interno

The Palace

Charles X's Room

The portrait to the right of the entrance represents the King of France, Charles X of Bourbon, who died of cholera in this very room, during his exile, on 6 November 1836. Placed under the image of the sovereign is a beautiful mahogany dressing table with gilded bronze appliqués. The table is a fabulous piece from the Napoleonic period, possibly from the Tuscan court of Elisa Baciocchi Bonaparte. 

A French clock depicting the goddess Minerva by Napoleonic-era bronzesmith Pierre Philippe Thomire and a curious tortoiseshell fan rest on the marble surface. The other furnishings in the room are intended to evoke the era of Charles X's reign, starting with the mahogany chairs with gilded bronze appliqués, which can be dated back to the early 19th century and characterised by the elegant curved forms of the lyre-shaped backrests. 

On the wall behind the sofa is a series of tempera paintings on paper featuring mythological scenes signed by Michelangelo Maestri, a painter, miniaturist and engraver active in Rome at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. 

In the corner, an elegant mahogany veneered showcase with brass profiles contains silverware from the early 19th century and other valuable objects. 

Next to this, on the cylinder desk, the work of a Restoration-era French cabinetmaker, is the marble bust of Michele Coronini by the famous neoclassical sculptor Berthel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844). 

A number of important paintings can be admired on the wall above, including a Male Portrait by Dmitri G. Levitsky (1735-1822), the Portrait of the Kushnikov Family by Virginie Ancelot Chardon (1792-1875) and some landscapes from the French and English schools. 

Between the two windows hangs the Portrait of Olga Westphalen Fürstenberg, the mother of Guglielmo Coronini, work of Viennese painter Alois Hans Schram (1864-1919). On the desk underneath, with a sliding top and flap, are an oil lamp and a writing set in malachite of Russian origin. Finally, there are three pairs of bronze and gilded bronze candlesticks of great value, dating from the late 18th and early 19th century.