Galleria Colonna Museo e Pinacoteca
Private palace, mostly Baroque but dating to 1300s, with frescoed hall & Old Masters art collection.
A true jewel of Roman the Baroque, the Galleria Colonna was commissioned in the mid 1600s by Cardinal Girolamo I Colonna and his nephew Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna. It was inaugurated by Lorenzo Onofrio’s son, Philip II, in 1700.
A true jewel of the Roman Baroque, the Galleria Colonna was commissioned in the mid 1600s by Cardinal Girolamo I Colonna and his nephew Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna. It was inaugurated by Lorenzo Onofrio’s son, Philip II, in 1700. The original project was by architect Antonio del Grande, it was then integrated by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Johan Paul Schor and Carlo Fontana in the last decade of the seventeenth century.
From the very beginning, the Gallery was conceived as a huge state room, which was to celebrate the victory of the Christian fleet over the Turks at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. The commander of the papal fleet, Marcantonio II Colonna, is depicted numerous times throughout the vault of the Great Hall of the Gallery and in the Hall of the Battle Column.
The vault fresco in the Hall of the Battle Column is the work of Giuseppe Chiari and depicts the presentation of Marcantonio to the Virgin Mary in heaven. The hall was named after the column of red marble on a pedestal located at the center of the room, which recalls the family coat of arms. The carvings represent ancient Roman military scenes. Among the many works of art to be found in the Hall of the Battle Column, we would like to point out the beautiful painting by Bronzino, Venus, Cupid and a Satyr. Of particular interest are the three large paintings by Michele di Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio: The Night, above the painting by Bronzino and, on the opposite wall, Aurora with Venus and Cupid.
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