Farnese

Farnese , Italian noble family that ruled Parma and Piacenza from 1545 to 1731. In the 12th cent. the Farnese held several fiefs in Latium. They became one of the most prominent families in Rome and were Guelph supporters of the papacy. In 1534, Alessandro Farnese became pope as Paul III . He used his office to aggrandize his family and in 1545 he detached lands from the papal dominions to create the duchy of Parma and Piacenza for his illegitimate son, Pier Luigi Farnese, 1503-47. Pier Luigi attacked fiscal and judicial abuses; he thereby gained the hatred of the nobility and was assassinated. His son, Ottavio Farnese, 1520-86, who succeeded him, married Margaret of Austria (see Margaret of Parma ), illegitimate daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V . Ottavio's brother, Alessandro Farnese, 1520-89, was a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. A patron of men of letters such as Pietro Bembo and of artists such as Giorgio Vasari, he oversaw the completion of the Farnese Palace in Rome. Ottavio's son and successor was Alessandro Farnese, 1545-92, one of the great generals of his time (see separate article). Alessandro's son, Ranuccio I, 1569-1622, reformed the duchy's administration and judicial system and was a benefactor of education and the arts. The four dukes who succeeded Ranuccio I were less distinguished rulers, although they continued the family's patronage of the arts despite increasing economic and political troubles. The last duke of the line, Antonio, died in 1731. His niece, Elizabeth Farnese , queen of Philip V of Spain, secured (1748) the succession to the duchy for her son Philip, founder of the line of Bourbon-Parma.

Bibliography: See R. Solari, The House of Farnese (1968).

Farnese Italian family who ruled (1545–1731) the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza. In 1534, Alessandro Farnese (1468–1549) became pope as Paul III. His grandson, Alessandro Farnese (1545–92), was a general in the service of Philip II of Spain. In 1578, he was appointed governor general of the Spanish Netherlands. He captured Antwerp (1585), and secured possession of the s Netherlands.

Farnese. Italian family of humanists and patrons of the arts which rose to importance with the creation of Alessandro Farnese (1468–1549) as a cardinal in 1493. In 1534 he became Pope Paul III and in this role he was the most important patron of Michelangelo's later years, commissioning from him the Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel and the Conversion of St Paul and the Crucifixion of St Peter in his private chapel in the Vatican (the Cappella Paolina), and also appointing him architect to St Peter's. Michelangelo also had a hand in the design of the Palazzo Farnese, the finest palace built in Rome in the 16th century. Among the other artists Paul patronized was Titian, who visited Rome at his invitation in 1545–6.

Paul's ‘nephew’ (actually his grandson—the Italian word ‘nipote’ is conveniently ambiguous), another Alessandro (1520–89), was made a cardinal in 1534 at the age of 14 and held many lucrative church appointments. Much of his enormous wealth was spent on artistic projects, and he ranks among the greatest patrons of the 16th century. He built up the largest collection of antiquities in Rome (now mainly in the Archaeological Museum in Naples; see Farnese Bull and Farnese Hercules), encouraged Vasari to write his Lives, engaged Giacoma da Vignola to complete the Palazzo Farnese at Caprarola, and commissioned some of the most important Mannerist frescos. He gave special support to the Jesuits and built for them the church of Il Gesù, Rome (designed by Vignola, begun 1568), one of the most influential buildings in the history of architecture. Alessandro's great-nephew Cardinal Odoardo (1573–1626), great-great-grandson of Paul III, commissioned Annibale Carracci to decorate the gallery in the family palace in Rome.

By this time, however, the family was declining as a power in Rome, and the most important centre of its activities had passed to Parma, where Paul III had installed his son Pier Luigi as duke in 1545. The Farnese continued to rule there until 1731, when the line became extinct. Among the notable patrons of this branch of the family was the 4th duke, Ranuccio I (1569–1627; reigned from 1592). The artists he employed included Agostino Carracci, Francesco Mochi, and Bartolomeo Schedoni.

The family collections eventually passed to Elizabeth Farnese, who married Philip V of Spain in 1715, and then to her son Charles, who was King of Naples from 1734 to 1759 (as Charles VII) and King of Spain from 1759 until his death in 1788 (as Charles III). It was in this way that the collections moved to Naples, where they remain—in the Archaeological Museum and the Museo di Capodimonte.