Cabinet of the Four Seasons
Bed chamber of the Prince of Piedmont, this room has a ceiling frescoed by Giovanni Battista Van Loo in 1719. The French painter was called specially from Rome by Filippo Juvarra to paint Apollo surrounded by Time, Abundance and Flora. The seasons appear on the four sides. The stucco frieze by Pietro Filippo Somasso, dated 1717, presents the attributes of the Olympian gods: Zeus, Neptune, Mercury and Vulcan, together with some details of the garments of the seasons. Revived, the fresco was painted after the one in the preceding room, which is now almost completely lost.
Did you know?
Giovanni Battista Van Loo
(1684-1745)
Belonging to a dynasty of French painters of Dutch origin, he spent much of his life travelling around Europe. In 1712, he moved to Turin in the service of the Savoys, who paid for his stay in Rome. The two canvases of the chapel in the Palazzo Reale showing the Consignment of the Keys sent from Rome in 1716 are his. Between 1738 and 1742, he was in London in the employ of Sir Robert Walpole, before returning to Paris and then Aix-en-Provence, where he continued to work as a portraitist. Between 1736 and 1745 , he travelled to Madrid as painter of Philip V, and founded the Academy of San Fernando. He died in Aix-en-Provence in 1745, it is said with paintbrush in hand.
One of his sons, probably Charles Amédé Philippe, was born in Turin; the event was noted in the Castello di Rivoli’s accounts for, on September 1, 1719, Pietro Collo, “superintendent to the pantry in the Residence of His Majesty”, was given lire 80 for a celebration on the occasion of the baptism held on August 27 of the same year “of a son of signor Pittore Vanlò”, who had the Princess of Carignano, represented by the Conte di Borgaro and Baronessa di Choix, as the sponsor for the baptism.