Villa Farnesina, refurbished second floor tracing the history of the palace from Roman times to the present day

Inaugurated the new exhibit on the second floor of the Villa Farnesina in Rome, which traces the history of the palace and its grounds. Diagnostic investigations and research carried out in recent years in the Villa Farnesina by theAccademia Nazionale dei Lincei have provided new elements for reconstructing the events of the Villa and a more detailed knowledge of the decorative interventions that have now disappeared or been concealed by drapery or fabric coverings, which is enabling a recovery of not only 16th-century, but 17th- and 19th-century decorations.

Trastevere in the Roman Age, this is the title of the new exhibit on the second floor, includes four sections. In the first section, which is the result of collaboration with the ABAP Special Superintendence of Rome, the Capitoline Superintendence for Cultural Heritage, the École française of Rome and the National Roman Museum, the territory on which the Villa stands from the Janiculum Hill to the Tiber River is reread. That is, that area which, since the Republican age and throughout the empire, has been characterized by a mixture of urbanistic aspects: from the Septimiana gate, in the northern sector of the Aurelian Walls, today visible inside the garden of the Villa, among the few remains of the walls still preserved on the right bank of the Tiber, to the Roman Villa of the Farnesina. A complex, the latter, inhabited since the late 1st century B.C. on the banks of the Tiber and also consisting of the recent ancient structures found in the Garden of Palazzo Corsini that were used, most likely, for the firing of ceramic materials or the glazing of fictile objects, also in connection with the function of regimenting the waters that came from the Janiculum.

The exhibition itinerary tells in the other two sections the story of the Villa in the 19th century, when inhabited by the Duke of Ripalda it experienced a change in its relationship with the city following the construction of the Tiber walls. The nineteenth-century appearance of the rooms of Villa Farnesina will be highlighted with an emphasis on the details and particulars of the decorative apparatuses, delving in particular into the pictorial ornamentation in mock drapery and the grass juices specially designed to complement the existing Renaissance fresco decoration. A multimedia room will then present the evolution of wall textile decorations that from the 16th century to the contemporary age, from tapestries to corami and wallpaper, also characterized the Villa Farnesina as indicators of the owner’s wealth. Finally, special attention will also be given to the city “around the Villa Farnesina,” with a focus on Palazzo Farnese and Palazzo Corsini. The last section will be devoted to the restoration work carried out in the 1930s when the Villa Farnesina, by then owned by the Italian state, was chosen as the seat of the Royal Academy of Italy, an institution desired by Mussolini for the management of Italian culture during his rule as opposed to the liberal Lincei. The section concludes with the most recent results of the diagnostic and non-invasive analyses conducted on the pictorial materials of Raphael’s Loggias to understand the execution technique of Raphael and his workshop and the pigments he chose for the realization of the frescoes.

Finally, the fourth section is dedicated to “The Triptych of Italian Ingenuity,” the series of initiatives with which the Lincei wanted to celebrate the centenaries of Leonardo (2019), Raphael (2020) and Dante (2021) in a unified path.

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Villa Farnesina, refurbished second floor tracing the history of the palace from Roman times to the present day

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