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OIfN B TooHksE, AErYt EaSn dO PFe oTpHle E BEHOLDERS

n BY LUCY GORDAN

(“The INl eMwo nWdoor lNd”o)v bo y Giandomenico Tiepolo, from the Prado, Madrid. Below , bTyh eR eGmirlb irna na dt, Ffroramm te he Royal Castle Museum,

affeo Barberini (1568-1644) became Pope Urban the help of Borromini, Bernini took over. The exterior, in - VIII on August 6, 1623. During his reign he ex - spired by the Colosseum and similar in appearance to the Mpanded papal territory by force of arms and advan - Palazzo Farnese, which had been constructed between 1541 tageous politicking and reformed church missions. But he and c. 1580, was completed in 1633. is certainly best remembered as a prominent patron of the When Urban VIII died, his successor Pamphili Pope In - arts on a grand scale. nocent X (r. 1644-1655) confiscated the Palazzo Barberini, Barberini funded many sculptures from Bernini: the but returned it in 1653. From then on it continued to remain first in c. 1617 the “Boy with a Dragon” and later, when the property of the until 1949 when it was Pope, several portrait busts, but also numerous architectural bought by the Italian Government to become the art museum works including the building of the College of Propaganda it is today. But there was a problem: in 1934 the Barberinis Fide, the Fountain of the Triton in today’s Piazza Barberini, had rented a section of the building to the Army for its Offi - and the and the in St. Peter’s Basili - cers Club. The lease ran out in 1953, but the Officers would - baldacchino cathedra ca. n’t leave so the Government renewed the lease until 1965 Besides Bernini Barberini also patronized the painters hoping to give the Officers the necessary time to relocate Nicholas Poussin, Claude Lorrain and their club. Finally, after more years of Pietro da Cortona, who celebrated Urban tug-of-war, in 1997 a solution was found VIII’s papacy in his huge fresco and, after a decade or restoration, in 2006 “Allego - the , one ry of Divine Providence and Barberini (1633-9) on the ceiling of the of thGea mlleorsita i mNapzoirotannatl ep adi’nAtrinteg Acnotlilceactions Power” large salon in Palazzo Barberini. in Italy with works from the 13th to the For, when Barberini became Pope, 16th centuries, opened to the public. Its he wanted to build a magnificent home permanent collection includes Raphael’s for his family. So, when Cardinal portrait of his mistress Car - Alessandro Sforza met with financial avaggio’s La fornarina, hardships, in 1625 Barberini purchased and a HansJ Hudoiltbhe iBne phoeratrdaiint go fH Hoelonfreyr VneIIsI, Sforza’s villa and gardens, today at the of England, who is dressed for his wed - base of Via Veneto and near the Quirinal ding to Anne of Cleves, his fourth wife. Palace, but at that time on the outskirts of Thank goodness, after two months of the city. The architect Carlo Maderno, as - a second cultural lockdown the museums sisted by his nephew Borromini, in 1627 in Rome reopened on February 1. How - began expanding the Sforza’s villa. ever, sadly they’re accessible only to vis - When Maderno died in 1629, still with itors who are in Latium because not even

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inter-regional travel in Italy is yet Of the 25 on display, permitted much less international eight: Ottomar Elliger II’s tourism. Nonetheless, luckily for , BartolYoomuneog me, at Palazzo Barberini I recently LPasdsye riont ttih’se Window , Jusepe saw one of the most unusual tem - de Ribera’s Butcher Shop , porary exhibitions of paintings Simone VoueStt’.s Gregory the Great I’ve ever seen. Otherwise, unless ’s The For,t uGneio Tvealnlenri, there is a miraculous break - Lanfranco’s Salomé through in the next six weeks, on - , Jacopo VZeuncucsh i’Ps laying the ly other Italian-speakers will be Harp s, Pierre SBuabtlheyshraesb’as at the Bath able to enjoy this temporary exhi - Above, by Bartolomeo Passerotti. belong to the Palazzo Barberi - BeBlouwt,c her Shop by Hans Memling Nude bition by ordering its catalog from The Passion ni’s permanent collection. Several its publisher Campisano Editore of the others are on loan from the for 40 euros at National Gallery in London, the . campisano.edi - Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the tore@Hetirsec’sa lwi.iht at I saw. On at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, the Capo- Palazzo Barberini until April 5 is dimonte in Naples, the Uffizi in “ Florence, and the Galleria Sabauda L’ora della Spetttore. oCro me le in Turin. immagini ci Usano” “The “Outside of Europe, in the Hour of the Beholder: How Im - Unit ed States and in Australia, agesT Uhese b Urasi.n”s torm of masterful where there are other important curator , its 25 paintings with this same intent of paintingMs iacrhee dlei vDidi eMd oinnttoe six sections: “The Threshold,” making the observer a participant,” Del Monte told our ”The Passion of the Gaze,” “The Appeal,” “The Indiscreet,” small, tenfold social-distanced group of journalists at a press “The Accomplice,” and “The Voyeur”. preview, “but sadly the uncertainty of the pandemic made The aim of the exhibition, made clear in an entryway in - their loans impossible. It also has prevented the exhibition troductory section, “The Audience’s Expecta - from travelling elsewhere after April 5.” tion,” is for the visitor to participate in the In the first section, “The Threshold”, win - , metaphorically-speaking to enter its dows, curtains, and frames invite the viewer canvas, to be part of the action, not just an ob - to cross the separations between our real server. world and that of the painting. For example, This point is made clear immediately by ’s “The Girl in a Frame”, probably two antique mirrors at the entrance where the the exhibition’s most famous painting on loan visitor is both the observer and the observed from Warsaw, is not a formal portrait. She is and from its only painting, “Il Mondo Novo” gripping an inner frame, a kind of windowsill, (1765). On loan from the Prado in Madrid, it’s which is part of the painting. Thus, she seems by Giandomenico Tiepolo, the son of his much to be looking out and ready to talk to us more famous father Giambattista. Both artists through a window. are depicted in the painting, Giambattista in a Likewise, in the section “Appeal” in his red coat followed immediately behind by Gi - portrait by Sofonisba Anguissola the poet andomenico holding a kind of mon - Above, by . Giovanni Battista Caselli, from ocle. The painting is of a crowd PoBpoett oSmt. ,G regory the Grebay t Simon Vouet Cremona like the artist, is pointing Fortune Teller waiting its turn to look through a at a painting of the Madonna, baby kind of “magic lantern”, not visi - Jesus, and St. John the Baptist pre - ble in the painting, which is said to sumably to let us know he’s a reli - project imaginary scenes of exotic gious man and again the butchers unknown places. All but one per - in Passerotti’s also son has their backs to you the vis - seem to be demBauntcdhinegr Sohuor p atten - itor. Thus you too become part of tion to buy their meats. the crowd. Everyone here is wait - Instead, the only painting in the ing patiently to see a new inven - interim section, “The Passion of the tion just as we are today for the Gaze” is (1471) by vaccines to end the pandemic. Flemish HTahnes PMasesmioln ing for his Hence Del Monte’s choice of this wealthy sponsors Maria and Tom - painting! maso Portinari, head of the Floren -

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Of Books, Art and People tine Medici Bank’s branch in Bruges, Very horrific is Johan Liss’s each of whom is painted in the painting’s , now in thJeu dNita h - two lower corners. Meant for private de - tBioenhaela dGianlgle Hryo lionf eLronneds on. Of the many votion it’s a sort of or mirror, a depictions of this scene, one of Car - speculum kaleidoscope of the of Holy avaggio’s favorite subjects, Liss’s ver - Via Crucis Week from Jesus’s arrival in Jerusalem sion is unique. Judith has already be - on Palm Sunday in the upper left hand headed Holofernes whose head is on a corner to his crucifixion in the upper plate held by a servant, both barely vis - right. The eye has to go “on a journey ible in the nearly dark background. Ju - and follow in the footsteps of Christ dith with a horrified expression is along the tormented pathway of the 23 looking at us over her shoulder as she stations of his Passion,” relates its wall holds Holofernes’s corpse whose neck panel. in the foreground is spurting blood di - In the next section, “The Indiscreet rectly at us. Our presence was certainly ,” we become nosey-parkers. We peak over unexpected. A shock to Judith and to St. Gregory’s shoulder without his con - us! sent or realization as he writes and we do In the final section, “The Voyeur” in by Johan Liss, the same to the two young painters, who Judith Beheading Holofernes Van der Neer’s, “The Wife of King Can - seem to look out of the canvas annoyed from the National Gallery, London daule,” we are twice voyeurs: of the by our presence, in Van Oost’s . Another Libyan king’s naked wife, but also of his soldier hiding be - In Front of the Easel scene we should not be witnessing is Simon Vouet’s Car - hind the bed whom Candaule had invited to show off his avaggesque who with an accomplice is rob - wife’s beauty — in short to be a voyeur. Instead in Lavinia Fortune Teller bing her all too innocent unaware client. Fontana’s an intensely in love Mars is ad - In “The Accomplice,” the section with the most reli - miring theV beenauust ya nodf Mhiasr sbeloved Venus. He’s awaiting the gious paintings we are witnesses to many Biblical scenes: perfect moment; so is a voyeur. She, instead of looking by Guido Reni, ’s dreamingly into his eyes, is looking provocatively over her Salomé Christ and the Adul - , and Andrea Sacchi’s . shoulder at us, her other voyeurs. tress Drunken Noah m

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