ANTIQUARIANISM AND THE VILLA PAMPHILJ ON THE JANICULUM HILL IN ROME. (2nd October 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Russell, Susan
• Is Part Of: Papers of the British School at Rome. Volume 82(2014)
• Page Start: 237
• Page End: 264
• Publication Date: 2014-10-02
• Subjects: Archaeology -- Periodicals; Classical antiquities -- Periodicals; Rome -- Antiquities -- Periodicals; 937
• DOI: 10.1017/S0068246214000105
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0068-2462

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="normal"> <title> <x content-type="archive" xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <p>The Janiculum Hill in antiquity was a place of noble villas, military triumphs, ancient burials and Christian martyrdoms, all of which were recorded and interpreted in various ways in the antiquarian maps and literature of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Many of its associations had significance to the Pamphilj family, who bought a modest <italic>vigna</italic> there in 1630, not long after Giovan Battista Pamphilj (1574–1655) became cardinal. In the fourteen years that separated the purchase of the <italic>vigna</italic> and the elevation of Cardinal Pamphilj to the papal throne as Innocent X (1644–55) more land was acquired in the area, and the Casino del Bel Respiro, the Pamphilj's <italic>palazzo di rappresentanza</italic> at the Villa Pamphilj, was eventually built some distance from the original farmhouse, its entrance directly facing the dome of Saint Peter's. The villa played an essential role in constructing a public image for the Pamphilj that was inseparable from their claims to descend from the very founders of Rome, claims that were delineated by Niccolò Angelo Cafferri in his genealogy of the Pamphilj, a work initiated by Cardinal Girolamo Pamphilj (1544–1610) and published in 1662. This paper discusses how Cafferri's genealogy and antiquarian scholarship in Rome contributed to the selection of the Casino's site, design, decoration and iconology.</p> </abstract>