Glory, War, and Peace in the Napoleonic Rooms
The decorations within the Napoleonic Rooms symbolize the successes of the Emperor Bonaparte
The Music Room
The Piffetti Library leads to the Music Room, thus named from the mid-1900s, probably following the installation of a valuable 18th-century pedal fortepiano, of English construction.
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Together with the Music Room, these rooms are the first of those that most preserve the impact of the measures undertaken during the French occupation of the palace.
The room, assigned as the Emperor Napoleon's Grand Study, was dedicated to the figure of Julius Caesar, explicitly associated with the image of the new French conqueror.
View of the Garden from the Music RoomQuirinale Palace
A breath-taking view
The windows enabled the Emperor to enjoy a spectacular panorama.
And a splendid view can still be enjoyed from this room today.
It has been made very bright by the presence of six windows characterized by gilt splays created when Queen Margherita had her salon set up here.
Caesar Dictates His Commentaries (1812) by Pelagio PelagiQuirinale Palace
The tribute to Napoleon on the vaulted ceiling
In the middle of the vaulted ceiling, Pelagio Palagi's large painting on canvas depicts Julius Caesar as he is dictating his Commentaries to some scribes.
The episode is described within Plutarch's biography, and is updated by Palagi, depicting the Roman leader with Napoleon's likeness.
View of the vault with "Caesar Dictates His Commentaries" in the center (1812) by Felice Giani e Pelagio PelagiQuirinale Palace
Decoration of the vaulted ceiling was assigned to Felice Giani, an artist who enthusiastically supported the revolutionary ideology and expansion of the Napoleonic empire.
Giani often worked on French commissions, and decorated many of the rooms within the Quirinal Palace allocated for the Emperor's apartments.
Winged Victories - Detail of the decoration of the vault (1812) by Felice GianiQuirinale Palace
On the vaulted ceiling, Felice Giani placed groups of Winged Victories, created using a suggestive mock mosaic technique, within a refined harmony of gradated shades of white and gold.
The Winged Victories alternate with six medallions depicting the Guardian Deities of the Roman Empire, the pagan divinities that protected Rome. These are contained within tondos with a blue background—more precisely, the characteristic Wedgwood blue that Giani used frequently during this period. They depict Jupiter, Neptune, Cybele, Mars, Minerva and Hercules.
The Hall of Peace
The Music Room leads to the Hall of Peace, which retains the name and decoration dating from the period of the French occupation, when, together with the adjoining rooms, it formed a portion of the apartments created for Napoleon. This room was dedicated to the theme of peace.
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The room is equipped with furniture in the Empire style, with six original chairs of Tuscan manufacture that can be dated to around 1825.
Positioned on the walls are six 19th-century views in tempera, within which scenes of Pompei, Castellammare di Stabia and Palermo, and three different views of the city of Naples, can be seen.
View of the ceiling of the Hall of Peace (1812) by Felice GianiQuirinale Palace
A ceiling dedicated to peace
In 1812, Felice Giani painted a lively scene of pagan sacrifice at two altars in the middle of the ceiling: one dedicated to peace, and the other dedicated to Janus.
As well as being a divinity linked to the theme of peace, Janus was reminiscent of the painter's surname.
The iconographic program of the room extolled peace as a necessary condition for the development of the arts and culture. To this end, Giani also painted four personifications of the arts within coffers on the ceiling.
In 1903, these paintings were replaced by the mirrors that are seen today.
Detail of the stucco frieze in the Hall of Peace (1812) by Alessandro d'EsteQuirinale Palace
The theme of peace as a condition for enabling the arts to flourish is also found within the frieze created in 1812, by Alessandro d'Este, a favorite pupil of the great neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova.
Canova did not produce any work for the Quirinal Palace, but he participated in working out the iconographic program for rooms within the Napoleonic palace.
The sculptor Alessandro d’Este imagined 26 elegant Winged Fames in graceful dancing poses, which are placing laurel crowns upon 22 portraits of painters, writers, sculptors, architects, and musicians, each contained within a circular medallion. The artists depicted are all Italian and French, with the sole exception of the Austrian composer Joseph Haydn, included within the frieze because he was particularly appreciated by Napoleon. Among the others, Michelangelo, Brunelleschi, Leonardo da Vinci, and Poussin can be found.
The inscriptions with the names of the artists and the coloring of the frieze are visible today thanks to the 2013 restoration that brought them to light. In fact, the stuccoes were originally a white marble color: the delicate gilt coloring that emerged with the restoration probably dates from the end of the 1800s, when the room formed part of Queen Margherita's apartments, or from the beginning of the 1900s, when the rooms within this wing of the palace were assigned for stays by guests of the king.
The Hall of Victory
The adjoining room, the Hall of Victory, has always formed a part of the rooms arranged for Napoleon from 1812, and is dedicated to subjects celebrating war and victory.
View of the ceiling in the Hal of Victory (1812)Quirinale Palace
The decoration of the wooden coffered ceiling is consistent with the theme of the room.
In the center, the frenzied battle scene is rich with references to classical art, and was painted in 1812, by Felice Giani, who was also the creator of the vaulted ceilings within the neighboring rooms.
Detail of the frieze in the Hal of Victory (1812) by Giuseppe Pacetti e Pietro TrefogliQuirinale Palace
The Twelve Caesars
Also linked to the theme of war is the plaster frieze moulded in 1812, by Giuseppe Pacetti and Pietro Trefogli.
Medallions contain the Twelve Caesars, i.e., the first Roman emperors from Julius Caesar to Domitian, arranged between pairs of Winged Victories and trophies of arms.
Originally, the portraits bore the names of the emperors, which were probably removed when Pius VII regained possession of the Quirinal Palace after the Napoleonic occupation had ended.
The 2013 restoration did not enable the names of the caesars to be restored, but it did bring to light the original surface of the frieze, which simulates marble and provides a veil of shadow at each base that highlights the parts in relief.
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Arranged on the walls and over the doors are six paintings from the late 1700s, which portray several women from the court of Maria Carolina of Habsburg, wife of Ferdinand IV, king of Naples.
The paintings previously decorated the Villa della Favorita in Naples, and are the work of various artists, one of whom is acknowledged to be the portrait painter Johann Friedrich August Tischbein.
Cartonnier (1750) by French manifactureQuirinale Palace
The furniture
Kept in the room are two very valuable pieces of French furniture from the 1700s.
The Cartonnier cupboard dates from the middle of the century, and is an original furnishing.
In place of the traditional drawers, it has leather-covered boxes that can be taken out, used for storing personal documents.
Secrétaire (1783) by Martin CarlinQuirinale Palace
Meanwhile, the exquisite Secrétaire cabinet can be dated to around 1783, and was designed by the German Martin Carlin, one of the greatest cabinet-makers of the time in Paris.
The upper part of the piece of furniture is embellished with elegant applications in bronze and refined Sèvres porcelain plates, painted with baskets of flowers.
The Astronomical Clock, consisting of an alabaster-covered column, is also located within the Hall of Victory. This unique 19th-century clock shows the astronomical phases: the casing is also equipped with a complex mechanism that indicates the day, the month, the year, the signs of the zodiac, and the positions of the Moon and the Earth with regard to the Sun.
The Ladies Hall
Continuing from the Hall of Victory through the rooms arranged for Napoleon within the north wing of the palace, the adjoining Ladies Hall can be found.
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This room also largely retains its 1812 arrangement, when it was used as Napoleon's salon.
The decorative scheme followed a precise iconographic program aimed at glorifying the undertakings of the emperor, comparing them to the deeds of the valiant leaders of old.
Allegory of Strenght - Detail of the ceiling decoration in the Hall of the LadiesQuirinale Palace
As with the previous rooms, decoration of the vaulted ceiling was also assigned to Felice Giani in 1812. Giani's conception was to divide it into octagonal panels, with allegorical representations of Virtues alternating with Winged Victories.
A large canvas by Paul Duqueylar dedicated to the Emperor Trajan was positioned in the middle of the vaulted ceiling.
The decoration in the center of the vault with the papal coat of armsQuirinale Palace
The Duqueylar canvas was subsequently removed, revealing the 17th-century fresco that is visible today, which displays the coat of arms of Pope Urban VIII Barberini.
It was painted during the third or fourth decade of the 1600s, probably by Simone Lagi or Marco Tullio Montagna.
Triumph of Alexander the Great - Detail of the frieze (1812) by Bertel ThorvaldsenQuirinale Palace
The Triumph of Alexander the Great
The extraordinary stucco frieze by the Dane Bertel Thorvaldsen, one of the greatest artists of neoclassicism, extends out under the vaulted ceiling, illustrating the Triumph of Alexander the Great with his entry into Babylon.
Triumph of Alexander the Great - Detail of the frieze in the Hall of the Ladies (1812) by Bertel ThorvaldsenQuirinale Palace
Created in 1812, the work garnered great success, not only for its technical and stylistic perfection, but also for its implicit political content, which expressed a desire for a triumphal welcome for Napoleon in Rome like the one provided in ancient times to Alexander the Great by the Babylonians.
Consolle (1773) by Antonio LanducciQuirinale Palace
The furnishings within the room are characterized by the presence of two valuable wall tables, constructed for the Borghese Palace in 1773, by the Roman-School cabinet-maker Antonio Landucci, and within which gilt carvings with figures of the dragon and the eagle, symbols of the Borghese family, stand out.
Fireplace with four Doric columns, between which two Dacian slaves are placed (1812) by Carlo AlbaciniQuirinale Palace
The fine fireplace created in 1812, by the sculptor Carlo Albacini, also dates back to the French period.
The structure is characterized by the original inclusion of four doric columns, among which two Dacian slaves were arranged, an interpretation on a reduced scale of prisoners of the Trajan period, and which forms part of the Farnese Collection.
Mosaic Floor in the Hall of the LadiesQuirinale Palace
The floor mosaic
Carlo Albacini was also in charge of the design and installation of the marble flooring in the room, which included a representation of the Rape of Ganymede in the center, kept today within the Vatican Museums, with Pope Gregory XVI having it replaced with the current mosaic.
The current mosaic panel comes from a Roman-period villa, and is dedicated to Ceres, the goddess of fertility of the fields.
The current name of the room is due to the presence on the walls of four large paintings on canvas in a circular format, created around the middle of the XVIIIth century. They portray the Savoyard ruler Charles Emanuel III of Savoy and his three wives, who all died after only a few years of marriage, leaving the king permanently widowed for over 30 years.
The Room of the Bees
The Hall of the Ladies leads directly into the smaller Room of the Bees, which connects the north wing of the palace to the east wing. The room is located next to the Loggia of Honor, on the opposite side from the Mascarino Staircase.
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A document from the 1700s records that pontiffs used to bestow their blessing upon the faithful from the window that overlooks the Courtyard of Honor.
Today, the Room of the Bees is a focal point for moving through to the reception rooms.
View of the ceiling of the Room of the BeesQuirinale Palace
The Barberini Bees
The room does not retain any traces of the original decoration: its name derives from the 17th-century fresco with the emblem of Urban VIII visible in the center of the vaulted ceiling, within which are depicted two Angels holding the crown and keys of Saint Peter with the Barberini Bees.
Lorenzo de 'Medici who chases away vices and introduces virtues in Tuscany - Detail of the frieze (1812) by Francesco Massimiliano LaboureurQuirinale Palace
The tribute to Lorenzo de Medici
The stucco bas-relief frieze is from the Napoleonic period, and is dedicated to Lorenzo de Medici and patronage of the arts.
The choice of subject, unusual within a French context, is a testimony to Napoleon's appreciation of the great patron and humanist, celebrated for his virtues, his capacity for good government, and his non-aristocratic origins.
View of the ceiling of the Room of the BeesQuirinale Palace
The remaining visible part of the vaulted ceiling was decorated in 1907, by Alessandro Palombi with grotesques and cherubs on a blue background, mock marble busts of figures from ancient Rome, and monochrome figures in the corners.
Commodus Bust (Late 2nd century AD)Quirinale Palace
The bust of Commodus
Emerging from among the room's furnishings is a bust in white marble of the Emperor Commodus wearing a cuirass and wrapped in a paludamentum, the traditional cloak of Roman generals.
It is a complete work from the end of the 2nd century BCE and is one of the most high-value pieces within the Quirinal Palace's sculpture collection.
