A Jacobite Gazetteer - Turin

Palazzo Reale - Other parts of the palace

For the main state rooms of the palace, see the Primo Piano Nobile.

For the Secondo Piano Nobile, see here.

For the Piano Terreno, see here.

Reliefs of Charles IV and Marie Clotilde

There are matching oval reliefs by Giovanni Battista Bernero with portraits of Charles Emanuel, Prince of Piedmont (later King Charles IV) and his wife Marie Clotilde.¹ The portraits are of white Carrara marble and are mounted on oval green marble panels with a gilt bronze frame decorated with laurel leaves. Charles is shown in right profile wearing a powdered wig. Around the edge of the green marble panel is an inscription in gilt bronze, “CAROLUS EMANUEL FERD. PEDEMONTIS PRINCEPS” (Charles Emanuel Ferdinand, Prince of Piedmont). Marie Clotilde is shown in left profile. She wears a very high coiffure in which there sits a decorative comb. The tresses of her hair and the comb are similar to those in a portrait by Giovanni Panealbo in the Museo Civico d'Arte Antica in Turin. Around the edge of the green marble panel is an inscription in gilt bronze, “M. CLOTILDES BORB. CAROLI EMAN. P. P. UXOR” (Marie Clotilde de Bourbon, wife of Charles Emanuel, Prince of Piedmont).

Marie Clotilde and Charles Emanuel, Princes of Piedmont

The reliefs were commissioned by Charles' father, King Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia, in 1776, the year after Charles and Marie Clotilde were married. They form a set with three other pairs of reliefs commissioned by Victor Amadeus in 1774 and 1775: the first pair show Victor Amadeus III and his wife Infanta Maria Antonia Ferdinanda of Spain; the second pair show his parents (the grandparents of King Charles IV and King Victor), King Charles Emanuel III of Sardinia and his wife Polyxena Christina of Hesse-Rotenburg-Rheinfels; the third pair show his grandparents (the great-grandparents of King Charles IV and King Victor), King Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia and his wife Princess Anne Marie d'Orléans (granddaughter of King Charles I).² The reliefs were originally designed to hang at the Castello di Moncalieri.

Landscape paintings of the Savoy Restoration

There are three landscape paintings which celebrate the restoration of the Savoys to the government of their mainland territories in 1814 after the defeat of Napoléon Bonaparte. The first of these is by Angelo Antonio Cignaroli and shows the arrival of King Victor at Genoa, May 9, 1814.³ The second is also by Cignaroli and shows the arrival of Queen Maria Theresa at Genoa on August 22, 1815.⁴ The third is by Giuseppe Pietro Bagetti and shows the entrance of King Victor into Turin, May 20, 1814.⁵

Arrival of King Victor at Genoa, May 9, 1814

Arrival of Queen Maria Theresa at Genoa, August 22, 1815

Entrance of King Victor into Turin, May 20, 1814

Notes

¹ Castelnuovo and Rosci, I, 76. The relief of Charles Emanuel measures 54 cm wide and 42 cm wide; the relief of Marie Clotilde measures 55.2 cm high and 42 cm wide. Giovanni Battista Bernero was born in Cavallerleone in 1736 and died in Turin in 1796.

² The reliefs are all very similar in design with the exception of those of Charles Emanuel III and Polyxena Christina which do not have gilt bronze frames.

³ Castelnuovo and Rosci, I, 284-285. The oil on canvas painting measures 142 cm high and 203 cm wide. Angelo Antonio Cignaroli was born in Turin in 1767 and died in 1841. He inherited from his father Vittorio Amedeo Cignaroli the position of royal painter of landscapes

⁴ Castelnuovo and Rosci, I, 284-285. The oil on canvas painting measures 142 cm high and 203 cm wide.

⁵ Castelnuovo and Rosci, I, 285-286. The oil on canvas painting measures 65 cm high and 100 cm wide. Giuseppe Pietro Bagetti was bon in Turin in 1764 and died in the same city in 1831.

Image 1 (Marie Clotilde and Charles Emanuel, Princes of Piedmont): Castelnuovo and Rosci, I, 76.

Image 2 (Arrival of King Victor at Genoa, May 9, 1814): Castelnuovo and Rosci, I, 284.

Image 3 (Arrival of Queen Maria Theresa at Genoa, August 22, 1815): Castelnuovo and Rosci, I, 285.

Image 4 (Entrance of King Victor into Turin, May 20, 1814): Castelnuovo and Rosci, I, 286.