Galleria Doria Pamphilj

Today we took a small jaunt through the city and ended up at the Galleria Doria Pamphilij. The Galleria Doria Pamphilj is a privately owned art collection housed in the palace of Pamphilj family. The palace is one of the largest in Rome and still serves as the home for Prince Don Jonathan Doria Pamphilij and his family.

Don’t let the exterior fool you, the beauty of the galleria lies within (shhhh, don’t tell anybody but I wasn’t suppose to take photos). We marveled at the velvet walls, gained multiple views of ourselves in the room of mirrors (first fig.), and gasped at the full mummifiedcorpse of the family saint. This saint was housed in the family chapel, which is still used today (second fig.).

The art collection contained works from the Medieval, Bryzantine, Reniassance, and Barqoue time periods and included works by Caravaggio, Velazquez, Gaspard Dughet, Raffello Stanzo, and Bernini. I personally liked Bernini’s bust of Pope Innocent X, a member of the Pamphilij family and Caravaggio’s painting Rest during the Flight into Egypt.

Being the home of many Baroque and Renaissance style paintings it was the perfect place for an exercise. Using the early German art historian Neinrich Wolfflins’ stylistic oppositions of the Baroque and Renaissance, we became art critics. In pairs we analyzed Guercino’s painting of Erminia finds the Wounded Tancredi (first fig.) and Ortolano’s Navity with Saint Francese, Mary Magdalen, and John the Baptist (second fig.), documenting distinct differences in technique, style, and form. After about ten minutes of analysis we reconvened as a group and discussed the differences. The Renaissance style is characterized by the classical appearance of symmetry, a balance of light and colors, and figures acting independently. The Baroque is distinguished by the usage of infinity of light and landscape, asymmetry, extreme emotional expressions, and overlapping of figures. These are just a few differences between the two periods, but from the difference that I have mentioned, can you tell which image is Baroque and which is Renaissance?

After our discussion we were free for the rest of the afternoon. This gave us the chance to wonder around the galleria, work on writing assignments, revamp some others, and prepare for our trip to Naples.