The large collection of paintings, furniture and statuary has been assembled since the 16th century by the
Doria,
Pamphilj,
Landi and
Aldobrandini families now united through marriage and descent under the simplified surname Doria Pamphilj. The collection includes paintings and furnishings from
Innocent X's
Palazzo Pamphilj (in
Piazza Navona), who bequeathed them to his nephew
Camillo Pamphilj. The Palazzo has grown over the centuries; it is likely to be the largest in Rome still in private ownership. The main collection is displayed in
state rooms, including the
chapel, complete with the
mummified corpse of the family
saint. However, the bulk is displayed in a series of four gilded and painted galleries surrounding a courtyard. An extensive suite of further rooms have now been converted to permanent well-lit galleries, containing the more
medieval and
Byzantine art in the collection. The palace was renovated for the marriage of Andrea IV Doria Pamphilj Landi to Princess
Leopoldina Maria of Savoy, daughter of
Louis Victor, Prince of Carignan, and
Christine of Hesse-Rotenburg in 1767. Work was carried out under the supervision of Francesco Nicoletti, an architect from Trapani.
Diego Velázquez's
Portrait of Innocent X (previously Cardinal Giovan Battista Pamphilj, who became Pope in 1644) is considered to be the collection's masterpiece. Velázquez, while not idealizing the Pope's countenance, is not unflattering in the portrait;
Innocent X's features were believed by his contemporaries to symbolise a
despotic lifestyle and vindictive character. The portrait painted to commemorate the
Holy Year was commissioned by his hedonistic sister-in-law
Olimpia Maidalchini, who was his close confidante and adviser, and some say mistress. Since 1927, Velázquez's portrait has been placed in a specially designated small room along with a
sculptured bust of the same pope by
Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Olimpia Maidalchini's son
Camillo Pamphilj, defying his powerful mother, renounced the
cardinalship conferred on him by his uncle the Pope and married the widowed
Olimpia Borghese. Born an Aldobrandini, she brought the palazzo known as Palazzo Aldobrandini into the Pamphilj family. Following a period of exile in the country, to avoid confrontation with the Pope and Olimpia Maidalchini, the newly married couple took up permanent residence in the Palazzo Aldobrandini, which from 1654 Camillo began to expand on a large scale; neighbouring houses and a
convent were bought and demolished as the palazzo grew, in spite of local opposition from the neighbouring
Jesuits at the
Collegio Romano. The architect in charge of this lengthy project was Antonio Del Grande. The façade facing the Via del Corso, however, is by
Gabriele Valvassori. Following Camillo's death in 1666, building continued under the auspices of his two sons Giovanni Battista (his heir) and
Benedetto. One of Camillo and Olimpia's daughters, Anna Pamphilj, married the Genoese aristocrat Giovanni Andrea III Doria Landi in 1671, and it was their descendants who inherited the Palazzo when the Roman branch of the Pamphilj family ended in 1760. In 1763 Prince Andrea IV combined his Genoese and Roman names to the present Doria-Pamphilj-Landi. In 1767 the ceilings of the state rooms were frescoed by late-
Baroque artists such as
Crescenzio Onofri,
Aureliano Milani, and
Stefano Pozzi (Sala degli Specchi). The collection was first opened to the public by the three-quarters English Princess Orietta Pogson Doria Pamphilj, whose English husband Commander
Frank Pogson added her name to his. Her own father, Prince Filippo Andrea VI, was half-English. Princess Orietta and Commander Frank did much to restore the collection and the palazzo; following her death in 2000 the guardianship of the collection was taken over by her adopted, English-born children, Jonathan Doria Pamphilj and Gesine Pogson Doria Pamphilj, who still live in the palazzo. Along with the possessions of the
Colonna and
Pallavicini-Rospigliosi families, this is one of the largest private art collections in Rome. ==Overview==