A Jacobite Gazetteer - Turin

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.

The museum owns 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 covered with a carpet. Louise, famous for her correspondence, holds a letter addressed to her friend the Abbé Tomaso Valperga di Caluso. She is wearing a mob-cap on her head, and a black lace shawl around her shoulders; she wears a similar outfit in a miniature portrait now at the Musée Fabre in Montpellier. Alfieri has in front of him an open book, pen, paper, and two ink pots. He wears a signet ring on the ring finger of his left hand. He gazes intently at Louise. In the background (to Alfieri's right) can be seen the Duomo of Florence. There is another version of the painting in the Uffizi in Florence. The Turin version was at one time in the possession of the Alfieri family. It was left to the museum in 1939 by the Marchesa Adele Alfieri di Sostegno.

Queen Louise and Vittorio Alfieri, by Fabre

In the Sala Feste on the Primo Piano is another portrait by Fabre, this one of the Abbé Tomaso Valperga di Caluso (to whom Queen Louise writes in the aforementioned painting).² The portrait was formerly owned by Queen Louise who willed it at her death in 1824 to the Abbé di Caluso's nephew, the count of Masino.³ It later belonged to the Alfieri family and was left to the museum in 1939 by the marchesa Adele Alfieri di Sostegno. The Abbé di Caluso was for many years a great friend and correspondent of Queen Louise and Count Alfieri; he was "an excellent specimen of the intellectual, liberal-minded, well-bred ecclesiastic of the eighteenth century".⁴ The Abbé di Caluso is shown seated at a table reading a book. Below the book are several sheets of paper - presumably correspondence - with a pair of reading glasses.

Abbé Tomaso Valperga di Caluso, by Fabre

The museum also owns a terracotta bust of a lady, thought to be Queen Louise, and a matching terracotta bust of a man, thought to be Count Vittorio Alfieri.⁵ Both busts were formerly in the collection of the counts Della Chiesa; they were donated to the museum by the Marchese Emaneule d'Azeglio in 1872.

Terracotta bust of Queen Louise

Terracotta bust of Count Vittorio Alfieri

In the Camera di Madama Reale hangs a portrait of King Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia by Maria Giovanna Clementi.⁶ From 1715 to 1720 and from 1766 to 1773 this prince was second in line to the thrones of England and Scotland (and from 1728 to 1766 he was third in line). The portrait shows Charles Emanuel full-length in his coronation robes.

King Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia

The museum owns a red children's carriage designed for use by the grandchildren of King Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia: Charles Emmanuel, Prince of Piedmont (later King Charles IV), Victor Amadeus, Duke of Aosta (later King Victor), and their siblings.⁷ The carriage was used in the gardens of the Palazzo Reale. The exterior of the seats is decorated with mythological scenes including Jupiter and Danae, and Juno and a shepherd.

Children's carriage

In the Gabinetto Rotondo on the Primo Piano there are numerous Savoy portraits including one of a young King Charles IV painted by Giuseppe Duprà.⁸ Over a metal breastplate Charles wears a red coat trimmed with gold braid. Around his neck he wears the collar badge of the Supreme Order of the Annunciation. Immediately above this portrait is another portrait which may be of King Charles IV as a young man (or perhaps his father, King Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia). Immediately to the right of this second portrait is one which may be of Charles IV's mother, born Infanta Maria Antonia Ferdinanda of Spain.

King Charles IV, by Giuseppe Duprà

In the room next to the Gabinetto Rotondo, the Sala dei Fiori, are displayed numerous miniature portraits, including one low-relief carved portrait of King Charles IV.

Miniature carved portrait of King Charles IV

The museum owns a portrait of Queen Marie Clotilde of Sardinia (wife of King Charles IV) by Giovanni Panealbo.⁹ Presumably the painting dates from before 1794, the year Marie Clotilde exchanged court-dress for the penitential clothes that she invariably wore until her death. Here she wears a dress with gold brocade and elaborate lace sleeves. In her left hand is a white cloth, and in her right hand a folded fan. In her hair she wears a diamond-studded comb. The tresses of her hair and the comb are similar to those in a relief by Giovanni Battista Bernero in the Palazzo Reale in Turin. An ermine cape has fallen from Clotilde's shoulders and rests on the chair and table.

Queen Clotilde of Sardinia, by Giovanni Panealbo

King Charles IV

The museum owns a small relief portrait of King Charles IV made at the Vinovo porcelain factory and acquired in 1866.¹⁰ Charles is shown in left profile and wears an armoured breastplate covered with a cape. The round medallion is surmounted by an ornate bow.

The museum also owns two small circular relief portraits of King Victor (King Victor Emanuel I of Sardinia). The first medallion is by Amedeo Lavy and was acquired in 1913.¹¹ Victor is shown in right-profile dressed in military uniform. Around the edge of the medallion is inscribed, "REX VICT EMMANUEL" (King Victor Emanuel). The second medallion is by Giovanni Lomello;¹² it is a close copy of the medallion by Lavy.

King Victor, by Lavy

King Victor, by Lomello

This page is maintained by Noel S. McFerran (noel.mcferran@rogers.com) and was last updated August 10, 2017.
© Noel S. McFerran 2003-2017.