The Palace

Waiting Room

The Waiting Room leads to the noble rooms of the vicar's apartment; people sat here while waiting to be granted an audience. The look is exceptionally elegant thanks to the imitation damask cloth, with its red and golden bands, and the beautiful grotesque frieze with putti, vine shoots and greyhounds. The winding staircase – the wood panelling is original – once led to the second floor and to the Audience Room.

The picture gallery boasts works, both original and copies, by great artists who influenced renowned members of the Pictorial School: Nicola Grassi (1682-1748) and Gianbattista Pittoni (1687-1767). Pittoni was later to play a very important role in Paul Troger's artistic education. Paul Troger (1698-1762, he was born in Monguelfo, South Tyrol) and his friend and colleague Michelangelo Unterperger are considered Alberti's most talented followers.

The whole room was decorated in fresco technique. The painting was directly applied to the fresh plaster, so that the pigments blend into the wall. This is an extremely difficult technique because it does not allow any change of mind, nor is it possible to determine which colour shades the walls shall have when dry.

The fresco decoration process had to follow several stages. The artist had to reproduce the preparatory draft in life-size on a cartoon. He then pierced the outline, put the cartoon on the wall and went over the drawing with carbon powder. This allowed the outlines to be transferred on the plaster and the artist could thus realize the decoration using various pigments. As there was not much time left to paint before the plaster was dry, the artist had to split his work into many parts, which are still recognizable nowadays because of the different colour shade.