The Palazzo Corsini is a prominent late-

baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

palace in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, erected for the Corsini family between 1730 and 1740 as an elaboration of the prior building on the site, a 15th-century villa of the

Riario The House of Riario, sometimes referred to as Riario-Sforza is an Italian noble family from Savona, near Genoa. Closely associated with the Papal States, the family gained control over several ''signoria, signorie'' ("''lordships''"), such as Bolo ...

family, based on designs of

Ferdinando Fuga Ferdinando Fuga (11 November 1699 – 7 February 1782) was an Italian architect who was born in Florence, and is known for his work in Rome and Naples. Much of his early work was in Rome, notably, the Palazzo della Consulta (1732–7) at the Quiri ...

. It is located in the

Trastevere Trastevere () is the 13th ''rione'' of Rome: it is identified by the initials R. XIII and it is located within Municipio I. Its name comes from Latin ''trans Tiberim'', literally 'beyond the Tiber'. Its coat of arms depicts a golden head of a lio ...

section of the city, and stands beside the

Villa Farnesina The Villa Farnesina is a Renaissance suburban villa in the Via della Lungara, in the district of Trastevere in Rome, central Italy. Description The villa was built for Agostino Chigi, a rich Sienese banker and the treasurer of Pope Julius II. Be ...

Description

During 1659–1689, the former Riario palace had hosted the eccentric

Christina, Queen of Sweden Christina ( sv, Kristina, 18 December (New Style) 1626 – 19 April 1689), a member of the House of Vasa, was Queen of Sweden in her own right from 1632 until her abdication in 1654. She succeeded her father Gustavus Adolphus upon his death a ...

, who abdicated, converted, and moved to Rome. Under her patronage, this was the site for the first meetings of the Roman ''

Accademia dell'Arcadia The Accademia degli Arcadi or Accademia dell'Arcadia, "Academy of Arcadia" or "Academy of the Arcadians", was an Italian literary academy founded in Rome in 1690. The full Italian official name was Pontificia Accademia degli Arcadi. History F ...

''. In 1736, the Florentine

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...

Neri Maria Corsini Neri Maria Corsini (19 May 1685 – 6 December 1770) was an Italian nobleman and Catholic priest and cardinal. Life Born in Florence, Corsini was the second of the two sons of Filippo Corsini and Lucrezia Rinuccini. He traveled widely throug ...

, nephew of

Pope Clement XII Pope Clement XII ( la, Clemens XII; it, Clemente XII; 7 April 16526 February 1740), born Lorenzo Corsini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 12 July 1730 to his death in February 1740. Clement presided over the ...

(formerly Cardinal Lorenzo Corsini), acquired the villa and land, and commissioned the structure now standing. During the Napoleonic occupation of Rome, the palace hosted

Joseph Bonaparte it, Giuseppe-Napoleone Buonaparte es, José Napoleón Bonaparte , house = Bonaparte , father = Carlo Buonaparte , mother = Letizia Ramolino , birth_date = 7 January 1768 , birth_place = Corte, Corsica, Republic of ...

. Today, the palace hosts some offices of the ''National Academy of Science'' (

Accademia dei Lincei The Accademia dei Lincei (; literally the "Academy of the Lynx-Eyed", but anglicised as the Lincean Academy) is one of the oldest and most prestigious European scientific institutions, located at the Palazzo Corsini on the Via della Lungara in Rom ...

) and the ''Galleria Corsini''. The gardens, which rise up the Janiculum hill, are part of the

Orto Botanico dell'Università di Roma "La Sapienza" The Orto Botanico dell'Università di Roma "La Sapienza" (12 hectares), also known as the Orto Botanico di Roma, is a botanical garden operated by the Sapienza University of Rome and located at Largo Cristina di Svezia 24, Rome, Italy. It is open ...

, a

botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...

. This also, is not the sole Palazzo Corsini in Italy; there are a handful of palaces belonging to various lines of this Florentine family, which acquired and built this Roman palace, sometime referred to as ''Palazzo Corsini alla Lungara'' only upon the ascension of their family member to the papacy. Another Corsini palace of note include the ''

Palazzo Corsini al Parione The Palazzo Corsini is a monumental palace located on Via del Parione #11, with a facade towards the Arno River, in Florence, region of Tuscany, Italy. History The site had been appropriated from the Ardinghelli family prior to the 17th century ...

'', facing the banks of the Arno in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

Galleria Corsini

The ''Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica di Palazzo Corsini'' or ''National Gallery of Antique Art in the Corsini Palace'' is a prominent art museum comprising the first floor of the palace. The national ''Arte Antica'' collections (typically post-year 1000 A.D.) in Rome consist of a number of sites, including

Palazzo Barberini The Palazzo Barberini ( en, Barberini Palace) is a 17th-century palace in Rome, facing the Piazza Barberini in Rione Trevi. Today, it houses the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, the main national collection of older paintings in Rome. History T ...

Galleria Borghese The Galleria Borghese () is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana. At the outset, the gallery building was integrated with its gardens, but nowadays the Villa Borghese gardens are considered a separate tourist ...

, and the Palazzo Corsini. The majority of the major works in the ''Corsini Gallery'' collection were donated by the Corsini family, and initially were gathered by the avid 17th century collector, the cardinal Neri Maria Corsini, and added to by other members and from collections of

and his nephew. In 1883, this palace and its contents were sold to the state, and the collection is displayed in its original location. The collection encompasses the breadth of mainly Italian art from early-

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

to late-18th century. It has both religious and historical works, as well as landscapes and

genre paintings Genre painting (or petit genre), a form of genre art, depicts aspects of everyday life by portraying ordinary people engaged in common activities. One common definition of a genre scene is that it shows figures to whom no identity can be attached ...

Partial list of collection

Sources

Palazzo Corsini

Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei
hosted in the Palazzo Corsini and neighboring

.
Romecity entry

External links

Official webpage of Palazzo Corsini

Interactive Nolli Map Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Corsini, Palazzo Art museums and galleries in Rome Palaces in Rome National museums of Italy Houses completed in 1740 Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica Rome R. XIII Trastevere 1740 establishments in the Papal States