Odoardo Farnese (cardinal)

Portrait by Annibale Caracci.

Odoardo Farnese (6 December 1573 – 21 February 1626) was an Italian nobleman, the second son of Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma and Maria of Portugal, known for his patronage of the arts. He became a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church in Italy in 1591, and briefly acted as regent of the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza for his nephew Odoardo from 1622 to 1626.

Cardinal Odoardo is probably best known today for commissioning the Bolognese artist Annibale Carracci to fresco the Camerino in the Palazzo Farnese in Rome. Carracci undertook this from 1595 to 1597, just prior to starting his decoration of the more famous and elaborate Farnese Gallery in the same palace.

Cardinals Alessandro and Odoardo Farnese

The Camerino was Farnese's private study. The subject of the central scene in the ceiling is The Choice of Hercules. The scene is surrounded by a painted frame, an example of quadro riportato, which gives the illusion of a framed oil painting hung on the ceiling when in reality both the scene and its frame were frescoed. This quadro riportato device was brought to fruition by Carracci in the Farnese Gallery a few years later.

In addition, Farnese commissioned various oil paintings from Carracci, including his Rinaldo and Armida now in the Capodimonte Museum in Naples. It was on the recommendation of Carracci that he commissioned Domenichino to fresco the Chapel of St Nilo in the abbey at Grottaferrata^[1]

His patronage of architecture was less extensive but included the Casa Professa, the Jesuit house adjacent to the church of the Gesu in Rome, by the architect Girolamo Rainaldi.^[2]

Ancestry

16. Pope Paul III

8. Pier Luigi Farnese, Duke of Parma

17. Silvia Ruffini

4. Ottavio Farnese, Duke of Parma

18. Luigi Orsini

9. Girolama Orsini

19. Giulia Conti

2. Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma

20. Philip I of Castile

10. Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor

21. Joanna of Castile

5. Margaret of Austria

22. Gilles Johann van der Gheynst

11. Johanna Maria van der Gheynst

23. Johanna van der Caye van Cocambi

1. Cardinal Odoardo Farnese

24. Infante Fernando, Duke of Viseu

12. Manuel I of Portugal

25. Infanta Beatrice of Portugal

6. Infante Duarte, Duke of Guimarães

26. Ferdinand II of Aragon

13. Maria of Aragon and Castile

27. Isabella I of Castile

3. Infanta Maria of Guimarães

28. Fernando II, Duke of Braganza

14. James, Duke of Braganza

29. Infanta Isabella of Viseu

7. Isabel of Braganza

30. Juan Alonso Pérez de Guzmán y Afán de Ribera, 3rd Duke of Medina Sidonia

15. Eleonor of Mendoza

31. Isabel de Velasco or Leonor de Zúñ

References

1. ^ Robertson, Clare. 'Odoardo Farnese', Oxford Art Online
2. ^ Robertson, ibid

See also

• The Choice of Hercules

Persondata
Name	Farnese, Odoardo
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	6 December 1573
Place of birth
Date of death	21 February 1626
Place of death