A Jacobite Gazetteer - Turin

Palazzo Reale

Palazzo Reale facade

This palace was the principal childhood home of King Charles IV and of his brother King Victor. They continued to live here with their wives until 1798. After the restoration of Piedmont to the House of Savoy, the palace was the principal residence of King Victor (as King Victor Emanuel I of Sardinia) from 1814 to 1821. Many of the rooms are still decorated in the same fashion as they were two hundred years ago. A number of portraits of the Royal Family hang on the walls.

Above the arch of the Camera dell'Alcova is an oval portrait of Queen Marie-Clothilde of Sardinia (wife of King Charles IV) by Angelo Vacca juniore. ¹

Camera dell'Alcova

In the Appartmento di Madama Felicita, a suite of nine rooms on the north side of the palace, there are numerous portraits of King Charles IV and his family. In the Camera già da dormire (with red walls) there are three oval portraits by Giovanni Panealbo, all of which hang on top of mirrors: ² Charles standing with a book by François Fénelon ³; his wife Marie-Clothilde; his sister-in-law Queen Maria Theresa, when Duchess of Aosta. In the same room there is a square portrait of Charles IV as a child wearing a long gold dress; on either side are oval portraits of his parents by Panealbo. There are also portraits of his sisters Maria Teresa and Maria Anna both by Giuseppe Duprà. In the Gabinetto "detto del terazzo" (also with red walls) is a portrait of another sister Maria Giuseppina; it is a copy of a work by Francesco Drouais. ⁴ In the Camera ultima dell'appartamento (with yellow walls) are portraits of the parents of King Charles IV and King Victor as well as of their younger brother Maurizio, all by Domenico Duprà. There are also portraits of their sisters Maria Giuseppina and Maria Anna by Panealbo, and another portrait of Maria Giuseppina by Duprà. ⁵

In the Audience Hall of the Prince of Piedmont hangs an oval oil portrait of Queen Maria Teresa (wife of King Victor) when still Duchess of Aosta. ⁶ Maria Teresa is seated at a desk reading a letter from her mother Duchess Maria Beatrice Ricciarda of Modena.

In the camera da letto di parata of the Duchess of Aosta hangs another oil portrait of Queen Maria Teresa, this one by Giovanni Panealbo. ⁷ Maria Teresa has feathers in her hair, and holds a toy in her hand.

The palace is open Tuesday to Sunday from 8.30 a.m. to 7.30 p.m. Entrance to the first piano nobile €6,50; entrance to the second piano nobile €4,00.

Telephone 39-11-4361-455. Website: http://www.ambienteto.arti.beniculturali.it/800x600_ita/reale.htm.

Notes

¹Laureati and Trezzani, 188. There is a photograph of the portrait in Nicola Brancaccio and Maria Adriana Prolo, Dal nido savoiardo al trono d'Italia: vita e politica dei Savoia dall'anno 1000 al 1870 (Milano: Libri Fecondi, 1930), facing p. 226. There is a similar portrait of Marie-Clothilde on the second floor of the Palazzina at the Palazzo del Quirinale in Rome. Angelo Vacca juniore was born in Turin in 1782 or 1783; he died in 1823. He was the son of Angelo Vacca seniore. Vacca juniore painted numerous portraits of the Royal Family especially of King Victor. Cf. Schede Vesme, III, 1063-1064.

² Appartamento della Regina detto di "Madama Felicita", Torino - Palazzo Reale: Itinerario di visita per la settimana dei musei (Torino: Daniele Piazza, 1985), 32.

³Laura Laureati and Ludovica Trezzani, Pittura Antica, La Quadreria, Il Patrimonio Artistico del Quirinale (Rome: Electa, 1993): 187. There is a similar portrait in the Appartamento Napoleonico of the Palazzo del Quirinale in Rome (but with a crown in place of the book). 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 is another portrait of Charles by Panealbo at the Castello di Racconigi. François Fénelon (1651-1715) was Archbishop of Cambrai in France and the author of many works on the spiritual life.

⁴ Appartamento della Regina detto di "Madama Felicita", 28.

⁵ Appartamento della Regina detto di "Madama Felicita", 24.

⁶Laureati and Trezzani, 190. There is a similar portrait of Maria Teresa in the Appartamento del Pannini of the Palazzo del Quirinale in Rome.

⁷Laureati and Trezzani, 190. There is a similar portrait of Maria Teresa on the second floor of the Palazzina at the Palazzo del Quirinale in Rome (but where Maria Teresa is painting a miniature instead of holding a toy).

Image 1 (Palazzo Reale facade): "Turismo Torino", http://www.turismotorino.org.

Image 2 (Camera dell'Alcova): Umberto Chierici, Torino, il Palazzo Reale (Torino: Fratelli Pozzo, 1969), plate 76.