Doria Pamphilj Gallery

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A jewel of the Doria Pamphilj collection - Velázquez's 1650 portrait of Pope Innocent X (Pamphilj).
A jewel of the Doria Pamphilj collection - Velázquez's 1650 portrait of Pope Innocent X (Pamphilj).

The Doria Pamphilj Gallery is a large privately owned art collection housed in the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj in Rome. It is situated between the Via del Corso and Via della Gatta. The principal entrance is on the Piazza del Collegio Romano.

[edit] The collection

The large collection of paintings, furniture and statuary has been assembled since the 16th century by the Doria, Pamphilj, Landi and Aldobrandini families now united through marriage and descent under the simplified surname Doria Pamphilj. The collection includes paintings and furnishings from the Innocent X's Palazzo Pamphilj (in Piazza Navona), who bequeathed them to his nephew Camillo Pamphilj.

The Palazzo has grown over the centuries; it is likely the largest in Rome still in private ownership. The main collection is displayed in state rooms, including the chapel, complete with the mummified corpse of the family saint. However, the bulk is displayed in a series of four gilded and painted galleries surrounding a courtyard. An extensive suite of further rooms have now been converted to permanent well-lit galleries, containing the more medieval and Byzantine art in the collection.

Velazquez's portrait of Innocent X, who rose to papacy as cardinal Giovan Battista Pamphilj in 1644, is considered the collection's masterpiece. Velazquez while not idealizing the pope's countenance, is not unflattering in the portrait; Innocent X's features were by his contemporaries believed to symbolise a despotic lifestyle and vindictive character. The portrait painted to commemorate the Holy year was commissioned by his hedonistic sister-in-law Olimpia Maidalchini who was his close confidante and adviser, and some say mistress. Since 1927, Velázquez's portrait was placed in a specially designated small room along with a sculptured bust of the same pope by Bernini.

Titian's Salomé with Head of John the Baptist, c. 1515.
Titian's Salomé with Head of John the Baptist, c. 1515.

Olimpia Maidalchini's son Camillo Pamphilj, defying his powerful mother, renounced the Cardinalship conferred on him by his uncle the Pope and married the widowed Olimpia Borghese. Born an Aldobrandini it was she who brought the palazzo, then known as the Palazzo Aldobrandini, into the Pamphilj family. Following a period of exile in the country, to avoid confrontation with the Pope and Olimpia Maidalchini, the newly married couple took up permanent residence in the Palazzo Aldobrandini which from 1654 Camillo began to expand on a large scale; neighbouring houses and a convent were bought and demolished as the Palazzo grew, in spite of local opposition from the neighbouring Jesuits at the Collegio Romano. The architect in charge of this lengthy project was Antonio Del Grande. The façade facing the Via del Corso, however, is by Gabriele Valvassori. Following Camillo's death in 1666, building continued under the auspices of his two sons Giovanni Battista (his heir) and Benedetto.

One of Camillo and Olimpia's daughters, Anna Pamphlij, married the Genoese aristocrat Giovanni Andrea III Doria Landi in 1671, and it was their descendants who inherited the Palazzo when the Roman branch of the Pamphlilj family ended in 1760. In 1763 Principe Andrea IV combined his Genoese and Roman names to the present Doria-Pamphilij-Landi. In 1767 the ceilings of the state rooms were frescoed by late-baroque artists such as Crescenzio Onofri, Aureliano Milani, and Stefano Pozzi (Sala degli Specchi).

The collection was first opened to the public by the half-English Orietta Pogson Doria Pamphilj, whose English husband Frank Pogson added her name to his. Donna Orietta and Don Frank did much to restore the collection and the Palazzo, following her death in 2000 the guardianship of the collection was taken over by her adopted, English born, children, Don Jonathan and Donna Gesine Pogson Doria Pamphilj who with her husband still reside in the palazzo. Along with the possessions of the Colonna and Pallavacini-Rospigliosi families, this is one of the largest private art collections in Rome; the Palazzo Spada collection is now owned by the state.

[edit] Overview

  • Family chapel was designed by architect Carlo Fontana in the late 17th century, but since altered. The ivory crucifix was carved by Ercole Ferrata.
  • Saletta Gialla and Rossa contain Gobelins tapestries, including those on Zodiac signs by Claude Audran.
  • Sala del Poussin: Landscapes by Claude Lorraine.

In the main painting galleries are:

Room of Andrea Doria: portrait of Christopher Columbus by Jan Mabuse and Sebastiano del Piombo, Portrait of Andrea Doria. Green Salon: large mid-15th century Tournai tapestry with the medieval legend of Alexander the Great; bronze Innocent X by Algardi; Portrait by Lotto; and Filippo Lippi's Annunciation

Note: The Palazzo housing the Gallery Doria Pamphilj should not be confused with the Palazzo Pamphilj, in Rome's Piazza Navona. Nor should this palace be confused with a second Palazzo Doria-Pamphilj, a summer urban villa, in Valmontone near Rome; this palace, while badly damaged during the second war, is renowned for its late Baroque fresco series by Francesco Cozza, Pier Francesco Mola, and Mattia Preti[1].

[edit] External links


Museums and art galleries in Rome edit

Capitoline Museums | Doria Pamphilj Gallery | Galleria Borghese | Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica | Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna | Galleria Spada | Museo Nazionale Etrusco | Museum of Roman Civilization | National Museum of Oriental Art | National Museum of Rome | Vatican Museums
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