour d'honneur - Domenico de' Rossi - Engraving

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Today Palazzo Barberini houses the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica and a paintings collection that includes Raphael's portrait called La Fornarina, Caravaggio's Judith and Holophernes, and, unexpectedly, a Hans Holbein portrait of Henry VIII.

Related Topics:
Raphael - Caravaggio - Hans Holbein - Henry VIII

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