alberoni gallery

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THE PICTURE GALLERY
the new
Alberoni Gallery, via Emilia Parmense, 67 - 29100 Piacenza
tel. 0523 577011 - 349 4673659 - opalberoni@libero.it - info@collegioalberoni.it
www.collegioalberoni.it - www.galleriaalberoni.it
ALBERONI GALLERY
Giulio Alberoni started collecting works of art early in his youth in Piacenza. Later on, he enriched his collection during his stay in Spain and above
all in Rome starting from the 1720’s. The cardinal enjoyed good relations
with various contemporary artists, among whom the outstanding portraitpainter Giovanni Maria delle Piane called ‘Il Mulinaretto’(1660-1745) from
Genoa, who, in 1714 painted several portraits of Elizabeth Farnese commissioned by Alberoni, on the occasion of her wedding with Philip V. One
of them was given as a present to the cardinal by the sovereign herself together with the portrait of her husband, painted in 1715 by Nicolò Maria
Vaccari, the court painter (about 1659-1720). This painter, who came from
Genoa as well, had worked for a few years at the Farnese court in Parma
before moving to Spain. Also the portrait of the newly elected cardinal was
surely realized in Madrid in 1717 probably by Michel-Ange Houasse,
(1680-1730). The cardinal acquired San Francesco in meditazione (St Francis in Meditation) by Sebastiano Martinez (1602-1667) almost certainly in
the Spanish capital, one of the most important artists of the Seville School,
a court painter of Philip VI and successor of Velasquez. However, the cardinal became deeply fond of figurative arts in Rome, above all during the
forced period of political inactivity between 1720 and 1735. In the pontificial capital Alberoni devoted himself particularly to the furniture of the
suburban villa out of Porta Pia, near the church of St Agnes, and the LanaBuratti Palace, located in the suburb of Trevi near the church of the ‘
Guardian Angels’, which the prelate purchased in 1725 (today the two
buildings no longer exist). Two inventories, one dated 1735, drawn up personally by the cardinal, and one of 1744-53 show in detail the assets of his
collection: there is a list of about one hundred and sixty paintings, the
most important of them were on show in the ‘room decked out with pictures’ of the palace, next door to the ‘Noble Gallery’ frescoed by his fellow
citizen Gian Paolo Panini (1691-1765). In 1725 the cardinal commissioned
a monumental painting showing the Cacciata dei mercanti dal Tempio (Expulsion of the Merchants from the Temple), to the great painter from Piacenza, in order to match the picture with the Probatica piscina (Probatic
Bathing Pool) by Domenico Maria Viani (1688-1711), coming from the collection of cardinal Ferdinando of Adda from Milan. Sebastiano Conca
(1676-1764) is another outstanding contemporary artist with whom the
prelate from Piacenza came into contact. By this painter one can admire
San Turibio che divide l’acqua di un fiume (Saint Turibio Dividing the Water of a River), a work painted by the artist for the first time on the occasion of the canonization of the Saint in 1726 and which he reproduced on
several occasions afterwards. Among the main historical pictures of Alberoni’s collection, Continenza di Scipione (Scipio’s Continence) and Morte
di Marco Giunio Bruto (Marcus Junius Brutus’Death) by Giovan Battista
Lenardi (1656-1704) stand out as two large-sized paintings. They were already listed in the inventory of 1735. Most pictures in the collections belonging to the high prelate from Piacenza, are represented by the the socalled ‘paintings of genre’: still lives, marines, landscapes, battles and pictures of flowers. Among these, one can admire the still lives by Bartolomeo Arbotori from Piacenza (1594-1676) and those by Antonio Gianlisi junior (1677-1727), the pictures of flowers by Marc’Antonio Rizzi from
Brescia (1648-1723) and by Ludovico Stern from Rome (1709-1777), the
four paintings showing a woman poulterer, a girl flower seller, a lemon and
citron seller and a melon seller, attributed by Stefano Pozzi to Monsù
Bernardo, in his estimate dated 1760, that is to say to Eberhart Keilhau
(1624-1687), a Danish painter. The pictures of animals by David de Coninck (1643-1701), a painter from Antwerp, the classical views of the Roman
countryside by Gaspar Dughet (1615-1675) and the more restless landscapes by Domenico Gargiulo, called Micco Spadaro (1609-10-1675) from
Naples, the two remarkable paintings representing Guerrieri a cavallo
(Warriors on Horseback) by Jacques Courtois called the Borgognone
(1621-1670). The remarkable Martirio di San Sebastiano (Martyrdom of
Saint Sebastian), to be attributed to Cristoforo Serra (1600-1689) from Cesena, has instead more recently been acquired by the College thanks to
Father Gian Felice Rossi.
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CARDINAL GIULIO ALBERONI
THE TAPESTRIES
THE VESTMENTS
SCULPTURES AND CRUCIFIXES
Giulio Alberoni (Piacenza 1664-1752) was a churchman, a man of the
world, a capable politician and diplomat, a businessman, a learned art
collector and a munificent benefactor of his native town.
The first of six children, he was born in Piacenza on 21st May 1664 of
a humble family.
After his studies and early steps in the ecclesiastical order under the
guardianship of Count Guglielmo Roncovieri and Giorgio Barni, the
bishop of Piacenza, he started his brilliant political and diplomatic career serving Francesco Farnese, duke of Parma during the war of
Spanish succession (1702-1713). Abbot Alberoni managed to win the
king of France’s favour and, above all, the favour of Philip Bourbon
duke of Anjou, who was to become king of Spain as Philip V. He became his most authoritative counsellor and a sort of Prime Minister.
His clout at the Spanish court grew enormously after 1714 because of
the marriage of Philip V with Elisabeth Farnese, Princess of Parma, a
marriage Alberoni himself had carefully arranged. Thanks to his
diplomatic success he was made a cardinal by Pope Clement XI in the
secret consistory of 12th July 1717. Immediately afterwards, however,
he fell out of favour and was expelled from Spain once and for all as the
result of unfortunate choices he had made in foreign policy. Back in
Rome, he had to undergo the infamy of a trial which, however, worked
out for the best since, finally, he was officially conferred the scarlet hat
by Pope Innocent XIII on January 12th, 1724. In Rome he spent the
most peaceful years of his life until 1735 devoting himself to social relations, collecting works of art for the fittings of his residences, the
Palace of the Guardian Angels in Rione Trevi and the suburban villa
near St Agnes in Via Nomentana until a new phase of his ecclesiastic
mission started within the Roman Curia, thanks to the favour of
Clement VII and Benedict XIV. On account of his proven experience
he was entrusted with the government of the Legation of Romagna
(1735-1739) and, later on, Bologna (1740-1743), a mandate that the cardinal carried out with a high sense of responsibility and with a mixture
of pragmatism and convenience, typical of his character. Anyway, the
actual achievement of Alberoni’s active old age was the College for the
education of young priests, the construction, just outside the town of
Piacenza not far from the old St Lazarus’ Hospital, started in 1732. He
took care personally of the pulling down of the old building as well as
of the plan and construction of the new one, but then he entrusted the
Congregation of the Mission, established by St Vincent de Paoli with
its management. In the autumn of 1751 the College could welcome the
first eighteen young people and on 26th June 1752, when the cardinal
died, he left all his properties to the charitable institution which still
preserves them.
Some of the most valuable finds in Alberoni’s collections are being
kept in the so-called ‘Cardinal’s apartment’ inside the College, while
the remaining rich collections have been preserved since 1964 in the
building, designed by Vittorio Gandolfi (1919-1999), an architect from
Piacenza, and adequately restored in 2007-8.
The collection of tapestries left by the cardinal is highly valuable both
for the quantity of the pieces and their quality. The 18 magnificent
masterpieces are divided into three different series. Eight pieces,
known as the Serie di Enea e Didone (Series of Aeneas and Dido), were
woven by Michel Wauters, a tapestry weaver from Antwerp about
1670, from paper drawings by Giovan Francesco Romanelli, the best
pupil of Pietro from Cortona. Eight more pieces are known as Serie di
Alessandro Magno (Alexander the Great Series), and were woven by an
unknown Flemish Tapestry weaver working in Brussels during the
second half of the 17th century ( probably Jan Leyniers ) perhaps from
paper drawings by Jacob Jordaens, one of the most important followers of Rubens. Last but not least, come the most ancient and valuable
ones belonging to the so-called Serie di Priamo (Priam’s Series). They
are two exceptionally large-sized woollen and silk series almost 4 m.
high and 5.5 m. long showing two gorgeous scenes : a Corteo Regale
(Royal Procession) and a Ricevimento con banchetto di nozze (Reception
with a Wedding Banquet). In the narration proceeding from left to
right, all the eminent guests are dressed up in elegant, sumptuous
Burgundy-style costumes. In the former tapestry, the word PREAMVS, appears on a halberd carried by a turbaned old man. This detail led to the identification of the story narrated in both artefacts,
namely to episodes inspired to the Romanzo di Troia (Roman de
Troie), presumably Paris and Helen’s arrival by ship at Troy (in the
former tapestry) where they are welcomed by Priam and Hecuba, the
hero’s parents.
The latter tapestry shows the Banquet set up to give them a warm welcome as we are led to think from the presence of four personages of
royal standing, two old ones and two younger ones, near the top right
table. Nothing is known about the purchasers of the two impressive
pieces; however they must have been high-ranked. The pieces were
certainly woven in Brussels around 1520 by a tapestry weaver whose
identity was attributed by experts now to Pieter de Pannemaker now
to Pieter Van Aelst. Also the name of the cartoonist is difficult to detect even though the most frequently mentioned name was Jan van
Roome, a very active painter and drawer of tapestry, stained glass windows and sculptures in Mechelen and Brussels in the early years of
the 16th century.
The series of eight tapestries showing the Storie di Didone ed Enea (Stories of Dido and Aeneas) are also significant. In a highly decorative
baroque style, they illustrate the tragical key episodes of the Carthaginian queen in love with Aeneas, obviously inspired by Virgil’s Aeneid,
book I. From the reading of the inventory listing the properties left by
Michel Wauters, the tapestry weaver who died in Antwerp on 26th August 1679, we know that he had woven the eight pieces of Dido and Aeneas’ story four times. Only one of the copies lay in his laboratory in
Antwerp, the others being placed in Vienna, Rome and Lisbon for sale.
The one in Rome was owned by Antonio Verpennen, a merchant. Therefore, the latter must have been the very copy bought by Cardinal Alberoni several years later to adorn his Roman palace. Instead, the eight
tapestries of the last Alberoni series showing Storie di Alessandro Magno (Alexander the Great’s Stories) almost surely inspired by De rebus
gestis Alexandri Magni by Quinto Curzio Rufo, were woven by Jan
Leyniers (1630-1686), a tapestry weaver from Brussels; they are based
on paper drawings supplied by Jacob Jordaens (1593-1678).
The collection of sacred vestments preserved at the College, exceptional for quality and quantity, is not entirely on show owing to conservative exigencies. In this section, one can admire a significant choice.
The vestments worn by cardinal Alberoni on the occasion of the liturgical celebrations, either solemn or private, enable the visitor to understand an important aspect of the many-sided personality of the high
prelate from Piacenza. Not only did the cardinal show an interest in
purchasing and collecting old and modern fabrics, but he also went so
far as to directly interfere in the cloth manufacturing line. As a minister of Philip V of Spain, he fostered a real textile fabric manufacture
(Real Fabrica de tapices y Alfombras).
The Corpus of hangings and tapestries which belonged to the cardinal
were marked by the constant presence of his heraldic insignia, including a set of loom fabrics, embroideries and lace of high technical quality, through which it is possible to read a fresh cross-section of the best
late baroque textile manufacture.
As to the embroideries, the only name which has emerged from Alberoni’s archives until now is that of Pietro Scilti from Piacenza. He
was the author, in 1751, of the golden embroidery, a blazing fabric
from Lyon standing as a frame to the cardinal insignia, made of polychromatic golden and silver silk, which formed a frontal originally assigned to an altar of St Lazarus church. The marvellous cloth with naturalistic patterns, flowers and grapes, used in the central section, is realized with a particular technique, that is by inserting wefts of different colours (the so-called point rentré) invented by Jean Revel, a weaver from Lyon, between 1730 and 1740. If embroidery works, at Alberoni’s time, were considered the most fashionable as well as the
most widely appreciated textile expressions, especially in the liturgical
circle, the loom fabrics owned by the cardinal do not cut a poor figure
in comparison.
The few vestments manufactured with textured silk, indicate how high
and accurate the choice of the materials was. They were mostly purchased on the French market, which was on the cutting edge in the sector at that time. Great care was given to the choice of the accessories as
an outfit to the tapestries. One can infer it, for example, from the way of
realizing the coat of arms of the cardinal, which was embroidered with
stylistic and technical solutions always diversified in the details.
The sculptures in the Alberoni collection are connected above all to
the Cardinal’s prayers. Among them the huge Crucifix stands out. It is
made of ivory mounted on an elaborate pear wood pedestal lined with
ebony, enriched with gilt bronze figures and reliefs. On both sides one
can admire two small figures in full relief of the Vergine e San Giovanni (Virgin and St John) , in the centre of the niche there is a bas-relief
showing a Gesù deposto (Deposition of Jesus) and, on the underneath
base, the Cristo flagellato (Scourging of Jesus) in the centre and two
couples of angels with the instruments of Passion on either side. The
object, about two metres high, belonged to the cardinal as far back as
1735 and it was on show in the ‘fourth room of noble hearing’ in the
Roman Palace, against a wall covered with ‘crimson damask from
Genoa’, on a ‘table of an antique, noble green’ between ‘two large-sized
porcelain vases plated with gold from Japan’. A very precious antique
is another ivory Crucifix which is still preserved as it was described in
the inventory of 1735 : a small picture with a black, gold frame, showing an ivory crucifix closed behind its crystal. This ‘living’ Christ is a
work of extraordinary quality in the intense pathos of his face and in
its almost ecstatic abandonment to suffering. It draws inspiration from
the great pictorial examples of Rubens and Van Dyck and it was properly compared to a Jesus of ivory in the Lateran Museum, for which
some experts have mentioned the name of François Duquesnoy (15971643), a great interpreter of the classical Roman sculpture of the early
1600. The two guilt bronze Crucifixes mounted on ebony crosses
owned by the Cardinal fall within the tradition of the great 16th century Florentine workers in bronze, pupils and followers of Giambologna.
Their very high modelling standard clearly recalls the life-size models
designed by Pietro Tacca (1577-1640) from Carrara. The models were
then reproduced over and over again in smaller dimensions inside the
studio (workshop) and were intended for a market of collectors capable of appreciating the refinement of chisel work and execution. The
polychromic wooden statue of St Lazarus commissioned by the cardinal in 1751 for the altar named after the above saint in the church of
the College is, instead, an exquisite work by Jan Geernaert (17041777) a sculptor Flemish by birth but then living in Piacenza.
We know that the sculpture was ‘plastered up and scraped’ by
Giuseppe Lotti, a stucco decorator and later painted by Antonio Gilardoni an artist from Piacenza. Born in Bruges and then italianized into
Ghernardi, Geernaert arrived in Piacenza in 1727 where he settled until his death as the head of a large thriving workshop, out of which
came Virgins, Saints, Crucifixes and allegorical figures for the decoration of innumerable churches in the town and its province.