Palace Buonaccorsi: An Eighteenth-Century Baroque Palace in Macerata
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Italy
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Papal States
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Palace
On this page9 sections
History
Palace Buonaccorsi is an eighteenth-century aristocratic palace in Macerata, Italy, built in the Baroque style. It occupies a site just inside the former medieval city walls, also described as standing over the remains of a Roman castrum, a fortified settlement or military camp.
From medieval settlement to fortified city
During the early Middle Ages, the area marked the outer boundary of the Podium Sancti Juliani. In 1138, that settlement joined the hilltop castrum, helping form the Free Commune of Macerata. The Compagnoni family acquired the area as feudal property in 1200, and it became part of Macerata’s fortified urban circuit in 1300.
The Buonaccorsi residence
The Buonaccorsi family regained Macerata’s noble status in 1652 through Buonaccorso Buonaccorsi, who had become a chamber cleric. His brother Simone the Elder then sought to create a residence suited to the family’s economic strength and comital status.
In 1697, Simone commissioned the Roman architect Giovanni Battista Contini to create the palace by joining older houses, including the former Palazzo Centini. After Simone’s death, his son Raimondo continued the project with the assistance of his brother Filippo, Abbot of San Quirico. Ludovico Gregorini became involved during the final phase, and construction was completed in 1718. By 1717, Simone had spent 19,530 scudi on the building. Raimondo and his son Simone, who also became a cardinal, were the principal patrons of the palace and its decorated principal floor.
Roman connections and later change
After Raimondo’s death, Pope Benedict XIV admitted the Buonaccorsi family to the Roman patriciate in 1746. The Roman patriciate was Rome’s hereditary civic nobility. The family consequently moved its principal interests from Macerata to Rome.
The Buonaccorsi returned to Macerata in 1853 under Count Flavio Buonaccorsi, who had married Princess Angela Chigi. The family then undertook major restoration and alterations, including the insertion of a loggia on the north front. The palace was later occupied by the family and tenants, entered a period of decline, and was acquired by the Municipality of Macerata in 1967. It now houses the Musei Civici di Palazzo Buonaccorsi, a civic museum complex comprising the painting gallery, collections of ancient and modern art, the Museo della Carrozza, and the Amedeo Ricci Library.
Remains
Palace Buonaccorsi is a three-storey Baroque building formed by the incorporation of pre-existing houses. The layout includes a central courtyard and an Italian-style garden added by Ludovico Gregorini during the final construction phase. The nineteenth-century loggia on the north front records the alterations made after the Buonaccorsi family’s return in 1853.
Decorated interiors
The Hall of the Aeneid
The interiors combine Baroque and Rococo decoration, with the great Sala dell’Eneide, or Hall of the Aeneid, as their central room. Its pavilion vault carries Michelangelo Ricciolini’s fresco of the Marriage of Bacchus and Ariadne. Bacchus was the Roman god of wine, while Ariadne was the Cretan princess associated with his marriage.
Twelve Rococo canvases in the hall were produced between 1710 and 1715 by prominent Italian artists. They depict episodes from Virgil’s Aeneid, the Latin epic poem recounting the legendary origins and adventures of Aeneas. A painting above a doorway presents Christianity as superior to pagan religion.
The principal floor decoration
Decoration of the piano nobile, the ceremonial floor of an aristocratic palace, began in 1707. Carlo Antonio Rambaldi supplied paintings, while Antonio Dardani created quadratura, an illusionistic technique that uses painted architectural perspectives to extend or frame a real interior. Filippo Buonaccorsi is said to have helped determine the subjects and iconography of the decoration.
Civic collections
The civic painting gallery brings together works dating from the medieval period through the modern era. Its artists include Nicolò Bambini, Luigi Bartolini, Marco Benefial, Christian Berentz, Andrea Boscoli, Corrado Cagli, Carlo Dolci, Corrado Giaquinto, Johannes Lingelbach, Carlo Magini, Francesco Podesti, Scipione Pulzone, Santi di Tito, Claude Joseph Vernet, Emilio Vedova, and Giuseppe Zigaina. The collection also includes a work by Francesco Boniforti, including a copy of a painting by Zuccari, and nineteenth-century works acquired directly from Gualtiero Baynes and Giuseppe Bonolis.
Other parts of the museum occupy the palace itself. The Museo della Carrozza preserves the carriage collection, while the Amedeo Ricci Library forms another institutional component of the complex. Together with the historic rooms and painting gallery, these collections give the former aristocratic residence a civic and cultural function.
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