During French occupation, when Carlo Emanuele IV brought his entire family into exile with him, the residence was looted for its precious objects collected over generations. The palace, during the previous French siege in 1706, had once seemed like a safe haven, with its imposing underground spaces, that Vittorio Amedeo II had chosen it as a storage area for the royal works of art even though these rooms were not actually safe from attack by the enemy.
The foldable fan with depictions of the Teatro Regio and the Teatro Carignano, made in Turin, are an interesting testimony of the fashion of these objects, which spread across Europe in the final decades of the 1700s. One example from the Museum’s collection was made for the theatrical season 1780–1781, as can be inferred by comparing the names they bear with inventories of the company that managed city performances. Of the two theatres portrayed, the Regio is devoted to melodramas and operas, whereas the Carignano hosts comedies
Episodes from the lives of Alexander and Hannibal enjoyed great success in the decorations at the Savoy residences. Two enormous canvases by Claudio Francesco Beaumont depict them and accompany the palace waiting rooms, before being donated to the Musée Savoisien in Chambéry by Vittorio Emanuele II around the mid-1800s. The court tapestry manufacture, founded by Carlo Emanuele II and active as early as 1731 with Beaumont who designed the tapestries, used these stories on various occasions from the 1740s to the 1760s.
During his sojourn in Turin, the scientist describes “a lovely modern façade, embellished with Corinthian capitals, and trabeation that ends with a grand balustrade, with balconies, statues, and vases of great value.” In several other comments, he mentions the observations and opinions of Cochin, which would influence many foreign travelers in the future.
Drafted to present a grandiose design by the architect Benedetto Alfieri to complete and enlarge Palazzo Madama. The drawing depicts the grand hall visitors at the time could admire. Above the twelve pairs of personifications of the Savoy provinces in stuccowork, located on top of the ledge of the cornice, are also twelve medals in relief with busts seen in profile of the twelve Cesars, taken down in he 1800s to make room for a new painting installation.
One of the companions of the young brother of Madame de Pompadour, the future Marquis Martigny, during his Grand Tour of Italy he especially noted the opinions of Charles-Nicholas Cochin. The engraver and painter describes the façade as the “loveliest and most imposing in all of Turin.” He also noted something “in the form of the peristyle at the Louvre." In the memoirs of the most learned observers of his age, among the foreign travelers, Palazzo Madama almost seems like the most important building of the Savoy capital, the object of admiration compared with the other grand models of royal residences of the most powerful monarch of all: Louis XIV’s Louvre and Versailles.
Once the Palazzo was reinstalled, after Marie Jeanne Baptiste objects were looted, the building began attracting once more the praise of visitors in the 1700s. The anonymous writer of the document drafts a sort of guide of the royal residence to satisfy the curiosity of the “many very intelligent Foreigners who come to the Palace . . . the dilettanti of drawing and connoisseurs of Painting,” and after the gallery that from Palazzo Reale leads to the castle, he begins his description of the facade, the grand staircase of Palazzo Madama, and the grand hall, praising them for their magnificence.
Only 10 years from the completion of the building by Juvarra, the palace of the king of France becomes a standard by the German traveler and man of letters, Carl Ludwig von Pöllnitz, who gives his opinion of unconditional admiration for the building in Turin: "There is nothing more beautiful and perfect in modern architecture in Turin and perhaps in all of Europe than the façade of the palace that once belonged to the Madama Reale . . . Before the grand staircase was built, it was said that the palace of Madama Reale was a residence without stairs, and today it is a staircase without a residence." This paradox ends up becoming a recurrent topos in travel literature regarding the Palace.
This boat, ordered in Venice from the builders Matteo Calderoni and Monsieur Egidio, was made with the last lagoon bucentaur in mind, here repeating the lavishness as a small floating palace. The decorations are inspired by subject matter from the Savoy at the time and the furnishings include two small thrones and benches for the court, who sailed on the boat for dynastic ceremonies and special events. In 1869 the Real Casa gave the peotato City Hall, who in 1873 destined it to the Museo Civico d'Arte Antica. Since 2002 it has been on loan to the Reggia di Venaria.
Madama Reale was surrounded by a great number of works in silver and lavish furnishings, with a taste that favored Germanic and Northern European courts, but of her sumptuous treasures today the Palazzo holds nothing. Though the building was still used as a residence even after the duchess died, the dispersal of the inventoried objects was practically complete, as can be seen from the documents of appraisal and sale. For travelers at the time, like the German Johann Georg Keyssler or the Scottish Andrew Mitchell, the apartments must have seemed empty and without furnishings. Even subsequently, in 1740, Charles De Brosses found nothing except "a staircase without a palace."
Six large paintings, depicting Castello di Rivoli, were ordered by Vittorio Amedeo II in 1723 to Giovanni Paolo Pannini and other painters active at court. Two years after the commission, the works were completed and installed in Rivoli, where Montesquieu was able to admire them. Instead other travelers, like Bartoli (1776), Derossi (1781), and Paroletti (1819) found them at Palazzo Madama, where they offer an image of the "grandeur" of court to the ambassadors who visited the new Savoy capital. The series was eventually dispersed until 1937, when Umberto of Savoy found 5 of them; the sixth with the view from the east resurfaced in 1951 and is today on display in the Sala Guidobono.
Compiled upon the death of Marie Jeanne Baptiste, this document bears witness to the brilliance of this noble residence. The pages concerning the furnishings, gems, tapestries and textiles, paintings, and silverware give us an idea of the sumptuousness of the rooms that belonged to the second Madama Reale and are a useful tool to understanding the sequence of the rooms, the ceremonial itineraries, and the reasons behind the architecture and furnishings. The copy of paintings had a specific purpose: the countless portraits as gifts and exchange items between families, while sacred objects were used for private devotion.
Filippo Juvarra was an exceptional director of works. He had arrived in Turin eight years earlier. His interventions, for the wedding, updated Palazzo Reale, but the first royal architect also tried his hand at ephemeral constructions and lighting: Palazzo Madama was lit by 450 torches and candles and its façade overlooking the Po River hosted the royal court at midnight on March 24, enriched by allegories portraying the location but also the virtues of the royal couple. An engraving by Antoine Herisset based on a drawing by Juvarra displays the Castle during the festivities.
The architect printed two views, engraved by his student Filippo Vasconi, of his projects that were commissioned by Marie Jeanne Baptiste for Palazzo Madama and for the facades of the twin Churches of San Carlo and Santa Cristina, in Turin’s royal plaza, now Piazza San Carlo. For Juvarra this is a promotional initiative, required in order to make his work in Turin known to a vaster audience. The print of Palazzo Madama presents the entire project that proposes to envelop the old castle with new buildings.
The need for a staircase, in line with increasingly lavish ceremonies and rituals, grows even more pressing following the installation of the grand hall. The quality of the intervention by Filippo Juvarra, who is entrusted with the task, is measured against the rich linguistic vocabulary: the overall image is a majestic one of a royal palace that is able to enhance tradition and give expression to modern classicism. The architect aimed for a spacious loggia open on all sides but the weather in Turin obliged him to protect his construction with large windows.
Already present in the 1600s and now the official hall thanks to he acquired royal dignity of Vittorio Amedeo II, this chamber is characterized by a Doric order of columns of large proportions and an animated dialogue between the personifications of the Savoy provinces, sculpted by Carlo Tantardini and Giovanni Baratta. During the 19th-century restoration of the vault, the stuccowork on the second level was replaced by monochrome scenes painted by the équipe of Pietro Fea, with illustrious episodes of the Savoy family. In May 1848 the inaugural session of the Senate of the Kingdom is held here. Today, the hall hosts temporary exhibitions.
In the summer and fall, celebrations were held following the peace agreements in the war of Spanish succession and the new title for the Savoy family with the treaty of Utrecht. Fireworks were planned by City Hall in Piazza del Castello, in front of Palazzo Reale and Palazzo Madama. The citizens and new subjects who arrived from Sicily for the King’s celebrations saw the fireworks machine designed by Plantery: the triangle alluded to the shape of the island that was conquered, and the three sides celebrate the main states of the kingdom: Piedmont, Savoy, and Sicily.
The remodernization and decoration campaign of the royal apartments is entrusted to engineer Michelangelo Govone and concerns the entire first floor. The sequence of ceremonial spaces revolves around the new grand hall, which now more than ever takes on a pivotal role. The most significant and costly interventions include the stuccowork by Pietro Somasso, the decorations by Giovanni Battista Lanfranchi and Carlo Pozzo, and the frescoed vaults by Domenico Guidobono. In 1713 a garden was also installed, a depiction of which can be found in a view by Giovanni Battista Borra from 1749.
Starting in the early 1700s, the second Madama Reale Marie Jeanne Baptiste of Savoy-Nemours promotes a series of refurbishments to the official residence in the castle of Turin, which lasts, in successive campaigns, for the first two decades and up until her passing, in 1724. War with France and the siege of the city, which ended in the victorious battle held in 1706 and led by Vittorio Amedeo II alongside Prince Eugenio, used all available resources for the emergency, thus causing an abrupt interruption of work that had just started on Palazzo Madama.
