Page 434 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Italy

432  ROME AND LAZIO

4 Villa Farnesina 6 Botanical
Via della Lungara 230. Map 2 D5. Gardens
Tel 06 68 02 72 68. @ 23, 280. Largo Cristina di Svezia 24. Map 2 D5.
Open 9am–2pm Mon–Sat and Tel 06 49 91 71 07. @ 23, 280. Open
every 2nd Sun of the month. 9:30am–6:30pm (Oct–Mar: 5:30pm)
& 8 10am Sat (English). ^ Mon–Sat. Closed public hols. & 8
The fabulously wealthy Sienese Sequoias, palm trees, orchids
banker Agostino Chigi commis­ and bromeliads are among
sioned this villa in 1508 from his the 7,000 plants from all over
fellow Sienese Baldassare Peruzzi. the world represented in the
Chigi’s main home was across the Botanical Gardens (Orto
Tiber, and the villa was designed Botanico). Indigenous and
purely for lavish banquets. exotic species are grouped
Artists, poets, cardinals, princes to illustrate their botanical fam­
and the pope himself were ilies and their adaptation to
entertained here in magnificent different climates and eco­
style. Chigi also used the villa for Queen Christina of Sweden’s bedroom in systems. There are also some
sojourns with the courtesan the Palazzo Corsini curious plants like the ginkgo
Imperia, who allegedly ins pired that have survived almost
one of the Three Graces painted 5 Palazzo Corsini unchanged from earlier eras.
by Raphael in the Loggia of and Galleria
Cupid and Psyche. Nazionale d’Arte
The simple, harmonious
design of the Farnesina, with a Antica
central block and projecting Via della Lungara 10. Map 2 D5.
wings, made it one of the first Tel 06 68 80 23 23. @ 23, 280.
true villas of the Renaissance. Open 8:30am–7:30pm Wed–Mon.
Peruzzi decorated some of the Closed 1 Jan, 25 Dec, 31 Dec. & 8
interiors himself, such as the 7 ^ = ∑ galleriacorsini.
Sala della Prospettiva upstairs, in beniculturali.it
which the illu sionistic frescoes
create the impression of looking Built for Cardinal Domenico
out over 16th­century Rome Riario in 1510–12, the Palazzo
through a marble colonnade. Corsini has welcomed
Other frescoes, by Sebastiano Bramante, the young Michel­ Palm trees in the Botanical
del Piombo and Raphael and angelo, Erasmus and the Gardens, Trastevere
his pupils, illustrate Classical mother of Napoleon among
myths, while the vault of the its guests. Queen Christina of 7 Santa Maria in
main hall, the Sala di Galatea, Sweden died here in 1689.
is adorned with astrological The palazzo was rebuilt by Trastevere
scenes showing the position Ferdinando Fuga, who planned Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere.
of the stars at the time of the façade to be viewed from Map 5 C1. Tel 06 581 48 02. @ H, 23,
Chigi’s birth. After his death an angle, as Via della Lungara is 280. Open 7:30am–9pm daily. 7 =
the business collapsed, and too narrow for a full­frontal view.
in 1577 the villa was sold off When the palazzo was bought Santa Maria in Trastevere was
to the Farnese family. by the State in 1893, the Corsini probably the first Christian place
family donated their collection of worship in Rome, founded
of paintings, which formed the by Pope Callixtus I in the
core of the national art collection, 3rd century, when emperors
and was soon augmented. were still pagan and Christianity
The collection is now split a minority cult. According to
between Palazzo Barberini and legend, it was built on the site
Palazzo Corsini. Although the where a fountain of oil had
best works are in the Barberini, miraculously sprung up on
there are paintings by Van Dyck, the day that Christ was born.
Rubens, Murillo and, notably, The basilica became the focus
an androgynous St John the of devotion to the Madonna
Baptist (c.1604) by Caravaggio and, although today’s church
and a Salome (1638) by Reni. and its remarkable mosaics date
The strangest work is a portrait largely from the 12th and 13th
of the rotund Queen Christina centuries, images of the Virgin
as the goddess Diana by continue to dominate. The
Raphael’s Three Graces in the Villa Farnesina J Van Egmont. façade mosaics probably date
For hotels and restaurants in this region see pp573–76 and pp596–600

432-433_EW_Italy.indd 432 4/4/17 5:36 PM
Eyewitness Travel LAYERS PRINTED:
Catalogue template “UK” LAYER
(Source v2)
Date 14th November 2012
Size 125mm x 217mm