Palazzo Farnese (Piacenza)
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240px, The project for the façade of Palazzo Farnese, Piacenza, by Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola. 240px, The court. Palazzo Farnese is a palace in
Piacenza Piacenza (; egl, label= Piacentino, Piaṡëinsa ; ) is a city and in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, and the capital of the eponymous province. As of 2022, Piacenza is the ninth largest city in the region by population, with over ...
, northern
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
.


History

This large partly constructed palace is located on the banks of the
River Po The Po ( , ; la, Padus or ; Ancient Ligurian: or ) is the longest river in Italy. It flows eastward across northern Italy starting from the Cottian Alps. The river's length is either or , if the Maira, a right bank tributary, is included. Th ...
in the city of
Piacenza Piacenza (; egl, label= Piacentino, Piaṡëinsa ; ) is a city and in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, and the capital of the eponymous province. As of 2022, Piacenza is the ninth largest city in the region by population, with over ...
in Northern Italy. Ottavio Farnese inherited the Duchy of Parma from his father
Pier Luigi Farnese Pier Luigi Farnese (19 November 1503 – 10 September 1547) was the first Duke of Castro from 1537 to 1545 and the first Duke of Parma and Piacenza from 1545 to 1547. Born in Rome, Pier Luigi was the illegitimate son of Cardinal Alessandro Farn ...
, who was assassinated in a coup in 1547. In the aftermath of the assassination Spanish troops under the command of Ferrate Gonzaga occupied both Parma and Piacenza, however, Ottavio didn’t rescind his claim to the duchy and, in 1551, was able to retake Parma with the help of the King of France
Henry II of France Henry II (french: Henri II; 31 March 1519 – 10 July 1559) was King of France from 31 March 1547 until his death in 1559. The second son of Francis I and Duchess Claude of Brittany, he became Dauphin of France upon the death of his elder bro ...
, nonetheless Piacenza remained in Spanish hands until 1557 when, after the abdications of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, both Margaret and Ottavio traveled to Brussels to meet Philip II of Spain who negotiated an agreement which made the duchy a Spanish fief and allowed Piacenza back to the Farnese family (though Spanish soldiers were to be stationed in Piacenza's citadel). The palace was commissioned by Ottavio's wife, Margaret of Austria, daughter of Emperor
Charles V Charles V may refer to: * Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500–1558) * Charles V of Naples (1661–1700), better known as Charles II of Spain * Charles V of France (1338–1380), called the Wise * Charles V, Duke of Lorraine (1643–1690) * Infa ...
. The new edifice was erected over a former fortress built by the Visconti in 1352, part of which can still be seen. An initial design was made by
Francesco Paciotto Pietro Francesco Tagliapietra known as Francesco Paciotto (1521 - 1591) was an Italian military and civil architect, born and died in Urbino. Biography He was a pupil of Girolamo Genga at Urbino, before going to Rome to attend fhe Vitruvian Acade ...
, from
Urbino Urbino ( ; ; Romagnol: ''Urbìn'') is a walled city in the Marche region of Italy, south-west of Pesaro, a World Heritage Site notable for a remarkable historical legacy of independent Renaissance culture, especially under the patronage of F ...
, and in 1558, the architect
Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola ( , , ; 1 October 15077 July 1573), often simply called Vignola, was one of the great Italian architects of 16th century Mannerism. His two great masterpieces are the Villa Farnese at Caprarola and the Jesuits' Churc ...
, better known as Vignola, was brought in to revise the designs. Vignola had already been commissioned to design the
Villa Farnese The Villa Farnese, also known as Villa Caprarola, is a pentagonal mansion in the town of Caprarola in the province of Viterbo, Northern Lazio, Italy, approximately north-west of Rome. This villa should not be confused with the Palazzo Farnese a ...
at
Caprarola Caprarola is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Viterbo, in the Lazio region of central Italy. The village is situated in a range of volcanic hills known as the Cimini Mounts. The town is home to the large Renaissance mansion or villa which ...
(
Latium Latium ( , ; ) is the region of central western Italy in which the city of Rome was founded and grew to be the capital city of the Roman Empire. Definition Latium was originally a small triangle of fertile, volcanic soil ( Old Latium) on w ...
) for Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, the older brother of the Duke. Vignola had to take Piacotto's design into account but significantly revised the design which was presented to the patrons in 1561. The drawings are for a vast palace on a scale paralleled only by the
Vatican Palace The Apostolic Palace ( la, Palatium Apostolicum; it, Palazzo Apostolico) is the official residence of the pope, the head of the Catholic Church, located in Vatican City. It is also known as the Papal Palace, the Palace of the Vatican and the V ...
in Italy; the rectangular plan is 113.25 metres by 88 metres and over 40 meters in height. The building works were entrusted to Giovanni Bernardo Della Valle, Giovanni Lavezzari and Bernardo Panizzari (Caramosino). The actual construction, however, made up only less than a half of Vignola's original project and lacked many of the planned architectural features. The original plan called for a massive rectangular palace with three main floors, three towers, two ceremonial staircases and two spiral ones, each floor was to have two residential complexes (one for Ottavio, another for Margaret) which included an oratory, a chapel, three state rooms, service rooms and a private loggia; and on top of that it included two main loggias on the southern facade, an open theatre on the internal courtyard and Italian gardens that were to reach the main city walls opposite the Po River. Ultimately the planned building far overestimated the financial capacities of the Duchy, of both dukes and of the Farnese family itself (being a far larger palace than those built by other Italian families and even French and Spanish royalty), and even though subsequent Farnese dukes tried to continue the construction, it was finally declared finished in 1602. After the death of the last Farnese duke in 1731, the palace fell into disrepair. Restoration began only in the early 20th century and today the Palazzo Farnese at Piacenza houses an important series of museums and exhibitions.


Ducal Chapel

The Ducal Chapel (''Cappella Ducale'' or ''Cappella Grande'') was used by the family for its religious rites. It is a hall on a square plan, turned into an octagon by the introduction of four apses at the corners. The sides have the same length as the chapel's height up to the hemispherical dome. The chapel is decorated with lilies from the Farnese coat of arms and Mannerist masks portraying angels. Other symbols referring to the Ducal family such as the
unicorn The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unicorn has for the last thousand years o ...
, starfish,
dolphin A dolphin is an aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. Dolphin species belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (the ...
s and
turtle Turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked t ...
s, appear in the large frieze.


Museums and exhibitions

* In the Archaeological Museum is the famous '
Piacenza Liver The Liver of Piacenza is an Etruscan artifact found in a field on September 26, 1877, near Gossolengo, in the province of Piacenza, Italy, now kept in the Municipal Museum of Piacenza, in the Palazzo Farnese. It is a life-sized bronze model o ...
', an Etruscan bronze of a liver with Etruscan writing that was possibly used for
haruspicy In the religion of ancient Rome, a haruspex (plural haruspices; also called aruspex) was a person trained to practise a form of divination called haruspicy (''haruspicina''), the inspection of the entrails ('' exta''—hence also extispicy ...
or divination by the reading of animals entrails. * The Gallery or Pinacoteca is housed in the so-called "Duchess Apartments", on the first floor. It contains paintings from the 16th-17th centuries once belonging to the Dukes' collections. The most important artwork is the ''Madonna with the Young St John'', by
Sandro Botticelli Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi ( – May 17, 1510), known as Sandro Botticelli (, ), was an Italian Renaissance painting, Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th cent ...
. The museum was endowed in 2006 with the ''Collezione Rizzi-Vaccari''. In consisted of 17 paintings and three sculptures from the 14th through 15th centuries, including works by Jacopo del Casentino, Andrea Bonaiuti, Simone de’ Crocifissi, and Giovanni da Milano.Palazzo Farnese
pinacoteca official site. * The ''Fasti Farnesiani'' ("Farnese's Splendours") Exhibitions * Museum of the Italian
Risorgimento The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single ...
* Museum of Ancient Weapons, with 400 antique weapons and armours collected by the Piacentine nobleman Antonio Parma * Museum of Coaches * State Archives * Collections of sculptures, frescoes, majolica ware, glassworks, and epigraphs, with works from the 12th to the 17th centuries.


See also

*
Palazzo Farnese, Rome Palazzo Farnese () or Farnese Palace is one of the most important High Renaissance palaces in Rome. Owned by the Italian Republic, it was given to the French government in 1936 for a period of 99 years, and currently serves as the French em ...
*
Villa Farnese The Villa Farnese, also known as Villa Caprarola, is a pentagonal mansion in the town of Caprarola in the province of Viterbo, Northern Lazio, Italy, approximately north-west of Rome. This villa should not be confused with the Palazzo Farnese a ...


References


External links


Musei di Palazzo Farnese and Museo di Storia Naturale
- official site {{Authority control Farnese Farnese, Palazzo Renaissance architecture in Piacenza Museums in Emilia-Romagna Archaeological museums in Italy Art museums and galleries in Emilia-Romagna Military and war museums in Italy Carriage museums in Italy Farnese residences Duchy of Parma