A separate branch of the Pinacoteca Nazionale, it is also known as Palazzo Pepoli “Nuovo [New]”, to distinguish it from the “Vecchio [Old]”, the 14th-century residence of the Pepoli family located on the opposite side of Via Castiglione.
Building began in 1653 at the behest of Odoardo Pepoli, and the new palace was conceived as a stately, modern and opulent residence, suitably reflecting the social prestige attained by the Pepoli family who, first as cloth merchants and later as money changers and bankers, had grown remarkably affluent to the point of becoming one of the most prominent senatorial families in Bologna.
The construction of the palace, whose designer’s name is not known, began with the impressive and elegant monumental staircase, a dramatic space that was used for the kind of ceremonies that characterised Baroque aristocratic society. It provides a direct connection between the courtyard and the Salone d’onore [Hall of Honour]. On the vaulted ceiling of the staircase are two oval frescoes painted in 1665 by Domenico Maria Canuti (Bologna, 1625 – 1684) depicting Taddeo Pepoli che viene nominato signore della città [Taddeo Pepoli being appointed Lord of the City] and Taddeo Pepoli che viene confermato Vicario apostolico da Benedetto XlI [Taddeo Pepoli being confirmed as Apostolic Vicar by Benedetto XII]. The daring foreshortenings, the mobile spatial layout, the bold brushwork, and the use of a generous colour palette with Venetian hues are all devices that serve to inspire awe.
On the piano nobile or main floor of the palace is a series of rooms splendidly frescoed by the leading Bolognese decorative artists between the second half of the 17th and early 18th centuries.
The Salone d’Onore [Hall of Honour]
The Salone d’Onore [Hall of Honour] was decorated between 1669 and 1671 by Domenico Maria Canuti. After making the two oval paintings for the staircase, Canuti worked with the quadraturist Domenico Santi, known as Mengazzino (Bologna, 1621 -1694) to create the large fresco of the Apoteosi di Ercole [Apotheosis of Heracles] for Odoardo Pepoli. In the centre of each side of the hall are four gilded monochrome medallions depicting episodes from the stories of Heracles: La liberazione di Alcesti dall’Ade [The Liberation of Alcestis from Hades], La contesa del tripode di Delfi [The Struggle for the Tripod of Delphi], Ercole e i Cercopi [Heracles and the Cercopes] and I pomi delle Esperidi [The Apples of Hesperides].
At the base of the vaulted ceiling, the bichrome black and white chequered coat of arms of the Pepoli family, repeated in the flooring of the hall, alludes to the chess or checker board, the work tool used by money-changers. It also has the heraldic insignias of the wives of the various members of the family and is surmounted by the swan, another Pepoli symbol that, together with the chessboard, is seen frequently in the decoration of the piano nobile.
the Sala di Felsina [Hall of Felsina]
Following Odoardo’s death in 1680, the works continued with his nephew Ercole, who became a senator in 1683 and joined the Venetian nobility in 1686. This second event is most probably alluded to in the ceiling of the Sala di Felsina [Hall of Felsina], painted in 1690 and dominated by the Trionfo di Felsina [Triumph of Felsina], a complex allegorical depiction that features a young blonde woman advancing seated on a chariot drawn by the winged lions of Venice, while a putto crowns her with the ducal headdress. She is the personification of the Aristocrazia bolognese [Bolognese aristocracy], accompanied by handmaidens bearing the attributes of power – the lictor fasces and the club, a reference to Heracles, and the city’s heraldic insignia – introduced on the right by a putto intent on breaking the chains, the symbol of the papal rule from which the local nobility aspired to emancipate themselves.
The use of soft colours and smooth shapes defines the composed and classical style of the authors of this ceiling, the brothers Giuseppe (Bologna, 1645 – 1727) and Antonio Rolli (Bologna, 1643 – 1695), respectively figurist and painter of architecture, heirs to the tradition of the quadrature work in vogue in Bologna since the first half of the 17th century and still continued in the 18th century thanks to the scenographic contributions of the Bibiena family.
the Sala delle Stagioni [Hall of the Seasons]
Giuseppe Maria Crespi (Bologna, 1665 – 1747) was in charge of the unconventional decoration of the Sala delle Stagioni [Hall of the Seasons], created in 1699-1700, which takes its name from the presence of the allegories of the Stagioni [Seasons] positioned along the cornice. Each allegory is accompanied by dishevelled and busy children, equally involved in the provocative game devised by the painter, who was determined to subvert the usual compositional hierarchies and introduce the spontaneous tone of the genre scene into the context of the grand decoration.
The imbalance between the figures of the Stagioni [Seasons] and the room’s main subject was not appreciated by Count Ercole Pepoli, nor by his successor Alessandro. There were even plans to destroy the frescoes (including those in the next room, painted in the same period), but thanks to the mediation of Grand Prince Ferdinando de’ Medici, who had in the meantime become Crespi’s protector, it was agreed that some retouching could be done instead.
the Sala dell’Olimpo [Hall of Olympus]
Once the ceiling decoration with the Seasons was completed, in the same years, Giuseppe Maria Crespi was engaged to work on the Sala dell’Olimpo [Hall of Olympus] where, even more than in the previous room, there is a clear departure from the tradition of quadraturism.
The artist worked alone, avoiding the inclusion of painted architecture, and creating a vast landscape starting from the impost of the vaulted ceiling. Here, a setting somewhere between sea and forest, portrayed in shades of grey and blue and with the fiery glow of the sky as a counterpoint, is the site of an ideal Olympus, where the clouds create a concentric space dominated at the apex by the Chariot of the Sun driven by Apollo.
the Sala di Alessandro [Alexander Room]
After the death of Ercole Pepoli in 1707, work on the decoration of the palace continued with the Sala di Alessandro [Alexander Room] in which Alessandro Pepoli, like his predecessor, chose a hero of the same name, this time taken from ancient history, to exalt the house through his own person. The painter assigned to create the central scene with Alessandro Magno che taglia il nodo gordiano [Alexander cutting the Gordian Knot] was the talented Donato Creti (Cremona, 1671 – Bologna, 1749), who signed his name above the cornice, in a point that cannot be seen from below, adding the date of 1710 at the completion of the work. This fresco is one of the artist’s greatest masterpieces, recalling the anecdote of the cutting of the knot that tightened the yoke of King Midas’s ancestors’ chariot, cut by the Macedonian leader without hesitation, with a clean stroke of the sword, thereby fulfilling the prophecy of domination over Asia. The energetic figure of Alexander the Great stands out against the bright red of his mantle, a symbolic and visual highlight due in part to his position at the top of the steps of the temple of Zeus and in the fictional space of the architecture painted by Marc’Antonio Chiarini (Bologna, 1652 -1730).
The two gilded medallions at the base of the vaulted ceiling depict the episodes Alessandro con il suo maestro Aristotele [Alexander with his teacher Aristotle] and Alessandro sconfigge Dario alla battaglia di Isso. [Alexander defeats Darius at the Battle of Issus]. This is a complex layout in terms of perspective representation, openly celebratory and executed with great virtuosity, undoubtedly pleasing to the patrons, since it represented the “return to order” exemplified by the reappearance of the illusionistic framing of the quadrature and Creti’s classical style. Its constructive decisiveness and refined, flawless design contrast with the vitality and naturalness of Crespi’s frescoes.