Vatican Museums

Second volume of the Dentro il Palazzo (Inside the Palace) series, dedicated to arts, furnishings and collections of Roman palaces between the late Renaissance and Baroque periods.
The prestigious works produced in Rome in the public and private spheres in the late 17^th and early 18^th century are analysed following the evolution of taste and exploring the distinctive features of the age: colour and magnificence.

The first section is dedicated to the codes of decoration and luxury conceived of as fiction; the second considers some expressions of the Baroque imagination in sculpture and architecture; the third section recounts the habits and traditions of court life, such as collecting and elaborate convivial ceremonies. This is followed by detailed notes on specific cases, emblematic of Baroque taste, such as Villa Aldobrandini in Frascati, the sumptuous night nocturnal clocks and the preciousness of the Odescalchi collection.

The volume is complete with an extensive photographic apparatus with reproductions of paintings, sculptures, views of rooms and galleries of prestigious palaces, furnishings and ornaments, interiors of churches and basilicas, examples of Renaissance and Baroque architecture, engravings and drawings.