Casa Museo Boncompagni Ludovisi

The Casa Museo Boncompagni Ludovisi is an early twentieth-century villa that preserves original furnishings and collections of decorative arts and fashion. Designed in 1901 by Giovanni Battista Giovenale, the building combines Baroque references with Liberty details.

Why it matters

The house museum documents Italian decorative arts and fashion from the late nineteenth to the twentieth century. Its collections range from Liberty and Futurism to Deco and Roman modernism, shown within a villa whose architecture and furnishings form part of the story.

What to notice

The villa's rooms preserve seventeenth-century Flemish tapestries and a cradle of bronze, silver and copper made in 1901 by Giulio Monteverde for the Savoia family. The Salone delle vedute displays portraits of Princess Alice Blanceflor Boncompagni Ludovisi De Bildt and her mother alongside gowns by Roman and Italian designers, including Sarli, Gattinoni, Valentino, Raffaella Curiel, Lorenzo Riva and Renato Balestra. Other rooms include stained glass by the Vetreria Picchiarini, paintings by Giacomo Balla and a carpet by Enrico Prampolini.

Context and history

Princess Blanceflor de Bildt Boncompagni donated the villa and its furnishings to the Italian state; the museum was founded in 1995. The collection reflects the tastes of the family as well as the changing styles of Italian design. Among its objects are a portrait of Pope Gregory XIII Boncompagni and a seventeenth-century writing desk with a globe by Matthäus Greuter. The villa's rooms and furnishings remain part of the museum's presentation.