Palazzo dei Diamanti
Now a popular venue for temporary exhibitions, the Palazzo dei Diamanti is one of the most symbolic buildings in the city of Ferrara. Designed by architect Biagio Rossetti, the palace is the emblem of the Ferrara Renaissance age, as well as of the court of the Este family and the great intellectuals who revolved around it.
Founded as the residence of Sigismondo d'Este, brother of Ercole I, Palazzo dei Diamanti is located in Corso Ercole I, in the so-called Quadrivio degli Angeli, what was to be the centre of the Addizione Erculea. This expression is used to define the extension of the city ordered in the 15th century by Duke Hercules I, with the aim of enlarging and modernising the ancient medieval urban fabric and ultimately recreating the model of the ideal city.
As part of the duke's project, the Quadrivio degli Angeli was to represent the intersection of the two main roads of the Herculean addition, which was however never completed. On the one hand because of the erroneous forecast of the city's demographic growth, and on the other hand because of the political crisis the Este family went through in those years, which shortly afterwards led to their decline.
The façade
Looking at Palazzo dei Diamanti, what strikes the eye most is the
façade made of 8500 blocks of white and pink marble, from which the palace itself takes its name. Rossetti's design was extremely refined, as is shown by the positioning of these small marble pyramids. Although they all appear to be on the same level, the blocks have a slightly different inclination between them. This placement means that when looking at the stones from the street, their points appear to be parallel to the street level, although in fact they are not.
Another noticeable feature of the façade is the
small balcony positioned by Rossetti where the two façades intersect, in a corner position. This implies that the palace itself should not be admired from the main façade, but rather from the corner perspective.
Palazzo dei Diamanti today
Palazzo dei Diamanti today hosts
important temporary exhibitions on the ground floor, while the first floor houses the National Picture Gallery of Ferrara, a rich collection of works from the 13th to the 18th century with a special focus on the Ferrara Renaissance. The ancient rooms therefore house great masterpieces by painters like Cosmè Tura, Ercole de Roberti, Lorenzo Costa and many others.
