Palazzo Madama: Cardinal del Monte's House Painter
Why is it significant?
Face the grand Baroque front of Palazzo Madama, with its carabinieri at the door and the flags above. Since 1871 it has been the seat of the Italian Senate. Around 1595 it was the home of a cardinal who changed Caravaggio's life.
Key Facts
| Place | Palazzo Madama: Cardinal del Monte's House Painter |
|---|---|
| Address | Corso del Rinascimento, 00186 Roma RM, Italy |
| Geo Coordinates | 41.89850, 12.47370 |
| Part of Walk | Caravaggio's Rome: Masterpieces, Brawls and a Killing |
| Generated | Generated |
Face the grand Baroque front of Palazzo Madama, with its carabinieri at the door and the flags above. Since 1871 it has been the seat of the Italian Senate. Around 1595 it was the home of a cardinal who changed Caravaggio's life.
The palace belonged to the Medici, the grand dukes of Tuscany, and its name remembers Madama Margaret of Austria, daughter of the emperor Charles the Fifth, who once lived here. In Caravaggio's time it housed Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte, the Medici's man in Rome: diplomat, music lover, amateur alchemist, and a collector with a very sharp eye. Del Monte bought a painting called The Cardsharps from a dealer near here, and soon took the young man who had painted it into his household, with a room, meals and an allowance.
For about five years Caravaggio lived here and painted for the cardinal's sophisticated circle. The Cardsharps, with its innocent boy and the older cheat signalling over his shoulder through a glove with the fingertips worn through. The Musicians, a tangle of soft-faced young men tuning a lute over their sheets of music. And, as a diplomatic gift for the grand duke in Florence, a shield painted with the screaming, snake-haired head of Medusa.
Del Monte also owned a small villa on the hill near today's Via Veneto, where Caravaggio painted his only known ceiling: Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto, the gods of the elements, seen from directly below, as if you were lying on the floor. Some say all three have the painter's own face. The villa is still in private hands, and that ceiling is one of the least seen masterpieces in Rome.
The cardinal was also one of the men who ran the finances of Saint Peter's, and his influence is thought to have helped his protégé win his first great public commission, in a church around the corner, for the French community of Rome. Walk along the palace to its northern end and turn right: the church door is only a few steps away.