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CHAPTER 2 The Italian Years PELLEGRINO NAZZARO onstantino Brumidi Stauro (or Croce in Ital- was one of over ian), was born in Greece in C45,000 Italians who 1752 and settled in Rome had emigrated to the in 1781. His mother, Anna United States by 1870.1 He Maria Bianchini, was born was one of those forced, by in Rome. On March 14, the revolutionary events of 1798, Stauro and Anna 1848–1849 throughout the Maria had been married in peninsula and the repres- the Church of SS. Quirico sive measures that fol- and Giulitta. Their son was lowed, to seek political asy- baptized “Costantino lum abroad. On September Domenico” in the same 18, 1852, he arrived in church, which was adjacent New York City, probably to the large coffee shop on traveling from Civitavec- the Via Tor de’ Conti that chia via Marseille. the family owned and oper- For Brumidi, expatria- ated (fig. 2–2).2 Fig. 2–2. Corner where Brumidi lived. The Brumidi family cof- tion ended a promising fee shop in Rome was on the site of the present Hotel Forum, next door At the age of thirteen, artistic career in Rome, the to the church where Brumidi was baptized and married, and over- having already begun his Eternal City of aspiring looking the Forum of Augustus. study of art, Brumidi was artists and intellectuals (fig. Photo: Wolanin. accepted at the most pres- 2–1). Political events played tigious art school in an important role in his decision to leave Rome for the Rome, the Accademia di San Luca, founded in the fif- United States and would deeply influence his personal life teenth century as a college and association of painters.3 At and artistic career. the academy Brumidi studied painting under Vincenzo Constantino Brumidi was born in Rome on July 26, Camuccini, an artist esteemed by popes and by other 1805, of a Greek father and an Italian mother. His father, artists and intellectuals. He also worked under Filippo Agricola, who was acclaimed for his interest and expertise in historical and religious subjects. Brumidi’s teachers in Fig. 2–1. The culmination of Brumidi’s career in Rome. The sculpture were Antonio Canova, the nineteenth century’s ceiling murals in the Church of the Madonna dell’Archetto, so well most refined neoclassical sculptor, and the Danish Bertel integrated with the neoclassical architecture, show Brumidi well Thorwaldsen, Canova’s most faithful disciple and master prepared for his later work at the Capitol. of the classical revival in Italy. Brumidi was registered as a Photo: Vasari Studio Fotografico. Courtesy of Henry Hope Reed. professional painter.4 15 On June 30, 1832, at the age of twenty-seven, Brumidi Brumidi and the Vatican married Maria Covaluzzi, a widow eight years his senior. They had a daughter, Maria Elena Assunta Fortunata. Brumidi’s first known opportunity to work in the Vatican Tragedy struck early in their marriage. In a span of ten came in 1840, when he was thirty-five. Under the super- months, between August 1837 and June 1838, Brumidi’s vision of Vincenzo Camuccini and Filippo Agricola, a wife and mother both died. He remarried on October 17, group of talented young artists, including Brumidi, was 1838. His new bride, Anna Rovelli, was sixteen; he was commissioned to restore the frescoes in the Third Loggia thirty-three. Their son, Giuseppe Antonio Raffaello, was of the Vatican Palace, decorated in the second half of the born on January 19, 1842.5 When he left Rome in 1852, sixteenth century during the pontificates of Pius IV and Constantino Brumidi left behind his wife Anna and two Gregory XIII by Girolamo Nanni, Giorgio Bellunese, and children, then twenty and ten years old. Girolamo Amalteo. Although the Third Loggia (called Fig. 2–3. Senectus Mala. Brumidi left his mark in the Vatican Palace in this fresco, created as part of a restoration project. Third Loggia, Vatican Palace. Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Pellegrino Nazzaro. Fig. 2–4 Senectus Bona. Brumidi’s panels contrast wicked and virtuous old age, with the beasts representing vices. Third Loggia, Vatican Palace. Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Pellegrino Nazzaro. 16 THE ITALIAN YEARS the Loggia della Cosmografia) did not have the artistic Camuccini and Agricola assigned to Brumidi and to merit of Raphael’s Loggia, it was richly decorated. The Domenico Tojetti the restoration of the eleventh bay of walls were covered with frescoes reproducing maps; the the vault. The work consisted of redoing the three vaults, with depictions of religious and allegorical sub- major frescoes in the vault. The painting in the first jects. Over the years the vaults and walls had deteriorated panel, entitled Senectus Mala, represented wicked old from neglect, and by the 1830s they required immediate age, symbolized by an old man surrounded by wild fe- restoration to preserve the paintings from total disinte- lines, allegories of the human vices of incontinence, gration. The restoration of the loggia was carried out malice, and bestiality (fig. 2–3). The second lunette, en- during the pontificate of Gregory XVI (1831–1846), titled Senectus Bona, represented good old age as an old who was interested in the preservation and development man surrounded by dead beasts, signifying the triumph of the arts. of honesty and integrity over the vices (fig. 2–4). In the central panel the artists added a fresco that depicted the coat of arms of Pope Gregory XVI, consisting of a ring adorned with diamonds with three in- tertwined feathers that encir- cled the Latin word semper (al- ways). Brumidi and Tojetti were also assigned the task of dec- orating the end wall of the loggia, which was dedicated to Gregory XVI to memorial- ize his interest in the restora- tion. The two artists painted a richly ornate trompe-l’oeil drapery with golden brocade (fig. 2–5). The restoration, completed in March 1842, received high praise from artists, critics, and experts. The total cost of the project was over 10,000 gold scudi, of which Brumidi was paid 200 scudi.6 Fig. 2–5. Wall of the Third Log- gia. Brumidi and Tojetti frescoed the end wall with a dedica- tion and illusionistic curtains to set off the bronze bust of Gregory XVI. Vatican Palace. Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Pellegrino Nazzaro. 17 Brumidi and the Palazzo Torlonia The Palazzo Torlonia, located on the Piazza Venezia in one of the most prestigious sections of Rome, near the present monument to Victor Emmanuel II, was built by the architect Carlo Fontana in 1650 and purchased at the end of 1700 by Giovanni Raimondo Torlonia, Duke of Bracciano, a banker who had newly acquired his title. The palace was described by historians and art critics as one of the most beautiful buildings of eighteenth-century Rome. Its Baroque architecture symbolized Roman wealth and aristocracy. In 1856, August J. C. Hare, an American art critic, described it as follows: “Giovanni Torlonia, the Roman banker who purchased the title and estate of the Duke of Bracciano, fitted up the Palazzo Nuovo di Tor- lonia with all the magnificence that wealth commands: a marble gallery with polished floor, modern statues, Fig. 2–6. Torlonia coat of arms in the Palazzo Torlonia, Rome. Brumidi painted Alessandro Torlonia’s family coat of arms Fig. 2–7. Chapel in the Palazzo Torlonia, Rome. Brumidi’s combined with that of his wife, a member of the prominent Colonna frescoes glorifying the Torlonia family in the elaborate Gothic-style family, to symbolize their 1840 marriage. The surrounding cherubs chapel in the Palazzo Torlonia are known only from this photo- are cousins to those Brumidi painted in the Capitol. Destroyed. graph. Destroyed. Photo: Courtesy of Marco Fabio Apolloni. Photo: Alinari/Art Resource, NY. 18 THE ITALIAN YEARS Fig. 2–8. Murals in the theater of the Villa Torlonia. The scene showing the Judgment of Paris by Brumidi was surrounded by illusionistic architecture. ute to the skill and competence of the artist to underscore Photo: Courtesy Alberta Campitelli, Comune di Roma. the recognition that Brumidi was far ahead of his peers in the art of painting and the technique of fresco: “The col- ors and the harmony of the entire decoration are such painted ceilings and gilded furniture. All outshines the that Brumidi’s name will be accepted from now on faded splendor of the halls of the Old Roman Nobility.”7 among the greatest artists of all times.”11 The decorative Torlonia’s son, Alessandro, who became a prince and the work carried out in the palace by Caretti, Brumidi, and richest man in Rome, continued the decoration of the other artists covered 4,793.35 palmi (some 2,790 square palace (fig. 2–6). Unfortunately, it was demolished in feet) overall, and the total cost of the project amounted 1900–1901.8 to 11,373 scudi and 45 baiocchi. An 1844 appraisal in In the Palazzo Torlonia, Brumidi executed the first miscellaneous records of the Biblioteca Sarti in Rome major frescoes and murals of his artistic career. Recently containing a detailed description of the entire surface uncovered evidence shows that he first worked there in frescoed by Brumidi estimated that his work covered 1836, decorating the vaults of the second-floor throne some 900 square feet. The document makes no mention room with allegorical figures that symbolized the triumph of the payment Brumidi received for his work.12 of the Emperor Constantine.9 From 1840 to 1842, under There is reason to believe that Brumidi’s success in exe- the supervision of the architect and painter Giovan Bat- cuting this grand project reinforced his confidence in his tista Caretti, Brumidi painted decorations in several ability to handle frescoes of large proportions.

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