Villa Carlotta
Via Regina, 2 - 22016 Tremezzina
Tremezzo, Como
Tel. (0039) 0344 40405
segreteria@villacarlotta.it
Hours
ticket office: 10.00-18.00
museum: 10.00-18.30
garden: 10.00-19.00
What's on
The beauty of the flowers announces the summer!
A masterpiece of nineteenth-century European sculpture decorates the Salone dei Marmi walls: the marble frieze of Alexander the Great’s Triumphal Entry into Babylon (1818–28), commissioned by Giovanni Battista Sommariva from sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen. A plaster version of this work, conceived as an allegorical homage of Napoleon’s deeds, was cast in 1812 for the Quirinale Palace in Rome.
The artist in person, in the company of his patron, welcome us to our exploration of the Carrara marble frieze, Alexander the Great’s Triumphal Entry into Babylon, produced in Rome between 1818 and 1828 by Bertel Thorvaldsen. In one of the side panels closing the composition, the Danish sculptor is shown presenting his newly-finished magnum opus for the Tremezzo villaìs Salone dei Marmi to its owner, Giovanni Battista Sommariva.
The frieze tells of Alexander the Great’s triumphal entry into Babylon at the head of the Macedonian army, drawing inspiration from great masterpieces of ancient sculpture including the reliefs of the Parthenon in Athens and the Trajan Column in Rome. The work shows the meeting of two cortèges that converge towards the centre, one behind the figure of Alexander in a four-horse chariot driven by Victory, followed by his famous horse Bucephalus and his soldiers, laden with plunder. Opposite the leader, the allegorical figure of Peace, recognizable from the olive branch she carries as she precedes the people and the rulers of Babylon, who bear gifts (horses, lions, panthers ...) for the victor, while dancers scatter flowers in his honour.
A previous version of the frieze was made for the Quirinale Palace in Rome, and this version is considered one of the finest masterpieces of nineteenth-century European sculpture.
Giovanni Battista Sommariva to his son Luigi. Rome, 9 March 1818.
1809 Napoleon announces he wants to go to Rome for a second coronation in Saint Peter’s
1811 Thorvaldsen receives the commission for the sculptural decoration to be placed in the Quirinal Palace’s Salone d’Onore
1812 Thorvaldsen works on the frieze from March to November
1818 Following the fall of Napoleon, a second version of the frieze he had commissioned is left unfinished and only half paid for. Sommariva pays the outstanding amount and buys the work for his lakeside Villa
1829 The 33 panels of the frieze are all put in place and the work is completed by Luigi Sommariva
1838 Thorvaldsen makes a new version of the frieze for the Royal Palace of Copenhagen
Download and take this pdf with you. It's an in in-depth guide to the frieze, with all the historical facts needed to make the most oof it.
“I, the undersigned Bertel Thorvaldsen undertake to make marble statuary of the first quality for His Excellency, the Gentleman Sommariva, depicting Alexander the Great’s Entry into Babylon, comprising four sides, of which two larger of the length of forty-three spans each (equal to 8.6 metres), and the other two sides of thirty-seven and one half spans each (equal to 8.3 metres); which I promise to begin immediately and continue until its completion. I acknowledge the Gentleman Sommariva as my Patron, giving me the sought-after opportunity to complete this work of mine, which I regard to be one of my best.”
Rome, 1 January 1818
