Editing Christina, Queen of Sweden (section)

== Back to Rome ==
[[File:Trastevere - palazzo Corsini stanza di cristina 1060814.JPG|thumb|left|Christina's bedroom in the [[Palazzo Corsini, Rome|Palazzo Corsini]], a later development of the [[Palazzo Corsini, Rome|Palazzo Riario]] ]]

On  15 May 1658, Christina arrived in Rome for the second time, but this time it was definitely no triumph. With the execution of Monaldeschi, her popularity was lost. [[Pope Alexander VII]] remained in his summer residence and wanted no further visits from her. He described her as 'a woman born of a barbarian, barbarously brought up and living with barbarous thoughts ... with a ferocious and almost intolerable pride'.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/LotDetailsPrintable.aspx?intObjectID=4197142 |title=Pierre Signac (French, 1623 OR 1624-1684 |website=www.christies.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923203106/http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/LotDetailsPrintable.aspx?intObjectID=4197142 |archive-date=September 23, 2015 |access-date=March 20, 2021}}</ref> She began examining her past life and started with her autobiography. Christina stayed at the [[Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi|Palazzo Rospigliosi]], which belonged to Mazarin, the French cardinal, situated close to the Quirinal Palace; so the pope was enormously relieved when in July 1659, she moved to [[Trastevere]] to live in [[Palazzo Corsini, Rome|Palazzo Riario]], below the [[Janiculum]], designed by [[Bramante]]. It was Cardinal Azzolino, her "bookkeeper" who signed the contract, as well as provided her with new servants to replace Francesco Santinelli, who had been Monaldeschi's executioner.{{efn|Monaldeschi was a traitor, Santinelli had stolen from Christina' for years.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.forgottenbooks.com/readbook_text/The_Court_of_Christina_of_Sweden_and_the_Later_Adventures_of_the_Queen_in_1000493935/217|title=Gribble, Francis. (2013). pp. 196–7. The Court of Christina of Sweden, and the Later Adventures of the Queen in Exile. London: Forgotten Books. (Original work published 1913)|access-date=10 July 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160428064942/http://www.forgottenbooks.com/readbook_text/The_Court_of_Christina_of_Sweden_and_the_Later_Adventures_of_the_Queen_in_1000493935/217|archive-date=28 April 2016}}</ref>}}

The Riario Palace became her home for the rest of her life. She decorated the walls with tapestries by [[Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi]]<ref>Georgina Masson (1968) Queen Christina (Secker & Warburg)</ref> and paintings, mainly from the [[Venetian School (art)|Venetian School]] and Renaissance; and almost no paintings from northern European painters, except [[Hans Holbein the Younger|Holbein]], Van Dyck and Rubens. Her collections included very little religious subject matter and an abundance of mythological imagery, and it seems that Christina was also much interested in classical history, prompting misbegotten academic speculation about the genuineness of her conversion.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://repository.tcu.edu/bitstream/handle/116099117/8304/Aune_tcu_0229M_10602.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y|title=DISPLAY AS IDENTITY: QUEEN CHRISTINA OF SWEDEN'S CONSTRUCTION OF A PUBLIC IMAGE THROUGH HER STANZA DEI QUADRI By KATHERINE AUNE (2012)|access-date=10 July 2017}}</ref> No Roman collection of art could match hers. She owned [[Correggio]]'s ''[[Danaë (Correggio)|Danaë]]'' and two versions of [[Titian]]'s ''[[Venus and Adonis (Titian)|Venus and Adonis]]'', tapestries, sculpture, medaillons, drawings by Raphael, Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Titian, Veronese and Goltzius and portraits of her friends Azzolino, Bernini, Ebba Sparre, Descartes, ambassador Chanut and doctor Bourdelot.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c8G7BAAAQBAJ&dq=portraits+of+her+friends+Azzolino,+Bernini,+Ebba+Sparre,+Descartes,+ambassador+Chanut+and+doctor+Bourdelot&pg=PT206|title=The History of Loot and Stolen Art: from Antiquity until the Present Day|first=Ivan|last=Lindsay|date=2 June 2014|publisher=Andrews UK Limited|isbn=978-1-906509-56-9 |accessdate=19 February 2024|via=Google Books}}</ref>