Royal Apartment, Hunting residence of Stupinigi
In the eighteenth century, Stupinigi was not a real residence, in the sense of a place where sovereigns and courts moved for shorter or longer stays. The Savoy rulers resided in Turin only for a few months, normally from Christmas to Easter: after which they began to move to the circuit of residences that surrounded the capital, alternating such stays with trips outside Piedmont (especially in Savoy and, more rarely, in the Nice area). Their main residences remained the Venaria and Moncalieri until the end of the eighteenth century. Stupinigi was normally used as a hunting lodge, and was a place for short stays, normally one or two nights at most.
Although the residences of Venaria and Moncalieri (the latter especially from 1773, with the ascent to the throne of Vittorio Amedeo III and Maria Antonia Ferdinanda) remained the main seats of the court celebrations, from the sixties of the eighteenth century also Stupinigi was used, albeit occasionally, for important receptions, especially on the occasion of visits by important guests. Of great importance was the feast of 1773 for the marriage between Maria Teresa of Savoy and the count of Artois (the future king of France Charles X). Among the guests should be remembered at least the emperor Joseph II, in 1769, the Tsarevich Paul Romanov(future Tsar Paul I) and his wife in 1782, and the king of Naples Ferdinand I of Bourbon, with his wife Carolina, in 1785.
Napoleon Bonaparte stayed at the palace from 5 May to 16 May 1805, before going to Milan to gird the Iron Crown. Here he discussed with the main political offices of Turin, welcoming the mayor, the judiciary and the clergy, headed by Archbishop Buronzo. It seems that the cardinal, severely reprimanded by the emperor for his alleged correspondences with Carlo Emanuele IV of Savoy, was the subject of a discussion which resulted in his replacement with the bishop of Acqui Terme, Monsignor Giacinto della Torre.
In 1832 the building returned to being owned by the royal family and on 12 April 1842 the wedding was celebrated between Vittorio Emanuele II, future first king of Italy, and the Austrian Maria Adelaide of Habsburg-Lorraine. The complex was then sold to the state property in 1919 and in 1925 it was returned, with the surrounding properties, to the Mauritian Order.
Apartment of the Queen
The queen’s apartment was built in the thirties of the eighteenth century for Polissena d’Assia-Rheinfels-Rotenburg, wife of Carlo Emanuele III of Savoy, in order to host her during the stays of the court at the palace for the seasonal hunting trips.
Ante-Room and the Queen
Frescoed between 1733 and 1734 by the painter Giovanni Battista Crosato (formerly operating at the villa La Tesoriera) with the painting on the ceiling depicting the sacrifice of Iphigenia, surrounded by eighteenth-century views, the queen’s anteroom is one of the four rooms overlooking the central hall of the building. Between 1738 and 1739 the frescoes were flanked by the new production of the painter Francesco Casoli, which were partially joined by the work of Giuseppe Maria Bonzanigo who remodeled the room from 1786, proposing it again in Louis XVI style. In this anteroom there are four oval paintings depicting princesses of the Savoy house, by an unknown artist, including Maria Giovanna Battista di Savoia-Nemours and Maria Cristina of Bourbon-France. Interesting are the frame decorations on the walls, made of blue glass and golden metal, always made by Bonzanigo.
In the neighboring bedroom of the queen, however, the ceiling is frescoed by Charles-André van Loo with a Rest of Diana among the nymphs associated with period boiserie and rocaille decorations. Attached to the bedroom is the toilet of the queen’s dressing table, decorated with Chinese figures and polychrome putti.
Apartment of the King
Also this apartment, like the twin one of the Queen’s apartments, had an anteroom, a bedroom and a toilet reserved for the sovereign. The spaces were built for Carlo Emanuele III of Savoy in the early 1830s and then modernized at the behest of Vittorio Amedeo III in the second half of the same century.
Sala degli Scudieri
Also like the previous antechambers described, connected to the main hall of the building, the Sala degli Scudieri, was one of the first rooms of the structure to be frescoed, in 1733, by Giovanni Battista Crosato and Gerolamo Mengozzi Colonna with mythological scenes. On the contrary, the creation of painted doors and overheads dates back only to 1778, when Vittorio Amedeo Cignaroli portrayed deer hunting scenes in the Savoy residences, paintings perhaps inspired by the cycle of ideal hunts created by the Flemish Jean Miel for the Royal Palace of Venaria Reale.
Ante-Room and the king
Unfinished until 1737 for Filippo Juvarra’s departure for the Spanish court, the king’s antechamber was entrusted, like other wings of the building, to the supervision of Giovanni Tommaso Prunotto, who succeeded Messina in the Stupinigi factory. The frescoes were entrusted to Michele Antonio Milocco with scenes always taken from the myth of Diana, painted under the direct control of Claudio Francesco Beaumont. The furniture present is in Louis XV and Louis XVI style; the over doors and the decorations on them are of particular value, with paintings by Pietro Domenico Olivero. On the walls there are portraits signed by Jean-Étienne Liotard.
The king’s bedroom, adjoining the antechamber, carries a non-original wallpaper on the walls as it was rebuilt after the Second World War due to the serious damage it had suffered over time. In addition to paintings by Jean-Étienne Liotard, the walls also have over-doors with grotesques painted by Giovanni Francesco Fariano. Interesting in this room are a pregadio and a medal collection by Pietro Piffetti from the first half of the eighteenth century. In the cabinet of the sovereign, adjacent to the bedroom, there is also a splendid portrait of Queen Polissena Cristina of Hesse-Rotenburg with her children, painted by the painter Martin van Meytens.
Hunting residence of Stupinigi
The Palazzina di caccia of Stupinigi is one of the Residences of the Royal House of Savoy in northern Italy, part of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list. Built as a royal hunting lodge in the early 18th century, it is located in Stupinigi, a suburb of the town of Nichelino, 10 km (6 mi) southwest of Turin
The original castle was owned by the Acaja line of the House of Savoy, Lords of Piedmont until 1418, and was sold to marquis Rolando Pallavicino in 1493. It was then acquired by Emmanuel Philibert in 1563, when the ducal capital was moved from Chambéry to Turin. The new palace was designed by the architect Filippo Juvarra to be used as a palazzina di caccia (“hunting lodge”) for Victor Amadeus II, King of Sardinia. Works started in 1729. Within two years construction was far enough advanced for the first formal hunt to take place.
Juvarra called upon a team of decorators, many of them from Venice, to carry out the decor of the palazzina interiors. In the reigns of Carlo Emanuele III and Victor Amadeus III the palazzina and its formal park continued to be extended, at first by Juvarra’s assistant, Giovanni Tommaso Prunotto, then by numerous North Italian architects, such as Ignazio Birago di Borgaro, Ludovico Bo, Ignazio Bertola and Benedetto Alfieri. The final building has a total of 137 rooms and 17 galleries, and covers 31,050 square meters. Polissena of Hesse-Rotenburg, wife of Carlo Emanuele III also carried out improvements. The original purpose of the hunting lodge is symbolized by the bronze stag perched at the apex of the stepped roof of its central dome, and the hounds’ heads that decorate the vases on the roofline. The building has a saltire plan: four angled wings project from the oval-shaped main hall.
The extensions resulted in separate pavilions linked by long angled galleries and a long octagonal forecourt enclosed by wings, extended forwards in two further entrance courts. Stupinigi was the preferred building to be used for celebrations and dynastic weddings by members of the House of Savoy. Here, in 1773, Maria Teresa, Princess of Savoy, married Charles Philippe, Count of Artois, brother of Louis XVI and the future Charles X of France.
Today the Palace of Stupinigi houses the Museo di Arte e Ammobiliamento, a museum of the arts and furnishings, some original to the palazzina, others brought from the former Savoia residences of Moncalieri and Venaria Reale. Stupinigi has the most important collection of Piedmontese furniture, including works by Turin’s three most famous Royal cabinet-makers, Giuseppe Maria Bonzanigo, Pietro Piffetti and Luigi Prinotti. Some of the sculptures of hunting figures are by Giovanni Battista Bernero. Additionally, temporary exhibitions are held in its galleries, such as the Mostra del Barocco (1963).