54 - Unpublished Album of the Project for the Extension and Renovation of the Royal Palace of Spain in Rome. Antoni Farrés Aymerich (Barcelona, active in Madrid, 1881–1917)

Unpublished Album of the Project for the Extension and Renovation of the Royal Palace of Spain in Rome. Antoni Farrés Aymerich (Barcelona, active in Madrid, 1881–1917) 46 x 65 cm. A highly interesting album documenting the project for the extension and renovation of the Royal Palace of Spain in Rome, now the Embassy of Spain to the Holy See. As specified on the third page, the project was designed “so that the Embassies of His Majesty the King of Spain to the Holy See and to the King of Italy may be accommodated within it, with the services of each operating in complete independence from one another.” The album includes a photograph of the façade; five plans on tracing paper titled “Plans of the Façade and the Existing Layout,” signed in Rome on June 30, 1893, by the Catalan architect Antoni Farrés; and nine watercolors, one of which is a fold-out, illustrating the “Project for Extension and Renovation.” The watercolors consist of three drawings of the building’s three façades (“Piazza di Spagna,” “Via Frattina,” and “Via Mario di Fiori”), signed by the architect; four drawings showing the floor plans of the building’s four stories, signed by Farrés in Madrid; and two drawings of sections AB and CD, also signed. The album also includes a pen-and-ink drawing depicting the “Existing Condition [at the time] of the Façade of the Royal Palace of Spain and the Adjacent House on Via Mario di Fiori” and the “Existing Condition [at the time] of the Facades of the Royal Palace of Spain and the Adjacent Houses on Via Frattina.” This document, written in Italian, was signed by the architect Mercandetti in January 1890, making it three years earlier than Antoni Farrés’s project. As far as can be determined, the project was ultimately never carried out. This exceptional album therefore captures architect Antoni Farrés’s vision of how the renovation should have been undertaken. This document is thus a living testament to the ephemeral and silent dimension of the art of architecture, offering an illuminating example of the many buildings, renovations, and extensions that are designed but never realized due to practical difficulties, political and economic circumstances, unforeseen changes of direction, and other vicissitudes—despite all the effort and work invested in them. In other words, to put it more plainly, there are many a slip between cup and lip. Facade photograph dimensions: 19.5 x 25 cm. Tracing paper plans dimensions: 46 x 60 cm. Watercolors dimensions: 46 x 60 cm. Foldout watercolor dimensions: 46 x 86 cm. Pen-and-ink drawing dimensions: 25 x 29 cm.