PIRANESI, Giovanni Battista.

The Palazzo della Consulta was only a recent addition to baroque Rome when depicted by Piranesi, having been erected in the 1730s. It was designed by Ferdinando Fuga for Pope Clement XII to house the Papal secretariat of the main council of state, the Sacra Congregazione della Consulta. However, it subsequently passed through many manifestations, at the turn of the century housing the Prefecture of Rome, after Italian unification becoming the residence of Prince Umberto I, and by the turn of the next century it was home to the Foreign Ministry. In the 1950s, it took on its current role as the Constitutional Court of Italy. The top of the facade is dominated by the large sculptural coat of arms of the Corsini family of Clement XII, as also seen at the Trevi Fountain.