DRAMMA AL QUIRINALE
1799 - Repubblica giacobina a Roma; papa
Pio VI è deportato in Francia.
La Repubblica giacobina ha tuttavia breve durata.
1800 - Prima restaurazione: Pio VII si ristabilisce a
Roma.
1809 - Roma è di nuovo sotto l'egemonia francese. Napoleone abolisce il potere temporale dei papi e proclama Roma seconda città dell'Impero: la città assiste al contrasto fra le esigenze di uno stato laico e il potere temporale della Chiesa. La confisca dei grandi patrimoni ecclesiastici e il trasferimento a funzionari francesi e italiani - laici - delle funzioni amministrative consentono notevoli sforzi verso un'embrionale industrializzazione e razionalizzazione dell'agricoltura. Anche gli scavi archeologici e i nuovi progetti urbanistici ebbero impulso: la risistemazione di Piazza del Popolo e alcuni interventi su chiese e palazzi di marcata impronta neoclassica sono il segno non effimero di questa breve ma intensa stagione, l'attenzione data all'igiene pubblica dopo secoli d'incuria è un'indicazione che avrà durevole sviluppo (vedi qui una serie di luoghi di Roma legati a Napoleone).
| Un santo contro la massoneria e il brigantaggio:
San Gasparo Del Bufalo |
In questa pagina:
Papa Pio VI
La Prima Coalizione
La Repubblica Romana
Papa Pio VII
Annessione all'Impero Francese
Restaurazione dello Stato Pontificio
Iconografia
Papa Pio VI
Il conclave che seguì alla morte di Papa Clemente
XIV, avvenuta il 22 settembre 1774, durò parecchi mesi e solo nel febbraio del 1775 i cardinali elessero
Giovanni Angelo Braschi, che scelse di chiamarsi Pio VI, maybe owing to a connection with the Ghislieri, the family
of Papa Pio V.
J. W.
Goethe, the German writer who travelled to Rome in October 1786 made
the following remark about the conditions of the Papal State:
One
look is sufficient to show that the people (of Tuscany) enjoyed a lucky
succession of good governments. The most striking thing about Tuscany is
that all the public works, the roads and the bridges, look beautiful and
imposing. They are at one and the same time efficient and neat, combining
usefulness with grace, and everywhere one observes the care with which
things are looked after, a refreshing contrast to the Papal States, which
seem to keep alive only because the earth refuses to swallow them.
(Italian Journey)
Many parts of Italy knew a significant economic
development during the second half of the XVIIIth century: the good
administration of Austria in Lombardy and that of the Austrian dynasties
in Parma, Modena and Tuscany improved communication and trade, favoured
the development of advanced farming techniques, reduced army related
expense and introduced effective and fair judiciary and fiscal systems. In
1786 the Grand Duke of Tuscany, influenced by Cesare Beccaria's book On
Crimes and Punishments, became the first sovereign to end the death
penalty; he also promoted the execution of profitable public works such as
the drainage of Val di Chiana.
The comparison between Tuscany
and the Papal State was so unfavourable for the latter that Pope Pius VI
decided to embark upon a major plan of public works aimed at reclaiming
the Pontine marshes which were located to the south of Rome (see a page on
Terracina).
Results were rather poor, but Luigi Onesti Braschi, the nephew of the
pope, made a fortune by being involved in many dealings related to the
execution of the drainage.
In 1782 Pope Pius VI visited Vienna in an
attempt to convince Emperor Joseph II not to go ahead with his religious
reforms. In his journey to Vienna the pope stopped in many towns and
paid a visit to Venice; he was heartily welcomed everywhere, but overall
his journey seemed to many a sort of going to
Canossa with reversed roles. Emperor Joseph II and his successor, his
brother Leopold II (previously Grand Duke Leopold I of Tuscany) went ahead
with their plans to put the clergy entirely under the control of the lay
power.
(a sinistra) Obelisco in Piazza del Quirinale; (a destra) punta dell'obelisco di fronte a Trinità dei Monti.
Papa Pio VI cercò di restaurare il carismi papale aumentando il numero e la pompa delle celebrazioni religiose.
J. W. Goethe partecipò alla Messa Solenne di Natale 1786 e così la descrisse nel suo Viaggio in Italia:
On Christmas Day I saw the Pope
with the assembled clergy in St Peter's, where he
celebrated High Mass. At times he sat on his throne, at others he stood in
front of it. It is a spectacle unique in its kind, magnificent and
dignified. But I am so old a protestant Diogenes that the effect on me of
this splendour was more negative than positive. Like my pious predecessor,
I should like to say to these spiritual conquerors of the world: Do not
come between me and the sun of sublime art and simple humanity. Goethe
saw the pope also at a ceremony for the Feast of All Souls (November 2,
1786) and described him with these words: .. the Holy Father (was) a
beautiful and venerable figure of a man.
Pope Pius VI restored the
Obelisco di Augusto
and relocated it in Piazza di
Montecitorio; he also placed two other obelisks in Piazza del
Quirinale and in front of Trinità dei Monti; it clearly was an attempt to
imitate the grandeur of some popes of the past.
The growing
interest for the ancient sculptures led him to redesign most of Palazzo del Belvedere to
place the masterpieces of the papal collections in an appropriate and more
logical way: for this reason he assembled in the Animal Room all the
sculptures portraying animals.
La Prima Coalizione
The French Revolution which started in
July 1789 soon led to laws limiting the role of the Church: in November
all religious properties were confiscated; in February 1790 all religious
orders and congregations were abolished; in July 1790 a decree established
that bishops should be elected by general constituencies; in November 1790
all members of the clergy were asked to take an oath of allegiance to the
Constitution. In March and April 1791 Pope Pius VI reacted by declaring
schismatic those members of the clergy who had complied with this
requirement. His bulls were publicly burned by the revolutionaries and
eventually the National Assembly declared that Avignone and the
nearby other papal possessions were an integral part of the French
Nation.
Appeals by the pope, by members of the French royal family and
by cardinals who had fled France, fell flat as the other European nations
were reluctant to intervene; overall they were pleased at the destruction
of the power of France and of her influence in Europe by her internal
disorders.
In the end, France declared war first, with the Assembly
voting for war on Austria and its allies in April 1792. Pope Pius VI
joined the wide coalition (the first of a long series) aimed at restoring
the Ancien Régime, the political and social system which existed in
France before the Revolution.
The Papal State was very weak from a
military viewpoint, but Pope Pius VI was confident the war would have been
fought in France and the trained troops of the coalition would have easily
defeated the disorganized armies raised by the revolutionary government.
It seemed an easy mission to accomplish.
Things turned out differently
and in 1796 a French army led by Napoleon Bonaparte, a young general, made
a daring expedition across the Alps, defeated the Sardinian troops and
then the Austrian ones and occupied Milan; Bonaparte then advanced
eastwards and in June laid siege to Mantua, the strongest Austrian base in
Italy: his troops invaded the Papal State and on June 23 Pope Pius VI, in
order to obtain a ceasefire, agreed to surrender the papal territories of
Bologna and Ferrara, to pay a large sum as a compensation for war damage
and to send to Paris a list of works of art.
In February 1797 Bonaparte
claimed that the pope had resumed his alliance with Austria and moved
towards Rome: the pope in a desperate attempt to stop him agreed to
surrender all his northern territories and to pay an even larger amount.
The gigantic statue of solid silver portraying St Ignace in il Gesù was melted down
to make up the silver due to France.
Palazzo Braschi: (a sinistra)
lato che dà su Piazza Navona; (al centro) particolare del cortile interno;
(a destra) scalone principale.
Pope Pius VI placed large coats of arms to
celebrate minor repairs or renovations: occasionally they were of a
gigantic size (see that in S. Spirito in Sassia):
he had a complex coat of
arms showing Borea (a wind) blowing on lilies: the image in the
background of this page shows this detail.
The main building erected by
Pope Pius VI was Sacrestia di S. Pietro,
while his nephew enlarged an existing palace near Piazza Navona; the
renovated building was designed by Giuseppe Valadier in a Neo-Renaissance
style which became a model for many XIXth century palaces.
Il nome di Pio VI è associato a molte immagini sacre which
behaved in a miraculous way when Bonaparte invaded the Papal States: the
pope granted special indulgences to those who prayed at these images (see
madonnella a Borgo
Pio, that opposite
Arco dei Pantani and that near Palazzo
Mattei Paganica).
La Repubblica Romana
The ideals of the Revolution greatly helped the Republican armies
at war against the various Italian sovereigns. French troops were not seen
by many Italians as invaders, but rather as liberators from the tyranny of
the local rulers: rebellions in many towns favoured the advance of the
French army; these rebellions were often organized by French agents; one
such agent tried to raise the Romans against the pope, but in the course
of the riots he was leading he was killed by papal soldiers: the event
gave the pretext to Bonaparte to send French troops from Naples (which had
fallen into their hands a few months earlier) to Rome.
They occupied
the city in February 1798, almost without opposition; the Romans who
believed in the revolutionary ideals, gathered in Foro Romano and declared
the restoration of the Repubblica Romana.
French troops sacked and looted the papal residence at Palazzo del Quirinale:
according to an account of the event not even the doors were left in
place.
Pope Pius VI was deposed and sent first to Siena and then to a
monastery near Florence; in 1799 the situation of the French in Italy
worsened: Bonaparte was involved in a long campaign in Egypt and in
southern Italy Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo led the Armata Cristiana della
Santa Fede (Christian Army of the Holy Faith) to regain control of
Naples; the French decided to move the pope outside Italy and the old man,
accompanied by a few priests, was transferred to Grenoble and later on to
Valence: in this town Pope Pius VI died after a few days: his pontificate
lasted more than 24 years, thus confirming the general thought that no
pope would stay in office for 25 years.
In May 1799 the French were
forced out of Naples and in September they had to leave Rome which was
occupied by troops of the King of Naples.
Accademia di S. Luca (gilda degli artisti romani): project for a military academy.
Una delle prime decisioni della Repubblica Romana fu di abbattere le porte del Ghetto dove gli Ebrei dovevano ritirarsi ogni notte. Gli stemmi dei papi in Castel Sant'Angelo furono tutti scalpellati via dai soldati Francesi.
Although the move
from Baroque to Neoclassicism occurred before the French Revolution, the
changes in society and public opinion caused by this event strengthened
the view that all Italian and Roman art after Michelangelo had been an
uninterrupted period of decadence. Even the young architects who submitted
their works to the periodic competitions organized by Accademia di S. Luca
were careful to show they had not been influenced by the "bad taste" of
Bernini and Borromini (see how the fortune of
Borromini in the tourist guides evolved during the XIXth century).
Papa Pio VII
La morte di Papa Pio VI non fu immediatamente seguita dal conclave; solo verso la fine dell'anno l'Austria
took the initiative to promote a meeting of the cardinals which took place
nel monastero Veneziano di San Giorgio Maggiore (nel 1797 Bonaparte nonostante la Serenissima avesse dichiarato la sua neutralità,
mise fine alla sua indipendenza e la offrì all'Austria in cambio della LOmbardia).
The French were
driven out of Italy by a Russian army and Austria thought that the
election of a pope could help to restore the old political situation. The
cardinals however spent more than four months before agreeing to elect
Cardinal Barnaba Chiaramonti, who chose to be called Pope Pius VII. The
Austrian emperor wanted the pope to set his residence in Vienna, but Pope
Pius VII insisted that he should return to Rome, which he eventually did
on July 3, 1800.
On that day however the situation had already changed;
Bonaparte on June 14 won a decisive battle at Marengo: the news of the
victory was described in Giacomo Puccini's Tosca:
| Sciarrone (Gendarme - basso): Eccellenza! quali
nuove!...
Scarpia (Capo della Polizia - baritono): Che vuol dir quell'aria afflitta? Sciarrone: Un messaggio di sconfitta... Scarpia: Che sconfitta? Come? Dove? Sciarrone: A Marengo... Scarpia: Tartaruga! Sciarrone: Bonaparte è vincitor! Scarpia: Melas... (Melas - comandante Austriaco) Sciarrone: No! Melas è in fuga!... Cavaradossi (pittore e patriota Italiano - tenore) : Vittoria! Vittoria! L'alba vindice appar che fa gli empi tremar! Libertà sorge, crollan tirannidi! Del sofferto martîr; me vedrai qui gioir... Il tuo cor trema, o Scarpia, carnefice! Tosca - Act II - Scena in Palazzo Farnese - |
Papa Pio VII assistito dal Segretario di Stato Cardinal Ercole Consalvi tried to keep
the Papacy and the Papal State out of the political and military turmoil:
he proclaimed an amnesty for those who had held positions in the Roman
Republic administration; he entered lengthy negotiations with Bonaparte,
by now the political leader (First Consul) of France, to sign an agreement
which restored Catholicism in France and its client republic in Italy
(which adopted the French tricolour flag - with green instead of
blue).
In 1804 Bonaparte felt he was ready to take absolute power in
France and managed to become Emperor Napoleon: for the coronation ceremony
he summoned the pope to Paris, although he crowned himself before crowning
his wife. A similar ceremony occurred one year later at Milan where
Napoleon was crowned with the iron crown of Lombardy, which was used by
the Germanic conquerors
of northern Italy. The supremacy of Napoleon on the continent was
increased by his victories at Austerlitz in December 1805 against the
Third Coalition and at Jena and Friedland in 1807 against the Fourth
Coalition.
Napoleon issued a series of decrees which brought into
effect the Continental System which was aimed at reducing the power of
Britain by closing French-controlled territory to its trade.
Pope Pius
VII refused to comply with these decrees claiming the independency of the
Papal State.
Restauri di antichi edifici:
(a sinistra) Arco di Tito; (a destra) Colosseo
Although
some popes had already taken initiatives for the restoration and
maintenance of the monuments of Ancient Rome it is only during the
pontificate of Pope Pius VII that this activity was seen as requiring a
systematic approach and as not needing any longer to be justified from a
religious viewpoint.
Pope Pius VII was even prepared to sacrifice some
churches and monasteries to bring to light the ruins dei Mercati Traianei; a major
intervention safeguarded the outer structure of Colosseo; excavations were
conducted nel Foro Romano che non fu più usato come un cattle market; the tombs along Via Appia Antica were
restored and their inscriptions were reconstructed; Arco di Tito was freed
from the adjoining medieval walls and later on brought back to its
original appearance. Some of these restorations took many years and were
completed during the second French occupation of Rome or even after the
pope returned to power.
The artist who stood like a new Michelangelo
during this very difficult period was Antonio Canova, whose services were
requested by all European sovereigns: he designed funerary monuments
for the Austrian rulers as well as for the British King, he
worked for Napoleon and for Pope Pius VII (for whom he designed a statue
of Perseus to replace Apollo del Belvedere, which was sent to Paris).
Annessione all'Impero
Francese
Nel 1809 Napoleone sconfisse di nuovo gli Austraici a Wagram (V Coalizione) and imposed harsh
conditions on the loser which included his marriage to Marie Louise, the
daughter of Emperor Francis.
While he was still fighting the Austrians
the French Emperor felt he could no longer tolerate the lack of support
showed by Pope Pius VII and he declared the annexation of Rome to the
French Empire. The pope reacted by excommunicating Napoleon. On the night
of July 5, 1809 French troops assaulted Palazzo del Quirinale:
the papal guards were instructed not to oppose resistance. The pope was
arrested and transferred to France: he always refused to officially set
his residence in Paris and for many years he lived in Fontainebleau in a
condition close to house arrest.
Rome was declared second capital of
the French Empire and the child Napoleon had from his second wife was
given the title of King of Rome. Notwithstanding these honorific
aspects Rome was entirely ruled according to the wishes of the central
government in Paris. Some members of the great Roman families accepted
positions in the French administration: Prince Camillo Borghese married
Paolina, a sister of Napoleon and sold his collections of paintings and
statues to France; Luigi Braschi Onesti, the nephew of Pope Pius VI,
jumped on the winner's wagon and was appointed Mayor of Rome.
The
French introduced radical reforms: the Napoleonic Code replaced the
papal very messy judicial system; the Italian hour
was replaced by the European one and the traditional systems of
measurements were replaced by the metric system. The sort of welfare state
which existed in Rome and which was based on religious charities was
dissolved; conscription was introduced; the education system was entirely
redesigned; burial in churches was forbidden.
I Romani erano soliti passeggiare nei giardini di Villa Borghese which
were always open to them owing to a clause of Cardinal Scipione
Borghese's will. The French administration however felt that Rome
ought to have a proper public walk: the site chosen was il Pincio, near Villa Medici che fu acquistata dalla Francia nel 1804. The northern part of this site was overlooking
Piazza del Popolo and eventually the project for the walk included also
the redesign of the piazza.
Many XVIIIth century travellers described
with admiration this piazza and the view of the three streets departing
from it; however they also noted that the buildings surrounding it were
not appropriate for the entrance to the Eternal City.
Pope Pius VI
commissioned a project to Giuseppe Valadier who recommended to build on
both sides of the piazza two huge barracks preceded by a double portico.
Due to political events nothing was done but the project was again
considered during the French administration. Louis-Martin Berthault, the
Imperial architect and landscaper, negatively reviewed the project and
suggested a large open space linked to the gardens he had in mind for il
Pincio. Eventually Berthault's project was endorsed by Napoleon; the
gardens were called Jardins du Grand César and a gigantic ancient
statue of Rome was to be placed on the terrace overlooking Piazza del
Popolo (it is now in the private gardens of Villa Medici). The whole
decoration of the alleys leading to the main terrace was a reminder of
Ancient Rome and this explains the presence of copies of the Dacian
prisoners of Arco di Costantino and of decorated columns
celebrating the naval victories of Ancient Rome.
Piazza del Popolo:
building and fountain designed by Giuseppe
Valadier.
Valadier prepared an entirely new project for
Piazza del Popolo; it involved the construction of four rather dull
identical buildings at the corners of the square; Valadier also relocated
the existing fountain and designed a new one around the obelisk.
The
completion of both the piazza and the gardens took place after the end of
the French administration.
Restaurazione dello Stato
Pontificio
Dopo la sconfitta di Napoleone
in Russia e a Lipsia, ambassadors from the major powers met in Vienna
in September 1814 to redraw the continent's political map. The Papal State
returned under the rule of the pope, with the exception of Avignon and the
nearby territories which remained part of France.
Pope Pius VII
returned to Rome and abolished most of the reforms introduced by the
French; he restored the Jesuit order and imposed to the Jews to live again
in the Ghetto. The attempt to impose a Conservative Order, in which peace
and stability were traded for liberties and civil rights did not take into
account how deeply the Roman society had changed between 1798 and 1814. In
addition the northern part of the Papal State had been part of an Italian
Kingdom, although only for a few years and under the strict supervision of
France; many people of Bologna and Romagna felt that being tied to Rome
did not make sense any longer; strong anticlerical feelings undermined the
papal authority.
In 1821, members of Carboneria, a secret
society calling for constitutional reforms and Italian unity, were
arrested in many parts of Italy. The pope issued a formal condemnation of
these societies and of their objectives; he became more and more
instrumental to the design of the Austrian Prime Minister Prince von
Metternich for ensuring the stability of Europe by preventing
revolutionary movements.
Pope Pius VII bore Napoleon no grudge; the
emperor's mother settled in Rome in Palazzo d'Aste and
Lucien Bonaparte, one of the emperor's brothers, conducted archaeological
excavations near Canino for many years.
Foligno: S. Nicolò: 1492 missing "predella" of the polyptych by Niccolò Alunno
Pope Pius VII and some of the wealthiest Roman families tried
to obtain the return of the many works of art which had left the country
in the previous years. The Borghese managed to reconstitute their painting
galleries, but were unable to recover their ancient statues and for this
reason they started a campaign of excavations in their possessions to find
"new" ones. Antonio Canova, on behalf of the pope, raised the issue with
the French King Louis XVIII. The king, who had been a fierce opponent of
the Revolution and of Napoleon, nevertheless claimed that the documents
(treaties, confiscations, purchases) legally supported the right of his
country to retain the works of art. Eventually a compromise was reached,
occasionally at the detriment of the work of art itself: a polyptych by
Niccolò Alunno ended up by being divided from its predella which
remained at the Louvre: Pope Pius VII placed a panel of the same size of
the missing piece: a lengthy inscription explained how in 1812 the whole
work of art was sent to Paris and how in 1817 its upper part returned to
Foligno.
Il 16 luglio 1823 un incendio distrusse buona parte di S. Paolo fuori le Mura,
ma la notizia non fu data al papa in agonia, che morì il 20 agosto senza sapere that the historic and artistic heritage of Rome had
received such a blow.
Iconografia
The following external links show works
of art portraying characters and events mentioned in this page:
J. W. Goethe
in the Roman Campagna by J. H. W. Tischbein (1786) - Städelsches
Kunstinstitut - Frankfurt.
Pius
VI's visit to the Pontine Marshes by Louis Ducros (1786) - Museo di
Roma - Rome.
Morte
di Papa Pio VI engraving by Angelo Campanella (1805).
Napoleon come Marte
Pacificatore di Antonio Canova (1809) - Museo di Brera - Milan.
Opere di Antonio Canova
tra il 1801 e il 1815.
Consacrazione
dell'Imperatore Napoleon I di Jacques-Louis David (1805-07) - Musée du
Louvre - Paris.
