The origins of the Farnese collection

4/18/2022, 7:07:10 PM

An exhibition in Parma reminds us that the art fund created during the Renaissance by Paul III, then enriched by his family, was initially a theological and political project.

Special Envoy to Parma and Caprarola

To discover

Discover the “Best of the Goncourt Prize” collection

If the art collection has become an instrument of power, it may have been the Farnese family that initiated the movement almost five hundred years ago.

This is the thesis of the exhibition "The Farnese, architecture, art and power", which is held until July 31 in Parma.

A journey to discover at the Pilotta Museum, a 40,000 square meter museum complex completely renovated after four years of work carried out by its director, Simone Verde.

But the "Farnese collection" having been built up over one hundred and sixty years, from Pope Paul III Farnese to Ranuccio II, and from several places, the family residences from Rome to Parma, passing through Caprarola in Lazio to land in Naples in 1786, any synthesis is necessarily simplistic.

Through some 300 pieces, architectural drawings and plans of the many residences of the Farnese family, paintings and sculptures, archival documents, books, precious objects, cameos, medals, this…

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