Giuseppe Bergamini PALAZZO ANTONINl-MANGILLl-DEL TORSO Lecture held October 18,, 1984, in Palazzo del Torso site of Centro Internazionale di Scienze Meccaniche. Published by Accademia di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti di Udine. Photographs by G. Bergamini, E. Ciol, with permission oflstituto per l'Enciclopedia del Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Banca del Friuli. GIUSEPPE BERGAMINI IL PALAZZO ANTONINI - MANGILLI - DEL TORSO A UDINE The history of the building which is commonly called Palazzo de! Torso, or Palazzo Mangilli - del Torso, and which it would be more correct to call Palazzo Antonini - Mangilli - del Torso, begins on February 22nd 1447, according to documents, when Erasmo degli Erasmi, "decretorum doctor", granted to master Giovanni the dyer, son of the late Stefano di Ferrara, "domos suas de Grezano muratas solleratas cuppisque copertas cum curia et orto pospositis sitos in burgo Grezano extrinseco, in contrada Della Bevorchia" (1). And so we discover that outside Grazzano gate (which was still in existence and quite visible at the end of the last century, at the beginning of the present via Cesare Battisti, at the corner of Palazzo Antivari-Kechler), opposite the open spaces which later became piazza dei Barnabiti (and which today, with some considerable modifications, is piazza Garibaldi) there were some houses of which two belonged to Erasmo and one to his brother Antonio. The latter house passed through inheritances into the hands of the family of Giovanni Ricamatore, who was born in that very house on 15 October 1487. It was a suitable place for dyers, since there was a small canal flowing through which caused many an argument over its use. This canal still flows through, though it is now covered. And in 1452, on December 17th, after frequent brawls over the use of the wash-house between Erasmo and a certain Andrea, son of Francesco Zani from Spilimbergo, to prevent "omnem scandalum et ranchorum existentem inter prefatos tinctores", it was decided that (1) A.S.U., N. Giovanni Lovaria, 5143, vacch. instr. 1447, ff. 42 v-45 r, now in: G.B. DELLA PORTA, Memoria su le antiche case di Udine, by V. MASUTTI, Udine 1984, p. 123. 1 Erasmo would be conceded "locus habilis et idoneus in quo construi et fieri facere possit unum lavadorium in quo possit lavare facere possos sue tinctorie" (2). For some time we have no other news of the Erasmi house: we only know that towards the end of the fifteenth century the son of Erasmo, Ambrogio, also lived in borgo Grazzano prope rugiam. We also know that on 16 March 1518 the Erasmi house was rented for 9 ducats a year (3) to Giovanni Fontana, the architect from Lombardy G.B. CECCHINI, Piazza dei Barnabiti di Udine (lithograph, 1843). living in Venice who had come to Udine to rebuild the castle which had been destroyed by the earthquake of 1511 and the fires which followed. The reconstruction work bi::>gan on 2nd April 1517, and was carried out according to the plans of Fontana himself. For some time (2) Annales, XXX, ff. 19Sv-196r, now in: G.B. DELLA PORTA, Memorie, p. 123. (3) V. JOPPI, Contributo quarto e ultimo al/a storia dell'arte in Friu/i, Venezia 1894, p. 125. 2 more than five hundred people were invo.ived in the work. At about the middle of the sixteenth century (but there is a shortage of documents on the subject) the Antonini family acquired the property. A stone inside says that the present building was begun in 1577 on the decision of the nobleman Andrea who was married to the noblewoman Felicita Hofer of Duino. It is also known that in the seventeenth century the house was inhabited by Alfonso, the celebrated warrior and poet (4) who is said to have published his first "Rime" under the pseudonym of Sereno. His brother Giacomo, who was no less famous as cavalry captain, The beautiful seventeenth century facade. ( 4) Alfonso died on April 16th 1657 and "fu sepolto in S. Francesco della Vigna de' Padri Minori Osservanti", G.G. CAPODAGU, Udine i/lustrata, Udine 1665 p. 80. 3 governor of Udine and brilliant orator, also lived there (5). The historian Capodagli states that Alfonso, "joined with other literary personages in 1606 and instituted the noble Academy of the Reckless; he made his own house a worthy meeting-place and so, to the universal consent of the Members of the Academy he was made the first P!"ince" (6). The Academy had its seat in Palazzo Antonini until 1653 (7): at that time, writes Gia. Francesco Palladio degli Olivi in 1660, "Camillo Gorgo, a singular lover of the virtuous, took it to his own (house) where he erected a noteworthy apartment and with generous prodigality assigned an annual income to maintain a member of the Academy in Padua, to study" (8). The house in borgo Grazzano was for many centuries the house of the Antonini family, who gradually enriched it with precious paintings, a rich collection of statues and Roman fragments from Aquileia. Among those who lived there was Giacomo's son Daniele who married the rich heiress Caterina Mantica, the sister of Carlo Mantica who in 1680 built Udine's first theatre, called "Teatro Mantica", on some land he owned near the Cathedral. In 1744 the Albini family also lived there. They were distant relatives of the owners: a great-grand daughter of Caterina's, Maria Antonietta Mantica, had married a certain Maffia Albini in 1732. The last discendent of this branch of the Antonini family was Caterina, another rich heiress. In 1733 she became the wife of the nobleman Francesco Papafava dei Carraresi, knight of St. Stephen. She wanted her descendents to add her surname to their own. She did not retain the ownership of the property but preferred to sell it to (5) There is a lively biography by his contemporary G.C. CAPODAGLI, in Udine illustrata p. 279-284. (6) G.C. CAPODAGLI, Udine i/lustrata, p. 67. (7) L. MILOCCO, L'Accademia udinese deg/i "Suentati" (sec. XVII-XVIII), Udine 1970, pp. 54-55 (taken from Un secolo di uita dell'Accademia di Scienze lettere e arti di Udine, by V. FAEL, Udine 1970). (8) G.F. PALLADIO de gli OLIVI, Historie della Prouincia de/ Friuli, parte seconda, Udine 1660, p. 241. About palazzo Gorgo, later Maniago, cf. · G. BERGAMINI. L. SERENI, Tra case e pa/azzi, in Raccontare Udine, Udine 1983, pp. 140-144. 4 the Mangilli family in 1746. The buyer was a certain Gio. Battista, a native of Bergamo who had come to Udine as a "young salesman". He later became a shopkeeper and was so rich that he left /a patrimony of two hundred ducats. Once he had taken up residence in the prestigious house opposite the newly built church, he spent the rest of his life, proud that his son Benedetto followed in his footsteps and showed himself to be an equally successful business­ man (9). The excellent social position of the Mangilli family is also proved by the many works of art which still embellish the house, and those recorded by various sources including pictures by Francesco Floreani and Sebastiano Bombelli (10). If it is true that the house was altered in the eighteenth century, we can attribute to the Mangilli family the initiative of extending this beautiful building where they would live until the beginning of this century. Probably the restoration and modifications were carried out at different stages: for example the careful subdivision of the rooms was planned by Andrea Scala in 1851 when the internal buildings overlooking the vegetable garden were destined to other uses. As late as 1837 they had a forge and a shop on the ground floor and a chapel with a painted vault on the first floor. (9) For the history of these characters, and the relative documents, cf. G.B. DELLA PORTA, Memorie, p. 124; V. DELLA FORZA, Famig/ie Friulane, B.C.U., ms. f. 19; E. DEL TORSO, Genea/ogie: Albini, Antonini (B.C.U., ms. D.T. 162/1); Mangilli, Mantica (B.C.U., ms. D.T. 162/VII). I feel it is my duty to point out that, especially as regards the events in the lives of the families who lived in the house, the substance - and often the form - of this text is taken from the essay 'Tra Case e Palazzi', in Raccontare Udine, pp. 109-110, by G. Bergamini and L. Sereni but the fruit mainly of L. Sereni's research. {10) G.B. CORGNALI, II pittore Gio. Battista de Rubeis e ii suo catalogo di pregevoli quadri udinesi, in "Udine. Rassegna trimestrale de! Comune" 6 {1938), p. 53 (un quadro esprimente l'Adultera avanti Cristo, opera bella di Francesco de Floreanni Udinese); G.D. CICONI, Udine e la sua provincia, seconda edizione rifusa ed ampliata, Udine 1862, p. 467 (un ritratto de/ Bombelli); G. BRAGA TO, Guida artistica di Udine e suo distretto, Udine 1913, pp. 67 (avvi solo la copia de/ pregiato ritratto di Benedetto Mangilli (1665) dipinto dal Bambelli. L'origina/e trovasi in possesso de/ sig. G. Urbani) e 68 (bei ritratti del/'Antonio/i, Lorenzo e Francesca Mangilli [ ... ] quadro rappresentante Madonna con Bambino[ ... ] opera di scuo/a veneta, sec. XVIII). 5 The slender central window. 6 The house had its moments of glory on lst March 1867 when Giuseppe Garibaldi came to Udine. Antonio Picco, journalist, painter, art critic but above all patriot, described the event: "the city was decorated for a holiday, the houses bedecked with flags, the streets full of local citizens and visitors; Garibaldi's men were toing and froing, wearing their red shirts; a corps of them were standing as guards of honour outside the Mangilli house, where General Garibaldi, who was coming to visit our city that day, was to stay.