18TH-century furniture for the Chigi family

SERIES: From VIVE to the city. The history of art in Rome in the 15th-20th centuries - Under the aegis of Silvia Ginzburg, professor of the History of Modern Art, Università di Roma Tre
SPEAKER: Alvar González-Palacios
DATE: Thursday 23 March, 6 pm 
PLACE: Palazzo Venezia, Sala del Refettorio

In the 1860s, leading artists and craftsmen in the Rome of the day executed fine works in the Chigi family residences – a mansion in Piazza Colonna and a villa built by Cardinal Flavio II on Via Salaria. The villa on Via Salaria is now stripped of its furnishings but some have been traced to private collections and reveal a fanciful reworking of the natural motifs expressed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in the previous century during the papacy of Alexander VII (Chigi). An apartment on the second floor of the city mansion was prepared for the nuptials of the heir to the title, Don Sigismondo, and Flaminia Odescalchi. The sumptuous interiors reach a climax in the Salone d’Oro, one of the most exceptional rooms in Rome at the height of the 18th century, where Luigi Valadier installed gilded bronze flora surrounding the mirrors and a group of first-rate craftsmen created perfection in what remains a virtually intact space. 

Biography

Alvar González-Palacios (Santiago de Cuba, 1936) was educated in his home country, Canada, Paris and Florence before moving to Rome. He has written studies on the decorative arts, including a catalogue on the furnishings of Palazzo Quirinale (1996), one on mosaics and semi-precious stones in the Spanish royal collections (2001) and a series of volumes on Italy entitled "Il Tempio del Gusto" (Longanesi, 1984 and 1986) and "Il Gusto dei Principi" (Longanesi, 1993). His work on Luigi Valadier includes several exhibitions, in 1996 (Louvre), 1997 (Rome, Accademia di Francia, Villa Medici) and 2018 (New York, Frick Collection).  Between 1968 and 1974, he was the editor of the magazine Arte illustrata and from 1976 to 2009 that of Antologia di Belle Arti, together with Federico Zeri for some years. He has recently published "Il mobile a Roma dal Rinascimento al Barocco" (Ugo Bozzi Editore) and "Forse è tutta questione di luce. Ritratti e incontri" (Ugo Bozzi Editore). 

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