In March 1804, the Vice-President of the Republic, Francesco Melzi d'Eril, commissioned the Roman mosaicist Giacomo Raffaelli (1753-1836) to create a majestic centerpiece to decorate the banquet offered by the Viceroy Eugene of Beauharnais in homage to the new sovereign, which was to take place in Room of the Caryatids of Palazzo Reale on the occasion of the coronation of Napoleon Bonaparte as King of Italy on 26 May 1805.
The centerpiece consists of a grandiose triptych formed by a central element of 9 meters, flanked by two twin elements of 1.60 meters each. It depicts an imaginary Roman circus with the temple of Jupiter in the centre, around which the chariots of Apollo and Diana chase each other. On the spine of the circus two obelisks surrounded by sphinxes and two honorary columns in alabaster. Finally, a succession of amphorae, vases and cherubs borrowed from classical antiquity.
The triptych is completed by two symmetrical lateral elements which are made up respectively of a central temple surrounded by four Egyptian porphyry columns which support as many finely carved agate cups. To vary the perfect symmetry only the statues of the gods which are, in one case, Bacchus and Minerva and, in the other, Aesculapius and Ceres.
Neoclassicism, much loved by the new sovereign, meets the typical eclecticism of eighteenth-century Rome in the use of innumerable materials and colors such as white Carrara marble, Egyptian porphyry, the precious lapis lazuli and malachite stones and alabaster combined with metals such as gold and bronze.
However, Napoleonic sovereignty in Italy lasted only ten years and after its epilogue Milan witnessed the return of the Habsburg government which brought with it the change of taste and the consequent disuse of the monumental centerpiece.
This remains in the oblivion of the wardrobes until, in 1919, the building and all its art objects are sold to the State by Vittorio Emanuele III of Savoy. Three years later the art historian Roberto Papini comes across the fortuitous discovery of the pieces of the centrepiece.
The parterre was thus reassembled in the 1920s to restore its splendor to the forgotten masterpiece.
The centerpiece has been at the center of an important restoration project which sees its entire recomposition in the Sala delle Quattro Colonne with a new layout.
Title: Coronation centerpiece
Author: Giacomo Raffaelli
Date: 1804/1805
Technique:
Displayed in: Royal Palace of Milan
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