Palazzo Antinori Gallenga Stuart, more commonly referred to as Palazzo Gallenga, is today home to the University for Foreigners of Perugia.
Its late-Baroque architecture confers it an elegant, slender and unpredictable style that never looks mundane. The frontal facade looks at Piazza Grimana and its three levels are all meticulously and finely adorned. The main construction material is clay-brick, the central avant-corps is made of travertine, which was also employed to decorate the upper part of the window frames. In the centre of the building there is a magnificent portal, framed with Doric columns that also serve as support for the balcony above it.
Its construction was commissioned by Giuseppe Antinori in 1737 and it was designed by the architect Francesco Bianchi. The work was completed by the son of Giuseppe, Girolamo, who hired the architect Pietro Carattoli.
The Antinori family lived in the Palace until 1855 and sold it to Pietro Martinori, who also then sold it to Romeo Gallenga. The latter moved in with his spouse Mary Stuart Montgomery. Each owner personalised the internal decorations, but without affecting the existing ones. During his ownership Martinori – who only bought the building for speculative purposes – commissioned to Domenico Bruschi, in 1862, a decoration that would celebrate the Unification of Italy also depicting the Savoia coat of arms and the Albertine Statue. Later, the Gallenga hired the artist Matteo Tassi, who painted the Ball Room drawing his inspiration from the audience room of Collegio del Cambio. This room is now called “Goldoni Room” in honour of the playwright whose father was the Antinori‘s family doctor. Apparently the young writer was often to be seen in these rooms, on occasion performing as an actor.
The interiors are finely decorated. On the first floor there is a series of busts of divinities and rocaille details, while on the second floor we find frescoes and canvases dated 1972 depicting landscapes and ruins. The decorations in the rooms are the work of Petro Carattoli and develop from Time, with the old Saturn and the hourglass, continuing with the Four Seasons, up to the last room where the Antinori family’s coat of arms is depicted.
More recent, but equally valuable, is a mural by Gerardo Dottori – one of the most important exponents of futurist aeropainting – called La luce dell’antica Madre depicting Aeneas looking at builders doing masonry work on the Colosseum.