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Garden Palace
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This palace was built as a summer private palace where the duke and his
noble guests could amuse themselves and
where they had their places to study,
rest and be in absolutely peace and quiet. A modest sized building, the garden
palace, is characterised by a white plastered facade in contrast with the
beautiful oak cornice. In 1588 the duke had the exterior painted with geometric
shapes in mock marble. The building, over two floors and elongated in shape,
was transformed from 1578 onwards and its magnificent decoration was finished
in about 1587. The task of overseeing the decoration was given to the famous
Cremonese painter Bernardino Campi and his team of
assistants in 1582. Despite the sober structure, inside there is a decorative
journey to be discovered, based on the vast literary culture of Vespasiano. |
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Room of Caesars On
the piano nobile
In
the first room, is decorated a peristyle with double columns painted on the
walls; between the columns there are mock statues of Caesars. On the far wall, Minerva, holding the winged
Victory in her hand, is flanked by two prisoners tied to pillars. On the window
side winged Fame holds a trumpet. The ceiling, decorated in the grotesque
style, is made of two crossed vaults connected to a barrel vault. In the
lunettes there are portraits of various emperors in profile. The two lunettes
at the base of the small connecting barrel vault show monochrome battle scenes
painted by Bernardino Campi.
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Room of Philemon and Baucis
On
the long walls there are frescoes of the Circo Massimo
and Circo Flaminio respectively according to the engravings of Antoine Lafrery.
On the short wall towards the square there is a painting of an urban landscape
which has some similarities with Scamozzi’s fixed scene in the theatre. On the other side a painted
arch frames a rustic landscape, probably viewed as an invitation to look out
over the garden. The ceiling is divided into panels by a rich stucco cornice
made by Giovan Francesco Bicesi, known as il Fornarino. In the central panel there is a painting of a
winged figure holding the ducal coat of arms, surrounded by lions and herons.
The fourteen lunettes represent the mythological tale of Philemon and Baucis,
taken from the VIII book of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, painted by Bernardino Campi.
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Room of myths
In
the pavilion vault, an elaborate cornice in stucco, modelled by Fornarino and
gilded by Martire Pesenti, there are oval shapes in which the myths of Daedalus and Icarus,
of Arachne and Minerva, Phaeton and Apollo and Marsyas are
represented. In the central panel, however, there is a myth which is rarely
painted: that of Saturn and Philyra. The frescoes were painted by Bernardino Campi.
In the frieze there are hollows with corbels interspaced by panels showing
typical Gonzaga exploits. In the sixteenth century there were busts of roman
emperors on the tables while in the long hollow above the window there was a
sleeping marble Cupid. The beautiful marble inlay which covers the lower part
of the walls, the flooring and the fireplace was removed at the end of the
eighteenth century and taken to Mantua to decorate some rooms in the Ducal Palace.
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Corridor of Orpheus
Painted
by a pupil of Carlo Urbino, the main assistant of Bernardino Campi,
the corridor depicts four episodes of the famous myth of Orpheus. The antique style
barrelled vault has stucco panels with beautiful rosebuds.
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Study or Chamber of Enea
This
is one of the most beautiful rooms in the palace as well as being the study of
the duke Vespasiano Gonzaga Colonna. On the walls episodes taken from the six books of the Aeneid are
depicted, painted in 1585 by the painter Carlo Urbino
from Crema and his assistants. The semicircular vault is divided up into
different compartments by an elaborate frame in stucco modelled by Fornarino
and gilded by Martire Pesenti. In the five octagons Bernardino Campi
painted cherubs bearing the attributes of some gods. In the smaller sections,
however, he painted frescoes of exotic animals, hybrid figures and birds. The
stucco oval shapes in the vault show the four cardinal Virtues (Justice,
Strength, Prudence, Temperance). At the base there are tiles with personifications of
rivers. In the lower part of the ceiling, there are three stucco and bas-relief
tiles with scenes of roman life, work of the Mantuan stucco painter Bartolomeo Conti.
Above the window the ducal coat-of arms, characterised by the imperial eagle
and the phrase “LIBERTAS” is that of the Gonzaga-Colonna family.
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Hall of Mirrors
The
largest room in the palace. Two Venetian mirrors were probably placed in the
blind arches on the short walls while, in the five ceiling panels there were
five painted canvases or tapestries. All traces of this decoration, taken out
in the eighteenth century, have been lost. The decorations alongside the wall
has been carry out by Bernardino Campi assistants. Between the windows there are four frescoed panels
depicting landscapes painted by a Flemish artist, who was working at the court
of Vespasiano Gonzaga Colonna in 1586. Above each window there are rectangular
stucco tiles showing scenes of roman life modelled by Bartolomeo Conti.
On the corbels there were busts.
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Chamber of the Graces
A
beautiful small room with walls entirely decorated in the grotesque style, with
the added luxury of a stucco ceiling which has intertwined plants framing the
head of the Gorgon placed in the middle. The elegant grotesque decoration and
the stuccos were done by Giovan Francesco Bicesi,
known as il Fornarino. This tiny room
was perhaps used as powder room for the ladies.
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