In 1634
Lorenzo Mancini, brother of cardinal
Francesco Maria Mancini, married
Geronima Mazzarino, sister of
cardinal Mazarin. For their wedding celebrations, the old residence of the Mancini family was enlarged by the acquisition of four adjoining houses and a new building designed by the architect
Carlo Rainaldi. The work was begun by Lorenzo and completed by
Filippo Mancini, duke of
Nevers, between 1687 and 1689. The building features a facade with "bugne lisce", or 'fishbone'-style
ashlar, with the central door surmounted by a rich balcony supported by brackets decorated from Cupids. Inside are preserved a painted frieze in the "salone di rappresentanza" or state room (the "Salone Rosso") and fragments of seventeenth-century friezes in other rooms with "Stories of David and Jacob". Another room houses a fresco collection of "
vedute" of Rome by
Bartolomeo Pinelli. The Palazzo was leased to the French Academy in Rome in 1725, which was previously housed at the
Palazzo Capranica. The Palazzo was eventually acquired in 1737 by order of
Louis XV and adapted to its new function. One second floor room is still frescoed with scenes copied from the
Raphael Rooms at the
Vatican Palace, produced by the artists accommodated by the Palazzo during its time as the academy. After the anti-French riots of 1793 and the assassination of
Bassville, the academy left the palace. After the
French Revolution the building became the
French Embassy to the
Holy See. In 1798 the academy returned to the Palazzo, but after the French defeat by
Suvorov in 1799 the building was occupied and pillaged. In 1803 the academy was moved to the
Villa Medici and in 1818 the Palazzo was bought by
Louis Bonaparte, who ten years' later ceded it to
Maria Theresia of Austria-Este, the widow of
Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia. It passed to her daughter
Maria Christina of Savoy and, when Maria Christina became
queen of Naples, it passed in 1831 to the
Bourbons of Naples and in 1853 to Scipion Salviati. In 1919 the
Banco di Sicilia acquired it. ==References==