Show TO IH BOSTON WOMAN RENTS MANSION OF THE FARNESE now neglected and dilapidated but once magn frescoes tell of former glorias vanished treasur s of art Ko baldwin an american from boston who i elides in home has j dented for seven yeara the roost and yet the least known building of its kind in italy the celebrated palazzo farnese at cap barola billt foi cardinal Cai dinal alessandro farnese by the architect jacopo bar comboni com moni known as vignola the palace with its gardens lawns casino or villa orchard and chestnut woods is now owned by the despos hessed bourbon unga of naples who inherited it by descent from ellzabeth I 1 arnese the last of her line the palace has the form of a pen aagon tagon inclosing a circular court lach of the five sides me iberea feet and the court is 60 teet in diameter it has three stories each about thirty feet in height the building has a fortified or cas tel appearance resembling the sixteenth century citadels and it Is furnished with small sham bastions at each angle above the terrace formed by these bastions and their the palace rises in two grand stories the lower arcaded in the cen ter the upper including the stories ot windows despite the difficulty of the pentagonal form the external arcet textural tec tural effect of the building is imps ing while the arrangements inside are commodious A magnificent spiral staircase ascends from the ground to the third floor supported by double columns and adorned by rich and varied cor nices around the first floor runs an front of palazzo farnese open loggia overlooking the circular courtyard below and its walls as well as those of almost all the chambers are covered with frescoes by the broth ers and by the frescoes represent the history of the farnese family there 1 the marriage ot orallo farnese with the daugett daugh tT of henry II 11 of france and that of ottavio with a daughter of charles V then alessandro and ot pavlo farnese are seen accompanying charles V on a campaign against the Luthe iana paul III is shown appoint ing pietro farnese commander of the papal army and orallo governor of rome there are man scenes from the life of paul III how he presided at the council of trent how he made between francis I 1 and charat luw charles kissed his feet and how he gave tl e lucky hat to four who afterward all became popes the chapel has windows of ancient stained glass frescoes representing the apostles and an elaborate belling cel ling whose design is repeated in the paar ment one of the rooms Is covered with maps like the gallery in the vat lean and has four female fig ires rep resenting the four parts of the world one of which that representing africa and commonly known the mora 1 so wonderful that an american ofie ed to pay 12 for it alone the frescoes are in a very good state of preservation and their colors are fresh and bright as when they were painted almost three hundred years ago still the lower portions ot the walls bear traces of the native and foreign tourists who have been admit ted to visit the palace and who out of gratitude s either scratched their names or defaced some of the figures on the painted walls but with the exception of the fres coed rooms the is in a state ot dilapidation and te beautiful garden Is almost in utter ruin many of the stone figures and ancient maible statues that adorned it have been either ruthlessly broken or stolen there Is an artificial giotto which is known as the temple of venus owing to the fact that above a fountain there is a broken statue of the goddess some time u an english dealer of to buy the mutilated venus tor 50 but the government prevented the sale an inspector of the ministry of public instruction has lately pro bounced it the best specimen of sculpture in existence still no pre caution has been taken to prevent some other pious priest trang to break it the palace once contained many works of art but few rema n A dis honest steward sold 96 of lead which he stole from the fountains in the palace and gardens others have done away with the old furniture and tapestries the german and ital lan tenants explored every corner and appropriated everything that the dis honest stewards of many generations overlooked |