An electrician doing maintenance work in the 16th century Villa Farnesina in Rome uncovered frescoes in vivid color hidden behind a later vaulted ceiling. Electrician Davide Renzoni was on top of high scaffolding when he spotted a trap door in the barrel vaulting that had been added to the living room of the villa in the 19th century. The door opened onto a cavity between the newer ceiling and the original one. Shining a light in the darkness, Renzoni was greeted by a profusion of cherubs against blue skies and rolling hills.
Built for papal banker Agostino Chigi between 1506 and 1510, the Farnesina was an innovative design, a suburban villa on the banks of the Tiber with a u-shaped floorplan and open loggias stood. It is best known today for its exquisite frescoes on mythological subjects by High Renaissance luminary Raphael and other greats including Sebastiano del Piombo, Giulio Romano, Bladassare Peruzzi and Il Sodoma. Cardinal Alessandro Farnese acquired the villa in 1579 and the newly-discovered frescoes date to the Farnese era.
That is evident in the newly-discovered frescoes. There are three surviving areas: one lunette featuring a large standing cherub holding a plumed helmet in front of rolling hills with a tower and manor house in the mid-ground, two cherubs on blue backgrounds in the corbels, and in the center of the barrel vault, a sky filled with cherubs flying around the Farnese coat of arms. They were commissioned by Abbot Giuseppe Melchiorri who rented the villa from the Farnese Duke of Parma. His lease contract enjoined him from making any unauthorized alterations to the building, but his inventory records indicate he did order paintings for at least one gallery.
Between 1861 and 1863 major restoration work was carried out on the Villa Farnesina, particularly on the first floor, which had been radically altered from the 16th-century configuration designed by Baldassarre Peruzzi for Agostino Chigi. Architect Antonio Sarti found serious structural damage due to the load on the walls above the vaults and proposed consolidation works. The main hall was divided into two parts, distorting the original spatiality and adding new service rooms, including an elevator shaft.
The discovery of the frescoes, which were spared by the insertion of the elevator, constitutes a significant novelty for the knowledge of the building and its seventeenth-century decorative phase, obtained as part of the conservation and restoration activities carried out by the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in collaboration with the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology.
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enzoni found the frescoes last year but the discovery was kept under wraps while conservators and researchers restored and studied them. Because they are in an inaccessible area, the frescoes cannot be exposed to the visiting public, but the Villa has found a way to virtually feature them in its new exhibition about the 17th century Villa Farnesina. High-resolution photographs and 3D reconstructions will showcase the frescoes and display what the living room looked like at various times.
* This article was originally published here
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