Electrician discovers 17th-century frescoes hidden behind false ceiling at Rome's Villa Farnesina

It began as a routine check of some cables in the Renaissance Villa Farnesina in Rome...

But what electrician Davide Renzoni uncovered when he opened a ceiling trapdoor was nothing short of astonishing - a secret hidden for centuries.

Concealed above a 19th-century vaulted ceiling, lay a breathtaking discovery: vibrant 17th-century frescoes untouched by time.

"The first thing I saw was the landscape behind me and this ‘putto’ (cherub). Then I saw that there was another trapdoor, I went to get a lamp to have more visibility and when I turned it on, out came this wonder, these frescoes," recalls Renzoni.

"My first feeling, since I am not an expert in the field and I had never experienced something like this before, was astonishment, immense astonishment” he says.

Villa Farnesina, a jewel of Renaissance architecture on the banks of the Tiber River, is best known for the frescoes by Raphael that decorate it. No-one knew of these newly discovered frescoes - which a research team is now studying.

The frescoes are on the old ceiling of what was once the living room of Agostino Chigi, the wealthy banker and patron who had the villa built in the early 16th century.

They were hidden above the current ceiling which was built and frescoed in the 19th century. After the sensational discovery, the electrician rushed to call Virginia Lapenta, curator of Villa Farnesina.

With great excitement, she saw the bas-relief of the coat of arms of the Farnese, the famous noble family that owned the palace, and immediately realised that another piece of the villa's 17th-century history had just been found.

"The surprise, as you can imagine, was accompanied by great emotion, also due to the fact that the Accademia dei Lincei now carries out numerous studies and research projects at Villa Farnesina through a cultural heritage research centre,” says Lapenta.

Ongoing analysis suggest the frescoes were likely created by Baroque painter Carlo Maratta and his pupils, Girolamo Troppa and Francois Simonot, during Maratta’s 1693 restoration of Raphael’s Cupid and Psyche.

The discovery reveals Maratta also worked on lesser-known areas, including Agostino Chigi’s living room, hidden for centuries by 19th-century renovations.

Currently inaccessible due to the tight space, the frescoes can be admired via high-resolution photos and live camera feeds, and the discovery has inspired a new exhibition, The Seventeenth Century in the Villa Farnesina at the Villa Farnesina.

The exhibition, open until 12 January 2025, displays works that provide a deeper insight into the influence of Raphael in 17th century Rome, showing art such as Pietro da Cortona's "Galatea".