Gallery Museum Palace Valenti Gonzaga

The Cardinals

Perhaps nothing can better describe the personality of an individual than list of goods that belonged to him: this is precisely the case of Cardinal Silvio Valenti Gonzaga (born in Mantua March 1th, 1690), whose paintings collected in his villa in Rome reveal his refined taste and firm choices as he was determined to own the paintings of the great Italian Renaissance painters like Raffaello, Tiziano, Correggio. Ever since that time his collection had to be famous:it was immortalized by the contemporary painter Gian Paolo Pannini in a painting where the cardinal entertains visitors, who admire the walls covered with the famous canvas.

The collection had to be really rich, judging from the description in the list , which unfortunately mentions the pictorial subjects too hurriedly, with more precision for their dimensions and leaves some gaps in indicating the authors. Despite these limitations, the list reveals important names, especially it makes known that the Cardinal had that portrait of Baldassare Castiglione, painted by Raphael in the period when that famaous man was known in Rome as an ambassador of the Duke of Urbino around 1515, as Valenti wanted to get an incision for enclosing his collection of letters.

His admiration for Raphael was not confined to the fact that he had one of his paintings, as we can see he was also promoter of a reproduction series of the Logge Vaticane frescoed by Sanzio for Pope Leo X, with the result of a volume of 79 sheets, executed with a technique in chiaroscuro, whose title page shows a scene in Rococo style with the cardinal’s coat –of-arms and the dedicatory table below. Therefore, the Cardinal’s humanistic interest reveals a sensitivity and a culture that come from the family education taught for centuries to the noble offspring through the study of and a particular attention to literature, but also other art sectors such as music, painting and archaeology.

He lived in the family with his brother Odoardo, when the conditions of the house could ensure a certain well-being and he was protected by the Austrian who had just settled in the state of Mantua. Silvio got on very rapidly through the stages of his ecclesiastical career, as in 1724 he had already been appointed Archimandrite of Messina and then Papal Nuncio in Belgium and in Spain under Clement XII.

He became Papa Benedetto XIV ‘s (Prospero Lambertini, Bologna 1675- Rome 1758) Secretary of State, and held the office until his death, a sign of a perfect understanding between them, probably due to the same cultural interests, but also, substantially to the common desire of improve the relationship between the Church and the citizens to challenge the foreign intrusion.
Many of the documents from the familiar archive testify the importance of Silvio’s personal relationships connected to his important position of prelate, but they also reveal the tenacious ties to the Cardinal’s city of origin in his role of patron of artists . He invited in Rome the painter Giuseppe Bazzani, who declined and maintained a steady correspondence with Saverio Bettinelli, who praised him in his writings for having printed Baldassare Castiglione’s letters. The city welcomed enthusiastically back the cardinal, in the way it owed to a illustrious citizen returned home, whose statements were then celebrated, almost in spite of Austrian officials who had previously punished his pacifist conduct.

Silvio welcomed his rash grandson Carlo and his brother Luigi in Rome, in the villa Paolina where he was living, in order to educate them. Carlo followed his uncle Silvio’s footsteps becoming prelate in Rome, "although not a sublime genius, but full of piety and prudence, he is beginning the course of his nunciatures from this one of Lucerne” writes Andreasi who knew him directly rather than through celebratory publications. Of course, with the support of Cardinal Silvio after ordering a priest, Luigi Valenti Gonzaga (born in Roveredo of Guà - Vr October 15th, 1725) was sent by the Pope as Papal Nuncio to Malta, where he was elected Knight Hospitaller of St. John of Jerusalem and then commendatory of the Order of the knights of Malta. Elevated to the rank of Cardinal, he was elected chairman of the Apostolic House, then Nuncio of the Pope in Switzerland, precisely in Lucerne, but even if he was far from home, he followed affectionately the family vicissitudes.

On the cultural level he followed the footsteps traced by his predecessor and tutelary name, as he managed to complete Silvio’s project to publish Castiglione’s letters. Moreover, he got the Commentaries of Scipione Gonzaga printed in Rome in 1791; he promoted the initiative to deepen the information on Teofilo Folengo and restored Dante’s tomb in Ravenna. His death was mourned by the poor to whom he had left his money.

Bibliographical Source:

written by Mariarosa Palvarini Gobio Casali (art historian), from the volume PALAZZO VALENTI GONZAGA IN MANTOVA edited by Rodolfo Signorini - Mantova 1993, published by Banca Provinciale Lombarda, Gruppo Creditizio San Paolo. 

Pierre Subleyras, Portrait of Cardinal
Silvio Valenti Gonzaga, around 1745,
oil painting on canvas, Rome, Cini Gallery

Cardinal's biretta

Giovanni Cadioli, Portrait of
Cardinal Luigi Valenti Gonzaga,
Mantua, private collection.