Rome, the history of Cardinal Neri Maria Corsini on display at the Corsini Gallery

From December 15, 2022 to April 10, 2023, the National Galleries of Ancient Art in Rome will host the exhibition Le stanze del Cardinale. Neri Maria Corsini protagonist of eighteenth-century Rome, curated by Alessandro Cosma, an exhibition dedicated to one of the main figures of eighteenth-century Roman cultural life, Cardinal Neri Maria Corsini (Florence, 1685 - Rome, 1770), just over 250 years after his death.

Hailing from an ancient Florentine family, Neri Maria Corsini, after frequenting the European courts of France, the Netherlands, Britain and Germany, moved to Rome in 1726, to his uncle Cardinal Lorenzo Corsini, who in 1730 was elected pope with the name Clement XII (1730-1740). In the same year, having in turn taken the cardinal’s purple, Neri Maria gradually became the key figure in the pope’s political and cultural action, partly because of Clement XII’s failing health, as Secretary of the Holy Office, Protector of the Kingdom of Ireland first and then of the Crown of Portugal. Actively engaged in diplomatic relations for the papal court, where he put to good use the relationships he built in Europe, his influence gradually extended to almost all aspects of government, including those more closely related to patronage: in fact, he participated in the great building ventures of those years, both in Rome, from San Giovanni in Laterano to the Trevi Fountain, and in the territories of the Church, where he favored Tuscan architects such as Ferdinando Fuga and Alessandro Galilei and young Romans such as Nicola Salvi and Luigi Vanvitelli.

Corsini also became a major architect of public protection and enhancement of heritage, as in the case of theacquisition of the Albani collection and theopening of the Capitoline Museums to the public in 1734, flanked by the monumental and innovative publishing enterprise Del Museo Capitolino (1741-1782), conceived and desired by Neri Maria Corsini and edited by his adviser and librarian Giovanni Gaetano Bottari to illustrate the collections of the new museum, in the wake of what had already been done in Florence with the Museum Florentinum (1731-1766). Another memorable feat of his was the acquisition of the huge collection of the historic De Rossi Printworks, “stolen” by the pope in 1738 from English merchants and the starting point of the Calcografia della Reverenda Camera Apostolica.

The “public” dimension of the role of the arts reverberates in what is perhaps Cardinal Neri Maria’s most personal achievement: Palazzo Corsini alla Lungara, formerly Palazzo Riario, purchased by him in 1736 and transformed over a period of fifteen years into a sort of European “palace” thanks to architect Ferdinando Fuga. Inside the palace found its place the extraordinary collection of paintings and sculptures, enriched and set up by Neri Maria in his own private rooms on the piano nobile, and the extremely rich family library (over 60,000 volumes) that the cardinal wanted to open to the public as early as 1754. The rooms of the Corsini Gallery still house part of the family’s collection arranged precisely according to the 1771 inventory drawn up upon his death.

The exhibition presents in each of the Gallery’s rooms an aspect of Cardinal ’s life and actions through “signifying objects,” capable of evoking and bearing witness to the different aspects:The Cardinal’s Rooms, or the renewed narrative of his private apartments; The Marquis Neri Maria Corsini; Poetry and leisure in the garden; The library and the collections of prints and drawings; “Trattandosi di illustrar la patria”: the preservation of the patrimony; The Rome of Clement XII; Art, gifts and diplomacy; The Anticamera delle Canonizzazioni; Palazzo Corsini. A European Palace.

More than 60 works including paintings, sculptures, drawings, engravings, volumes, letters and archival documents from his collection, diplomatic gifts made and received by the cardinal and Ferdinando Fuga’s original plans for the construction of the Palazzo alla Lungara, the original 18th-century inventories on which the Gallery’s layout is based, will be on display. The exhibition is also an opportunity to offer the public a “renewed” display of Neri Maria’s rooms that more faithfully respects the original choices of taste made by the cardinal, recovering and exhibiting 19 works that for decades have not been visible to the public because they were destined to furnish diplomatic or institutional venues such as the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, the C.N.E.L, the Court of Auditors, the Borghese Gallery, the I.N.P.S., the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the VIVE I Vittoriano Museum and Palazzo Venezia, the Prefecture of Rome, the Presidency of the Republic, and the Senate of the Republic. In particular, works of great importance such as Luca Giordano’s Tribute of the Coin ; Domenico Tintoretto’s Portrait of Giovanni I Corner ; the Lucrezia attributed to Guercino; Panini’s two large Views of Rome , Carlo Maratta’s Madonna and Child with Angels (restored for the occasion) or Domenico Maria Muratori’s Miracle of St. Francis de’ Regis will return “home.” The recovery of works belonging to the collection of the National Galleries of Ancient Art for this exhibition once again demonstrates the importance of collaboration between institutions in the enhancement of heritage and the reconstruction of history. This new layout, with more than 70 paintings relocated, aims to reconstruct more accurately the main rooms of the cardinal’s apartment, such as the so-called Galleria Nobile, the Camera del Camino or the Alcove, and to re-propose for the first time the Anticamera delle Canonizzazioni, that is, the room dedicated by Neri Maria Corsini to the works celebrating the 1737 canonization of which he was the protagonist.

Completing the exhibition are some prestigious loans of works that have left the palace over the centuries, such as the extraordinary Portrait of Neri Maria executed in Paris by Hyacinte Rigaud on loan from the Corsini Collection in Florence; the large canvases by Paoli Anesi: View of the Harbour with Villa Corsini and Villa Albani and View of Villa Costaguti and Villa Pamphilj between Anzio and Nettuno, commissioned by the cardinal, returning for the first time to Via della Lungara from a private English collection; The Vision of the Three Crosses of Blessed Caterina de’ Ricci, a bronze by Massimiliano Soldani Benzi from the Art Collection of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze and restored for theoccasion; the Sibyl, a mosaic by Mattia Moretti arriving from the Uffizi Galleries, Palazzo Pitti, Florence; Giovanni Gaetano Bottari’s Portrait of Giovanni Domenico Campigli; Anton David’s Portrait of Cardinal Neri Maria Corsini ; and prints, volumes and drawings from his library, such as Gian Lorenzo Bernini ’s Figure of a Man Leaning Backwards or Fra’ Bartolomeo’s Madonna and Saints .. Other important loans include those received from the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, the Corsini Family Archives in San Casciano in Val di Pesa, the Istituto Centrale per la Grafica and the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in Rome.

In the context of the exhibition, a volume dedicated to Neri Maria Corsini edited by Alessandro Cosma and Ebe Antetomaso is scheduled to be published during 2023.

“To tell the story of Neri Maria Corsini and her Gallery,” says Flaminia Gennari Santori, director of the museum, “is to tell the story of the art of that era, reviving the splendor of an admired and sought-after collection that has remained virtually unchanged since the 18th century. The Corsini Gallery is in fact an absolute rarity in Rome and in Italy, the flagship of the National Galleries of Ancient Art.”

Several educational activities are also planned: from Dec. 17, 2022 to April 1, 2023, every Saturday at 4 p.m. (excluding Saturday, Dec. 24 and Saturday, Dec. 31, 2022), scheduledYoung Travelers in the Gallery educational workshops by the association SipArte!, dedicated to girls and boys aged 6 to 12. Young travelers are welcomed by the host who opens the doors of his collection to them. The children are guided on a journey through the cardinal’s rooms to learn about some of the most interesting artistic practices related to the Grand Tour phenomenon. During the workshop, participants will make a personalized passport that tells through drawings and stamps their past and present travel experiences. Duration: about 75 minutes. Groups max. 10 participants. Activity by reservation at didattica@siparte.net. Meet in front of the ticket office.

Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., last admission at 6 p.m. The National Galleries of Ancient Art ticket is valid for 20 days from the time it is stamped for one admission to each of the Museum’s venues: Palazzo Barberini and Galleria Corsini. On the occasion of the exhibition Pier Paolo Pasolini - Everything is Holy. The Seer Body, hosted in the Palazzo Barberini exhibition space, the pricing will undergo the following changesfrom October 28, 2022 to February 12, 2023: Museum only: Full 12 € - Reduced 2 € (18-25 year olds); Exhibition only (exhibition space): Full 8 € - Reduced 2 € (18 to 25 year olds). Reduced Pasolini for MAXXI, Palaexpo, Metrebus card and endorsed Atac ticket holders: 6 €. Exhibition and museum: Full 15€ - Reduced 4€ (18 to 25 year olds), Reduced Pasolini for MAXXI, Palaexpo, Metrebus card and Atac ticket holders endorsed 12€.

From February 13 to April 10, 2023: Full 12 € - Reduced 2 € (18 to 25 year olds). The ticket is valid for 20 days from the time it is stamped for one access to each of the Museum’s venues: Palazzo Barberini and Galleria Corsini. Free: under 18 years of age, schoolchildren and accompanying teachers from the European Union (with prior reservation), students and teachers of Architecture, Humanities (archaeological or historical-artistic address), Conservation of Cultural Heritage and Educational Sciences, Academies of Fine Arts, employees of the Ministry of Culture, ICOM members, tourist guides and interpreters on duty, journalists with order card, disabled persons with accompanying person, school teaching staff, tenured or with fixed-term contract, upon presentation of appropriate attestation on the model prepared by Miur. For info: https://www.barberinicorsini.org/

Image: the alcove of Palazzo Corsini with part of the exhibition. Photo by Alberto Novelli

Rome, the history of Cardinal Neri Maria Corsini on display at the Corsini Gallery

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