A Jacobite Gazetteer - Turin

Museo Civico d'Arte Antica

Fabre portrait of Queen Louise and Vittorio Alfieri

The Museo Civico d'Arte Antica is located in Palazzo Madama in the centre of Piazza Castello. The museum's collection includes several portraits of members of the Royal Family.

There is a portrait by François-Xavier Fabre of Queen Louise (wife of King Charles III) and Count Vittorio Alfieri. ¹ Louise and Alfieri are seated together at a table. Louise, famous for her correspondence, reads a letter. Alfieri has in front of him an open book and pen and paper, but is looking intently at Louise. In the background (to Alfieri's right) can be seen the Duomo of Florence.

There is a portrait of Queen Marie-Clothilde of Sardinia (wife of King Charles IV) by Giovanni Panealbo; ².

The museum is presently (2005) closed for renovations; it is expected to re-open to the public in the winter of 2006/2007.

Notes

¹ Luciano Berti, Il Pantheon di Santa Croce a Firenze (Italy: Giunti, 1993), 200.

² Laura Laureati and Ludovica Trezzani, Pittura Antica, La Quadreria, Il Patrimonio Artistico del Quirinale (Rome: Electa, 1993): 188. There is a photograph of the portrait in Luigi Mallè, I dipinti del Museo d'Arte Antica: catalogo (Torino Museo civico di Torino, 1963), tav. 194. Giovanni Panealbo was a Turinese painter active from 1772 to 1799. He painted numerous portraits of members of the Royal Family; cf. Schede Vesme: L'arte in Piemonte dal XVI al XVIII secolo (Torino: Società Piemontese di Archeologia e Belle Arti, 1968), III, 772-775. There are two other portraits of Marie Clotilde by Panealbo, one in the foresteria of the II Imperiale of the Palazzo del Quirinale in Rome, and the other at the Castello di Racconigi.

Image: Luciano Berti, Il Pantheon di Santa Croce a Firenze (Italy: Giunti, 1993), 200.