Apartment of Pope Paul V

The papal coat of arms, visible today in the center of the vault, belonged to Pius IX. It replaces the original coat of arms of Paul V.

It is flanked by the personifications of the Church anche the Charity.

The tapestry showing the Expulsion of the Merchants from the Temple (Cacciata dei Mercanti dal Tempio) is part of an imposing series of eight pieces dedicated to the New Testament. It was woven in the Gobelins Manufactory in Paris in the mid-1700s and comes from the papal collections.

Four tapestries from the series remained at the Quirinal Palace when it passed to the Savoy family.

With its superb texture and brilliant colors, the cloth depicts Christ on the steps of the Temple of Jerusalem driving away the merchants who, crowded into the atrium, desecrate the Lord's house with their trades.

It was woven between 1757 and 1759 and was donated by Napoleon to Pius VII in 1805.

The other two vases in the room are part of a collection of oriental porcelain collected by the popes in the second half of the 18th century. 

The bases, carved in 1774, were made specifically to be exhibited at the Quirinal Palace and bear the insignia of Pope Clement XIV.

In the center of the vault, as in the adjoining rooms, the papal coat of arms of Pius IX is painted, which replaced that of Paul V in the mid-19th century.

The papal emblem is flanked by the figures of Justice and Temperance.

On the inner wall of the room hangs a mosaic reproduction of Raphael's Madonna della Seggiola (Madonna of the Chair), created by the Vatican Mosaic Studio (Studio Vaticano del Mosaico).

The painting was donated to Queen Elena by Pope Pius XI to mark the first visit of the sovereigns to the Vatican after the signing of the Lateran Treaty in 1929.

The large console table, located under the mosaic, is gilded and richly carved with large foliage in late 17th-century style.

On the wall adjacent to the Room of the Loggia is the Triumph of Divine Wisdom (Trionfo della Divina Sapienza) by Giovan Battista Gaulli, known as Baciccia.

The oil painting on canvas is a preparatory sketch for the fresco by Baciccia on the ceiling of the Jesuit Library in Rome. It dates back to 1675.

From the door, Paul V could access a small private oratory created in the thickness of the wall that separates the Pauline Chapel (Cappella Paolina) from the papal apartment.

This room allowed the pope to attend mass privately.

Through a small window, made during the pontificate of Alexander VII, the pope could look directly at the chapel's altar.

The vault retains traces both from the time of Paul V, who had it decorated with stuccoes and frescoes as early as 1616, and from the Savoy period.

However, the decorations from the Napoleonic period, which depicted episodes from mythology, did not survive; they were covered at the time of the papal restoration.

The elegant stucco cladding visible today was probably made in 1616 by Martino Ferabosco and was gilded by Agapito Visconti.

The stuccoes are still original: the eagle (the emblem) is depicted in the four corners of the vault of the Borghese family.

The mural paintings, which date back to the Savoys, are more recent.

Made at the end of the 19th century, the decoration has a trompe-l’oeil opening towards the sky in the center of the vault with two foreshortened cherubs.

The four allegorical figures, painted inside the angular medallions in white and gilded stucco, are also part of the Savoys' decoration.

Four rectangular landscapes were inserted in the side panels, between the stuccos. They are painted by Annibale Angelini. The Savoy family wanted to celebrate four palaces of the new nation.

The room takes its name from the oil painted canvas, depicting Saint John the Baptist in the desert. It is a 16th-century copy of Raphael's original, held in the Uffizi in Florence.

Because of its excellent quality, the canvas has been attributed to Giulio Romano, the most gifted of Raphael's pupils.

The painting is among the few that come from the papal collections. It was purchased for 1000 scudi from Pope Clement XII as a work of Raphael.

The top is probably a Roman work made in the second half of the 16th century. Influenced by Florentine models, it has a very rare octagonal shape.

It is a wonderful example of an inlay with precious colored marbles. In the center, it has a disc of Palombara cloudy alabaster surrounded by two concentric decorative bands.

In the outermost band, alabaster blocks and Aquitaine marble are flanked by stylized lilies in antique red and Belgian black.

The rich curved perimeter frame has a motif of alternating bands that seem to simulate the winding of a dark ribbon around the edge.

On the gilded wooden base, created in a later period, two intertwined dolphins are carved. Their tails wrap around a trunk with vines, leafy branches, and bunches of grapes

This base has exemplary, elegant features including real vine shoots that have been suitably gilded