The Palazzo della Stamperia runs beside the Trevi Fountain
I am sure any experts among my readers will be smiling ironically and if they were to give me their personal opinions on this latest suggestion, would say that it is “an ingenious and shrewd idea”; which, as everyone knows, is a euphemism for “totally uninformed and completely stupid”. Nonetheless, if I were to ask those same experts to copy the cardinal’s coat-of-arms drawn by Bernini what would they come up with? They would draw me a strange little creature (an animal perhaps) crossed by a bend sinister which, as I said just now, is something extremely rare in heraldry. Then, if I asked them to copy the whole drawing by Bernini or one of his pupils (of which a much enlarged detail can be found) – because I needed it, say, as the basis for a similar building where the crest would no longer be of any interest – don’t you think they would indeed draw a dove surmounted by a bend sinister? So it wouldn’t really be so surprising if the anonymous draftsman, in copying the design I suppose to be by Bernini, completely misrepresented the Pamphili crest that the great artist (or someone on his behalf) had barely outlined and which, in the original, was almost unrecognisable.
Moreover, though without the bend sinister, there is also the coat-of-arms with the prince’s coronet Bernini himself sculpted (or designed) for Cardinal Camillo Pamphili. This can still be seen over the porch of the church of Sant’Andrea al Quirinale and its composition and ornamental arrangement are incredibly similar to the crest in the sketch that interests us. Where, then, did the architect intend to build this grandiose edifice? The answer this time is much simpler and backs up everything I have said so far about the sketch. The present Palazzo della Stamperia, in the street of the same name that runs along the right-hand side of the Trevi fountain, just opposite the old Palazzo Carpegna, belonged to the Cornaro family until 18 October 1647, when Lady Olimpia Pamphili, the omnipotent sister-in-law of Innocent X, bought it for 19,000 scudi. I shan’t go into the history of the palazzo, but will say only that, at least since 1638 – the date of the engraving published by G. B. De Rossi [Palazzi diversi] – its architecture corresponds exactly to that in the drawing (which dates to 1653) and remains almost unchanged to this day. If we now compare the Bernini design with that façade, we shall see why the first storey windows are almost at ground level (as they still are) and the reason for the large space between the top of the second storey windows and the pediment: the architect intended to remove the third storey with its square windows and use the space for the cornice and, in particular, the long pediment-cum-balustrade for the statues. Next Page...
