PAPAL ARMY - 1708 THE RUSPOLI FALCONIERI

 THE RUSPOLI REGIMENT

The Ruspoli Regiment is certainly the regiment of the Papal army for which the most information and detail survive. Not only are its strength and the circumstances of its formation known, but it is also the only regiment for which a painting exists depicting it in 1708 itself, and this painting forms the basis for its uniformological reconstruction.

This is a painting by Alessandro Piazza, commissioned by Francesco Maria Ruspoli and completed in 1710, depicting the Ruspoli Regiment being presented before its departure for the Ferrara campaign, in connection with the papal blessing in Piazza Santi Apostoli in Rome.

The historical scene represented is believed to be that of 9 September 1708: Ruspoli’s troops are presented before their departure, and the painting, executed shortly afterwards, also includes members of the Ruspoli circle. A source devoted to Handel suggests that George Frideric Handel himself is also depicted among the spectators, wearing a richly gold-decorated coat.

The painting, which belonged and still belongs to the Ruspoli family, was intended to celebrate both this splendid regiment and the prestige of the family itself in Rome. That prestige would eventually be rewarded with the title of Prince, granted by the Pope in recognition of the foundation of the regiment.

Through the use of artificial intelligence, the painting has been sharpened in order to make its uniformological details more clearly visible. The first thing that immediately stands out is that, contrary to several later representations of the regiment, its supposedly “yellow” uniform was in fact of a distinctly yellow-orange shade, as can be seen from the coats, while the so-called light blue was actually a rather subdued medium blue, rather than a bright or intense blue.

From this deduction, I produced the first reconstruction figure which, for the first time, presents the uniform of this unit in a historically accurate form.

Rgt. Ruspoli 1708