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Villa Albani-Torlonia

Address

Address: Via Salaria, 92
Zone: Quartiere Salario (Roma nord)

Contacts

Opening times

To visit Villa Albani Torlonia it is necessary to fill in the request form (see link above) specifying the language spoken and send it by email.

The Torlonia Foundation will propose the first available date after acceptance of the request.

Visits last two hours in the presence of an art historian. They include the Casino Nobile and the collections of Villa Albani Torlonia, the Italian garden and the Kaffeehaus, featuring the collection of recently restored sculptures.

Today's events

Description

Owned by the Torlonia family since 1867, the villa was built in the mid-18th century for Cardinal Alessandro Albani, nephew of Pope Clement XI, to house the prestigious collection of antiquities curated by Winckelmann. The work was entrusted to the architect Carlo Marchionni, who completed it in 1758.

The complex included the villa, terraces and stairways, and on the opposite side a hemicycle with the Caffeehaus, an Italian garden, fountains, several smaller buildings and a small temple, used as an aviary. In the garden of the villa the pieces of the cardinal's prestigious collection of antiquities were placed.

The villa bears witness to one of the highest expressions of the particular antiquarian taste that emerged in the mid-eighteenth century, in the transition between Rococo and Neoclassicism, when Rome had become a privileged destination of the Grand Tour.

In 1761, in the salon of the Casino, the Neoclassical painter Anton Raphael Mengs painted the Parnassus fresco, perhaps the most important pictorial manifesto of the nascent Neoclassical style. In the next room, known as the Antinous Room, is the famous relief of Antinous, from Villa Adriana. The Art Gallery houses works by Niccolò da Foligno, Perugino, Gherardo delle Notti, van Dyck, Tintoretto, Ribera, Guercino, Giulio Romano, Borgognone, Luca Giordano, David and Vanvitelli.

Last checked: 2024-01-18 12:57
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