PALAZZO MADAMA, TURIN

An old postcard, above, of Palazzo Reale, Turin, with the long wing to its right that holds the Armeria Reale and used to connect to Palazzo Madama, on the right. This was the home of Madama Reale – Madame Royale – the Duchess of Savoy, regent for her son: first Christine of France, sister of Louis XIII and of Henrietta Maria of England, regent 1637-48; then Marie-Jeanne of Savoy, regent 1675-84 for Vittorio Amedeo II, who became King of Sardinia in 1720. She commissioned Filippo Juvarra to give the palace its grand façade, holding a vast, triumphant staircase, which today looks oddly tacked on to the old 15thC castle behind (below left) which was originally screened by the connecting galleries. Below right: the stair with its bridge feature.

The details of Juvarra’s interior are endlessly inventive and beautiful, with fragments of antiquity like the ram’s skulls and personal emblems of Madama Reale like the Fritillaria Imperialis – Crown Imperial – flower, above, with a real one blooming in my father’s garden. Evening light filtered by the old glass of the immense windows bathes the space in gold, slipping also into the staterooms, below, which now hold the Museo Civico d'Arte Antica, a decorative art museum that I waited 15 years to see while it was being restored.

Madama Reale’s rooms, above, boast incredible baroque plasterwork and woodcarving, gilded and painted, beautifully restored now, with charming details like the little lapdogs on a gold ground. The museum’s collection includes fabulous furniture, paintings and objects including such marvels as the tiny Satyr, below left, carved from a walnut shell with a mother-of-pearl ground and mounted in silver.