Bernardino Cardinal Spada (April 21, 1594 – November 10, 1661) was a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and a great patron of the arts, whose collection may be seen at Palazzo Spada, Rome. April 21 is the 111th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (112th in leap years). ... Events February 27 - Henry IV is crowned King of France at Rheims. ... November 10 is the 314th day of the year (315th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 51 days remaining. ... Events January 6 - The fifth monarchy men unsuccessfully attempt to seize control of London. ... A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official in the Roman Catholic Church, ranking just below the Pope and appointed by him as a member of the College of Cardinals during a consistory. ... The Roman Catholic Church (also known as the Catholic Church) is that Christian Church which is led by the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, currently Pope Benedict XVI. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that it is the one holy catholic and apostolic Church founded by Jesus Christ. ...

Shortly after being ordained, Bernardino Spada was appointed papal nuncio to the court of France, December 1623, in preparation for which he was ordained a bishop. He was made a cardinal January 19, 1626 and served in the Papal Curia. He was successively Bishop of Albano, Frascati, Sabina and Palestrina. The Roman Curia is the administrative apparatus of the Holy See, coordinating and providing the necessary organisation for the correct functioning of the Roman Catholic Church and the achievement of its goals. ... There are communes that have the name Albano in Italy: Albano di Lucania, in the province of Potenza Albano Laziale, in the province of Rome Albano SantAlessandro, in the province of Bergamo Albano Vercellese, in the province of Vercelli This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists... Frascati is a town in the province of Rome in the Latium region of central Italy. ... Sabina, the region in the Sabine Hills of Latium named for the Sabines, is the ancient territory that is today identified with the Province of Rieti, in Lazio (Roman Latium). ... Palestrina (ancient Praeneste) was and is a very ancient city of Latium (modern Lazio) 23 miles (37 km) east of Rome, and was reached by the Via Praenestina (see below). ...

The Palazzo Spada associated with Cardinal Spada was originally built in 1540 for Cardinal Girolamo Capodiferro (1501–1559). Bartolomeo Baronino di Casale, of Monferrato, was the architect and Giulio Mazzoni and a team provided lavish stuccowork inside and out. The palazzo was purchased by Cardinal Spada in 1632. He commissioned Francesco Borromini to modify it for him, and it was Borromini who created the masterpiece of trompe-l'oeil false perspective in the arcaded courtyard, in which diminishing rows of columns and a rising floor create the optical illusion of a gallery 37 meters long (it is 8 meters) with a lifesize sculpture in daylight beyond: the sculpture in 60 cm high. Borromini was aided in his perspective trick by a mathematician. Francesco Borromini (Bissone near Lugano, Switzerland, September 25, 1599 – August 3, 1667 in Rome) was a Baroque architect, and active in Rome alongside the more prolific papal architect, Gian Lorenzo Bernini. ... Trompe-lÅ“il mural on building in Narbonne, France. ...

The Mannerist stucco sculptural decor of the palazzo's front and its courtyard façades feature sculptures crowded into niches and fruit and flower swags, grotesches and vignettes of symbolic devices (impresi) in bas-relief among the small framed windows of a mezzanine, the richest cinquecento façades in Rome. Mannerism is the term used to describe the artistic style that arose in mid-16th century. ... A mezzanine is an intermediate floor between main floors of a building; it is often low-ceilinged, and often projects in the form of a balcony. ...

The colossal sculpture of Pompey the Great, reputed to be the very one at whose feet Julius Caesar fell, was rediscovered under the party wall of two Roman houses in 1552: it was to be decapitated to satisfy the claims of both parties, which appalled Cardinal Capodiferro so, that he interceded on the sculpture's behalf with the Pope, who purchased it, then donated it to the Cardinal. and given by Pope Julius III to Cardinal Capodiferro. This article refers to the Roman General. ... A bust of Julius Caesar. ... Julius III, né Gian Maria del Monte or Giovan Maria Giocci (September 10, 1487 – March 23, 1555), was pope from February 7, 1550 to 1555. ...

Cardinal Spada's collection, which includes four galleries of 16th and 17th-century paintings by Andrea del Sarto, Guido Reni, Titian, Jan Brueghel the Elder, Guercino, Rubens, Dürer, Caravaggio, Domenichino, the Carracci, Salvator Rosa, Parmigianino, Francesco Solimena and Artemisia Gentileschi, has the additional interest of being hung in the 17th-century manner, frame-to-frame, with smaller pictures "skied" above larger ones. Palazzo Spada was purchased by the Italian State in 1927 and today houses the Concilio di Stato, which meets in its richly frescoed and stuccoed rooms. A self portrait Andrea del Sarto (Andrea dAgnolo di Francesco di Luca di Paolo del Migliore, Gualfonda, Florence, 1487 - Florence, 1531) was a painter of the Italian Renaissance. ... Autoportrait Guido at his best: Abduction of Deianira, 1620-21 Guido Reni (November 4, 1575 - August 18, 1642 was a prominent Bolognese painter of high-Baroque style. ... Titian. ... Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625) was a Flemish painter, son of Pieter Brueghel the Elder and father of Jan Brueghel the Younger. ... The Italian painter Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (1591—1666) known as Guercino, was born at Cento, a village not far from Bologna. ... The Adoration of the Magi, painted 1624. ... Self-Portrait, 1493, Oil on Canvas Albrecht Dürer (May 21, 1471 - April 6, 1528) was a German painter, wood carver, engraver, and mathematician. ... Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (September 28, 1573 – July 18, 1610), usually called Caravaggio after his hometown near Milan, was an Italian Baroque painter, whose large religious works portrayed saints and other biblical figures as ordinary people. ... Domenico Zampieri (or Domenichino) (October 21, 1581 - April 15, 1641), Italian painter, born at Bologna, was the son of a shoemaker. ... The Flight into Egypt (1603) Oil on canvas, 122 x 230 cm Galleria Doria_Pamphili, Rome Annibale Carracci (November 3, 1560, in Bologna - July 15, 1609, in Rome) was an Italian painter, etcher and engraver. ... Salvator Rosa (1615 - March 15, 1673) was an Italian painter and poet of the Neapolitan school. ... Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror(c. ... Solimenas magisterial self-portrait, 1730 Francesco Solimena (Canale di Serino, near Avellino, October 4, 1657— Barra, near Naples, April 3, 1747) was a prolific Italian painter of the Baroque era, one of an established family of painters and draughtsmen. ... Judith Beheading Holofernes (1612-21) Oil on canvas 199 x 162 cm Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence Artemisia Gentileschi (July 8, 1593 - 1653) is today considered one of the most accomplished Early Baroque painters in the generation influenced by Caravaggio (the Caravaggisti). In an era when women painters were not easily...

External links

• Catholic Hierarchy: Bernardino Cardinal Spada
• Dido's Death, Guercino, commissioned from Guercino by Cardinal Spada, 1631, on behalf of Marie de Medici (Palazzo Spada)
• Official website
• Satellite photo- The Farnese is the large square palace at the left, while one block along the same street in the smaller Palazzo Spada with its gardens facing the Tiber.