Odoardo Farnese (6 December 1573 – 21 February 1626) was an Italian nobleman, the second son of

Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma Alessandro is both a given name and a surname, the Italian form of the name Alexander. Notable people with the name include: People with the given name Alessandro * Alessandro Allori (1535–1607), Italian portrait painter * Alessandro Baric ...

and Maria of Portugal, known for his patronage of the arts. He became a

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

in 1591, and briefly acted as regent of the

Duchy of Parma The Duchy of Parma and Piacenza (, ) was an Italian state created in 1545 and located in northern Italy, in the current region of Emilia-Romagna. Originally a realm of the Farnese family after Pope Paul III made it a hereditary duchy for his s ...

and Piacenza for his nephew

Odoardo Odoardo is a given name. Notable people with the name include: *Odoardo Barri (1844–1920), the pseudonym of Edward Slater *Odoardo Beccari (1843–1920), Italian naturalist, discovered the titan arum in Sumatra in 1878 *Odoardo Borrani (1833–19 ...

from 1622 to 1626. Cardinal Odoardo is probably best known today for commissioning the Bolognese artist

Annibale Carracci Annibale Carracci ( , , ; November 3, 1560 – July 15, 1609) was an Italian painter and instructor, active in Bologna and later in Rome. Along with his brother Agostino Carracci, Agostino and cousin Ludovico Carracci, Ludovico (with whom the Ca ...

to fresco the Camerino in the

Palazzo Farnese Palazzo Farnese () or Farnese Palace is one of the most important High Renaissance palaces in Rome. Owned by the Italian Republic, it was given to the French government in 1936 for a period of 99 years, and currently serves as the French e ...

in Rome. Carracci undertook this from 1595 to 1597, just prior to starting his decoration of the more famous and elaborate Farnese Gallery in the same palace.

The Camerino

The Camerino was Farnese's private study. The subject of the central scene in the ceiling is '' The Choice of Hercules''. The scene is surrounded by a painted frame, an example of '' quadro riportato'', which gives the illusion of a framed oil painting hung on the ceiling when in reality both the scene and its frame were frescoed. This ''quadro riportato'' device was brought to fruition by Carracci in the Farnese Gallery a few years later.In addition, Farnese commissioned various oil paintings from Carracci, including his ''Rinaldo and Armida'' now in the

Capodimonte Museum Museo di Capodimonte is an art museum located in the Palace of Capodimonte, a grand Bourbon palazzo in Naples, Italy designed by Giovanni Antonio Medrano. The museum is the prime repository of Neapolitan painting and decorative art, with se ...

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

and ''

Christ in Glory with Saints and Odoardo Farnese ''Christ in Glory with Saints and Odoardo Farnese'' or Christ in Glory with Odoardo Farnese and Saints Peter, John the Evangelist, Mary Magdalene, Hermenegild and Edward'' is a painting by Annibale Carracci. Placed in the Camaldoli, Eremo di Ca ...

'' now in the Galleria Palatina in Florence. It was on Carracci's recommendation that he commissioned

Domenichino Domenico Zampieri (, ; October 21, 1581 – April 6, 1641), known by the diminutive Domenichino (, ) after his shortness, was an Italian Baroque painter of the Bolognese School of painters. Life Domenichino was born in Bologna, son of a shoe ...

to fresco the Chapel of St Nilo in the abbey at Grottaferrata. Farnese also commissioned Carracci's '' Sleeping Venus''. His patronage of architecture was less extensive but included the Casa Professa, the

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

house adjacent to the church of the Gesu in Rome, by the architect Girolamo Rainaldi.Robertson, ''ibid''

Ancestry

References

Bibliography

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Farnese, Odoardo 1573 births 1626 deaths

Clergy from Rome 17th-century Italian cardinals Cardinal-bishops of Frascati

16th-century Italian Roman Catholic priests Regents of Parma Italian art patrons Nobility from Rome Sons of dukes 17th-century regents Regents in the Holy Roman Empire

The Camerino

Ancestry

References

Bibliography

See also

External links