Archives of Ancient Art the Savoy Residences

ARCHIVES OF ANCIENT ART THE SAVOY RESIDENCES EDITED BY COSTANZA ROGGERO MARIO TURETTA ALBERTO VANELLI UMBERTO ALLEMANDI ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This book on the Savoy Residences in Piedmont is a new, updated edition of that published in 2009. It is a joint project in which the task of describing the peculiarities and riches of the great monumental complexes built by the Savoys to embellish the Baroque capital of Turin has been entrusted to the directors of cultural institutions and offices with their numerous associates, to specialists, experts, architects and art historians. In a kaleidoscopic view that from the centre of the Palazzo Reale extends to the city and the district, the authoritative and updated voices of those currently engaged in the steady development of studies and solicitous upgrading of the property follow one another in a continuous sequence of words and pictures. Our sincere and genuine thanks to the editors of the entries and all the authors for having believed in and worked closely together on a cultural project concerning the current architectural, artistic and cultural heritage of our region. We would like to offer our gratitude to the presidents, directors and executives of numerous public and private institutions and bodies, and the owners or managers of the museums concerned for facilitating the research and for their helpfulness: Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali e del Turismo; Consorzio delle Residenze Reali Sabaude; Segretariato Regionale del Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali del Turismo per il Piemonte; Polo Museale del Piemonte; Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per la Città Metropolitana di Torino; Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per le province di Alessandria, Asti, Cuneo; Regione Piemonte. Direzione Risorse Finanziarie e Patrimonio; Regione Piemonte. Direzione Promozione della Cultura, del Turismo e dello Sport: Settore Valorizzazione del Patrimonio Culturale, musei e siti Unesco; Regione Piemonte. Ente di gestione delle Aree Protette dei Parchi Reali; Centro Studi delle Residenze Reali Sabaude; Comune di Agliè; Comune di Bra; Comune di Garessio; Comune di Govone; Comune di Moncalieri; Comune di Nichelino; Comune di Racconigi; Comune di Rivoli; Comune di Torino; Comune di Venaria Reale; Archivio di Stato di Torino; Archivio Storico della Città di Torino; Arma dei Carabinieri; Armeria Reale, Torino; Biblioteca Reale, Torino; Castello di Agliè; Castello di Moncalieri; Castello di Racconigi; Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea; Fondazione Ordine Mauriziano; Fondazione Torino Musei; Museo dell’Ammobiliamento, Stupinigi; Museo di Antichità, Torino; Museo Nazionale del Risorgimento Italiano, Torino; Palazzo Madama Museo Civico d’Arte Antica, Torino; Palazzo Reale, Torino; Politecnico di Torino; Università degli Studi di Scienze Gastronomiche, Pollenzo. Special thanks to our friend and publisher Umberto Allemandi, who promoted and believed in such a complex work, now presented once again in a prestigious series, and to the editors and authors who found his conviction and enthusiasm a constant stimulus throughout the complicated course of constructing, discussing and implementing the project. Our most sincere thanks to the team that worked on the publishing of the book for their unwavering professionalism and commitment shown in the various moments of an at times difficult procedure. On behalf of the authors who worked on the book, particular thanks to Silvia Fiocco, Chiara Grella and Ilio Menicali who, with great calmness and expertise, managed the production of the work with dedication. COSTANZA ROGGERO, MARIO TURETTA and ALBERTO VANELLI When I had the good fortune to be invited to chair the Consorzio di Valorizzazione Cul- turale la Venaria Reale, I immediately realised how in its rooms one breathes the air of a transformation that had by then for some time been changing the face of this region. The economic crisis of the early 1990s had made it necessary to draw up new development hypotheses for Turin and Piedmont, and the growth in tourism had been immediately accepted as one of the roads to follow. This was because of the presence in the area of an artistic heritage left to us by a millennial history, but which still awaited upgrading policies commensurate with its importance. The Savoy Residences are one of the most precious gems of this heritage. The 2006 Winter Olympics may be read as an ideal diptych with the reopening of the Reggia di Venaria, a year later in 2007. Accomplished after a ten year restoration that, by now one may say without fear of seeming presumptuous, that it has established a model. The subsequent decade saw the assertion of the Reggia among the main centres of Italian cultural tourism. So it has become an example for other properties in Piedmont and the whole of Italy. It opened up to an increasingly large number of visitors, comprising citizens, school pupils, young people and tourists from all over the world. The guests follow an itinerary carefully aimed at balancing the historical-artistic story with the needs of the most modern communication. They admire art collections in rooms that until very recently appeared only in their architectural nudity. They find exhibitions often organ- ised in association with important museums, now the recurrent partners of a high profile exhibiting policy, which is also an opportunity for civic growth. It is essentially a space in which research, safeguarding and enhancement go hand in hand: different but harmonious parts of a single project. However, the Venaria is not alone. It was not so in the past, when it was part of what Castellamonte called the “Crown of Delights.” Nor it is today, when its success indicates a course that must now be followed together with ancient partners, finally reunited. Indeed, since 2017 the Consorziati have decided to modify the name and mission of the institution, giving rise to the Consorzio delle Residenze Reali Sabaude. The next decade will thus see a new, challenging mission: to build up the harmonious management of a complex that began as one but was then divided by historical events. To achieve this goal, the Consorzio delle Residenze Reali Sabaude has given the go-ahead for a series of works intended to present the attentive reader and inquisitive visitor with the historical reasons and the contemporary sense of this unitary heritage. For this reason it seemed important, before anything else, to take up this book again - whose first edition, more or less coinciding with the reopening of the Reggia, in the meantime had sold out - updating it as a result of new discoveries and new needs. My most sincere thanks to the editors, the authors of the introductory essays (members of the Centro Studi del Consorzio scientific committee) and the directors and executives of the residences who enthusiastically agreed to take part. The hope, which I know is shared by all, is that within ten years we shall be able to look back at the completed period with the same humble pride of today for the work done and the results achieved. PAOLA ZINI President of the Consorzio delle Residenze Reali Sabaude When Unesco recognised the Royal Residences of Piedmont as part of the World Herit- age in 1997, I was a member of parliament and I still remember the emotion and pride of being the political representative of an area that was finally appreciated by such a respected international institution. Turin was experiencing its first transformation and the Savoy Palaces were its highly prestigious “Crown of Delights,” with their majestic architecture, the history that permeated them and for having been for centuries places of art, leisure and power. In those years, discussions also began on integrating the city and the area of its first or second belt, relative to drawing mutual advantage from the heritage as a vector of economic development thanks to its tourist appeal and the increased cultural offering. Today, with the extraordinary result of a regional synergy before our eyes, now a model to be exported at a European level, we may say we have reached our objective. However, at the time it was a case of being somewhat visionary and “thinking big,” overcoming minor local obstacles and starting the procedure of becoming a significant part of that area of excellence that can be offered on the national and international market, which Piedmont now is. In 2009, several buildings went under major restoration and upgrading works, in particular, the Reggia di Venaria Reale, which opened two years before. At the time, the Umberto Allemandi publishing company produced a lavish book, perhaps one of the finest promoting the real value of the Savoy Residences, their precious artistic and architectural content, their wonderful gardens as components of an integrated cultural system. So it is with great pleasure that, in the year of the twentieth anniversary of the Unesco recognition of the Residences and the decade of the reopening of the Venaria Reale, we greet this new multilingual edition, which provides an updated work with the latest changes. Eventually, it will contribute to more clearly positioning the circuit of the Piedmont Residences in the panorama of obligatory visits for every tourist aware of being such. SERGIO CHIAMPARINO President of the Regione Piemonte The listing of the Savoy Residences as World Heritage, whose twentieth anniversary is celebrated this year, was a crucial event for Turin and the Piedmont region. Along with the recognition of the high historic and artistic value of the properties, the occasion helped raise awareness and create a climate of attention and favour towards the investments made for carrying out major restoration works among the public administrations and also the world of private enterprise. We may say that it was a decisive stimulus to taking on substantial commitments that, as was the case with the Reggia di Venaria, allowed the doors of the historic and architectural jewels of Piedmont’s main city and throughout the region to be opened to visitors after many, many years.

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