The Palazzo Mattei di Giove is the most prominent among a group of Mattei houses that forms the ''insula Mattei'' in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, a block of buildings of many epochs.

Name

To distinguish this section from the others it carries the name of a Mattei

fief A fief (; ) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of feudal alle ...

Giove ; ), or Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element, is the name for two satellites built for the European Space Agency (ESA) to test technology in orbit for the Galileo (satellite navigation), Galileo positioning system. The name was chosen as a tribut ...

. The Mattei owned a number of other ''palazzi'' that carried the family name including ''Palazzo Mattei di Trastevere'' across the Tiber as well as properties in Umbria, the ''Palazzo Mattei Paganica''.

Description

Carlo Maderno Carlo Maderno or Maderna (1556 – 31 January 1629) was an Italian architect, born in today's Ticino, Switzerland, who is remembered as one of the fathers of Baroque architecture. His façades of Santa Susanna, St. Peter's Basilica, and Sant ...

designed the palace whose construction started in 1598 and would last until 1618, for

Asdrubale Mattei Portrait of Asdrubale Mattei di Giove by students of Caravaggio (c. 1615). Asdrubale Mattei (died 1638), Duca di Giove, was an Italian nobleman of the House of Mattei, an avid art collector and a patron of Caravaggio. Family Mattei was the thir ...

, '' Marquis di Giove'' and father of

Girolamo Mattei Girolamo Mattei (8 February 1547 – 8 December 1603) was an Italian Cardinal from the House of Mattei. Biography Mattei was born 8 February 1547, the son of Alessandro Mattei and Emilia Mazzatosta. He was the younger brother of Ciriaco Mattei ...

and

Luigi Mattei Luigi Mattei, Marquis of Belmonte (19 November 16098 June 1665) was an Italian general and diplomat. He led papal forces during the Wars of Castro. Biography Mattei was the second son of Asdrubale Mattei, Marquis di Giove, of the House of Mattei ...

. He was also the brother of

Ciriaco Mattei Ciriaco Mattei (died 1614) was an Italian nobleman of Rome and of the House of Mattei and one of the most prolific art collectors of his time. Family Mattei was the son of Alessandro Mattei and Emilia Mazzatosta. He was the brother of Cardinal Gi ...

and Cardinal

. It was Maderno who was responsible for the extravagantly enriched cornice on the otherwise rather plain stuccoed public façade, the piano nobile

loggia In architecture, a loggia ( , usually , ) is a covered exterior Long gallery, gallery or corridor, often on an upper level, sometimes on the ground level of a building. The corridor is open to the elements because its outer wall is only parti ...

in the courtyard and the rooftop loggia or ''altana''.L. Guerrini (ed.), ''Palazzo Mattei di Giove.''( Le antichità, Rome), 1982; G. Panofsky-Soergel, "Zur Geschichte des Palazzo Mattei di Giove", ''Romisches Jahrbuch fur Kunstgeschichte'', 11 (1967-68:111-88). For the interior of the palazzo,

Pietro da Cortona Pietro da Cortona (; 1 November 1596 or 159716 May 1669) was an Italian Baroque painter and architect. Along with his contemporaries and rivals Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini, he was one of the key figures in the emergence of Roman ...

was commissioned to execute the pair of compositions on the ceiling of the gallery, dating before 1626. In the early 19th century, a group of paintings from the collection at the palazzo was purchased by

William Hamilton Nisbet William Hamilton Nisbet (1747 – 17 July 1822) was a British politician. He was the eldest son of William Nisbet of Archerfield House, Dirleton and his wife Mary, the daughter and heiress of Alexander Hamilton of Pencaitland, Haddington a ...

and removed to Scotland. Like others of the Mattei family, Asdrubale Mattei was an enthusiastic patron of the arts.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (also Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi da Caravaggio; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), known mononymously as Caravaggio, was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the fin ...

(better known simply as ''Caravaggio'') is recorded as living at the palazzo in 1601. In the 20th century, the facility was converted to a cultural heritage center and hosts a number of organizations such as the Center for American Studies.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Mattei Mattei Houses completed in the 17th century Mattei Carlo Maderno buildings