| Palazzo Spada | |
|---|---|
 Facade of the Palazzo Spada. | |
 Click on the map for a fullscreen view | |
| General information | |
| Location | Piazza di Capo Ferro #13,Rome,Italy |
| Coordinates | 41°53′38.5″N12°28′18.5″E / 41.894028°N 12.471806°E /41.894028; 12.471806 |
ThePalazzo Spada is a palace located on Piazza di Capo Ferro #13 in therioneRegola ofRome, Italy. Standing very close to thePalazzo Farnese, it has a garden facing towards theTiber river.
The palace accommodates a large art collection, theGalleria Spada. The collection was originally assembled by CardinalBernardino Spada in the 17th century, and by his brother Virgilio Spada, and added to by his grandnephew CardinalFabrizio Spada,
In 1540, the palace was commissioned by CardinalGirolamo Capodiferro, and utilized as an architect Bartolomeo Baronino ofCasale Monferrato, whileGiulio Mazzoni and a team provided lavish external and internal stucco-work.
The palace was briefly owned by the Mignanelli family, until in 1632, the palace was purchased by Cardinal Spada, who commissioned modifications fromFrancesco Borromini. TheBaroque architect Borromini who created a masterpiece offorced perspective optical illusion in the arcaded courtyard, in which diminishing rows of columns and a rising floor create the visual illusion of a gallery 37 meters long (it is 8 meters) with a life-size sculpture at the end of the vista, in daylight beyond: the sculpture is 60 cm high. Borromini was aided in his perspective trick by a mathematician.
TheManneriststucco sculptural decor of the palazzo's front and its courtyard façades feature sculptures crowded into niches and fruit and flower swags, grotesques and vignettes of symbolic devices (impresi) in bas-relief among the small framed windows of amezzanine, the richestCinquecento façades in Rome.
The colossal sculpture ofPompey the Great, erroneously believed to be the very one at whose feetJulius Caesar fell, was discovered under the party wall of two Roman houses in 1552: it was to be decapitated to satisfy the claims of both parties, which appalled Cardinal Capodiferro so, that he interceded on the sculpture's behalf withPope Julius III, who purchased it and then gave it to the Cardinal.
The palazzo hosts theGalleria Spada, the Cardinal Spada's collection, which includes four galleries of 16th and 17th-century paintings byAndrea del Sarto,Niccolò Tornioli,Guido Reni,Titian,Jan Brueghel the Elder,Guercino,Rubens,Dürer,Caravaggio,Domenichino,the Carracci,Salvator Rosa,Parmigianino,Francesco Solimena,Michelangelo Cerquozzi,Pietro Testa,Giambattista Gaulli, andOrazio andArtemisia Gentileschi, and has the additional interest of being hung in the 17th-century manner, frame-to-frame, with smaller pictures "skied" above larger ones.
Palazzo Spada was purchased by the Italian State in 1927 and today houses theItalian Council of State, which meets in its richly frescoed and stuccoed rooms.
Media related toPalazzo Spada at Wikimedia Commons
| Preceded by Palazzo Ruspoli, Rome | Landmarks of Rome Palazzo Spada | Succeeded by Palazzo Valentini |
