Historical Rooms, Rivoli Castle Contemporary Art Museum
The Castello di Rivoli is a historic building located in Rivoli, about 15 km west of Turin, in Piedmont. In the past it was a Savoy residence, while today it is one of the museums of Contemporary Art.
History
A primitive construction dates back, in all probability, to the 9th century, placed on guard over the small hilly relief behind the historic center of Rivoli; a first written document dates back to 1159, in a diploma with which Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa ceded the territories addressed to the bishops of Turin. However, at the end of the XII century, the Savoy took possession of it, as a strategic position between Turin and the Val di Susa.
It was then Amedeo IV of Savoy, around 1245, to build a real fortified structure. In the fifteenth century, the Holy Shroud passed through here, for the first time in Piedmont. Already in the possession of the Savoy family since 1457, the sacred relic was often moved to protect it from wars and stolen goods. The Duchess Jolanda ordered a brief ostentation of it, before the ostension at Pinerolo, during Easter of 1478, and the return of the sheet to Chambéry.
The construction of the castle
With the treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis of 1559, it was established that Duke Emanuele Filiberto I of Savoy could not live in Turin until he had a male heir. It is precisely for this reason that the original fortification was modified and enlarged as a temporary residence for the duke. The expansion project was given to Ascanio Vitozzi, however, in 1562, Duke Testa di Ferro had the long-awaited heir (Carlo Emanuele I), and entered Turin.
The Vitozzo project was taken up and partially modified, a few decades later, by Carlo edAmedeo di Castellamonte, and the works were said to be completed in 1644. The whole complex was conceived with a rectangular plan, then developed in height, starting from a raised floor with respect to the base, in turn dominated by two other floors. In the same period the so-called Long Sleeve was built. It is a lower building detached from the castle, connected only by a very narrow and 120 meters long walkway in a south-west-west direction. The English Channel served as a place of representation, a Savoy art gallery, stables and servants’ quarters.
At the beginning of the 18th century, both the castle and the Channel were set on fire and plundered by the French, due to the Spanish succession war. After the siege of 1706, Vittorio Amedeo II of Savoy regained possession of the territories and ordered the restructuring of the damage suffered, first entrusting the works to Michelangelo Garove, who enlarged the “Long Sleeve”, then, after their death, to Antonio Bertola. The latter followed the construction sites for three more years, until Filippo Juvarra intervened in 1716; in fact, the famous architect had a great project in mind, but the works were not completed. Only the extensions of the two symmetrical oriental wings were finished, but an unfinished facade was left. In 1730, Vittorio Amedeo II lived his madness here: despite having abdicated in favor of his son, he did not want to let go of business, and tried to oust Charles Emanuele III, who, in concert with his minister the Marquis Ormea, decided to lock his father in the Rivese residence.
For the occasion, the building was modified again: grates were added to the windows and access to the Long Sleeve was closed. In 1794then, some changes were made by Carlo Randoni, for at least partial use of the residence.
In 1863 then, the castle was rented municipal administration Rivoli, turning it into a military barracks, for the sum of 2,000 lire a month. In 1883 therefore, it was directly purchased by the Municipality of Rivoli, for the sum of 100,000 lire. The civic library was moved here, and some furniture was kept by the Savoy family, while the rest of the building remained barracks.
The Second World War destroyed most of the buildings: the first post-war architectural interventions were made with the simple intention of not definitively collapsing the structure.
In 1946 the castle was used as a municipal casino. The frequent visitor to roulette was Vittorio De Sica. The casino closed after a few months.
The structure was therefore left in a state of neglect at least until 1979. In that year the construction site was reopened, entrusted to the architect Andrea Bruno, with the aim of giving new life to the castle and the city. The whole complex was renovated between 1980 and 1984, although a large part of the furnishings and frescoes of the ancient Savoy splendor could not be recovered. In 1984 the Museum of Contemporary Art of the castle of Rivoli was inaugurated, with the first exhibition, Ouverture. In 1994 finally it was restored and joining in the square outside lookout, overlooking Turin.
Exhibition Halls
Room 8
State Room or Cage Room, formerly the Antechamber of the Apartments of King Victor Amadeus II.
This space is the largest room in the apartment of Victor Amadeus II. The decoration began in 1723 and was undertaken by a Roman painter, Filippo Minei, who specialised in grotesques; he was commissioned directly by Filippo Juvarra. The architect advanced the sum needed for the artist’s voyage and board and lodging in order to assure his early presence in Turin. His work ended on 22nd May 1724, when he was paid lire 3900 and given free passage to Rome. Minei worked both in the Palazzo Reale (RoyalPalace) and in the Villa della Regina (Queen’s Villa), but here painted a work with hunting as its theme, decorated “a grottesche ed arabeschi”.
Classicising temples provide shelter for the female hunters, while all around are hanging cages containing birds of various species, surrounded by animals, fantastic figures and hunting scenes between animals. At the centre of ceiling, Diana-Selene travels across the sky in a chariot hauled by deer and carrying the full moon, preceded by Dusk and followed by Evening. All around are other mythological figures associated with Selene, another name for the goddess of hunting. The room has some lintels decorated with buildings in ruin and a number of characters, painted by Giovanni Francesco Fariano, Pietro Gambone and Domenico Olivero, who also painted pictures of “paesi” (landscapes) on the doors, now lost. The decorations with cornices adorned with plant motifs and ending in a knot, made to contain portraits, date from the end of the 18th century. The room still preserves the splayed jambs of the windows and the wooden wainscot decorated with grotesques echoing those in the ceiling.
Room 9
Trophy Room
The first antechamber of the king’s apartment, in which Filippo Minei worked between 1723 and 24, containing a ceiling again decorated with grotesque motifs, battle scenes and various characters holding trophies and flags, while Mars the warrior and Glory appear on the two sides. The cameos show the Po and Dora rivers, together with quotations from fine works such as Cleopatra and the Hermaphrodite Borghese, or motifs painted by Carracci in the Galleria Farnese. On the walls, there used to be a rich damask fabric, now lost but know through the evidence of payment chits.
A fine fireplace in polychrome marble rounds off the room. The motif of the winged victory appears also in the passage to the next room, and there are other motifs with grotesques, fantastic animals and sphinxes along the massive walls.
Room 11
Room of the Sleeping Putti
One’s of the Castello’s richest halls in terms of history is the King’s Room, the first of the entire apartment decorated in 1720 to host the sovereign. The vault, which ideally portrays a canopy, is beautified by an amazing 4050 gold leafs and elivened by Juvrra’s much beloved small putti and classically dressed virtues. The painter Niccolò Malatto was expressly invited from Genoa to decorate the room, but a serious health problem and his subsequent death left the task incomplete.
The work was finished that same year by Pietro Antonio Pozzo, Michele Antonio Milocco and Pietro Gambone. The walls as well, were, Juvarra’s time, styled with this kind of decoration. The wall ornamentation dates to the late 1700s and the work of the painter Ludovico Chioffre for the architect Carlo Randone who is attributed with the present-day decoratins on the walls, the socle, the overdoor, and the trumeau above the firepalce in multicolored marble, with a grisaille motif. He also made the window splay frescoes, imitating stucco, intermingling heads and volutes. At that time the apartment was used by the Duchess of Aosta, Maria Teresa Habsburg-Este. Both gilt doors with ovals above, long the wall upon which rested the royal bed date to the early 1700s and coceal two very small spaces that probably hosted a kneeling stool and the “commoda” room.
Room 12
Atrium or Room of Bacco e Arianna
The room, used as an atrium, is located at the centre of the two royal apartments. The decoration was completed between 1718 and 1722 in conformity with Filippo Juvarra’s instructions, with the ceiling painting shown the meeting of Bacchus and Ariadne executed by a Tuscan painter called Sebastiano Galeotti.
The walls are decorated with fine stuccoes by a team from Lugano under Somasso. They show the symbols of power: a crown, a staff of command and sceptre, while the two niches with marble busts by Bernardino Falconi were formerly in the Palazzo Reale but were wanted here by Juvarra. They show Maria Giovanna of Savoy-Nemours, second Madame Reale, as Diana, and her husband Charles Emmanuel II, as Adonis, or Love. Completing the decoration in the room are the end niches, called buffetti, adorned with grotesques, putti and flowers. These were painted by Francesco Fariano between 1729 and 1730. Thanks to an autograph drawing by Filippo Juvarra, we know that the gilt shelves were used to display porcelain.
The splendid floor with marbles of three difference colours – black from Como, white from Busca, grey from Valdieri – is original; the unusual three-dimensional effect was created by Carlo Berardo in 1725. At present, three significant pieces that were still present in the room in 1846 are missing: a green marble pedestal with three small putti supporting the bust of Queen Maria Teresa of Austria, today at the Castello di Racconigi. The second is a “marble picture in relief” showing Anna Cristina Ludovica, Princess of Piedmont. The last is the famous yellow marble “punch table”, which according to tradition was damaged by a blow thrown by Victor Amadeus II in a moment of anger.
Room 13
Room of Stemmi or Room of Valets à pieds
The only surviving room of what must have been the apartment of the Queen, Anne-Marie d’Orléans, it still has fragments of Juvarra’s decoration, which emerged during the restoration byAndrea Bruno,and comprising of a painted wainscot containing stylised floral motifs, and of the window bays with rocaille decoration, which used to include internal fields decorated with gold leaf, for the most part lost today. The ceiling bears the coat of arms of the Savoy household, of Turin, Rivoli and Rome on the four sides. It was painted in the 19th century.
On the floor, the 1980s’ restoration included a glass panel to reveal the medieval well, which constituted the Castello’s main source of water until the 18th century.
Room 14
Stucco Room, First antechamber in the King’s apartment.
Its name derives from the stucco decoration realised by Pietro Somasso of Lugano, who worked in that same period in the Grand Gallery of Venaria Reale. It was executed in accordance with the instructions of Filippo Juvarra between 1718 and 1720 by demolishing the ceilings and walls of two small antechambers and a corridor. Garlands, flowers, shells and scales characterise the decoration, around the Roman civil and religious architecture, itself arranged around the initials of Victor Amadeus II in the centre of the ceiling, framed – in the words of Chiara Passanti – by “a collection of taut curtains, billowing in the wind”. The decoration aims to celebrate the figure of the king, the first in the Savoy household, and does so in a showy manner, as though in a temple.
At the end of the 18th century, the wooden trophies and decorations showing warrior putti in the corner fanlights were added by Angelo Vacca and Giovanni Comandù. The present floor, laid during the restoration by Andrea Bruno, adopts the original design by Juvarra, drawn up on 24th June 1721 and never executed. The architect had foreseen the use of green marble from Susa, Bianco di Foresto and grey Frabosa marble. These materials can no longer be found today as the quarries are closed, and have thus been replaced with other stones, as close to the original plans as possible.
In the late 18th-century fireplace, a cast-iron plate bears the ducal arms and monogram of Victor Amadeus II. In an inventory dating from 1846, it is stated that this room was used for fencing.
Room 15
Room of Continenti, second antechamber to the King’s apartment
This room is the only one on the first floor to have been decorated at the end of the 18th century, with work by Rocco and Antonio Maria Torricelli and Giovanni Comandù, while the design of the stucco frames is by Carlo Randoni, who borrowed from the Juvarra style of the following room. In the corners of the ceiling, “the four parts of the World” are by the Torricelli brothers, who were also responsible for the Sun chariot at the centre of the ceiling and the allegories of the Rivers Po and Doria, painted in sanguine.
Along the two long sides of the room, there are six stucco frames that were to have contained twenty works by Comandù, who began painting two but then cancelled them out: “Ordinatomi il fu Sig.Intendente (Viotti) nella sud. Camera di dipingere in bassorilievo li sei venti, ed avendo formati i cartoni, ossia disegni in grande prima in Torino, di poi avendone dipinti due li fece scancellare perché arricchiva di troppo la camera” (“Having been ordered by the Superintendent (Viotti) in the above-mentioned room to paint the six winds in bas-relief, and having drawn the cartoons, or life-size drawings first in Turin, and having then painted two, he then had them cancelled because they enriched the room overly”). For this work, nevertheless, the artist claimed lire 85 for seven days’ work. In an inventory of 1846, it is shown that there was still some furniture in the room: a “grey marble table supported by little shelves carved in volutes” and a “mirror between the shelves with plaque of green marble”.
Room 18
Because of the interruption to the building work at the end of the 18th century, this vast room, over 236 m2, has no decoration but its ribbed ceiling is certainly an important example of the building skills of the labourers directed by Carlo Randoni, built as it is with wooden ribs.
The removal of the floor on the third floor, damaged during the Second World War, and the emptying of the extrados have made it possible to highlight all the structure: both that on the second floor and the normally hidden one on the third.
Andrea Bruno built a passage.
Room 22
Room of Sorgere del Giorno, formerly the bedroom of the Duchess of Aosta, or Room ofla primavera or Salone grande
The bedroom of Maria Teresa of Austria-Este, Duchess of Aosta.The ceiling presents the scene painted in 1793 by the Rocco and Antonio Maria Torricelli brothers, who here revealed all their skill in painting the central pavilion suggesting an opening on to a blue sky in which the protagonists of the scene appear: Aurora leaving behind Night, shown by a shivering old man surrounded by cold winds and by a putto with a torch in hand. Lucifer also appears, together with the morning star and probably Espero, evening star. The grisaille imitation caryatids in the cornice were painted by Angelo Vacca.
The painted and gilt wooden decoration was realised in 1793-94 by Bozzelli, Gritella and Fumario in the typically classicising style of the time. The monochrome figures above the doors show the Arts and Sciences, and are attributed to the Torricelli brothers, while the lintels, returned to their original locations in 2004, show the seasons, day and night, in the personification of children recalling the classical gods. These canvases may be attributed to Guglielmo Lévera, probably assisted by Pietro Cuniberti.
A light-blue fabric on the walls matches that of the duchess’s bed, which was placed opposited the fireplace. The chimney piece in white marble from Pont Canavese, made by Giuseppe Marsaglia is very refined; it used to include gilt-bronze inserts by Simone Duguet but these no longer survive.
Room 24
Cabinet of Prints, or del Finto legno, gabinetto dei boesaggi (Prints or Plates Cabinet, or Imitation wood cabinet, Boisages cabinet), former apartment of the Dukes of Aosta, originally the Duchess of Aosta’s Buffetto chamber, her study.
This room is characterised by tempera decoration showing imitation wooden panelling stretching up to the ceiling, where there is an octagonal motif containing mythological characters and with a geometric star motif at the centre, surrounded by pentagons with eight medallions and pairs of divinities. Jove and Juno, Apollo and Diana, Mercury and Minerva, Mars and Venus. Dancers in the Pompeiian manner hold a chain of pearls tied with a Savoyard knot and with the initials of the newly-wed couple, Victor-Emmanuel and Maria Teresa of Austria. Ever since 23 July 1792, when first placed there, there have been prints on the walls; these were most probably removed during the Napoleonic occupation and replaced during the Restoration by canvases inspired by the same subjects attributed to Luigi Vacca. Currently, only a very damaged single lintel is preserved, depicting “A queen with two children and a vase of flowers”, put back in place in 2004. The decoration of the room was undertaken by the Torricelli brothers, Rocco and Antonio Maria, probably in collaboration with Pietro Palmieri, who was himself a master of illusionistic decoration; it was he who painted the original lintels.
The inspiration for this room certainly came from the similar example in Palazzo Grosso at Riva Presso Chieri, where the Torricellis also worked. The room was furnished with six “cadreghe” (armchairs), six “taboretti” (stools), and two large sofas in “rosewood and violet to imitate veneer”. The room was used by the town of Rivoli as a civic library.
Room 25
The Veil Room
Apartment of the dukes of Aosta, known as the bath, Cabinet for the bookcase, Cabinet of entertainment, Cabinet of gauzes. Little room of the apartment of the duchess of Aosta, its name comes from the the blue vault decorated with a fresco reproducing a veil, made by the Torricelli brothers. A The decoration that runs immediately under is very refines, and that it introduces precious themes as necklaces of pearls alternated to ears. All walls where covered by a paper of silver blue striped color today completely disappeared, supplied, like the others of the Castle, from the Turinese bookseller Carlo Maria Toscanelli in 1794. From the sources it was previewed to arrange in this atmosphere “four chairs, two taboretti, and also a bed following the Turkish fashion”, even if “it will not be too much practicable for being the space very narrow”. In 2004 it has been replaced one of the two fanlights work of Antonio and Giovanni Torricelli, representing the Three Graces, while the other represents Bacchus and Ariadne has disappeared.
Room 26
The Falconieri Room, Apartment of the dukes of Aosta, Cabinet to flowers, animals and putti
In 1792 it has been cited as “Cabinet of toeletta, with small annexed alcove” covered “ Ottoman fabric with a pavilion over”. The Tapestry of Turk basino of jonquil colour with lilla lines, surrounded by small lines of white silver”, that unfortunately we have lost. The room, today hosts the work of the artist Lothar Baumgarten, has the vault heavily repainted, with a subject of “flowers, animals and putti” dippend in a arcadic scene with classical buildings, and a palace, that it remembers the Castle in the juvarrian plan, realized between the 1793 and 1794 by the painter Vacca Angel, specialist in the painting animals. The baseboard is characterized from small dogs, cats and animals from courtyard. The overedoors host the painted medallions attributed to Angelo Vacca senior replaced at their place in 2004. They form a small cycle having as subject love and myth. Inside the medallions, there are paintings in grisaille, framed from flowers and architectonic games, ruins that tell history of Jupiter and Ganimede, Diana and Endimion, Venus and Adon. The decoration respects the attention of the duke of Aosta for the English decorative taste of which the Adam have been supporters.
Room 27
Chinese room
As in other Savoy residences, Rivoli too had a Chinese drawing room, designed in 1793 by Carlo Randoni, who also designed the furniture for it, as evidenced from a drawing preserved at the Archivio di Stato in Turin. The room connects the Duchess of Aosta’s apartment with that of the Prince of Piedmont and offers a wholly “Chinese-style” decoration.
The painting on the ceiling and wooden parts are by Francesco Rebaudengo in imitation of a pavilion with a canvas roof opening to the sky to reveal flying dragons. On the sides, there are scenes of Chinese life, adapted from the wallpaper used in the Castello di Racconigi, where the painter worked in the Chinese rooms of the princes of Carignano. On the walls, there are columns carved by artists from the circle of Bonzanigo: Giovanni Antonio Gritella, Giovanni Fumario and Giuseppe Gianotti, who produced the baskets of flowers, no longer present, and the cornices crowned by small Chinese heads with characteristic point hats; between the columns, it is assumed that there used to be either Chinese wallpaper or mirrors.
The wooden fire-screen with an Oriental scene is still present; it shows a nobleman, a servant providing shade with an umbrella and another intent on preparing tea, plus a parrot on a perch. The room has been greatly damaged as regards both the ceiling and walls, but it has its original wooden floor. This type of floor was used in practically every room on this floor.
Room 28
Audience Room or Crowns Room, Apartment of the Prince of Piemonte
In this room we can see decorations made in two different moment of the life of the Castle. The vault, never frescoed, is delimited from one wraps in stucco, and dated 1717, work of Carl Papa, very appreciated by Juvarra “stiamo per persona capace e esperimentata”. The decoration presents shells and tufts, crowns over Vittorio Amedeo II initials, a collar with Savoys knots and roses. The frieze of the decoration of the Room of Audience remembers the models of Juvarra in the Book of for adorned Designs by Candelabri. These rooms are the first where the architect messinese architect works once arrived to Rivoli. The below decorations, dating the end of the 1700’s, has trophies of leaves and flowers. At the walls the remainings of the wall paper, while the wooden decoration of the overdoors of the two trumeau is preserved in fragmentary way, showing, in the first case the king initials and in the second one the hermas and vegetal decorations. At the walls there were paintings representig hunting landscapes, classic ruins, marine, country scenes made by Angela Maria Palanca and Francesco Antoniani. These paintings were cardboards for tapestries made for manufacture of tapestries of Turin been born in 1737, following the model of the Gobelins one of Paris, following the orders of Carl Emanuele III.
Room 29
Stucco Room, Room of parade, Antechamber of the Apartment of the Prince of Piemonte
First antechamber of the apartment, it has been realized at the beginning of 1700 for the Prince of Piemonte, Vittorio Amedeo Filippo, first son of of Vittorio Amedeo II, that died when he was only 16, in 1715. The decoration is in stucco, always a work of the Somasso and at the four corners the initials of the Duke surrounded by an ouroboros and surmonted by the victory trumpets and the crowns, with a festoon with oak leaves that decorates all the highest part of the walls. In the room there are not any other traces of decoration.
Room 30
Cabinet of the four parts of the World, Apartment of the Prince of Piedmont, Room of Pigmalione, Second Cabinet of H.R.H.
The second antechamber of the apartment of the Prince of Piedmont, the first son of Victor Amadeus II, has a painting on the ceiling, restored in recent years but visibly damaged by infiltrations of water. By Giovanni Battista Van Loo, it depicts the myth of Pygmalion, king of Cyprus and Galatea; it is quite visible in photographs of the 1930s. An important part of the room is the stucco frieze by Carlo Papa dated 1717, with a rich symbolic repertory, alternating with festoons and garlands. It represents the Four parts of the world, with the crown of the Prince of Piedmont on the sides, together with the collar of the Order of the Santissima Annunziata, while the symbols of the four continents appear in the corners.
Room 31
Cabinet of the Four Season
Bed chamber of the Prince of Piedmont, this room has a ceiling frescoed by Giovanni Battista Van Loo in 1719. The French painter was called specially from Rome by Filippo Juvarra to paint Apollo surrounded by Time, Abundance and Flora. The seasons appear on the four sides. The stucco frieze by Pietro Filippo Somasso, dated 1717, presents the attributes of the Olympian gods: Zeus, Neptune, Mercury and Vulcan, together with some details of the garments of the seasons. Revived, the fresco was painted after the one in the preceding room, which is now almost completely lost.
Room 32
Concert Room
A large room that used to link the Duchess’s apartment with that of the Duke, as well as to the rooms of Princess Maria Beatrice. The recent restorations have the wooden cornices that once contained mirrors and paintings, decorated with cascades of flowers and female faces, belong to the period Juvarra was working here.
In January 27, 1913, Carlo Randoni executed the “Design of the decoration for the Celebrations Room on the upper floor, conforming to the style of the rich sculptures of the Trumeaux, and of the stucchi which D. Filippo Juvarra had already had cause to have made in said Room”, adding the trophies of arms above the doors. These wooden parts were painted to match the ceiling in tones of “grey”, “black”, “canary yellow” and “green”. The architect was also responsible for the design of the ceiling, seriously damaged because of infiltrations of water, and painted by the Torricelli brothers. On the four sides, four ovals appear in which are painted the busts of the first Savoy counts, Beroldo the Saxon, Umberto I, Oddone of Savoia-Moriana and Amadeus. Today, only Beroldo and Oddone are visible, revealing the artists’ great ability in the art of trompe-l’oeil.
Room 33
Room of Charles Emmanuel I
The name derives from the birth in 1562 of Charles Emmanuel I, son of Duke Emmanuel Philibert and Margaret of France, Duchess of Berry. The ceiling, the painted parts of which are largely lost, presented a motif with roses by Guglielmo Lévera, a painter specialising in perspective, while at the centre, Giovenale Bongiovanni had painted a scene that was still visible in 1936 which he himself described as “Fame showing to Glory the heroic virtues of the Royal Princes accompanied by Magnificence, Valour and Generosity”.
In the corners may be seen the initials of the duke surmounted by the crown, all made of stucco in the early 18th century. The neoclassical decoration was made in conformity with the designs of Carlo Randoni, who planned paired Ionic pilasters along the walls and a large chimney piece in stucco with trophies, arms, putti and theSavoy motto: F.E.R.T. The stucco decoration on the ceiling and walls are by the studio of Giovanni Marmori and date from 1794.
On the sides are two consoles designed by Randoni himself and made by carpenter called Giuseppe Marsaglia. The present floor, of Venetian seminato, is a faithful copy in terms of materials and colours of the one made in 1793 by a Venetian craftsman called Leopoldo Avoni.
The room was seriously damaged and restored in accordance with a plan by the Duke of Aosta’s architect, as was the floor, partly since lost.
Audience Chamber or Room of the Putti, formerly the apartment of the Dukes of Aosta, Princess Beatrice’s Audience Chamber
The bedroom of Princess Maria Beatrice, the eldest child of the Dukes of Aosta, has a decorated ceiling with groups of putti looking over a balustrade, intent on playing games or instruments. Painted by Giovenale Bongiovanni of Monregale, they are dated to 1793-94. On the two short sides, there are two panels with the symbols of the princess’s royal parents, surrounded by other putti: the lion of Val d’Aosta and the double-headed eagle of the Habsburgs. The room is completed with the presence of lintels and paintings for trumeaux belonging to the same period, also by Giovenale Bongiovanni; these were returned to their original site in 2004. Recent studies have shown these works to be of considerable quality; as protagonists, they have young maidens dressed as peasants, together with children and young lovers, in an iconogprahy typical of the arcadian taste of the 18th century. The walls present some fragments of wallpaper with floral motifs dating from the same period.
One of the windows of the room gives on to an 18th-century wrought-iron balcony with the monogram of Victor Amadeus II, dating to between 1711 and 1713, namely the years in which Michelangelo Garove worked at Rivoli.
Chapel and Sacristy
With a small ante-chamber used as a prie-dieu by Maria Theresa of Austria-Este, the chapel, built in a space dating from the early 18th century, contains paintings by Giovanni Comandù and Pietro Cuniberti, dated 1793-94, while the faux marble decoration, gilt stucco cornices and wooden carving are attributable to Giuseppe Ghigo.
On the altar, which is no longer in position, we know that there used to a painting by Girolamo Giovenone, now conserved in the Galleria Sabauda. The small adjacent sacristy offers some very simple decoration, with motifs of vases and garlands on the walls.
Thanks to the documentary Register of the Historic Archive of the Comune di Rivoli, we know that in 1846 the chapel had “Three large doors with glass panes divided into three, with chambranles, side panels and upper ceilings with gilt cornices and painting and sculptures on the wainscot forming three prie-dieux”. There was a “carved, gilt and sculpted altar, natural walnut bardella seat, pietra sacrata (altar), 3 altar cards with a Crucifix decorated with carved and gilt wood”. Above the altar, there was an ancon “with a canvas painted in oil showing the Holy Family with a frame with large cultural and gilt decorations”, here attributed to Gaudenzio Ferrari, but actually by Girolamo Giovenone. This altarpiece, today in the Galleria Sabauda, was presented in 1937 to the City of Turin for the exhibition of Piedmontese Baroque of the same year.
Villa Melano
Under the castle, there was an ancient conventual construction of the Order of the Capuchin friars dating back to the XII century; due to the Napoleonic occupation of Turin in the early 19th century, the convent structure was later converted into a stately home, of which the last owner was Mario Mario Melano, who died in 1926. The villa was therefore left in a state of neglect, becoming a place of legends and mysteries. It was therefore partially demolished in 2011 to make a hotel, however not yet built.
Renovation
The first renovation works of the Castello di Rivoli were made by the young Turinese architect Andrea Bruno to mark the centenary of the Unification of Italy in 1961. Unfortunately, at that time the budget was only sufficient to repair structural damage. Some years later, in 1967, Bruno proceeded to demolish the decaying parts of the atrium built in the early 20th century. By 1978, the building was in terrible condition: water infiltration had damaged the walls, ceilings, frescos, and stuccos, causing the first collapses. This led the Region of Piedmont to pledge to take care of the building for 30 years, restoring it and opening it to the public. The works started in 1979 and ended with the Museum’s inauguration on 18 December 1984.
Bruno decided to keep the surviving historical traces, giving importance to all the moments in the Castle’s life, starting from the Juvarra building site, passing through Carlo Randoni’s work in the late 18th century, up until the interventions made by the military in the 20th century. Bruno avoided falsifications and completions, respecting the original architecture, which became a true image of the history of the building and the vicissitudes of the structure. He preserved the internal and external decorations, stuccos and paintings damaged by the ravages of time and the carelessness of men.
To give visitors a sense of the Savoy residence, Bruno restored two rooms, one on the first floor made during the Juvarra’s period, and the second in the Duke of Aosta’s apartment. He enhanced the unfinished atrium, installed the panorama that juts out from the great brick wall of the Castle, and conceived the great suspended staircase, as well as the walkway over the great vault of room 18, putting the past and the present in dialogue. Some rooms have no decorations, while several are richly ornamented with details that recall the splendours of the dynasty and important moments in Rivoli’s history.
Some time later, works started on the Manica Lunga, which was to become once again a space for exhibitions. Here, the staircases and the lift are external, and they have been made in steel and glass to allow visitors to observe the whole unfinished structure. Bruno used modern materials for the new structures, becoming a pioneer of reversibility, and again stressing the relationship between present and past. In Rivoli, the historic building and contemporary forms interact together, while the frescoes dialogue with the work of today’s artists.