The Palazzo Mancini is a palazzo

Palazzo

Palazzo, an Italian word meaning a large building , may refer to:-Buildings:*Palazzo, an Italian type of building**Palazzo style architecture, imitative of Italian palazzi...

 in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. From 1737 to 1793 it was the second home of the French Academy in Rome

French Academy in Rome

The French Academy in Rome is an Academy located in the Villa Medici, within the Villa Borghese, on the Pincio in Rome, Italy.-History:...

.

History

In 1634 Lorenzo Mancini

Mancini family

Mancini was one of the oldest families of Roman nobility. Their titles and fiefs were numerous: Duke of Nevers and Donzy, Prince of Vergagne and of the Holy Roman Empire with the treatment of Serene Highness, French Peer, Spanish Grandee, Marquis of Fusignano, Count of Montefortino, Viscount of...

, brother of cardinal Francesco Maria Mancini

Francesco Maria Mancini

Francesco Maria Mancini was an Italian cardinal of the Mancini family. He was made a cardinal by Pope Alexander VII, in reward for contributing to Alexander's election as pope.-Life:...

, married Geronima Mazzarino, sister of cardinal Mazarin. For their wedding celebrations, the old residence of the Mancini family was enlarged by the acquisition of four adjoining houses and a new building designed by the architect Carlo Rainaldi

Carlo Rainaldi

Carlo Rainaldi was an Italian architect of the Baroque period.Born in Rome, Rainaldi was one of the leading architects of 17th century Rome, known for a certain grandeur in his designs. He worked at first with his father, Girolamo Rainaldi, a late Mannerist architect in Rome. After his father's...

. The work was begun by Lorenzo and completed by Filippo Mancini, duke of Nevers

Nevers

Nevers is a commune in – and the administrative capital of – the Nièvre department in the Bourgogne region in central France...

, between 1687 and 1689.

The building features a facade with "bugne lisce", or 'fishbone'-style ashlar

Ashlar

Ashlar is prepared stone work of any type of stone. Masonry using such stones laid in parallel courses is known as ashlar masonry, whereas masonry using irregularly shaped stones is known as rubble masonry. Ashlar blocks are rectangular cuboid blocks that are masonry sculpted to have square edges...

, with the central door surmounted by a rich balcony supported by brackets decorated from Cupids. Inside are preserved a painted frieze in the "salone di rappresentanza" or state room (the "Salone Rosso") and fragments of seventeenth-century friezes in other rooms with "Stories of David and Jacob". Another room houses a fresco collection of "vedute" of Rome by Bartolomeo Pinelli

Bartolomeo Pinelli

Bartolomeo Pinelli was an Italian illustrator and engraver.-Life:Pinelli was born and died in Rome, the son of a religious statues modeler. Pinelli was educated first in Bologna and then at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome. He lived in a poor quarter of Rome...

.

By order of Louis XV

Louis XV of France

Louis XV was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather at the age of five, his first cousin Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, served as Regent of the kingdom until Louis's majority in 1723...

, the Palazzo was acquired for France in 1725 and 22 years later it became the new residence of the French Academy in Rome, previously housed at the Palazzo Capranica. One second floor room is still frescoed with scenes copied from the Raphael Rooms

Raphael Rooms

The four Stanze di Raffaello in the Palace of the Vatican form a suite of reception rooms, the public part of the papal apartments. They are famous for their frescoes, painted by Raphael and his workshop...

 at the Vatican Palace, produced by the artists accommodated by the Palazzo during its time as the Academy. After the anti-French riots of 1793 and the assassination of Bassville

Nicolas Jean Hugon de Bassville

Nicolas Jean Hugon de Bassville or Basseville , French journalist and diplomatist, was born at Abbéville....

, the Academy left the palace. After the French Revolution

French Revolution

The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

 the building became the French Embassy to the Holy See

Holy See

The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...

. In 1798 the Academy returned to the Palazzo, but after the French defeat by Suvorov

Suvorov's Italian and Swiss expedition

The Italian and Swiss expeditions of 1799 and 1800 were undertaken by the Russian commander Alexander Suvorov against French forces in Piedmont and Switzerland as part of the Italian campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars in general and the War of the Second Coalition in particular.-Italian...

 in 1799 the building was occupied and pillaged.

In 1803 the Academy was moved to the Villa Medici

Villa Medici

The Villa Medici is a mannerist villa and an architectural complex with a garden contiguous with the larger Borghese gardens, on the Pincian Hill next to Trinità dei Monti in Rome, Italy. The Villa Medici, founded by Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and now property of the French...

 and in 1818 the Palazzo was bought by Louis Bonaparte

Louis Bonaparte

Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, Prince Français, Comte de Saint-Leu , King of Holland , was the fifth surviving child and the fourth surviving son of Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Ramolino...

, who ten years' later ceded it to Maria Theresia of Austria-Este, the widow of Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia

Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia

Victor Emmanuel I was the Duke of Savoy and King of Sardinia from 1802 to 1821, and Jacobite Pretender from 1819 until his death.-Biography:...

. It passed to her daughter Maria Christina of Savoy

Maria Christina of Savoy

Maria Cristina of Savoy was the first Queen consort of Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies...

 and, when Maria Christina became queen of Naples, it passed in 1831 to the Bourbons of Naples and in 1853 to Scipion Salviati. In 1919 the Banco di Sicilia acquired it.

See also

• Mancini family
  Mancini family
  Mancini was one of the oldest families of Roman nobility. Their titles and fiefs were numerous: Duke of Nevers and Donzy, Prince of Vergagne and of the Holy Roman Empire with the treatment of Serene Highness, French Peer, Spanish Grandee, Marquis of Fusignano, Count of Montefortino, Viscount of...