The Bronzino Room, Where the President Meets Foreign Delegations
The Bronzino Room is one of the rooms within which many of the institutional and representative activities of the Head of State take place. It is the largest room within the Palazzina Gregoriana.
The Bronzino Room today
Today the room is used as a place for the President of the Republic to meet with visiting Heads of State.
Presentations of the respective official delegations take place here, before the start of talks that are held within the nearby Office of the President.
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The history of the room
Located within the oldest core of the palace, originally the pontiff conducted his main representational activities here.
During the 1600s, with the enlargement of the Quirinal Palace, the room became a simple antechamber passageway used by the Pope to reach his apartments.
View of the Bronzino RoomQuirinale Palace
Not having windows facing the outside, it was known in the 1700s as the "Dark Room". During the Napoleonic occupation, it became the dining-room for Napoleon's apartment.
Under Savoy, it took the name "Hall of Battles", due to the presence of pictures of Risorgimental victories.
Today's arrangement is still influenced by the preparations put in place for Hitler's visit to Rome in 1938.
The room was provided with new marble flooring for the occasion, and was decorated with busts of Roman figures. The six busts currently displayed are almost all modern workmanship (XVIIth-XIXth centuries).
Commodus BustQuirinale Palace
The bust of commodus
Among them can be found the bust of Commodus. The head is of antique workmanship (around 192 A.D.), and the bust is modern, from the Renaissance period.
The head of Medusa with snakes for hair is depicted in the center of the cuirass, placed there as adornment for the armor of Roman emperors, and recalling the myth of Perseus.
The image of the emperor is characterized by the dense working of the hair and beard, which extends in individual curly strands down to the neck, and covers nearly all the cheeks.
These details were produced by means of grooves outlined with a drill tool.
Allegory of Italy (Early twentieth century) by Alessandro Palombi and Ernesto BallariniQuirinale Palace
The allegory of Italy on the vaulted ceiling
The decoration of the vaulted ceiling dates from the Savoyard period, and is the work of Alessandro Palombi and Ernesto Ballarini.
It is an allegorical celebration of a united, free, and victorious Italy, represented by the tricolor with the Savoyard shield in the center, and by the five-pointed star surmounting the head of one of the maidens in flight.
On the left, winged cherubs with a helmet, sword, and broken chain allude to war and freedom attained.
On the right, a procession advances, led by personifications of Italy's three capitals: Turin, Florence and, in the foreground, Rome, the new capital of the kingdom, crowned with a helmet and flanked by a probable Allegory of Peace, with olive branches.
Besarel armchair (1888) by Valentino Panciera known as BesarelQuirinale Palace
The Besarel armchair
Located within the room are ten armchairs, created by the Venetian craftsman Valentina Panciera, known as Besarel.
This furniture was constructed in 1888, to adorn a room within the Imperial Apartments, prepared for accommodating Kaiser William II.
The armrests and legs of the armchairs are richly carved with great wood-working skill.
When producing them, Besarel was inspired by the works of the great Baroque cabinet-maker Andrea Brustolon, creator of the armchair that is found within the Zodiac Room.
View of the Bronzino RoomQuirinale Palace
The armchairs are positioned along the wall adjoining the Lille Tapestries Room.
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