Luigi Braschi Onesti
Luigi Braschi Onesti (1745– 9 February 1816), duca di Nemi, was a nephew of Pope Pius VI, who granted him his dukedom.
Luigi Braschi Onesti | |
|---|---|
| Duke of Nemi | |
 | |
| Born | 1746 Cesena, Italy |
| Died | February 9, 1816 Rome, Italy |
| Noble family | Braschi |
| Spouse(s) | Constanza Falconieri |
| Father | Girolamo Onesti |
| Mother | Giulia Braschi dei Bandi |
Life and family
Luigi's mother Giulia Braschi was Pius's sister, and his father was count Girolamo Onesti. His younger brother was Romoaldo Braschi-Onesti, Cardinal and Camerlengo.
On Luigi's marriage to the richest lady of the Falconieri family, he was granted permission by Pius to build Palazzo Braschi off Piazza Navona, and from 1787 and 1795 he built another neoclassical Palazzo Braschi at Terracina, as a private residence for his uncle.
Construction on his Rome palazzo was suspended from February 1798 – 1802 during the Napoleonic occupation of the city, when the French occupied the house and confiscated the recently acquired antiquities Onesti had housed there. Braschi Onesti moved into the palazzo in 1809, when Napoleon declared Rome an imperial city, and was declared mayor of Rome, though the palazzo was still unfinished at his death seven years later.
Collection
Some of his antiquities were purchased by the Crown Prince of Bavaria, later King Ludwig I and are conserved at the Glyptothek that he built in Munich.
The Braschi collection included:
- Esquilache Immaculate Conception by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (Now in the Hermitage Museum)
- Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine by Beccafumi (Now in the Hermitage Museum)
- Equestrian portrait of Francisco de Moncada by Anthony van Dyck (Now in the Louvre Museum)
- Christ Driving the Merchants from the Temple by Bartolomeo Manfredi (Now in the Fine Arts Museum of Libourne)
- The Madonna and child with Saint Anne and the infant saint John the Baptist by a follower of Raphael
- Self portrait by Andrea del Sarto (Now in Alnwick Castle)
- Statues of Otho, Severus Alexander, Antinous, Cybele, Asclepius, Faustina the Elder and Faustina the Younger (Now in the Louvre Museum)
- Sculpture of a Child and Goose by Boethus (Now in the Louvre Museum)
- Statue of Lucius Verus (Now in a British private collection)[1]
- The Braschi Antinous (Now in the Vatican Museums)
- Venus Braschi, Artemis Braschi (Now in the Glyptothek, Munich)
Titles, styles and honours
Titles
- Duke of Nemi, Grandee of Spain
- Marquess of Onesti
- Prince of Rocca Sinibalda
- Marquess of Belmonte Sabino
- Prince of the Holy Roman Empire
Styles
- Spain: The Most Excellent The Duke of Nemi
- Italy: Sua Eccellenza, il signor Don Luigi Braschi Onesti, Duca di Nemi
Honours
House of France: Order of the Holy Spirit
House of Savoy: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus
