Trophy Room
The first antechamber of the king’s apartment, in which Filippo Minei worked between 1723 and 24, containing a ceiling again decorated with grotesque motifs, battle scenes and various characters holding trophies and flags, while Mars the warrior and Glory appear on the two sides.
The cameos show the Po and Dora rivers, together with quotations from fine works such as Cleopatra and the Hermaphrodite Borghese, or motifs painted by Carracci in the Galleria Farnese. On the walls, there used to be a rich damask fabric, now lost but know through the evidence of payment chits.
A fine fireplace in polychrome marble rounds off the room.
The motif of the winged victory appears also in the passage to the next room, and there are other motifs with grotesques, fantastic animals and sphinxes along the massive walls.
Did you know?
Pietro Domenico Olivero
(Turin, 1679 – 1755)
The Turinese painter, Pietro Domenico Olivero, today considered one of the masters of the Bamboccianti style, skilfully borrowed from real life for the subjects of his scenes. His views are a careful record of the uses and customs of the people of Turin and Piedmont of the 18th century. Of a “umor lieto e gioviale” (“happy and jovial manner”) despite being crippled from birth, he was protected by Victor Amadeus II and by Marchese Ferrero d’Ormea who used to invite him to lunch every Sunday in his splendid palace in Turin.
He was present in Rivoli in 1724, when he was paid lire 500 for “two large pictures”: the Feast at the Fair of San Pancrazio and the Market and Fair of Moncalieri.
Olivero also painted the figures in the landscapes painted by Scipione Cignaroli in 1726 for the king’s apartment, and for the lintels painted the following year by Gambone for the Sale delle Gabbie.
Also by Olivero are the elegant aristocratic figures populating the view by Marco Ricci, painted at the behest of Juvarra and showing the unbuilt drawing room of the Castello.