Resumen de Un secentesco programma di decorazione per il grande salone di palazzo Carignano
A previously unknown decoration programme for the great oval hall of the Palazzo Carignano, in Turin, provides valuable new information on the early appearance of this atrium, as well as more generally on the preparations for, and people involved with, the decorations of the palace. The long text, centred on the apotheosis of Hercules -the only such document known in relation to the decorations of palazzo Carignano- was written by the Bolognese nobleman Ercole Agostino Berò. A comparison of the programme with other texts shows that he made use of iconographical handbooks and early treatises on painting. Although the evidence is circumstantial, it furthermore appears that the programme was never executed in the oval hall for which it was intended. This emerges, in particular, from a painted ceiling elsewhere in the palace, the main scene of which was based on Berò's programme. It seems therefore unlikely that the same topic was also depicted in the great oval salon.
