Castello Odescalchi, Bracciano, Italy
January 15, 2021 – present
Exhibitions of the Orpheon Foundation
The Vazquez Collection of Historical String Instruments
Violins, Violas da gamba, Viola d’amore, Violoncellos, Double Basses from 1500 to 1789
It is an extraordinary honour for all of us at the to have been invited by Her Serene Highness, Princess Maria Pace Odescalchi to henceforth display our collection at the Castello Odescalchi in Bracciano, one of the most sumptuous and historically significant edifices of Western Culture, in an astonishingly immaculate state of conservation, oozing history from every crevice, whose continuous relevance dates back to the year 1234, when the castle is first mentioned in the chronicles. The subsequent proprietors of this monument included renowned noble families of the Renaissance and the Baroque: the Borgias, the Orsini, the Colonnas and, since 1697, the Odescalchi, all of them generous and erudite patrons of the fine arts, architecture, music and literature.
The Castello di Bracciano may in fact have been one of the first places in Italy where the viola da gamba was heard, an instrument created near Valencia, then brought here in the entourage of Rodrigo Borgia, crowned in 1492 as Pope Alexander VI, who employed a consort of violas da gamba as part of his Court Chapel, a delightful novelty at this time.
We are very much looking forward to realising musical projects in these hallowed halls: concerts, recordings, courses, festivals of Renaissance, Baroque and Classical Music, to which you will all be invited: an invitation you are unlikely to refuse!
See how the instruments went to Bracciano
Music: Marin Marais – Suite En Ré Mineur, IIe Livre – Allemande