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where to find

SCALA
t, '^^-

^
artists
his guidebook proposes-
original tour of
following in the traces of
- among
Rome
fiv,

the greatest *
J arza '
;

exponents of the Renaissance ^- Lrqimento


bariK|ue - v\ ho have left an

indelible mark on the city.


^-
The aim to provide a valid
is

alternative to the traditional and


p ^
"crowded" tour of the museums, Q.
taking the reader on a journey ol
discovery of the masterpieces
hidden in the churches, palaces (jiftfl S.Ai)fU
and squares of Rome, without
question the largest museum
in the world

'
ach of the itineraries proposed f avour
accompanied by thematic
is ^rlo Tonte
sections focusing on some of the /Varaherifa

artist's favorite subjects (such as Vonte


pictures of the Madonna and
Child for Raphael or sculptures of
Angels and Saints in Ecstasy for (it Auauffo ^ ' /
nO 9
Bernini), or illustrating
contemporary masterpieces that
can be seen in Rome's most i. ^\^ '^ Tin(io
important museums.

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ROME
where to find

MICHELANGELO
RAPHAEL
CARAVAGGIO
BERNINI
BORROMINI

Livia Velani
Giovanni Grego

SCALA
2 RuMi.. \\ 111 Kl. H) 1 INlJ ..

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S\N I'll I KO IN MONIOklO 15
(UK. I (II \l'l I

WIK \N 16
swill !(;i() 1)1 (.1 I OKI I l( I .V)
Ml SiOI'iOCI 1 All NIINO 16

\ II I \ I \KNI SIN \ 40
ST. I'KTIKS 16

SI Pill Ks 43
VATIC AN PALACES
SISTINB CHAPEL 20 NAIK \N P\l\( KS 44
PAL LIM; CHAPEL 28 KAI'MAELSSTANZE 44
LOCiCJE 48
STUI-[iTTA-()[ CARD.
BIBBIENA 50
PINACOTECA VATICANA 51

Ml IWI \I)\MA 55
Contents 3

i
f
CARyWAGGIO

GALLERIA BORGHESK
58

60
1
CASINO DELL'ALRORA BERNINI 80
OR CASINO LLDOVISI 64

SANTA MARIA DELLA


CONCEZIONE 64
VILLA BORGHESE 82 1
*
\ SANTA MARIA BORROMINI 108
DELLA VITTORIA 88
PALAZZO BARBERINI 65
SANT'ANDREA SAN CARLO
SANTA MARIA DEL POPOLO 66 ALQUIRINALE 90 ALLE QUATTRO FON PANE no
MUSEI CAPITOLINI 68 PALAZZO QUIRINALE 91 SANTA LUCIA IN SELCI 112

GALLERIA DORIA PAMPHILJ 69 SANTA BIBIANA 92 SAN GIOVANNI IN


LATERANO 112
SAN LUIGI DEI FRANCESI 72 SANTA PRASSEDE 92
LATERAN BAPTISTERY 113
SANT'AGOSTINO 76 PALAZZO BARBERINI 93
SAN GIOVANNI IN OLEO 113
GALLERIA CORSINI 77 PIAZZA BARBERINI 93
PALAZZO BARBERINI 114
PINACOTECA VATICANA 78 SANT'ANDREA
DELLE FRATTE 94 SANT'ANDREA
DELLE FRATTE 115
CASA DEL BERNINI 94
PALAZZO CARPEGNA 116
PALAZZO DI
PROPAGANDA FIDE 94 PROPAGANDA FIDE 117

PIAZZA DEL POPOLO 94 PIAZZA NAVONA 118

PIAZZA DI SPAGNA 95 SANT'IVO ALLA SAPIENZA 120

SANTA MARIA DEL POPOLO 95 SANT'ANDREA


DELLA VALLE 121
SAN LORENZO IN LUCINA 96
PALAZZO FALCONIERI 121
PALAZZO DI
MONTECITORIO 96 PALAZZO SPADA 121

PIAZZA DELLA MINERVA 96 SAN GIROLAMO


DELLA CARITA 121
SANTA MARIA
SOPRA MINERVA 96 ORATORY
OFSANFILIPPONERI 122
MUSEO DI PALAZZO
VENEZIA 97 SANTA MARIA
DEI SETTE DOLORI 124
SANTA MARIA IN ARACOELI 97
SAN GIOVANNI
MLJSEI CAPITOLINI 97 DEI FIORENTIM 124

GALLERIA DORIA PAMPHILJ 97 ST. PETER'S 125

PIAZZA NAVONA 98

SAN FRANCESCO A RIPA 100

SAN PIETRO IN MONTORIO 101

ST. PETER'S 102


4 Rome. Where to find

Ackiiou IcdLinicnis

\\c uiuikl like lo ihaiik Slclaiiia Icdcrici aiul


I. aura Ridi loi ihcir c(>llabi>iatii>ii. as ucll as
Ciiorgiii Ciiiarnicri of the SBAS PicUirc l.ibiar\
in Rome and Slclano I)i IVrsio and Cin/ia Ainiiiaiiiialo
oftlic Dov\A Paniphil) Arcliivcs tor llic inloinialioii

llicy supplied.

2()()() SCALA Group S.p.A., Morcncc


(iiaphic design: Giovanni Grego
Iransialion; Christopher Huw Evans
Photographs: Arehivio l-otografico SCALA Group
exeeptpp. 13 b. 101 b. 112b, 113 a, 120 a, 126 c
(A. .(emolo): pp. 19 a, 97 c (Musei Capitol ini, Rome):
p. S4 a (Soprintendcnza Archeologica di Roma);
p. 124 a (R .Soriani)

Printed by Poligrafiche Bolis


A//ano San Paolo-Bergamo. 2000
The publisher is at the disposition ol tlie eopyriglit holders to any
ilhistralicnN ulio Ikinc not been n.inieil
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Michelangelo Buonarroti
Caprese Michelangelo (Arezzo) 1475 - Rome, 1564

1488, at the age of only thir- and remained there until 1501. It was in

teen, Michelangelo was already Rome that he was given the opportunity to

an apprentice in the Ghirlandaio express himself fully with the magnificent

In workshop, run by one of the


best-known and most active
Pieta carved out of white marble for
Peter's, his first true masterpiece. Return-
St.

families of artists in Florence. ing to Florence, he started to work on the

His classical education, entrust- famous fresco of the Battle of Cascina, in

ed to Francesco Galeota da competition with Leonardo, in the Palazzo


Urbino, known as the Greek, By 1505 he was back
Vecchio. in Rome,
had been broken off early. Though he had summoned by Julius II to make his tomb,
no bent for the study of letters, Michelan- a grandiose structure to be located at the
gelo always retained a fascination for po- center of the basilica. Michelangelo him-
etry, being a poet himself. He was partic- self described this project as the "tragedy

ularly fond of Dante and made great ef- of the tomb" and of his life. An endless se-
forts to have his mortal remains brought ries of rejections, changes of mind and
back to Florence, offering to carve his new designs tormented him throughout his
tomb at no charge. At the age of fifteen he life, leaving him deeply embittered. His
was taken under the wing of Lorenzo the dream was to find a harmonious fusion
Magnificent, who paid his expenses and of the arts in a continuous flow of move-
gave him a grant of ment, and this found
five gold florins a its fulfillment in the
month. Compared pictorial decoration
with the total of twen- of the ceiling of the
ty-four florins paid to Sistine Chapel.

Ghirlandaio for the The two Medici


Tomabuoni Chapel in popes who succeeded
Santa Maria Novella, Julius II, Leo X and
this is evidence of Clement VII, vied for

how prized he was his services in Rome


Daniele da Volterra, Marcello Venusti,
already. Michelangelo, Galleria Michelangelo, and Florence. In
deirAccademia, Casa Buonarroti,
He copied the ancient
Florence Florence
1519 he received the
sculptures in the commission for the

Medici gardens and showed a keen inter- construction of the New Sacristy in the
est in the masterpieces of Giotto, Masac- Florentine church of San Lorenzo, to be
cio and Donatello, concentrating his atten- used to house the tombs of the Medici
tion on the human figure. In secret, he work on the
family, and in 1524 he started
studied cadavers in the pauper's hospital Biblioteca Laurenziana. In Rome the Last

of the monastery of Santo Spirito, drawing Judgment was commissioned from him by
on the anatomical knowledge of the Au- Clement VII, but only painted later on,

gustinian fathers. Four years after Loren- during the papacy of Paul III Famese.
zo's death, which occurred in 1492, "[...] Finally, he also took on the onerous task of
he set off for Rome, [seeing it] as a very directing the construction of St. Peter's,
broad field in which everyone could show erecting the Doine that he dedicated to the
his good qualities [...]" (Condivi, 1553), Madonna and the people of Rome.

Left, plan showing the location of Michelangelo's works


S Ri )\ii . Will ki lo n\i) ...

Poriii Pill.

A
Mkhclaiujclo
work of
clukvuiiv b\
ar-

thai

marks the traiisi

lioii Iroin the laic

RciiaissaiKC lo the
barix|iic. uilli the
.1 HUOM.I
l"li>ronc( iHituaicI tlirusliiiLi

nun cinciit o\ its

Hues coiiliasiinLi

with the \cilicali


t\ o\' the coiistiiic-

1 ion's [x?rs|vcti\c.

Ilie gate is named


alter l\'>|V Pius IV.

a member o\' the


Milan branch of the Medici ramily. iuid lonns a venical huidmaik at

the \iuiishing po'ml o[' what was then via Pia, crealiiiii a new and
spectacular vista. This idea was to be taken up again during the
urbanistic reorganization of the city at the end of the century,
when obelisks were placed at the focal points of the road system.

Santa Maria Maggiore

Cappclhi SforzcL 1^64

Built lor Ascanio Slor/a in l.^(>4. this cliajvl IxMongs lo the iallei-

pan of the master's career, when for a period of almost two


decades he devoted himself exclusivelv to works of architecture.
Michelangelo 9

Santa Maria degli Angeli, 1563-66 San Giovanni in

Laterano

At the behest of the Medici


of the Baths of Diocletian, which had
Pope Pius IV, the

become
Tepidarium
a den of
(Old Sacristy)

Annunciation, 1555
thieves, was converted into the church of Santa Maria degH
Picture painted after a
Angeli. It took its name from the vision of the Virgin sur- drawing by
rounded by angels that had appeared in a dream to the Sicilian Michelangelo by

priest Antonio del Duca, who implored the pope to consecrate Marcello Venusti, who
produced a solemn
the site. Michelangelo did not make the slightest change to the
and accurate
still intact hall, leaving the ancient architecture as it was and interpretation of the
just raising the floor and building the ahars on it. master's sacred

The structure was altered in 1749 by Luigi Vanvitelli who, on image. Marcello
Venusti was one of his
the orders of Pope Benedict XIV, built a chapel there. He
best-known pupils
added a transept to the single nave with no aisles and opened a
who specialized in
new entrance to replace the previous one, which had faced to- copying his work.
ward the place where the railroad station now stands.
Miche-langelo also constructed the large cloister of the Museo
delle Terme, where he is said to have planted the old cypress
that is still visible next

to the fountain.

Santa Maria dci^li


Angeli, plan
10 RoMi:. Will Ri ID 1 i\n ...

San Pietro in Vincoli

Tomb of Julius I L 1545

The grandio.sc lomb designed by Miclielangelo for Julius II

in 1505, after he had spent eight months choosing marble


at the quarries in the Apuan Alps, met with resistance from
the pope himself. Palace intrigues, and in particular the influ-

ence of Donato Bramante, who was in charge o{ the construc-


tion of St. Peter's at the time, were the true reason for the
pope's uncertainty.
The chronicles record that the blocks o{ marble were brought
to Rome by river and unloaded at Ripa Ciiande on the fiber,

arousing great curiosil\ among the local people b\ their enor-


Reconstruction by
mous si/.e. The pope had even had a secret passage with a
Charles de Tolnay
of the
drawbridge built on premises next door to St. Peter, so thai he
first (1505).
second (1513), third could watch the work get under way in secret.

(1516) and lounh After the pope's abrupt about-face. Michelangelo fled \o llo-
(1532) design lor Rome until three \ears later, when
reiice. lie did nol return to
Julius II's tomb.
he accepted instead the commission to fresco the Sisline
Chapel, whose imaginative power and architectural and
sculplinal effect echoed llic design foi- the lomb.
The ivxised designs ilial he piodiiced in 1513. 151b and 1532
1

Michelangelo 1

led to the final solution, built in


San Pietro in Vincoli in 1545, with
the statue of Moses flanked by
those of Leah and Rachel (1542-
45). The rest was executed by Raf-
faello da Montelupo.
In 1513 the artist had carved the
first two Prisoners or Slaves for the
already reduced version of Julius II's

tomb. These statues were supposed to


be set all round the work (the other
four, executed about twenty years lat-

er, are now in the Galleria delTAc-


cademia, Florence). Classical he-
roes that, in the way the figures
twist and turn in order to break
out of the material, allude to
the spirit's struggle to free it-

self from the body.


The Moses he carved for the second
version of the tomb represents a re
finement of the polished execu-
tion of the earlier Pieta. The
Renaissance exaltation of , i? -

Dying Slave, man is expressed in this


1513,
Louvre, Pans sculpture through the proud
and imperious attitude of the
enlightened prophet, whose
face is a portrait of Julius 11.

The artist's exclamation when the Rebellious Slave.


1513,
work was finished is famous:
Louvre, Paris
hurling the scalpel at it, he
cried out "why don't
you speak?"

Leah Rachel

12 Rt)MI . Will KI TO ll\I) ....

The flight of steps to the Campido^lio and. on the left, the staircase of Sanla Maria in Aracoeli

Piazza del Campidoglio. 1538


4'
-I

The squaic on the Capitol was the first in modern Rome to


u be laid out to a regular design by an arehiteet. The tVonts
of the Pala/zo dci Conseivatori on the right, the Palazzo Sen-
atorio at the rear and the Palazzo Nuovo on the left (also
known as the Museo Capitolino) were designed by Miehelan-

/*/ o/'//?^ square gelo, who was also responsible for the structure in the Sale
dei Conservatori used to house the fragments of the Fasti
Santa M \ki\ in
Consulares et Triitmphalcs, discovered in 1546.
Ak\( oil I

The exteiTial staircase of the Palazzo Senatorio and ihc pliiiih

Monument to of the Marcus Aurcllus are the only parts executed in


Cecchino Hracei, 1544
Michelangelo's own lifetime.
Executed to
In 1538 Paul III Farncsc, inspiied b\ the Renaissance reorga-
Michelangelo's design
by Jrancesco Amadori
nization of the center of Pien/a. decided to move the Marcus
called Urbino. one ol Aurelius from the I.ateran to the sciuare. in spite of Michelan-
ihe master's favorite gelo's objections. Michelangelo added "four small members"
pupils.
to the corners of the statue's base to give it more prominence.
Michelangelo's
Ciiacomo della PoUa conliiuied the work after his death, atieii-
biographers recount
how he took Urbino
uating the dynamic effects of Michelangelo's architecture to

into his own home to give it a flatter and more conventional appearance. The
look after him when "Palazzo Nuovo" on the left was designed from scratch and
he wa.s dying.
completed in the se\ cnleenlh century by Giacomo del Duca.
3

Michelangelo 1

Palazzo Nuovo Palazzo del Conservator!

Palazzo Senatorio

Staircase of the Palazzo Senatorio


14 RoMl . \\ HhRl lo I l\li

S AM \ Maria soi^ra Mini r\a

/he Redeemer. \^\')-2\

A iiKiihIc liyuro i>r Christ as large as

lilc. naked, ciccl. uilh his arms


iouikI a cii^ss. in an alliliidc thai said
deems In." lluis runs the
\lichclaLiiu>li)

eimtract drawn up in 1514, c\cn though


Ihe pre\i(>iis year Miehelangelo had
puMiiised not to take on an\ other eom-
milment apart from that ot Julius ll's
itMiib lor the next seven years. In lael the
statue did not ariixe in Rome until 1.^21.

and e\en then \sas not \\holl\ linished.


riie work had to be eompleled h\ Pietr.)

I'rbano. who aeeompanied the seulpture.


But he ruined it. as Sebastiano del Piombo
eonlirmed in a letter sent to Miehelangek^
on September d, 1.^21: "I ha\e to tell you
that what |Pietro| has done has marred
everything |...| it does not seem to be

earvcd out of marble, but made b\ some-


one who works with dough." Miehelange-
lo then had it relouehed b\ another pupil.
Federigo Fri//i, who left it a pale shadow
of the original idea. When it was unxeiled
in the church, on December 27, 1521, it

looked so different that Sellajo wrote to


Michelangelo on Januarx 12. 1522: "I
have said and spread the word that to me
it does not appear lo be your work."
The bronze drapery covering the groin is a later addition b} a

hrachettone, a sculptor specializing in adding "breeches."

Palazzo Farncse. 1 546

The palace, which Stendhal considered to be one ol' the

ugliest in Rome, was begun in 1514 by Antonio da San-


gallo the Younger for Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (the future
Paul III, who ascended the papal throne in 1534). After San-
gallo's death in 1546, it was continued by Michelangelo,
though he was respon-
sible only for the cor-

nice, the central bal-

T T TTT tit
'
t^lt con\ and the second
and third lexeis

inleinal court\ard.
o\' the
ll

-4:^ was finished by Ciiaco-

n Iff H i'l .'trft. mo del la Porta after


Michelaiiiielo's death.

i.ni
vKm
fi^^i mim
Michelangelo 15

San Pietro in Montorio


Flagellation of Jesus, 1518

The picture was painted by Sebas-


Piombo
tiano del to a design by
Michelangelo, who set the scene in the
circular space of the Tempietto di San
Pietro in Montorio.
The revival of the classical idea of ar-
chitecture on a central plan formed the
basis for Bramante's first design for St.

Peter's, and was taken up again by


Michelangelo in the dome that he buih
for the basilica.

Bramante, Tempietto
di San Pietro in
Montorio, 1502
16 RUMI . WUHRh TO I IM)

Agesandcr, Pol\dorus
and Alhcntxlorus o\
Rhodes, luiocoon aiui
His Sons Wrvslltni^
wilh ihf Serpent.
1st centiir\ B.C.
I si ccnlur\ AC

VaIK AN

MusRO Pio-
Clhmi-mino

Lii()C()(")n

The sen plural


I

group oi' the


Laocixh] was rmiiid
on January 14.
150(1. in a vineyard
close to the Setie
Sale (Oppian hill).

A masterpiece oi'

late Hellenistic sculpture, it was de- St.Pefer\s, 1546-64


scribed by Plin\ the Elder in his Natu-
ral is His tor la. Identified as the work o\' Between April IS, 1506. the day on
three sculptors from Rhodes, Agesandcr which Pope Julius II went in great

and his sons Polydorus and Athenodor- pomp to lay the first stone of the new
us, it is not carved out of a single block, basilica of St. Peter, and the time the ag-
as was initially believed. The discovery ing Michelangelo took over the constmc-
caused a great .sensation and aroused in- tion, following the death of Antonio da
credible interest among both artists and Sangallo the Younger in 1546, forty years
the general populace. Acquired by Pope had passed. The work was plagued by
Julius II. it was set up in the courtyard patronage and corruption and Michelan-
o\' the [belvedere, the first ever open-air gelo's first task was to combat this. To set

sculpture garden, conceived by Bra- a high moral example he made no charge


mante. "|...| in this place and on this for his design of the dome, dedicating it

base as high above the ground as if it to the Madonna, whom he had always
were an altar, in the midst o\' a most venerated. He was faced with grave ad-
perfect pit. there stands the famous ministrative problems, due to the cor-
Laocoon. celebrated the world over, a ruption of his predecessors, known as
figure of great perfection and very life- "Sangallo's gang." In the dome he re-
like, the size of an ordinary man. with turned to Bramante's centrali/ed plan, in-

a hairy beard and totally naked I...]"' spired b\ the Pantheon, but eliminated
(report of the Venetian ambassadors the lower le\el and took as his model
who \isited Rome in 1.523). The ten- the \ertical thrust oi Bruiielleschi "s

sion of the naked body and the stiid\ dome. He got his nephew Leonardo to

of the muscles down to the smallest obtain the hitler's exact measurements,
detail made a great impiessioii on w hich he expanded by raising the drum.
Michelangelo, who atlemplcd to recon- On that occasion a couplet was dedicat-
struct the missing right arm. It was to ed to him. showing just how jealous the
remain a point of reference in his many Florentines were of their great artist:

paintings centering on the nude male //// off to Rome to make your sister

fiiiure.
MiCHELANGFI.O 17

Michelangelo's
design for
5/. Peter's

longer able to go to the construction site,

watched the progress of the work from


The interior of the dome
the loggia of his home, opposite the

And so he created, in harmony with the church of Santa Maria di Loreto. After
rest of the architecture, what wouldcome his death they were completed by Gia-
to be known Rome,
as the eighth hill of como della Porta (1572) and Domcnico
built by man. The dome's base and drum Fontana (1585). Seven months later the

were erected by Michelangelo who, no lantern had been finished as well.


IS R()\n . \\ HI Kh lo I i\i)

Picta, 1499-1500
Hu'ia. 1.^54. Miisoo
dell "Opera del
Duonio. tlorence
The sculpture was commissioned in 1498 for the church of
the kings of France, Santa Petronilla (later destroyed), by
the cardinal of Saint-Denis, who had become almost the
French ambassador in Rome and knew that his choice of sub-

ject would be to the liking of Pope Alexander VI, much devoted


to the Virgin Mary. The cardinal, whom King Charles VIII had
chosen as his sole companion when he visited Rome and Naples
on horseback in 1494, was a highly cultured man. Michelange-
lo, who had come to Rome in 1496 on the advice of Jacopo Gal-
h. a rich banker with whom the artist stayed and for whom he
worked, was commissioned to can'c the statue. In the contract

for the Pieta, the Florentine banker himself guaranteed the qual-
ity of the execution, countersigning the statement that "'I...] it

Paleslrina Pieia.
will be the finest work in marble in Rome and no living master
c. 1555, Gallcria would be able to do it better." The sculpture is remarkable not
dell'Accadcmia.
Florence only for its great harmony and delicacy, but also as a mark of
Michelangelo's total break with tradition: his invention o\' the

first modern devotional sculpture was prompted b\ his deep


feelings of love for his mother, who had died at a \'er\ earl\ age.

Leonardo's pyramidal scheme and use oi' sfunuilo are translated


into sculpture with a creative genius that is sustained by a
unique technical skill. The continual vibration o\' the drapery
\ aries the light rellccted from the surface and rarefies the image
ink) an absolulc ideal i/a( ion. We know from the sources that

Michelangelo had it polished with pads o\' straw and that, as


was his custom, had not signed it. One night, hcnvexer. Vasari

tells us. "taking his chisels, he shut himself in w iih a lighl and
carved his name on the statue: Michael Angelus Bonaiotus
llorentinus faciebat" (the words are inscribed on the sash
HniiJunini I'lcld.
ISM. Castello over the Madonna's breast) as he had heard some people from
Slorzebco, Milan Lombardy boasiing thai il was the work of Cristoforo Solari.
MiCHELANGHI.O 19

Toinhsloiw of a
Soldier. Miisei
Capitolini, Rome

Raphael, Deposition of Christ (detail). 1507,


Galleria Borshese, Rome

Caravaggio, Deposition in the Tomb, 1602-04, Leonardo da Vinci, The Viri^in of the Rocks (detail).

Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome 1483-86, Louvre, Paris

The iconography of the mother, holding was also to inspire Raphael's Deposi-
her dead son on her lap, is of Northern tionof Christ (Galleria Borghese, Rome)
European origin, but Michelangelo de- and Caravaggio 's Deposition in the Tomb
parts from the harshness of this model (Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome).
through his reinterpretation of classical His other versions of the same ihcmc
sculpture. In particular, the body of date from much later. The Rondanini
Christ with his right arm hanging down Pietci (Castello Sforzesco, Milan) was
to the ground is taken from classical his last work, executed between 1552
military iconography {Tombstone of a and the days immediately prior lo his

Soldier, Musei Capitolini, Rome), which death, in 1564.


10 RoMl . W HI Kl ID MM)

S'lstinc Chapel

Biiill h\ Baccio Poiilclli for Po|X} Sixtiis IV ( 1471-S4), llic design is

based on llic dimensions of the temple of Solomon given in the

Bible (roughly 41 by 13-5 meters). All that remains oftlie t)riginal fif-

teenth-eentury constmetion is the magnifieenl and typiealls Roman


Cosmatesque Hcx^r. Tlie Iresetvs mnning along the middle seetion of

three of the walls depiet episcxles from the life o{ Moses and Christ.
Tliey were painted in 14(S3 by the greatest ailisls of the day: Sandro
Bollicelli. PietR^ Penigino. Domcnieo Ghirlandaio (MiehelangekVs first

teacher in llorenee), Cosimo Rosselli. Pinliiricchio and Luca Sitrnorelli.


The Delphic Sibyl

The cycle of episodes, extending from The Ceiling, 1508-12


the Old to the New Testament, is intend-
repainting of
ed to represent the continuity of the The sixteenth-century
which the
Church since its legitimization under the the stany vault with ceil-

Roman empire. Constantine's Arch, ing had originally been decorated was
which appears twice in Perugino's Deliv- carried out at the behest of Pope Julius

ery of the Keys to St. Peter, where Christ II, who wished to continue the celebratory

hands over the symbol of spiritual au- program of the murals. At first the pope
thority to his first representative on earth, wanted just the upper archivolts paint-
provides a visual confirmation of this. ed, but Michelangelo persuaded him to
R()\ii . W 111 Ki ic) I i\i)

The Crcaiion uj .\itaiii

have Ihc whole ceiling decorated. He dect)ralion. with its imaginati\e struc-
began, in 15()X. with the figures of ture that subdixides and expands the
Prophets and Sibyls, so as to link the ex- space. The contrast is still more marked
isting frescoes with the new structure. w ith the \ast scale of the Last Judgment,
The "Scenes from Genesis"" in the pan- made up solely o{ figures and painted in
els of the ceiling run from the CreaticMi the same place b\ the artist in his old
to the Drunkenness of Noah and the age. as a sort o{ spiiiiual testament. I he
Separation of Light from Darkness original light and glowing colors of the
(starling frc^n the altar) and were com- paintings have now been rexealed after
pleted in 1.^12. The architecture of the the long and radical restoration to w hich
whole is the most strikiiiL! feature of the lhe\ were subjected, sometiiing that has
Michelangelo 23

Original Sin

The Creation of Eve

Stirred a great deal of controversy over the visitor to make a direct, critical com-
the last ten years: begun in 1980, the in- parison.
tervention moved on to the wall with the The restoration work continues, with
Last Judgment in 1990 and was com- the aim of returning the frescoes by
pleted in 1994. In offering a record here Michelangelo's predecessors painted on
of the way the frescoes used to look be- the other walls to their original colors
fore restoration, the intention is to allow as well.
1

24 RoNIl . W Ml-Ri: TO MM)

Ml SK) 1)1

('vroniMoNU.
NM'IIs

Marctllo \inu\ti.
Last Jiidiinunt
(after Miclu'lan^clo)

Michelangelo's pupil
Marcel lo Venusti has
left us one of the
versions that come
closest to the original

fresco of the Lost


Judgment. The picture
was painted for

Cardinal Famese and


used to be in the

Famese collections.

Last Judgment. 1 535-4

The idea of repainting the end wall of the Sistine Chapel,


eliminating the two frescoes by Perugino and the two
OkMI lO (VIHKDRAL windows with lunettes frescoed by Michelangelo, was
Clement VI Ts: the pope "has worked hard to persuade
CHAI'1-LOI Sa\ BRI/IO
Michelangelo to paint in the chapel and to do the resurrection
Luca Si}{norelli,
above the altar |...|." wrote Agnello back lo Venice. Willi Paul
iMst Judgment
(detail)
III Farnese's ascent of the papal throne on November 5. I.>34.

The KcsuriTction of
the need to represent the .ludy,ineni. even if onl\ the initial

the Dead is part of phase of the resurrection o'i the dead, became e\en more
Luca Signorclli's pressing, in order lo illuslrale the terrible jnmishmenl the
famous fresco in
Church reserxed lor heielics. The contorted and luHKled lace
Orvicto Cathedral,
of Martin Luther has been recogni/ed. emeiging liom the
painted between 14W
and 1503. lower IVame of the fresco, at bottom left,

fhe immense fresco painted on llic ^U(\ wall o\ the Sistine

Chapel became the sublime minal manifesto o{ the Counter


Reformation. When the Lust .Imli^iucnt was unveiled, on No-
vember 1. I."^4 I. the whole o'i Rome came to look on. in a

mixture of disma\ and apprehension.


Michelangelo 25

Artists began to copy it, and Michelan- lo and Alessandro Famese, who was to

gelo himself exclaimed "How many become Pope Paul III, had attended the
people will be driven mad by this work lectures of Nicolaus Copernicus, future
of mine!" The incredibly innovative author of the De revolutionihus orhium
composition, made up entirely of human coelestium, at a private house in Rome,
figures without any architectural frame- where he had come for the Jubilee of
work to support them, swirls in a com- 1500.
pletely new and disturbing cosmic The brazen display of so many nudes -
space. The movement and arrangement as many as 314 have been counted
-
of the bodies seems to echo the Coper- roused fierce controversy and led lo
nican vision of the cosmos, in which the them being covered up, twenty years
planets rotate about the sun, personified later, with drapery painted by Daniclc

by the youthful figure of Christ with his da Volterra. The order to do this was is-

solar backdrop. And in fact Michelange- sued by the Council of Trent on January
!h Rc)\ii . \\ HI Ki R) 1 i\n

Si Caihcrinc and Si. Hh. St. Catherine ami Si. Hlaisi


hcforo censorship alter censorship

One of the Elect St. John the Baptist St. Bartholomew An Ani^el

Niohe C haron The Viri>in One of the Resurrected

21. 1564. Ikionarroli had already been asked ki "dress ihe


fresco" by Pope Paul IV Carat'a (1355-5^)), who considered
the Judi^mcnf "a swcathoiise of nudes" and wanted to destroy

it. The choice o\' Voltena. who from then on was know n as

the hrcichctloiic. or "painter of breeches." w as a prudent one,


as he had been one of the master's most dexoted pupils. On
his death in i.^dd. the woik was contiiuied b\ Ciirolanio da

lano.
in some places this entailed radical alterations beinu made to

the fresco, as in the scene of St. Blaise and St. Catherine with
the wheel of her marl\'rdom (at top): Catherine was dressed in

a Lireen tunic and Blaise's head was turned around so that he


One of the Damned wa.s now iia/inu at Christ.
,

Michelangelo 27

Last Judgment, 1 536-4 1


Casa Buonarroti, Florence

Christ the Judge

Yet the Last Judgment continued to scandalize: Gregory XIII


(1572-85) even contemplated replacing Buonarroti's painting
with another by Lorenzo Sabbatini: Clement VIII (1592-1605)
planned to have the whole thing covered with whitewash. In the
seventeenth century even as unconventional and brilliant a painter
as Salvator Rosa had the following to say in his satire on Painting:
''Michelangelo my friend, I dont say this in jest
What youve painted is a great Judgment
But judgment is something of which you couldnt have less.''
This continued into the eighteenth century, when Clement XIII
Rezzonico ordered Stefano Pozzi to carry out ^'a new distribu-

tion of breeches and sheets" (Ricci, 1911). Moralistic retouches


went on throughout the century.
2S R()\ii . Where to find

Conversion of St. Pcnil

iiiMii/i III M r

rauli/wC/iapcL 1542-49

The decoration with Conversion of


The Pauline Chapel houses Miche- the
hmgelo's last paintings, whicli he St. Pcnil and Crucifixion of St. Peter,
was unable to eomplete owing lo his requested b\ Paul III lor the chapel that

advaneed age. In Tact he eomplaiiied lo he had had built next to the Sistine
Vasari that "after a eertain age, painting. Chapel, echoes the restless and crowd-
and especially working in fresco, is not ed organization o'i space and the effects
an old man's art."' obtained in the /.asi ./u(/:.^nwnt.
Michelangelo 29

Domes
IN Rome
AFTER
Michelangelo

Carlo Madcrno L556- 629)


( 1 Pietro da Cortona (L596-1669)
Sanf Andrea della Valle, 1622-25 Santi Luca e Martina, 1635

Rosato Rosati
(1559-1622)
San Carlo ai Catinari,
1620
*'<

\1 v
^
:r
Q. ^
ViUorio

4^

TonTe
Sifto ^ ... Vonte C^''
>..^ irl Vmierlo

^k
^^ifc GaribMi ^^^ ,.J 22
Piazza
Tanthe

r
FonCe
Talafiruj
^_
^^W
I
Raphael I
Urbino, April 6, 1483 - Rome, April 6, 1520

Latin epitaph ded- culture and appointed him "scriptor bre-

The icated to Raffaello


Sanzio by his friend,
the distinguished
manist Cardinal Be-
Hu-
vium apostolicorum." Leo X then gave
him the task of surveying the city's ne-
glected ancient monuments, which were
being used as a quarry for construction
mbo, and inscribed materials. One of the most important
on the tomb in the assignments he ever received, it was
Pantheon where he unfortunately left incomplete owing to
was buried with royal his sudden death.
honors, praises him in the following The dates of 1511, set beneath the fres-
words: "This is that Raphael, by whom coes of Parnassus and the Cardinal
in life / Our mighty mother Nature Virtues in the Stanza della Segnatura,
feared defeat; / And and 1512, under The
in whose death did Miracle at Bolsena
fear herself to die." in the Stanza di Elio-
His untimely death doro, show that his

at the age of only decoration of Julius


thirty-seven on April ILs new apartments
6, Good Fri-
1520, a was carried out at
day and the same the same time as
day as he was bom, Michelangelo was
plunged "this [papal working on the Sis-
Self-Portrait, Double Portrait
court] into great tine Chapel.
Uffizi, Florence (detail), Louvre, Paris
and universal sor- Succeeding his fel-

row" and strange portents shook the low countryman Donato Bramante as

Vatican Palace, "which came close to architect of St. Peter's (1514), he be-
collapse" (letter from Michiel to Anto- came, on Buonarroti's departure for

nio Marsilio). Florence in 1516, the sole and undis-


After serving an apprenticeship first puted protagonist of the Church's ren-
with his father, the painter and writer ovation.
Giovanni di Sante di Pietro, and then In him the modern reinterpretation of
with his most famous teacher, Perugino, Rome as caput mundi found an ideal
Raphael moved to Florence, in time for vehicle for the intense cultural program
him Leonardo and
to be able to see initiated by Julius II and continued by
Michelangelo working together. Around Leo X (Lorenzo the Magnificent "s son
1508 he went to Rome, where Pope Giovanni) with a pomp worthy of the
Julius II recognized his deep classical first Medici to ascend the papal throne.

Left, plan showing the location of Raphael's works


R()\ii . Will ki lo ii\i

Gai I i-RiA B()R(;iii:si

Porlniil
ofci Miin.
c. 1502

IllKs IkI\C
c
1 1 10
ailribiilcti

wovk io Pc-

iw'Smo as well as
N' lliilbciii. in\-

iiis: lo ils inaikcd


alTiiiilics with
Norlhcrn I:uro-
Marriiiiiv of the
pcaii po Ilia it LI re.
Virgin. 1504
Later. !i(n\e\er.
The oarlicsl d;ilcci

work hy Raphael: the


it was assigned
date 1504 is included to Raphael as
in the inscription on this is lio\s it

the building in the


was listed in the
background. The
first iinentoiA of
church is inspired b\

the Tempietto di San the Bt)riihese


Pietro in Montorio. eolleetion eonipiled in 1765. Tiie sitter nia\ be Perugino or
constructed by his ri\ ah the LJmbrian painter Bernardino di Bcno. ealled I^iii-
Bramante in Rome in
turiechio. w ith whom Raphael worked in his youth on the car-
1502.
toons for the Libreria Piccolomini in Siena. This last hypothe-
sis is now one of the most widely accepted, given the close
ties of friendship between the elderly artist and his young as-
sistant. The picture was painted during a period when he was
still linked to Umbrian circles and around the same time as
the Marriai^e of the Viri>in (Pinacoteca di Brera. Milan).

Portrait of a Youni^ Woman


(Lady with a Unicorn), 1505-06

The mythical
animal came
to light after radi-

ographic exami-
nation and res-
toration in 1935.
Gaixeria I'm, \ I in a,
which freed the
Flork\( I

painting oi' the


Portrait of a Woman later addition o\'
(La (iravida). I5()6
the symbols of
The work is close to
the palm and St.
the Port rail of a
Catiierine's whcxH.
Yoimfi Woman {Lady
with a Unicorn) The discovery
where, instead of the has totally chang-
swollen belly on
ed our under-
which the sitter rests
standing o\ the
her hand in this

picture,we sec a picture, now seen


unicorn, emblem of as a secular por-
virginity, in the lap of
trait of enigmatic
the young woman.
significance.
Raphael 33

Michelangelo,
Libyan Sibyl, Sistine
Chapel. Rome

The group on the right


with the Holy Women,
forming a tangle of
bodies supporting the
Virgin, is based on the
torsion Michelangelo

imparted to the figures


in his Doni Tondo and
to the Sibyls in the

Sistine Chapel.

Michelangelo, Pieta,
St. Peter's, Rome

Deposition of Christ (Borghese Deposition), 1507

Painted for the Baglioni Chapel in the church of San


Francesco al Prato in Perugia, the aUarpiece was stolen
by Scipione Borghese for his collection in 1608. The indig-
The abandoned
nant Perugians were sent a copy by Cavalier d'Arpino in ex-
position of the body of
change. The original was carried off to France by Napoleon's Christ in the Borghese
army in 1797, but returned in 1815. Deposition is identical

to the one in

several alterations and at the final solution, Michelangelo's

the date written on the combining two sculpture. The idea

painting, 1507, may episodes. The was taken from an


lamentation over the ancient military
only refer to the time
dead Christ and the tombstone showing the
when it was begun.
Virgin's grief are united naked body of the hero
by the movement being carried from the
Study for the battlefield with his
"A bloody tragedy, the implied by the carrying
death of Grifonetto
Deposition of Christ, of his body, no longer in right arm dangling.
Baglioni, provided the Uffizi, Florence a prostrate position but
Michelangelo,
occasion for the
painting of the
Deposition of Christ"
^m draped between the two
groups of figures
support its
that
Doni Tondo,
Florence
UfTi/i,

(Venturi, 1920). weight


Atalanta Baglioni
commissioned it from
Raphael to

commemorate her
grief over the loss of The sixteen preparatory

her young son drawings now in a

Grifonetto (portrayed museums


variety of

in the central figure of (Ashmolean Museum,


the man carrying Oxford; British
Christ). He had been Museum, London;
killed in July 1500 Louvre, Paris; Uffizi,
during the struggle for Florence) are evidence
power in Perugia. The of the difficulty
work has undergone encountered in arriving

Other works in the GalI E FOUND IN THE CHAPTER ON CaRAVAGGIO


U R()\II . WHERHTO FIND

Galleria Nazionalk d'Arte Antica

Palazzo Barberini
Ingres. Raphael and
La Foniarina.
Museum of" Fine Arls, La Fornarina (The Baker's Daui^/iter), \5\^-\9
Columbus

The portrait ol' *'a woman of his. whom Rapliacl \o\cd un-
til his death" (Vasari, 1568). Raphael's lo\er. known b\

tlie name of La Fornarina, was only identified in the seven-

teenth eentury as Margherita Luti, daughter oi' the Siencsc


baker who kept shop in the Santa Dorotea district oiRome.
Unlike in the earlier and more famous paintinii. La VcUtia
{The Woman in a \'cil) of 1516 (Galleria Palalina, Morence).
where the same woman is dressed in sumptuous silk clothes,

the iiirl is portrayed here in transparent and intimate dcshahil-


Ic. The image has inspired man\ artists, incUiding (io\a and
Ingres, who even imitated the style of her headgear. Like an
odalisque, the artist's mistress is wearing a bracelet on her up-
per arm, inscribed with his name: "Raphael I'rbinas." The
same detail can be seen in the statue of the \('niis ofCnidus.
The translucencN o{ ihc clothing is reminiscent oi the wet ef-
\'cniis oj C ni(lu\.
fect of the draper) in Hellenistic sialuarx. while the backdrop
Museo I'io-

Clcmcnlino, Rome of trees is a reference to Leonardo.


Raphael 35

i
r ..# il^
1^*

A
SM^
\4^x
j( f- m ^ lb

^^^L tM b-^'
^fc^^mr '

^^^^H ^K Wl- 1
V >'i)%
mz^^^ k ^yi
^-^0 '
Li^^JiP-
>^,^- ::\^ jUi pl ^

Lorenzo LoUo (c. 1480-1556),


Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine, 1542

Other Works in
Palazzo Barberini

Bronzino (1503-72), Hans Holbein (1497/98-1543).


Portrait of Stefano Colonna, 1546 Portrait of IJ cnrx Vlll. 1540
36 Rn\ll . W'UFRh TO MM) ...

A( (ADIMIA
1)1 San Li ( a

Pai.a//()
Carpixina

PiitU) Holilin^^
a Fc'sioon

o\
FiIrcsct^
aLiiiici111

b> Ra-
A

phael (?). Ihc pullo


is an exact ciip\ o\
the one on the left
The Prophet Isaiah
(detail). Church ol in tlie fresco o\ the
Sanl'.\!:osiiiu>. Rome
Prophet I sell nil in

the churcli o\' Sanl*-


AgostiiK).
It entered the Ac-
cademia in Ma\ I
1834 as part o\' the
Wicar bequest and
was described in tlie
receipt as follows:
"a putto painted in
fresco on the wall,
said to be by the im-
mortal Raphael, re-

touched by the Illus-

trious Cav. Wicar."

Si. Luke Painlim; ihc Madonna.


1511 (?)

Painted on panel, but transferred


onto can\as in 1(S57. the picture
was presumably started by Raphael
and finished by someone else. The
work's presence in the Accademia di

San Luca is recorded since 1579, and


it appears that it had been donated by
a distinguished painter belonging to
the academy, perhaps Federico Zuc-
cari or Pietro da C\>rtona. The figure
of the \()ung man standing behind the
saint is probabl) a portrait of Raphael.
Raphael 37

Santa Maria del Popolo

Chigi Chapel 1513-16

A construction conceived in
by Raphael, who also prepared the
cartoons for the mosaic on the ceiling
its entirety

representing pagan deities, sym-


bolizing the planets, surmounted
by angels who impose limits on
their power. Given a central
plan - a mark of Bramante's en-
during influence - it was built at

the behest of Agostino Chigi to


serve as the family mausoleum.
Work on it commenced in 1513-
14 under the supervision of Loren
zo Lotti, called Lorenzetto, who also
carved the sculpture of Jonah Emerging
from the Whale, to a design by Raphael "^~----^;^^^'

The chapel was completed by Bernini, but not


until the pontificate of Alexander VII Chigi (1655-67)
1

3S R()\ll . W'Ul.Rl. TO UNO

(;M LI RIA
DOKIA
^^^^v^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^H^ .^r^^^^^^^^^l PWIIMUIJ
Porlrait
oj Andrea
\(iv(r^cr()
unci A^^oslino
lU'dZKino (
'.^
K
1 S 1(^

'
1
'he subjects ot

A ihc pDiliail sccni

\o he l\\i> laiiious

1 luinaiiisls al ihe pa-

pal ecHirl. ll is owe of llie earliest examples of a double portrait


in the Meiiiish manner, of which the most lamoiis is the one
in the l.oin re where the tiiiLire on the left appears to be a self-

portrait o^ Raphael.

The interpretation of the people represented in this picture is

dilTicuit: "|...l Two half-length figures dressed in black, in a


single picture. In spile of the doubts that have been expressed
recently, this is certainly an authentic work. Who would have
been able to persuade two illustrious personages to ha\ e their
Dotihic Portrciil.
Lomro. I'aris portraits painted together, apart from the artist who wanted to

preserve their memory, either for himself or for one of his su-
periors, perhaps even the pope? What predominates in this

work, to a greater extent than in others, is the style of a histor-

ical monument, an unrestrained


grandiosity ready for anything, that
would not be out of place in any his-

torical representation.

The execution, as far as the unaltered


parts are concerned, is impeccable"
(Burckhardt. 1^52).

Sant'Agostino

The Prophet Isaiah, 1 r5 1


-
1 2

The twisted pose and force o[' the

seated figure, iiolding a scroll

bearing the Hebrew inscription "Open


\e the gates, that the righteous nation
w hich keepeth the truth may enter in"
(Isaiah 2b. 2). are strongly intluenced
b\ the sl\ le o\ Michelangelo.
Raphael painted this fresco, commis-
sioned b\ the Protonotars Apostolic
(iioxanni (lorit/ ( iiieiilioned in the

plaque written in (iieek at the top), on


\ the third pillar on the left in the na\e.

i after he had admired Michelangelo's


,^ Prophets in the Sistinc (Miapel.

Ollll K WORKS IN III) (JM I.KRIV PWII'HII .1 IN llll ( IIM'TIR ON (' AR \\ A(;(aO
Rapiiafi

Santa Maria della Pace

and Angels, 1514


Sibyls
%l^
Once again the strong influence of
Michelangelo is discernible in this
fresco, which is a transposition of the
lunette with Adam and Eve in the Sistine

Chapel into a wholly personal language.


The composition, which is set above the
arch of the first chapel on the right, is

handled with a fluency of narrative that v:


captures all of the innovative impact that
Michelangelo had had on painting in
Sketch lor
those years. Executed for Agostino Chigi,
the lantern of
it depicts, on the left: the Cumaean Sibyl, the church of
Sanl'Elii>i(>
with her arm raised to indicate a scroll in
de^li Orefici.
Greek borne by an angel in flight, and the Uffizi, Florence

Persian Sibyl in the act of writing on a


tablet also supported by an angel: "It

will be his destiny to die"; on the right:


Section of
the Phrygian Sibyl and the Tiburtine
the church of
Sibyl; and in the middle: a putto holding Sanl' Elii>io
degli Orefici.
a torch, symbol of the light of prophecy. Uffizi. Florenct

SanfEligio degli Orefici, 1509-16

A small church designed by Raphael


on a central plan, in the
Bramante's project for
manner of
St. Peter's, sur-

mounted by a dome. A sense of divine


serenity is expressed through the struc-
tures, which find their equilibrium in the
pure geometry of the circle of the dome
inscribed in the four bays. Constructed
between 1509 and 1516, its facade col-
lapsed in 1601 and was rebuilt by
Flaminio Ponzio and completed by Gio-
vanni Bonazzini in 1620. Sanl'HIiiiio dc-iU Orefici. interior of the dome
2

40 R()\u . \\Hf:ri: to find

Villa Farnesina

Triumph of Galatea . 1 509 or 1 5 1 1


- 1

Raphael wrote to his friend and source must have been like to his pictures set in

of inspiration Baldassare Castiglionc. the Roman period. It was not until the end
who had admired the fresco commissioned of the eighteenth century, with the discov-
from him by Agoslino Chigi: "and I tell eries at Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabi-
you thai to paint a beautilul woman I have ae, that it was possible to admire the har-
to see many beautiful ones, on this condi- mony of those magnificent paintings. The
tion, that Your l.ordship should be the one wa\ that the movements counterbalance
to choose the best. Bui since good judges one another creates a festive w hirl around

and beautiful women are hard to find, I the figure of (iaiatea. who speeds on iier

make use of a certain Idea that comes in- charicM through the group of jubilant ma-
to my mind." Raphael had to rely on the rine deities. She turns her head to smile at

carvings on ancient sarcophagi in order to the love song that the ailless Pohphemus
imparl a sense of what classical painting is dedicating to her from afar.
"^^

i
42 R()\11 . W'UHRI- TO MM)

Loggia of Psyche, 1517-18

Leonardo Scllajo. describing ils un- of Psyche on Mount OI\nipus. the


veiling to Buonarroti, called it as a Council of the (lods and the Wcddiiv^
"shameful thing for a great master, Feast.
much worse than the last Slan/a of the Described by Vasari in parlicularl\ ad-
Palace.'" miring tones, these paintings could only
Certainly new in its reinlerpretation of be seen by a privileged few at the time.
classical motifs, this "pergola" discon- The precise reference to nature was
certed the artists of the day and very new: "|...l and the \arious kinds of
Michelangelo himself, who had ne\er fruit and plants ihal can be seen in ihal

conceived such a Joyful setting opening work are so man\ that, so as not to re-
onto greenery as Raphael did. entrust- count them one by one. I will say only

ing its execution to his workshop. I'he that there are all those nature has e\er
ceiling, supported by magnificent arbo- produced in these parts |...| so that in
real festoons made up of all sorts o\' addition to other things. e\en the flow-
plants, is covered with mock tapestries ers of elder, fennel and other minor
representing the .scenes of the Triumph things are Irul} wonderful."
Raphael 43

St. Peter's

1513 the pope placed


InRaphael in charge of the ar-
chitectural design of St. Pe-
ter's, alongside Bramante. On-
ly a year after the latter 's

death, he altered this design


into a grandiose project with a
Latin-cross plan, abandoning
the central plan for a basilican
one. Even then, Raphael pro-
posed underlining the magnif-
icence of the effect by setting
up an obelisk that had been
found near Augustus's mau-
soleum in the square. This
suggestion would be taken up
by Domenico Fontana at the
end of the century.

Longitudinal section from Raphael's


project of 1519

5 I - '
^ ^^4

':..%m^-~i,^,m^y..

Raphael. Interior of the


Study of the Antiquities of Rome from 1515 Pantheon. 15()6-b7.
Uffi/i. r-lorcncc

The idea of surveying the city of Rome came to Raphael at

the time Pope Leo X entrusted him with the task of pre-
serving Roman antiquities, hitherto regarded as no more than
sources of building material for new constructions. Having
been made the first ever conservator of artistic assets, Raphael
sent a "memo" to Leo X in 1519 that envisaged carrying out
a complete survey of the city's classical monuments. This
"memo" is the only tangible record of the enterprise that we
have, as it was intenupted by the artist's untimely death.
44 R()\n . Wmere to find

//if Di'livi-ry oj Ihf Dispuhttion CofUTrni/ii; fcinuissus


Juslinian's Pandects the Hlcssed Sacramcni

School of Athens (detail ). School <>l Aihon ( detail ).

portrait of Bramantc as Euclid portrait ofLeonardo da Viiiei as Plato

Vatican Palaces

For the new apartments of Julius II. who did not find the
rooms underneath, decorated by Pinturicchio for Alexan-
der VI Borgia (1492-1503). to his taste. Raphael designed an
ample painted architecture, with large lunettes on the walls
and panels on the ceiling illustrating the concepts of Neopla-
lonic philosophy.
School oj Athens
(detail), portrait of
Pythagoras Stanza della Segnatura, 1508-11

The program for the decoration was the Neoplatonic theme


of the continuity of Poetry and Justice in Christian \alues.
An undertaking of great responsibilit\ for tiic \ining Raphael,
who while still working on saw the it first part of the ceiling

of the Sistine Chapel, unveiled in August 1311. Eight years


younger than Michelangelo, he was so overwhelmed liiai he
became obsessed with a desire to emulate him.
In the School of Athens Michelangelo is poilra\ed as Heracli-
tus leaning with one elbow on a cube - added later - al bot-

tom center, in his habitual pose of lonely concentration, his


School oJ Athens
(detail I. portrait of face shadowed in one of RaphaeTs txpical loreshortenings.
Mielielaiigelo
The face of the artist from Urbino can be made out on the far
as Heraclitus
right, behind the group gathered around the figure of Euclid.
Euclid himself is depicted with the features of Bramante,
bending forward to explain his theorems (or plans) to his
Raphael 45

Expulsion of Heliodorus Miracle The Meeting of Leo I Liberation


from the Temple at Bolsena and Attila of St. Peter

Liberation of St. Peter (detail) Liberation of St. Peter (detail)

pupils. Leonardo is portrayed as Plato, talking with Aristotle


as he walks, in the middle of the vaults from the project for
St. Peter's. Both this lunette and the one opposite depicting
the Disputation Concerning the Blessed Sacrament, are laid

out as a grand scene bringing together the greatest figures in


philosophy and theology, while the principal poets are assem-
bled in the fourth lunette dedicated to Parnassus. The learned
references, as was customary at the time, were only compre-
hensible to the narrow circle of scholars at the papal court.

Stanza di Eliodoro, 1511-14


Parnassus (dclail
Dante Alighieri
Painted immediately after the complete unveiling of the im-
posing architectural structure of the Sistine Chapel ceil-

ing, the decoration attempts to imitate its grandeur. This un-

dertaking became the highest expression of Raphael's creativ-


ity. The colored masses of the bodies that impart a rhythm to
the scene of the Miracle at Bolsena, like the ample and bright-
ly-lit spaces in the Expulsion of Heliodorus and the luminous
apparition of the angel in the darkness in the Liberation of St.

Peter, indicate new definitions of light and color that anticipate


employed by Tintoretto as well as the
the luministic effects
unexpected flashes of Caravaggio's gloomy canvases.
light in

The Expulsion of Heliodorus, from which the whole Stanza


takes its name, hinges on the historical theme of God's inter-

vention on behalf of the Church.


46 R()\U . W'm RH TO MM)

1/ lUbodorus Irnin ilir Iciuplc (doUnI)


the pncsi Oiiias bcai )l llic pope's cll.iii

In the distance at the center we sec the priest Onias at pra\er.


The temple is illuminated by candles. The desecrator Heliodor-
us. on the right, is driven out of the temple on horseback. On
the left Pope Julius II appears on his sedan, as a witness to the
ancient event, confirming the inalienability of Church proper-
ty. The two bearers o^ the pope's chair, identified as portraits
Expulsion oj Heliodorus of the famous engraver Marcantonio Raimondi and Raphael
from (he Temple (detail)
himself, are an example of Raphael's custom o^ mixing up the
contemporary and the historical.

In the same way the figure of Julius II at pra\er in the Mira-


cle at Bolscna. with a group of cardinals behind him and a

number o\' acolytes below, underlines the eternal significance


of the e\ ent. The miracle o\' the I lost that began to oo/c blood
to the incredulity of the Bohemian priest ser\ ing Mass took
Expulsion oJ Hcli(>(l( )ni\ place in I2b3. prompting the institution oi' the least da\ o\'
from the Temple (dclail
Corpus Domini by Pope Urban IV
i

in 12b4.
The other lunette, depicting the Mccliny, of Leo I and Aiiila. uas
painted not by Raphael but b\ his pupils. The features of the new
pope. Leo X. who had just been installed in March 1513. can be
recogiii/ed both in a cardinal in the retinue and in the face oi' the

pope on horseback. pro\ iding historical documentation of the


event. Julius II is poUrayed as St. Peter in the lunette with ihc/Jh-
eralion of St. Peter, in an allusion to the pope's recent trials in war
and his release from the bod\ b\ death, in that same vearof 1513.
Raphael 47

Battle of Ostia Fire in llw B<jr;^( Curonalion of Justification


Chorlenia^ne of Leo III

Fire in the Borgo (detii Fire in the Borgo (detail)

Stanza delF Incendio di Borgo, 1514-17

some of
The room in Julius IPs apart-
first he would not have lost his fine

ments, was the last to be finished


it reputation; for despite their many quali-

and its decoration was inspired by his ties the nudes that he painted in the
successor, Leo X Medici. Along with room in the Borgia Tower (where the
the previous one, it is the room in which Fire in the Borgo was represented) fall

Michelangelo's influence is most evi- short of perfection." This severe com-


dent, partly because much of the work ment by Vasari reaches to the heart of
was carried out by pupils in Raphael's the problem faced by Raphael after the
school. unveiling of the Sistine Chapel ceil-
"If Raphael had rested content with his ing. From then on he was tormented
own style and not tried to show by by the idea of reinterpreting the
striving to give his work more variety grandeur of Michelangelo's painting in

and grandeur that he understood how to terms of his own harmonious vision of

depict the nude as well as Michelangelo the world.


4.S Ro\n W'm . K: to ind
f

After the discovery of Nero's Doniiis Aurea. around 14S(),

the artists of the day came to admire the splendid con-


Hall of ( onsiantine, ception of the paintings in the "grottoes." A record of these
\52{)-24, llw liatlle of visits is provided by the signatures on the walls. Out of this
the Milvian Bridge
came the genre of so-called ''grolesciues."" which Raphaers
Painted after school turned into a grand style, de\eloping the genre in a va-
Raphael's death by his
riety of themes. Like a piece of music pla\ ed by many hands,
school, and Giiilio
Romano in particular,
the frescoes in the Vatican Logge and the later ones in \'ill(i

when his pupils Madama always follow the overall compositicMi drawn up b\
inherited the work Raphael.
that the artist had
The first loggia, executed in 151<S-1^-) and described as
already begun.
"RaphacTs Bible" because of the biblical scenes painted on
Raphael had tried to

paint an angel in oil. the ihirlcen small \aults. is based on a harmonious succession
as a new technique tor of spans. Ciiovanni da I'dine made the stuccoes, using the Ro-
working in fresco on a man technique of mi.xing fine marble powder with lime, on
wall.
the ceilings and the details o\' the inner walls. Festoons of
fruit and wreaths o\' acanthus. dccorali\c motifs drawn from
Abimelech Spying on Isaac and Rebecca (detail) Jacob's Dream (detail)

Roman bas-reliefs, are laid out in a triumphant dance of col-


ors, now lost. The Logge, designed by Bramante and finished

by Raphael for Leo X and his court, were conceived as a


place for conversation in the open air, as well as a link be-
tween the various apartments. The episodes are narrated with
great visual clarity, so that there is a connection between the
meanings of the scenes with God and those with Jesus, while
the life of Joseph, considered a forerunner of Christ, is set in

the middle. This establishes a mirror-like pattern of erudite


correspondences for the learned: the decoration of lozenges
with angels holding symbols of the Resurrection is identical

in the first and second bay. Each lunette contains four panels
painted with scenes from the Old Testament, except the last

which drawn from the life of Christ.


is

From the Loggia of Psyche in the Famesina to the Logge in

the Vatican Raphael, increasingly preoccupied with the design


of St. Peter's, invented ingenious and harmonious architectur-
al scenes festooned with plants, taking nature as his inspira-
tion as he did for the Stufetta of Cardinal Bibbiena.
50 R()\ll . W'MHRE to MM)

C lipid Drawn hy
Dolphins. Casa dci
Vettii. Pompeii

"^ ''Stufetta^ of Cardinal Bihbiena, 1516

Raphael's astonishing ability to "rc-creatc the antique" (Hailt,


1958) is evident in this small spaee, also known as "Julius

ITs retreat" as it is presumed to have been the pope's bathroom.


Decorated with stuccoes, panels frescoed with nnthological
scenes and smaller panels on a black ground, it reinteiprets the

decoration o\' the Domus Aura, recently discovered on the Es-


quiline. Like many other artists of the time. Raphael used to vis-
it it. together with iiis pupil who specialized in stuccoes and

Venus and Cupid on grotesques. Giovanni da Udine: "both were ama/.ed b\ the fresh-
Marine Animals, from
ness, beauty and quality of those works, thinking it a mar\ clous
engravings by Marco
Dante (c. 1516) thing that they had been conserved for such a long lime" ( Vasari.

1568). in the nineteenth century it was com cried into a chapel

h\ the Roman painter Vincenzo Camuccini. w ho prcsci\cd the


frescoes by covering them with panels and the ceiling w ith a can-
vas. Uncovered again at the end o\' the ccnlur\. the\ were stud-
ied and then restored in 1971-72. bringing to liglil the groin \aull

and two precious niches into which the small square plan is struc-

tured. The sole example of a private apartment, commissioned


from Raphael's school b\ ihc famous llumaiiisl. Cardinal
Bernardo l)o\i/i Bibbiciia. il lormcd pari of ihe apailmciils as-

Kapl kl uoiksliop. signed to liic cardinal by his prolcclor. Pope Leo X. The sub-
I'ortrcnl oj ardinal
(

Hihhiena. Galleria
jects are all inspired by themes of amorous dalliance with con-
Palatina, Morencc tinual cultural references of high Ncoplalonic significance.
Raphael 5

w%i^1^
%f^4i

L'/ ' w^^f^ vl

dHHwV^^

PiNACOTECA VaTICANA
Resurrection

i Oddi Altarpiece

Resurrection, 1499

Predella of the Oddi


An altarpiece
Perugino in
commissioned from
1499 for the church of
All(irpiec>

San Francesco al Prato in Perugia, it

was for a long time the subject of argu-


ments over the relative contributions of

Raphael and his master, but is now at-

tributed exclusively to the former.


Like all the other works by Raphael
looted by Napoleon in 1797, it entered
Annunciation
the Pinacoteca Vaticana on its return to
Italy in 1815.

Oddi Altarpiece (The Coronation


of the Virgin), 1502-03

The link between the two parts into


which the altarpiece, commis-
sioned by Maddalena degli Oddi for the
church of San Francesco in Perugia, is

divided is not as effective as in later


works and the exchange of glances
seems unnecessarily complicated, with
an excess of emotionality. Motifs typi-
cal of Umbrian painting are still dis-
cemable, especially in the scenes of the
predella, depicting the Annunciation,
Adoration of the Magi and Presentation
in the Temple. Prcscuiiiiioii in the ieniple
RoNU . WHtRI: TO FIND

Thcoloi^iccil
\ iriucs, c. LS()7

These panels used


[o be pail o\ the
BaiiliiMii Allarpiece
poiiias \n\i llie Dcpo-
siiion <>J
( hrlsi (Gallc-

ria l^Diiihcsc. Rome)


iiiilil it was dismem-
beied in IS 15 and
liie> entered the eol-
leclions of the Pina-
eoleca Vatieana. The
three panels depiel.
between piilti and lit-

tle angels, I-aith. Ho[x^

and Charity, in a

monochrome chiaroscuro that simulates the eltecl of a Hel-

lenistic bas-relief. The ovals with images of women allernaie


with pairs of children, engaged in different activities.

Madonna di Foligno, 1511-12

Commissioned by Sigismondo Conti. supervisor of the


construction of St. Peter's, as a large altarpiece for the

church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli, it illustrates the miracle o\'

Conti 's house at Foligno, which survived a lightning strike in-

tact. The putto in the middle with the inscribed


tablet, the portrait of the client on the right
and the landscape recording the event
are all descriptive elements that

blend in harmoniously w ith the tri-

umph of the Virgin and Child. At


her feet St. Francis, John the
Baptist and Jerome, who pre-
sents the client to the Madonna
by placing his hand on his

head.
Raphael's great narralixe skill

and ability to convey the emo-


tions o\' his figures, which
ser\e to link the upper part
with the lower, are enriched
w ith details, such as the swarm
o\' little angel's heads around
the orange nimbus. This motif,
repealed in a more suffused
manner in his later master-
piece. I he Sis line Madonna
(I.SI3. (iemaklegalerie. Dres-

den), pre-dates the baroque an-


gels o^ Bernini's sculpture by a
eenuir\.
Raphael 53

Transfiguration, 1518-20

The future Pope Clement VII, Giulio finished by his pupils, though Vasari says
de' Medici, commissioned this work that Raphael painted it "without the assis-
for Narbonne Cathedral when he was bish- tance of anyone else." Sebastiano del Pi-
op of that city. Raphael executed it in com- ombo himself, writing to give Michelan-
petition with Sebastiano del Piombo, who gelo the news of his death on April 12,
painted the Raising of Lazarus. Thought to 1520, states that he had taken his own pic-

be Raphael's last work, it is not known ture for Narbonne Cathedral to the Vatican

how complete it was at the time of his and that it did not look bad in comparison
death, when it was placed at the head of his with Raphael's. It is said that Christ's face
bed. It is usually supposed that the bottom was the last part of the picture to have
part, with its more rigid composition, was been painted by the artist before he died.
54 R()\ii . Win Ki lo MM)

Montclucc CorofhinofL
1501/03-25

CiMiimissioncd b\ ilic luiiis nl Won-


tcliicc in 1501 -().\ il uas noi dcli\
ercJ until June 21. 1525. with tlic upper
part ciunplctcd b\ (iiulii^ Romano and
the loucr |\irt b\ I ranccsci> IVnni. alter
their master's death. The predella is h\
Berto di Gimanni. It is iikels that the

pupils were able lo use Raphael's prepara-

tor\ draw inus.

Tapestries. 1515-19

The Vatiean tapestries were woven in Flanders and Raphael was paid for the cartoons
supplied to Brussels on Deccmlxr 20. 1516 (the seven surviving cartoons, claimed

by some to be seventeenth-century copies, are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum
where they have re-

cently been lestored).


Intended for the Sis-
tine Chapel, they
were shown there for
the first time in 1519,
where the\ were
hung on the lower
part of the walls.
Various other exam-
ples o{ the ta}">estries
exist (in Mantua,
Loreto, Berlin. Vien-
na and Madrid) and
ihe series o\ se\en at

Hampton C'ouil Pa-

lace (London) were


acquired in Genoa
b\ King CMiarles I.

on the ad\ ice o{ Ru-


bens. The inOuence
o[ Michelangelo's
iiioiuimcntal si\le is

cleai"l\ apparenl in

these increasingly

\ l"'^'
lli^''il'i<-''il composi-
^ lions, which exalt the

eloquence and mag-


nificence of the im-
ages tliixxigh a rcvival

t)f classical forms.


Raphael 55

Villa Madama
with the hanging
garden, fishpond
(peschiera)
and loggi

Villa Madama
Raphael's architectural work, influ- Tivoli. Designed from 1517 onward for

enced by Bramante, only partly sur- Giulio de' Medici, only the structure of the
vives in St. Peter's and Sant'Eligio degli internal loggia was completed by the time

Orefici. It is better documented in the of Raphael's death. The decorations,


Chigi Chapel of Santa Maria del Popolo whose program was drawn up for the

and the design for Villa Madama, contin- Medici by the famous Humanist Maffei,
ued after his death by Antonio da San- were completed by Raphael's pupils,
gallo the Younger and Giulio Romano. Giulio Romano and Giovanni da Udine.
It is a fine example of the Renaissance vil- The instmctions given by Pope Clement VII
la on a rectangular plan, with two wings emphasized that ''they should be familiar
that embrace the central circular courtyard. things" and not "obscure things, which as I

Opening onto the surrounding countryside have said I do not want, but varied iuid taste-

and the city of Rome, it is set in a formal ful." The sense of variety conveyed by the
garden that was designed to fit in with the whole is due to the skill of tlie execution, the
architecture. Raphael made explicit refer- airiness of the architectural stmcturcs, laden

ences to the suburban villas of Tusculum with stuccoes and paintings in vivid col-
and Laurentum, described by Pliny the ors, and the niches filled with iuicicnt sculp-

Younger, as well as to Hadrian's Villa at tures, now scattered all over the world.
5(1 R()\ll . \\ 111 Rl !() MM)

Fountain oj llic Pcsclucra at Wla Madamo. mask with the Elcphani Annonc h\ (iu)\anni da Udinc

^ Bernini.
IKJ;^ Elephant
on Pia/za
della
Minerva

The poet Cosimo Baraballo Bernini. Fireworks for the Birth of


on the Elephant Annone the Infanta of Spain (detail). 165

Fountain of the Pcschicra at Villa Madama

The clcpliaiil poiliaNCcI licic was vcit popular in Rome. Iiaxiiig _^. ^^* ;^'

been donalcd to Pope Leo X bv King Manuel o^ Portugal. It is ^0^^ f^


porliaxed on the jamb of" the door between tlie Stan/a della Seg- * -^^

naluia and the .Stan/a di [{Jiodofo. A cop\ made by I-iancisco de


Hoianda alter 153S in a notebook now in the liscorial reproduees "^ Rf
the fresco commissioned trom Raphael tor a gate in the Vatican '^

walls. no\s \anished. to commemorate the elephant's death on

June 8, 1516, as the inscription on Holanda's drawing records. ^


Raphael 57

Pictures
OF THE
i^^^HHHMH^^^'
Madonna
AND Child
BEFORE mi^^K^^^B^T ^^^^^UKKKKBt^^'-'
AND AFTER
Raphael mKKwi ..A .!^i^Mi

Garofalo (1481-1559), ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^HMIril^^^^^lV'' ^^^^^^^^^^^^1


Madonna and Child
with Saints, 1531-32,
Galleria Borghese,
Rome

Andrea del Sarto


(1486-1530),
//o/v Family,
'1528-29,
Galleria Nazionale
d'Arte Antica, Rome

Scipione Pulzone (1550-98),


//o/v Family with the Infant St. John
and Anne, \5SS-90,
St.
Galleria Borghese. Rome

Garofalo 481-155^),
(1 I raiKKn 1450-1517).
Madonna in Glory, c. 1520, Madonna and Child, c. 1520.
Musei Capitolini, Rome Galleria Borghese, Rome
piazza

Tonte G''''
Umberto Tonte

Tonle
ravour p'c^zza
i

,,J^^""^
il ?in(ii

5l.,.^^^""^\

tonhna ^
'A
V
/
^^

\ViiU %rc

rdcffei

^
^

r
S. Giovanni
in JaC?ranc
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio
Milan, September 29, 1571 - Porto Ercole, July 18, 1610

life of the "accursed tablished between art and the new sci-

The painter," one of the


finest artists of the
seventeenth century
and a man "inclined
ence of the century.
He began to study how
sense of naturalism to classical sacred
painting, bringing about
to apply the

a
new

radical
to duels and brawls," change in style in his first major com-
is cloaked in almost missions from the Church and earning
complete mystery. himself a prominent position in Roman
Only recently have artistic circles.

the date (1571) and place (probably in "Iwas arrested the other day in piazza
Milan and not at Caravaggio, where his Navona [...] My profession is painting,"
family merely owned some property) of he stated at the proceedings instituted
his birth been established. against him in 1603 by the artist Gio-
There are just three facts of which we vanni Baglione, envious of his success.
are absolutely certain: Roman judicial It was on that occasion that Caravaggio
records from 1600 to 1606 tell of his made one of his few declarations of po-
many clashes etics: an "able
with the law, un- man" is one "who
til he was forced knows how to
to flee the city paint well and
after commit- imitate natural
ting murder, for things well."
which he was After his flight
condemned to from Rome, in

exile by Pope 1606, he was


Paul V Borgh- (Obliged to wan-
ese; that he was der, always get-
Martyrdom of St. Matthew Oltavio l.L'oiii.
ting mixed up
scarred in a
(detail showing Caravaggio's Portrait ofCaravagi^io,
fight in Naples self-portrait), San Luigi dei Biblioteca Maruceliiana. in quarrels and
Francesi, Rome Florence
from
in 1609; and fights,
that he died at Porto Ercole in 1610, at Naples (1606-07) to Malta (1607-08),
the age of only thirty-nine. where he sought the support of the
His Roman debut with allegorical fig- Knights of the Order, Sicily (1608-09)
ures of youths posing as Bacchus was and then Naples again (1609-10).
linked to the new naturalism of the age, Wherever he went he left behind works
which affected music, painting and po- that were to play a fundamental role in

etry. The "mirror" portraits he painted the renewal of figurative art that took
for Cardinal del Monte, the young place that century. He died in a desper-
artist's first patron in Rome, between ate attempt to reach Rome from the

1595 and 1597, were unusual and fore- prisons of the Spanish enclave o^ Porto
shadowed the accord that was to be es- Ercole.

Left, plan showing the location of Carava(k;io's works


({) ROMI . Win HI ID MM) ..

G ALLFRI A B()R(;HKSK

.-\/7///<,' Bacchus. ISg^

A
and a
\

;ai

bunch
luith
land o\
\s ilh

i\ \

o\ Liiapcs
;t

in is how
Ins liand"

the work was de-


FlN\( OIH \ scribed in 1607 when
Amukosi w \. Mil w it \\as confiscated

Basket of I ritit.
troni tlic uiH'ksliop
C. 160(1 o\ ('a\ ahc! d"Arpinc),

There is an obvious a tamous ixiintci with


parallel between the w honi the \c)ung Car-
.Mlin\i Bacchus and axagiiio had worked
the famous "wicker
when he first arrived
basket'" owned b\
Cardinal Fedcrico
in koine. It was un-
Borromeo since 1607. doubtedly the ''beau-
the "first still life of tiful and beardless
the seventeenth
Bacchus in the Bor-
century." It is the only
ghcse," cited as authentic by his contemporary Mancini and
surviving example of
the many "flower" still present in the Borghcse inventories in 1693.
pictures that It is thought to be a self-portrait of the artist, in the Bacchic
Caravaggio painted, pose of an elegiac poet painted from the mirror, pale from
according to the
study and wreathed with ivy, a symbol of eternal youth (Ar-
sources, just after he
came to Rome, and of
gan, 1962). In fact it matches the description of Caravaggio in

which the Cardinal Giulio Cesarc Gigli's poem: "[...] Of fanciful and certainly
was an enthusiastic eccentric character / Pale in the face, and with / abundant
collector. Some of
curly hair / Bright eyes, yes, but deep-set... The great Pro-
Bruegel's Flowers
topainter / Marvel of Art / Wonder of nature / But then the
were painted
expressly for him. butt of ill fortune"' {La pittiira trinnfantc scritki in IV capiloli.

Venice 1615).

Boy with a Fruit Basket, 1594

Caravaggio said that "it required as much effort to paint a

good picture of Howers, as one of a figure." in an at-

tempt to explain that his new manner of painting, criticized


by the artists of the time, was the product o\' neither chance
nor superficiality. This work was also confiscated from Ca\ a-
Coi 1 1 /.lONK L()N(;mi, lier d'Arpino in 1607
Fl.()RK\( K
and was donated to

Hoy liitten by a Green Pope Paul V Borgh-


Lizard, c. 1 595 cse by his nephew as:
This metaphorical "|...i a Youth holding
picture alludes to the a basket of fruit in his
conflict between the
hand |...|."" It was
joy of youth and
death, always lying in
probably another
wait in nature. self-portrait in the
group of genre pic-
tures glorifying youth
and love that he
painted "for sale."

MoRK VI I UK CJai 1 1 Ki\ BoKcaii si; in im ( iim'IKR on Bkrnini


w^"^

Madonna dei Palafrenieri (Virgin and Child with St. Anne), 1605

Also known as the Madonna with the painting, which was purchased im-
the Snake, it is the only picture mediately afterward for 100 scudi, as
commissioned from the "accursed opposed to the 75 Caravaggio had re-

painter" by the Papal Curia. Ordered as ceived for it, leaving his only known au-
an altarpiece for Sant'Anna dei Palafre- tograph on the receipt. Hung in the most
nieri (the pope's grooms) in St. Peter's, important room of sacred works in the

Caravaggio was paid for it on April 8, Palazzo di Borgo, it was not transfened
1606. It only spent two days in St. Pe- to the villa until 1650. The really sur-

ter's, as it was rejected by the cardinals. prising innovation is the light, which en-
The figurative innovations of the Virgin ters from the upper part of the dark and
wearing the low-cut dress of a woman unadorned room and illuminates the fig-

of the people and the completely naked ures dressed as peasants, which arc in-

child were considered an infringement terpretations of ancient dogmas. The


of the ordinary rules of decency. Never- child crushes the serpent with the aid of
theless, Scipione Borghese and perhaps his mother, just as had been confirmed,
the pope himself showed an interest in after long diatribes, in Pius IV's Bull.
62 RoMl Will . Rf- TO USD

Si Jrronit- in
MtJiUition.
Moii.islcrN. Moiiscrni

St. Jerome Wridno, 160,^-06

Painted during his la.sl years in Rome, it is one of the earli-

est of the pietures on the theme ot" soUtude that were to


l.oi \KI . I'\kis characleri/e llie artist's final years. Meditation on the death of

Death of.Marw the penitent saint, a very popular subject at the time, was seen
(detail) 1605-06 as a spur to greater spirituality among religious orders.

There is a close The light comes from intersecting directions, illuminating the
parallel between the skull and the saint's head with the same intensity. Once again
head of the meditating the dark and empty room accentuates the pla\ of light, which
saint and those of the
"picks out" the various objects all laid out in the same plane,
apostles, suggesting

the pictures were with no sense of depth.


painted in the same
period.

The Infant St. John, 1609-10

The date o\' the


picture is hotly
debated, but it may
Sifin of Via della
Pallacorda
have been painted
I'Tom the news
during Caravag-
bulletins regularly sent gio's second stay in
to the duke of Urbino, Naples (16()9-1{)).
the contemporar>'
The artist took it
equivalent oi e-mail,
with him when he
we learn that a serious

brawl took place on fled again, as a po-

May 31.1 606, over a tential gift for pa-


game of tennis played trons. It portrays the
on the Campo Marzio
fragile figure of an
(there is still a street
adolescent. t|iiitc
named palla a corda,
or "tennis," in the area) different from the
and that Caravaggio, a vivacity of C'aravag-
"painter of some fame gio's earlier pictures
nowadays" had killed
of boys, though all
the leader of a rival

gang. Ranuccio
share the theme of
T(Miimasoni from the loneliness o\
Tcmi. and. wounded, \()uth.
tied the city.
Caravaggio 63

David with Goliath's Head,


1609-10

Sent to Scipione Borghese along


with the request for a pardon, it

was listed in the cardinal's collection

from 1613 onward, as was the previous


Infant St. Jotin.

Both the style and the fact that Go-


liath's head is undoubtedly a self-por-
trait, the features devastated by illness

and suffering, mean that the work


should be dated to after 1609, the year
Uffizi, Florknce
in which the artist was scarred in
Naples. The informants of the duke of Medusa's Head, painted for the amiory

1601-02 of Fcrdinando I
Urbino told him: "news has come from
To implore Christian de" Medici, and in the
Naples that the celebrated painter Car-
pity over his fate, the Judith Beheading
avaggio has been killed, though others artist used the theme of Holofernes (Galleria
say disfigured." the scream of horror, as Nazionale d'Arte

in this Medusa's Head Antica, Rome).


64 ROMI WUhRh TO MND. ...

Casino
Ll DOMSI

I he i.lci}]ci]ls

(ind ihc I /livcrsi


with Sii^ns of ilu

/.oclidc. c. \>^)~
l/l, I-

Han h 11^. 15^6-^)7 The Ircscii on ili.

ceiling CI I ill.'
Cardinal del Moiilc
\ llhl's pKIIU> Ildblk'.
was legate of" ihe

grand duke of ihcii ihc rcsielciicc nl

Tuscany in Rome and ("iirciiiial del Monk


gave him this painting
has only recent 1>
(now in the L'tTi/i).
been allribiited lo
A perfect expression
of harmony with a CaiaNaggio and de-
cultural climate that picts .lupiter. Pluto
linked music to and Neptune with
chemistry, poetry to
e\ ident allusions to
science. A lifestyle that
the heavenly bodies
shaped Caravaggio's
art and led him to The allegory of the
represent scenes from planets reflects the
real life such as
climate of new sci-
concerts or goings-on
entific discoveries,
in the street, as in the

Fortune Teller.
over which lively
painted for the debates were held in the Camerino of the Casino Ludo\ isi. a
cardinal. meeting place for the brightest and most learned minds in the

cardinal's circle, among them Galileo Galilei.

Santa Maria della Concezione


(Capuchin Church)
The Fortune Teller.
15y4-y.S. Musci
Capitolini. Rome St. Francis. 1603

The conversation with


death was a frequent sub-
ject in baroque culture. In this

St. Francis (a later \ersion


from Caipineto Romano can
be seen in the museum o\
Pala/zo Barberini), Caravag-
gio's pictorial realism reaches

new heights, concentrating on


the saint's sorrowful contem-
plation of the skull. The cross,

traditional focus for such med-


itation, is placed in the fore-

ground, resting on a stone and


creating a di\ergent perspec-
tive. Donated by Caravaggio
to the Capuchin Order, the
painting was later placed in the

church erected by Pope Urban


VI 11 in 1626. near his palace.
Caravaggio 65

Palazzo Barberini
Galleria Nazionale d' Arte Antica

Judith Beheading Holofernes,


1598-99 or 1603-06

The new sense of dramatic tension evident in this picture is

indicative of a phase of transition in Caravaggio 's art, as


he moved toward a theatricahzation of the subjects he paint-
ed, represented at the very moment they occurred. The Hght
reveals all the crudity of the killing, depicted in its harshest Sacrifice of Isaac
(detail),1603.Uffizi.
details in accordance with the poetics of horror typical of the Florence

artist's maturity. The pale colors of his youth are already giv-
ing way to deeper tones, as was noted by one of Caravaggio's
rivals: "[for] Michele is already beginning to strengthen the
dark shades" (Baglione, 1642).
The expression on the face of the youthful and blond-haired Ju-
dith is at once detached and compassionate at the ineluctability

of fate. Her attitude is reminiscent of the refined detachment of


theDavid in the Borghese. These were years in which there
was much discussion of Giordano Bruno's heresy on the in-
evitability of evil. The work, seen by Baglione in 1640 and de-
scribed as "a Judith cutting off the head of Holofernes for the
David, 1609-10
Costi family,"was only recently discovered (by Pico Cellini (detail), Galleria

and Roberto Longhi in the fifties) in a private collection. Borghese. Rome

sOther works in Palazzo Barberini in the chapter on Raphael


o
66 Ri)\ii . Where to find ...

Santa M \ria dk i Popoi

CoiikMiipoi;i!ici>iisl\ \Mlh his liisi icligioiis ci>iiiniissioii.

llic C'lMilaivIli Chapel in .San Liiiiii eici liaiiccsi. C\iia\aL:-

Church ofSanlii uiii painted ihc 1\mi latcial picliiics loi the CY'iasi ("hajtcl in
Maria del f'opolo
Sanla .Maria del l\)pi^lo.

In 1601 he deh\eied tlie 1\mi linal \ersi6ns. on eaiuas instead


o\ ihe panels i^l express wood exjiheills inenlioned in the eon-

iraet. This siigiiesis tlie exisienee of \\\o earlier works ihal


were lejeeled, obligiiiii the ailist to tackle the large composi-
tions in a conipleteJN new w ay.

Annihale Carracci,
Assumption, 1604-05

One of the greatest


masters of classical
painting was working
in Santa Maria del
Fopolo at the same
time: Annibalc
Carracci, the
Bolognese artist

whose masterpiece is

the fresco decoration

of the Galleria of
Palazzo Farnese,
painted at the

beginning of the
century. Annibalc.

who along with


Caravaggio was
praised for his high
professional skill
Crucifixion of Si. Peter. 1601
("cgregiiis in urbe

pictor"), undoubtedly idence lor the existence ol an earlier \ersion. on panel, is

inlluenced the broad


structural sweep of
E\ provided b\ the cop\ in .St. Petersbuiii. attributed to pupils

like Sallarello or Leone Spada, and suggests a surprising im-


Caravaggio's painting
provement in cjuality in the canvas. The composition turns on the
in his large

compositions. lorce ol the sculptural xolumes. arranged diagonally and illumi-

nated in such a wa\ that lhe\ seem to project out of the painting.
Caravaggio 6 /

collezionh
Odescalchi, Romk

Conversion of Saul,
1600-01

Identified as the

probable original
version on panel for
the Cerasi Chapel, this

work shows the


evolution through
which the artist

passed, first trying out

two-dimensional
spaces, along the lines
of late sixteenth-

century Mannerist
Con V^r^/on of St. Paul, 1601 painting, only to

arrive at a totally

unprecedented
The saint's blinding on the road to Damascus is synthe-
handling of space in
sized in an obHquely-angled composition, almost turning
the second version.
the layout of the Narcissus on its head. The light that plays

over the horse and the young centurion lying on the ground is

the divine one of Grace, and even glances off the head of the
groom.
-

6.S R()\tl . \\ HHRE TO FIND

Ml SI I r MMTOI IM
P\[ .\//() 1)1! C\)NS1 K\ MORI

.S7. John
I he Bit pi I si.

The pic 1 11 1 c

painted tor
MichckinizoKi.
Crt'olion oj Adam. Ciriaeti Mallei
Sistiiic ('li;i|X"l. Rome represeiils the
young sainl in
an A read i an
ni\ thological
selling, in which
his embrace of
ihe ram, symbol
ol" Chrisl and the
St. Pktkr's, Romk
Cross, touches
Michelangelo, Pieta, on the theme of
1499-1500
redemption. The
Still more refined is
anatomically ac-
the comparison with
curate represen-
the twisted limbs and
tation of John's
abandoned body of
the naked Christ in naked body,
Michelangelo's Pieta, twisted to hug
which must certainly
the animal but
have been one of the
with his smiling
great masterpieces
that Caravaggio face looking toward the observer, is a clear reference to
studied in Rome. Michelangelo's Nudes in the Sistine Chapel.

The Fortune Teller,

1596-97

There is another
picture of this popular

subject drawn from


"real life." donated by

Camillo Doria
Pamphilj to Louis
XIV (today in the The Fortune Teller, 1594-95
Louvre). The work in

the Musci Capitolini


this slightly roguish image oi siieel life, it is tiie trickery
may be a second, In young
high-quality version, and cunning shown by the gypsy in stealing the

if not the original. man's ring while she reads his palm liial forms the content oi'

the work.
The sources tell us thai the painter persuaded a gypsy woman
to pose in iiis studio lor (his picture.
Caravaggio 69

Rest on the Flight into Egypt, 1598-99

The painting, much admired at the time for the classicism of its composition, has
been in the Pamphilj residence since the seventeenth century (Bellori, 1672).
The first sacred picture painted by the artist, who had by now entered the refined
and intellectual circles of his patrons, it hinges on an allegory of music, concealed
beneath the religious trappings of the scene. It alludes to the typically Car-
avaggesque theme of the exchange between youth and old age. The central axis is

the angel in white drapery, playing the violin and reading the score held by the el-
derly St. Joseph. Set slightly apart, the figures of the Madonna and Child recall the

attitude of the Penitent Magdalen, viewed from a raised perspective.

Note the bodice worn by


the Penitent Magdalen.
identical to the garment
worn by Narcissus and
the yellow shirt of the

young man seen from


behind on the left in

the Martyrdom of
St. Matthew. As in the

Narcissus, Galleria Martyrdom of Penitent Magdalen later works of Vermeer.


Nazionale d'Arte St. Matthew (detail), (detail). Galleria painted with the
Antica, Rome San Luigi dei Doria Pamphilj, Rome camera obscura, the
Frances!, Rome
same items of clothing
appear in a series of
compositions
executed in the studio.
70 RoMh. WuhRh TO HM) ...

Penitent Magdalen, 1598-99

Like the preceding one, this picture has always been in the
home of the PamphilJ family: ''he painted a girl seated on
a chair with her hands in her lap, in the act of drying her hair.

He portrayed her in a chamber, and adding a pot of ointment,


jewelry and gems, turned her into
the Magdalen [...]" (Bellori,
1672).
A scene from real life reflected in
an inclined mirror. Taking the
same approach as in his portraits
of youths "in the mirror." Car-
avaggio here seeks to set the im-

age at a distance in order to create


a greater sense of depth.

The Infant St. J ohiu 1598-99

There are \ arious copies of this


\Mirk. which used to be in the

Mallei collection, like liie In-


credulity of St. Thoifuis. recenllx
redisccnered in Dublin.
The picture is considered a copy
nl" the liigiiesl qualilN. perhaps
painlcd b) C'araxaggio himself.
Caravaggio / 1

Other Works in the


Galleria Doria Pamphilj

Domenichino
(1581-1641).
Susanna and the
Elders. 1603

Mattia Preti
(1613-99),
The Tribute Money,
1645

Sebastiano del Piombo (1485-1547), Jose deRibera( 1591-1652).


Portrait of Andrea Doria (detail), 1526 5/. Jerome and the Trump oj Doom. 162^)
72 R()\ii . W'hf.re-. to find

KaIM K-IkII I)KI II

Misn M. Hi ki in

St. Malllim and ihf


Angil. 1601

(dcslrovcd in a Tire

during the lasi war)


First version of" the

aharpieec depictini:
Matthew, which was
rejected because of

the saint's excessi\cl\

realistic pose "with


his legs crossed"

(Bellori). Acquired b>


Marchesc Giustiniani.
it entered one of the
most important
collections of the
time.

San Luigi dei Francesi

CONTARELLI ChAPEL
Scenes from the Life of St. Matthew
(1599-1602)

Si. Matthew and the Angel, 1602

Caravaggio received the commission to decorate the


chapel from Cardinal ContarelU (Cointrel) in 15^^)^) and
undertook to deliver the work by tlie end o\' the \ear for a
payment of four hundred scudi.
hi a new contract signed on February 7. 1002. he agreed to
paint another altarpiece to replace the rejected first one. The
pictine was completed within seven months and was placed
on the altar on September 22. 1602.
Unlike in the first version, where the evangelist was depicted
in the guise of an old peasant learning from the young angel,
Matthew is shown here writing his gospel, in accordance with
the traditional dictates.
r Caravaggio 73

Note the use of the


same models in the

Calling of St. Matthew


and in the Martyrdom
of St. Matthew.

Calling of St. Matthew, 1600

1600 the two lateral canvases had already been in-

By stalled in the chapel. This masterpiece places the episode

from sacred history in the setting of a tavern: Christ comes in-

to the drinking place and with a single gesture picks as his

apostle the tax collector Matthew, who points to his own


breast in astonishment. The light enters the room from the

right, together with Christ, and lends the event a theatrical air.
"4 RoMl . WUhRJ, TO FIND ...

Martyrdom of St. Matthew, 1600

Dclixcrcd at the same time as the Calling, but actually fiii-

ishcd later, alter a series of retouches, the painting


marks a decisive turning point in Caravaggio's work. A sur-

prising interplay of expressions imparts a swirling motion to


the dramatic scene. With its classicism, already remote in its

handling of space from the intimacy of the (>//////,<,'. it marks


the beginning of the great baroque period.
By 1597 Caravaggio was already being described as a
"painter of great rencmai" and two years later he received the
commission to continue the work, left incomplete owing to

the "reluctance" ol" (iioxanni (V^sari d"Arpino. known as the

Cavalier d'Arpino. The latter, who had been C'ara\aggio"s


teacher and then rival, was forced to repay the ad\ances he
had received alter leaving the chajK-l with nolhing bul the
vaults painted in l.'^93.
./"
76 Rosn . W'ntRE to find

(14X6-1570). A/t;</()mi(;
del rarlnidcuu\)

While the woman's


pose in the Madonna
di Loreio is similar to
that of Sansovino's
famous Madonna del
Pane in the same
church, much
venerated by the
Roman people, the
striking whiteness of

her flesh is

reminiscent of some
of the artist's other
Madonnas, such as the

one where he depicts


his lover Lena as the
Madonna del
Palafrenieri (Galleria
Borghese, Rome).

Sant'Agostino

Madonna di Loreio
or Madonna with Pilgrims, 1604

Painted for the first chapel in the left-hand aisle, belonging


to the Cavallelti family, who on September 4, 1604. had
obtained permission from the Augustinian fathers to erect an
altar in honor of the Madonna of Loreto, it dates from the so-
called second Roman phase of Caravaggio's large-scale reli-

gious works ( 16{)3-()6).

The appearance of an ordinary woman o\' ihc Roman people


to the two pilgrims, bowed in prayer and framed b\ an an-

cient portal, is one of the finest scenes ever painted by Car-


avaggio. The spectacular quality of the baroque is apparent
here in the pose of the woman's feet which, in spile of the
child's weieht, seem to be dancimz.
Caravaggio 77

I
A comparison
between these two
paintings reveals the
same approach to the

theme, even though it

Galleria Corsini is treated in a far more


dramatic manner here.
St. John the Baptist in the Desert, 1603

A work that comes from Palazzo Corsini (and Casa Spada


before that), this magnificent portrait of a young
rapt in thought is a prelude to the artist's poetics of abandon-
man

ment. The transverse arrangement of the body allows it to fill

the whole of the canvas and is reminiscent of the St. Jerome in

the Galleria Borghese.

Narcissus, 1598-99
or 1603-06

Linked to the emblemat-


ic poetry of seven-
teenth-century concettismo,
the work can be seen as a
poetic motto, with the
theme of the lonely and
melancholy youth interpret-

ed in the guise of Narcissus

staring at his reflection: the The crouching


position of Narcissus
name derives from "Nosce
recalls that of the
te ipsum" ("Know your-
David in the Prado.
self," Ovid, Metamorphosis, The richness of the

Book III). Making a complete break with previous interpreta- brocade provides a
parallel with such
tions, which depicted the passage from Ovid literally, the picture
lavish works as the
is based on the playing-card effect created by the reflection of
Penitent Magdalen in
the image in the pool. The hub of the composition is the knee, the Galleria Doria
caught by the light, over which the youth bends to look at him- Pamphilj, while the

self in the water. The picture was taken as a model by other fa- elegance of style is a

link with the


mous painters, who realized its revolutionary character and set
aristocratic Judith in
out to interpret it in different ways. This shows just how well-
the Galleria Nazionale
known the work was at the time. A recently-discovered docu- d'Arte Antica.

ment, dated May 8, 1645, refers to a Narcissus painted by


"Michelangelo di Caravaggio" with the same dimensions. This
confirms the authenticity of the work, which has often been
questioned as it is not mentioned by any of his biographers and
the poor state of the paint prevents an accurate assessment.
78 RoNu . Whirl to find

Jose dc Ribera.
Marlxrdom of
Si. Philip, c. 1639
Prado. Madrid.

In comparison with
Annibale Carracci's
Pieia. inspired by

Michelangelo, and Dc
Ribcra's.S/. /'/?///>.
PiNACOTECA VaTICANA
Caravaggio displays
complete assurance in Deposition in the Tomb. 1602-04
using the body as an
independent means of
This work is considered "'a Renaissance coniposilion. nia-
expression, just as it

was in antiquity and Jeslic, compact and noticeably less baroque tiian

the Renaissance. Raphael's Transfiguiation" (Clark, 1995). And it has been


compared with the ancient "Picta" on a soldier's loiulistonc\
in the Miisei (\ipitolini (see p. 19). Irc)m which Raphael took
the ligiire of the dead Christ in the Bori^licsc Dcposiiion.

Christ's naked bod\. lifted up before being placed in the


tomb, expresses all the pathos and drama of the event. The
gestures of the hands and tlie focus on the coarse feet of the
fiiiures in the foretiround accentuates the nalinalistic contrast.
Caravaggio 79

Caravaggesque
Paintings

Orazio Gentileschi
(1562-1647), DmvJiv///?
Goliath's Head, 1610,
Galleria Spada, Rome

Pietro Testa called


Lucchcsino (161 1-50),
Allegory of the
Slaughter of the
Innocents, 1630-40,
Galleria Spada, Rome

Nicolas Regnier (c. 1590 Giovanni Baglionc (1573-1644).


David, 1624-25, Judith with the Head of Holofernes. 160S.
Galleria Spada, Rome Galleria Borghesc, Rome
f

k^
A^7

^.r:^:
c-^.

25

Ar^enlina

Tonte i/5
Tcdafino

2 na
/ Piazza

Villa "Borak

S. G'manni
in- Jateranc
GiAN Lorenzo Bernini
Naples, December 7, 1598 - Rome, November 28, 1680

was bom to a Nea- art: "bom by divine disposition, and the


politan mother on good fortune of our Italy, to illuminate

He December
From
7,
early childhood
he was familiar with
the activity of his fa-
ther, a well-known
1598. two centuries" (Baldinucci, 1682).
His relationship of mutual esteem with
Barberini, the great man
manist and friend of Galileo Galilei,
commenced
of

in 1617. Barberini
letters.

was
Hu-

the
Florentine sculptor author of the Latin epigrams on the
who had been work- bases of the Rape of Proserpine and
ing in Naples since 1584. Apollo and Daphne and it was he who
In 1606 he was in Rome
work on the
to held the mirror while Bernini sculpted
Cappella Paolina, which Pope Paul V his self-portrait in the David. Along
Borghese had begun to construct in with the great painter and architect
Santa Maria Mag- Pietro da Cortona,
giore. The preco- he glorified the
cious talents of the Barberini family
child, who was and policies, exalt-
helping his father, ing the magnifi-
attracted the atten- cence of the Church
tion of the pope and together with the
his nephew, Cardi- image of the "sun
nal Scipione Borgh- pope," prefiguring
Self-Portrait, 1622, Self-Portrait. 1640,
ese, who made him Galleria Borghese, Uffizi,
that of Louis XIV.
a prominent figure Rome Florence A man of the the-
in Roman artistic ater, painter and
circles at the beginning of the century. draftsman, he came up with bold de-
From an early age he studied ancient signs and improvisations. The "direc-

sculpture with the passion of a lover: tor" of a genuine school of his own, at-

"for the space of three years he remained tracting all the craftsmen of the time, he

shut up in the rooms of the Vatican from left traces of his genius all over Rome.
dawn until the Ave Maria [...] drawing Marrying in 1639 on the advice of the
all the rarest things and everything that pope, he had eleven children, to whom
was remarkable and unusual" (Baldinuc- he left, in the house at no. 1 1 via Due
ci, 1682). From 1623, the year in which Macelli (now commemorated with a

Cardinal Maffeo Barberini ascended the plaque at no. 12) the Truth Unveiled.

throne as Pope Urban VIII, until his This sculpture, now in the Galleria
death in 1680, Bernini played a role that Borghese, records the period when lie fell

has no parallel in the history of Western out of favor with the Pamphilj family.

Left, plan showing the location of Bernini's works


RoMi Whkri to mnd
. ...

^*^

is.iui. 11(1111 <>i \illa Bori^hcsc (detail). 1636

Villa Borghese

The famous noble Roman villa was built for Scipione


Borghese who, after his adoption by Paul V, was made a

cardinal in 1605.
Designed by Flaminio Ponzio - architect of the Cappella
Paolina in Santa Maria Maggiore - it was completed after his

death by his young Dutch assistant Jan \an Santen. whose


name was italiani/ed to Giovanni Vasanzio.
The suburban villa was designed to house a collection o\'
works of art. It was supposed to surpass all those alreads in
existence, at a time when the creation of such collections was
all the rage among the nobilil\.

CiALLHRlA BORGHHSE

The commissions for sculptural groups he receixed from


the Borghese family were the first major adxancc in ihc

career of the xoung Bernini, w ho worked in the suburban vil-

hi of Cardinal Scipione Borghese. nephew of Pope Paul V.


from Idi.^ lo I(i24. riic latter was a great patron o{ the arts
and discoverer of talents, such as Caravaggio who, in the

same year in which the child Gian Lorenzo arri\ed in Rome


fori rail of Scipione
from Naples, was forced to flee the cit\ alter being accused o{
lior-^hcsc. 162.^ altackiiiii and woundinu a man.
Bernini 83

The Goat Amalthea


with the Infant Zeus and a Satyr, 1609-15

Bernini completed this work at the age of seventeen, at the


time he was discovered by Scipione while assisting his
father Pietro in the Cappella Paolina of Santa Maria Mag-
giore. It is said that the young man studied the ancient sculp-
tures in the Vatican collections with such passion that they
seemed "to be his lovers." Long thought to be one of the Hel-
lenistic works in the cardinal's collection, it was recognized
as an early work of Bernini's by the critic Roberto Longhi in

1927-28.

Bust of Paul V, 1617-18

This small bust, which the pope used to keep on his work
desk, is one of the first portraits executed by Bemini.
The artist's great skill and remarkable psychological insight
are already unmistakable and make the work stand out from
contemporary production. Compared with the later Bust of
Scipione Borghese (1632-33), which marked the beginning of
a more mature period in his career, it shows a shift toward a
more sumptuous handling of the image. Two identical ver-
sions of the latter bust exist, which Bemini carved over the
same period because the veining of the marble spoiled the
forehead of the first sculpture. The speed with which the artist
produced two identical works astonished his client, "leaving Bust of Scipione
the cardinal amazed and lost in wonder." Borohcsc. 163: >^
e

S4 RoMi WniRi: to find


.

Anchiscs and
Asian ins
/ U'c'ini^ Trow

IhlS-i^)

Spiral contorlion
IN A Lliaraclcris-

i!c ot Man noil si


NCiilpliiiv. ol w liicli

Bciiiiiii's lallicr was


.1 inasici. In ihis fiisl

lIIoiI il Is thought
I hat the son was
helped h\ his more
expert paren to
sol\ e the problems
posed h\ striietural

desiLin but the sup-

pleness and creative


\ itality of the work
y4r<'i Liulovisi (dclail).
suggest that it was
Palaz/o Alicmps. Rome.
The added
piitto carved by Gian Lo-
during restoralion u as
renzo himself.
carved b) Bernini
The famous episode
of the flight from Troy, taken from book two of Vir-
gil's Aeneid, is an example of the literary inspira- .

tion, provided by classical te.xts. that la\' behind J5


all the works in the Borizhese collection.

Rape of Proserp in ,

1621-22

The sculpture is intended


to be seen from multiple

4 A
points of view, and this rein
forces the pathos of the scene,
the abduction o{ the
daughter of the Earth goddess
(Ceres) by the god of the Under-
young

Rape of Proserpine world, Pluto.


(detail) This famous episode, drawn from
The pressure of Ovid's Metamorphosis, has inspired
Pluto's fingers, which a variety of artistic interpretations,
sink into the girl's
but only Bernini has been able to
thigh, seems to be an
con\e\ the effect of surprise, in a
echo of Pliny the
Elder's description of
free reiinention of classical groups.
a famous Rape of The smooth surfaces of the flesh
Proserpine sculpted and the rough ones of the natural-
by Praxiteles.
istic elements, are handled with
great technical skill: the marble
looks as if it was woi ked in the

ancient manner.
Bernini 85

David, 1623-24

The static digni-

ty of famous
preceding versions
of David, by Do-
natello, Michelan-
gelo and Verroc-
chio, is cast aside
here: the anatomy
of the figure is Donatcllo.
twisted as it moves David. Bargcllo.
Florence
through space and
prepares for action.
The whole body
participates in the
challenge, which is

expressed in every
muscle, right down
to the tightly-clen-

ched lips and menacing expression on the face. With its gaze
fixed on the precise place where the sling is aimed, this face

appears to be a self-portrait of the young artist. It is said that


Maffeo Barberini, the future Pope Urban VIII, held the mirror
that the sculptor used to reproduce his own likeness.

Apollo and Daphne, 1622-25

This group, carved at the same time as the David and


Michelangelo. David.
the statue of St. Bibiana, the artist's first religious
Galleria deirAccadcmia,
sculpture, is a masterly example of Bernini's description Florence

of emotion and the work that he still considered his high-


est achievement even in his old age. In the Metamorphosis, The inscription on
the base
V 4 , ;^ Ovid tells the story of how the
Penned by Cardinal
a*'|K^' ^^W nymph escaped the attentions
Barberini, it is a moral
'> J4^' <,\5^ of the god by turning into a
admonishment on the
laurel tree, and Bernini pre- impossible dreams
sents her as an elegant pursued by the young:

arabesque of the motif of flight. "Quisquis amans


sequitur fiigitivae
An absolute novelty for the statu-
gaudia formae I

ary of the time, it takes its inspi-


fronde maims implel
ration like the preceding works baccas sen carpit
from ancient sculpture, and in a ma res"

particular the harmonious propor- (Whoever loves the

pleasures of the world


tions of Hellenistic art. The cary-
/ will be left with no
atids painted by Annibale Carracci more than fronds and
on the ceiling of the Galleria Far- the bitter taste of

nese at the beginning of the century berries).

Taken from Dodici


also had a strong influence on the
disiici per una
artist's approach to sculpture. The Galleria composed by
play of reflected light, which lies at Maffeo Barberini
the base of Bernini's creativity, is between 161 S and
1620.
maintained even in the architec-

"A tural profiles of the base.


S6 R()\ii . W'Hhki TO USD

1 1 iiin (.MiizLiv inu


taken Iroiu CVsarc
Ripa\ h(in(>l<>i:i(i.

^J^ ^.J

(i \l I 1 Kl \ HOKC.IIISK,
ROMI

Model for the


Equestrian Statue of
Louis XIV 1669-70
,

The equestrian statue

of Louis XIV. now


located in the gardens
at Versailles after

much manipulation,
and the design for the

Louvre were the


reasons that prompted
Bernini, in the final
period of his career, to
leave Rome for the

first time and go to


France in 1665.
With this work
Bernini created a new
prototype of the
equestrian statue,
exalting, as he had

already done with the


statue of Consianiine

in St. Peter's (1662-6S),


the seventeenth-

century concept of
royal nobility and Trulh Unveiled by Time, 1646-52
pride. Heroic

qualities, that are

emphasized through
the choice of clothing,

the movement of the


A
(
work executed during
grace, at the beginning
1644-35). after the campanile he
the period Bernini
o{' Innocent
iiad
X
was
I\uiipliilj's
in dis-

papacy
buih i^iio the favade of
drapery and the St. Peter's in 1646 had to be deiiioiisiied because oi' its exces-
rearing of the horse sive weight, h is an allegory of the artist's hoped-for rehabili-
above the naturalistic
tation: an opulent and sinuous nude, like a Susanna by
element of the rock.
Rubens, it was left without the figure of Time, never complet-
ed b\ Bernini because of the man\ commissions on which he
soon found himself engaged again. Deposited in the Galleria
Borghese in \^)24, the statue had until that time remained in

the possession of the sculptor's descendants, who had be-


(.|iicalhed il lo the firstborn of each generation.
Bernini 87

Giovanni Lanfranco (1582-1647),


The Council of the Gods, 1624 (ceiling of room XIV)

Annibale Carracci (1560-1609), Correggio (1489-1543).


Jupiter andJuno, 1602 Danae. 1531

Other
Masterpieces
IN THE
Galleria
borghese Federico Barocci
(15287-1612),
Aeneas's Flight from
Troy, 1598

Domenichino
(1581-1641),
The Hunt of Diana,
1616-17
88 ROMI . \\ HI KI. TO FIND

Members oj ihe C onuiro lanuiy


and. right, the Ecstasy of St. Teresa (detail)

Santa Maria della Vittoria

Cornaro Chapei 1647-52

This work is one of the finest examples o\' the fusion oi' the
arts sought by Bernini. Conceived as a pictorial ensemble
on a grand scale, the light plays an essential role, unifying the
details and blurring the boundaries between sculpture, paint-
ing and architecture. The central group of the Ecstasy of St.
Comoro L Impel
Teresa cannot be separated from the rest and becomes the fo-
cal point of the complex architecture.
The mystical rapture of St. Teresa of Avila, described by the
Carmelite reformer in her diaries, is represented literally by
the artist, who accentuates the transport of her spirit and sens-
es. Amidst a mass of gleaming marble, which surrounds the
abandoned body, lifted up to heaven on a cloud, the swooning
saint is about to be pierced by the angel's arrow o{ divine
love. The natural light, entering from a concealed u indow. is

a typical scenographic effect known as "Bernini's light" and

is materiali/ed in the gilt rays that pour down onto the group.
The polychrome marbles, painted ceiling and supernatural
whiteness of the marble figures help to create one o\ the cul-
minating moments of Bernini's scenography.
At the sides of the scene members of the Cornaro famil\. who
commissioned the chapel, look on from boxes, like an audi-
ence at the opera.
^H) RoMh. WjuKi. rc) M\i)

Sant^ Andrea al Quirinalc\ 1658-70

Tliis is the most iinporlaiil of the ihrcc churches designed


by Bernini in his maturity, the others being San Toninia-
so di ViUanova at Castel Gandolfo (1658-61 ) and Santa Maria
delTAssun/ione at Ariccia (1662-64), and was regarded by
A V^f*
the artist himself as his masterpiece. Commissioned by Cardi-
nal Camillo Pamphilj, nephew of Innocent X. for novices of
Pantheon, plan
the Jesuit Order, it rec|Liired a peculiar structure in\ ing [o the
small size of the space left between the monaster} buildings.
The oval plan was unusual, although Bernini had already pro-
posed it for the chapel o\' the Collegio di Propaganda I'ide

(1634), later destroyed by Borromini.


Twenty years earlier Borromini had built the nearb\ church of
San Carlo alle Quattro I'onlane. on an elongated o\al plan
within a space no larger than one of the piers of the dome of
Sam' Andrea
St. Peter's. Bernini's elliptical plan in\ cried these proportions
al (Jiiirinale.
plan in a dsnainic expansion whose term of comparison is the Pan-
Bernini 91

The dome of Sant' Andrea al Quiriiuile

Bernini and the


Palazzo Quirinale

Above the entrance to

the palace, the Loggia


of the Blessings with
statues of St. Peter

and St. Paul, 1635.

Installation of the

Dioscuri on Monte
Cavallo, 1657.
It was not until the

end of the 1 8th


century, under Pope
Pius VI, that the
obelisk was raised,

while the fountain was


built in 1818. under
Pope Pius VII.
theon. The idea of making the transverse axis longer than the
main one, where he placed the entrance and high altar, would Extensions to the

be used again in the form of the colonnade of St. Peter's, on Palazzo Quirinale
constructed during the
whose design the artist had been working since 1656. The cir-
pontificate of
cular interior, blocked in its expansion by the broad pillars Alexander VII. 1657.
that circumscribe the space, is embellished with polychrome and continued under

marble. The rhythm is dynamic and emphasizes the spectacu- Clement IX. 1668.

lar character of the architectural and sculptural elements,


soaring up to the dome filled with light and decorations.
The relationship between the exterior and the urban setting is

also handled with great originality: a pronaos juts both inward


and outward from the elliptical structure of the building and
stands on a series of semicircular steps that are an invitation
to enter. The facade is compact and original in its classical or-

der, compared with complex and articulated vertical struc-


the
ture of the facade of San Carlo, which Borromini left incom-
plete on his death in 1667.
Rt)Mi . W'merh to find

Sci/Uii BihidfhL U04-2('

This small chinch contains ihrcc caii\ examples ot"

hariKiiic art: Bcrnim's lirst rclisiicHis slaluc. .S7. Hihiuna,


his first tlcsiiin of a lavadc aiui Pictro da Corlona's tusl cycle
ol Irescoes. hi fact it uas the ciMiimission i:i\en \o him. along
with the tiesi'jn ol the luihhuhm oj St. rctcr\. b\ the new
pojv I ihan \ 111 Bailvrini when he was elected in \i^l^.
The la^ade is a renewal of" the ispical desiLin used b\ Madei-
\\o for Santa Susanna (1603). wilji the

structure ol the si\teenth-centur\


palace cneihaniiiii!: a loggia
with thiee aiches, just as in

the lalei project for the


facade of St. Peter's.

In the statue o{ Si. liih-

iana. the fall of the


drapery and the figure's
dexcHit. submissive alti-

tude are in line with


sevcntccnth-ccntury re-

ligious piety, showing


that the pictorial sensi-

bility of Guido Rcni


had been assimilated in

the field of sculpture as


well. The saint's sub-
dued gaze is turned to-
ward thebeam of light
that descends from
above.

Santa Prassedk

. Tomb of Bishop Sanloni, 1615-17

^^
^- .j^ T^robably Bernini's first work, it is set on the
''=
X pillar in front of the chapel of San Zenone,
the most important Byzantine monument in
Rome, erected by Pascal (817-24) as a mau- I

soleum for his mother Theodora. It is a sculpture o\'

considerable interest, portraying the niajordomo oi'

Sixlus V, whose character is clearK con\e\ed b\ his


vexed and afflicted expression, with his ga/e direct-
ed at an obliejue angle in silent reserxe.
Bernini 93

The Triton Fountain,


1642-43

The design stems


from the Florentine
tradition of fountains

with naturalistic
figures, rather than the

Roman one, and


emphasizes the natural
development of the
fabulous image into a
massive structure. The
Barberini coat of arms
is raised on the tails of
four dolphins, on
which rest the open
valves of a shell. This
in turn supports the

sea god, who is

blowing a jet of water


out of a conch.

Palazzo Barberini, 1629-33

The work carried out for Palazzo Barberini (now the seat,

on the first floor, of the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica,


which houses a portrait in oils and two marble busts of Urban
VIII by Bernini, while a terracotta one of Pope Alexander VII
Chigi is on show at the Galleria Corsini) was Bernini's first
Fountain of the
venture into civil architecture. In 1629 he redesigned Carlo Barberini Bees
Mademo's facade on via Quattro Fontane. Bernini, with Bor- The fountain was part

romini as his assistant, was the heir to Mademo's extensive of the definitive

activity in this field, where he had conceived this new type of layout of the gardens
at the rear, which
suburban villa. Bernini was entirely responsible for the interi-
commenced with two
or decoration, with the idea of the staircase-hall sequence: a
shell-shaped fountains
new version halfway between the spiral staircase and the clas- decorated with the
sical Roman one of a longitudinal flight of stairs between par- Barberini symbol of
the bee (now moved
allel walls. He also made a few changes to the exterior, such
to the corner of via
as the balcony facing onto via Barberini.
Veneto).
The elliptical spiral staircase with coupled columns under the
portico on the right is by Borromini.

Other works in Palazzo Barberini in the chapter on Raphaei


M R()\ll . \\ 111 Kl ID 1 IM) ..

Casa del Bernini

At no. 11, via del la

MerLcdc. laid i>ul b\

Paul V ai ihc

beginning of the
sevcntccnih ccniun.
stands the house thai
Bernini lx>uj;ht in

1641. The inscription

and the artist's bust

arc kx-'ated after the


doorvN ay of no 1 1

at no. 12.

Sant'Andrea dellk Frah k

Afii^cl with Crown of Thorns, Angel with Scroll. 1 66S-7

The two angels were carved for Ponte SanlVXiigelc), whew


l'ala//<) di tliey have now been replaced b} copies. In IddT-b*-)
Propaganda Fide Bernini undertook the decoration o\' the bridge, building the
In 1634 Bernini built a wonderful balustrade that originally ran all round the square in
small church on an front, pierced by delicate iron gratings permitting a \ iew o\'
elliptical plan inside
the water. The work was carried out by Matlia de" Rossi, one
the Collegio,

foreshadowing the o\' Bernini's many assistants: with the increasing number ol'

extraordinary design commissions he received from 1620 onward, he was obliged


of Sant' Andrea al to enlarge his studio considerably.
Quirinale. All that
survives is a survey
made by Borromini
Piazza del Popolo
before demolishing it

and replacing
his own. As
it

for the
with
The baroque restoration of piazza del Popolo was carried
out at the behest of Pope Alexander VII Chigi (1655-67),
facade of the Collegio.
who also suggested the construction of the twin churches. Santa
facing onto piazza di
Spagna, Bernini was
Maria di Montesanto (1662-75) and Santa Maria dci Miracoli

the advisor for the (1675-79), begun by Carlo Rainaldi and completed b\ Bcinini.
skillful modernization with the collaboration of Carlo Fontana. The s|xx"tacular hiNcnit oi
of the old building
the square, on the other hand, is a masterly work oi' cit\ planning
(1642-44).
carried out in 1816-24 by the neoclassical architect Cjiusep[->e Val-

adier, who began to study the project as early as 1793. He sohed


the problem ol' the relationship
with the adjoining Pincio hill by
constructing embankments lined

with trees. His project also in-

cluded the two low buildings


alongside the Porta del Popolo.
loui- basins w ith marble lions are
set al the base of the obelisk
which, creeled b\ Domcnico
1 onlana for i\>pe Sixtus V at the

c\k\ o\' the sixteenth century, is

ihc oldest in Rome after the one in

piazza San (iioxanni in Latenuio.


Bernini 95

Porta del Popolo, 1562-65

The outer front was erected for Pope Pius IV in 1562-65


by Nanni di Baccio Bigio, with a single arch and pairs of
ancient columns. The statues of St. Peter and St. Paul are by
Bernini'sfamous contemporary, Francesco Mochi (1638).
The inner front was embellished by Bernini in 1655, to cele- Piazza di Spajiiia,

brate the arrival of Queen Christina of Sweden, a convert to Fountain of the


Barcaccia, 1627-29
Catholicism: an event that is recorded in the inscription on the
Executed by his father
attic: "Felici faustoque ingressui MDCLV." The gate consists
Pietro, it is the earliest
of a central archway, surmounted by a scroll with the devices
of Rome's surprising
of the Chigi pope, mountains topped by a star, and a mixtilin- fountains and the one

ear molding which emphasizes the structure and the merlons, from which Bernini
tooic the inspiration
shaped like cuirasses on the outside.
for innumerable other

inventions. The idea


of the boat, used as a
Santa Maria del Popolo technical device to

reach the level of the


water table, very low
To the facade, one of the
sance architecture in Rome,
finest examples of early Renais-
built by Baccio Pontelli and
at this point, stemmed
from the barcacce
Andrea Bregno between 1472 and 1477, Bernini added the ("old tubs") in the

curved linking cornices at the sides. On the inside, his restora- nearby port of Ripetta.

tion entailed decoration of the nave by the insertion of large


stucco figures of saints above the arches, set on arched cor-
nices, and the addition of altars in the transept and choirs and
an organ in the form of the Chigi oak.
In 1652-55 Bernini intervened in the Chigi Chapel (the sec-
ond in the left-hand aisle), laying a new marble floor with the

figure of death and the motto "mors ad coelus" and adding


sculptures of Habakkuk and the Angel (1655-61, on the right

of the altar) and Daniel in the Lions' Den (1655-67, in front).

Chigi Chapel

The magnificent
chapel on a central
plan, built at the

beginning of the
sixteenth century for

the pope's ancestor

Agostino Chigi. a
famous Sienese
banker known as
"il Magnifico." is the

work of Raphael.

Habakkuk and the Angel, Daniel in the Lions' Den.


1655-61 1655-67
Mb RdMI . Will Kl K) I IM)

San Loki n/o


IN l.l ( IN A

I onscca CluipcL 1664

A\\tMk 111 w Inch Bcrniiii

pim ulcs a liiillici


Montecitorin. I(>5(>
tIciiUMislialiDii o\ his aichi-
In 1650 the I'amphilj iccUiral inaluiit), wilh ils
family commissioned
ciipi>hi open [o the sk\ aiul
ihe design of a new
aiiiicls pla\iiig iiisliuiiKMils
palace on Monte
Cilorio from Bernini. (Ml a gciMiiciric siriicliirc.

By the time of I'ope The Bum of (luhriclc i'oiwc


InntKcnt X's death in
ca ( 166<S-7.^). tornicr ph\si-
1655. little of the
cian of ImiiKciil X. is the sec-
immense building had
been constructed and ond on the Icll: an image thai is e\lrac)idiiiai\

it was only finished in its pitilessly realistic anal\si.s of old age.


forty years later, in

16^)4 by Carlo
Piazza dklla Minkrva
Fonlana on the orders
of Innocent XII.
Bernini's contribution Elephant Carry ini^ an Obelisk, 1 666-67
is still visible in the

layout of the wings


1657-62, Bernini had cleared the area
and the design of the InaioLind ^}
architectural
the Pantheon by demolishing the
^
^ --
(
houses set against the left-hand side of the
m -V^

subdivisions.

In particular. Bernini's building and installed new capitals bearing L ,


^

v*^
taste for naturalistic the coat of arms of Alexander VII Chigi. "^.,'

evident in
effects is

the plant elements and


The little elephant in white marble (execut- ^
Y
.

.\iii
-r^
ed by Ercole Fenata) supporting an Egypt- * <^A
in the imitation rock

m
^^^ .-ii
on the faces of the ian obelisk from the sixth century BC taken
windows and pillars, from the nearby Iseo Campense, a group of
^
examples of the temples dedicated to Egyptiiin cults, was a
contemporary fashion
later idea for the center o\' the square.
for ruins and fantastic
landscapes.
Santa Maria sopra
Minerva

Tomb of Maria
Raooi^ 1647-53

o n the fifth pillar

o\\ the left inside


the church. Bernini
came up wilh a revo-

lutionary idea for a

sepulchral monument:
a portrait carved in a bron/e medal-
lion, set against a fluttering drape
and The harmony of colors is
putti.

based on sober combinations o{


black, yellow and gold. In the eigh-
teenth century this model o{ memo-
rial was to supersede the traditional
one. with the figure o\ the deceased
m an attitude o'i de\ olion.
Bernini 97

Diego Velazquez,
Innocent X, 650, 1

Galleria Doria Pamphilj

Santa Maria in

Aracokli

Plaque in memory of
Carlo Barberini, 1630

A work produced
during a period of
classical moderation
in Bernini's style, as
he sought to adapt to
current tastes. For
Carlo Barberini he
also carved a head to

set on the torso of an


ancient statue,
restored by Algardi
(Palazzo dei
Conservatori,
Campidoglio).

Plaque on the
internal front, 1636

At the top, a large

an
Galleria Doria Pamphilj scroll with

inscription by Urban
VIII, in the form of a
Bust of Innocent X, 1650 drape supported by
two angelic figures.

marble portrait of the pope The escutcheon of the


Bernini's is similar in its
Barberini coat of arms
lucid and intense realism to Velazquez's famous Portrait
is represented in a
of Innocent X, located nearby. stained-glass window
and the colored light

falls on the sculpture,


creating an extremely
MusEi Capitolini novel plastic effect.

Sala DEI Conservatori


MusEO Di Palazzo
Venezia
Urban VIII Barberini,
Terracotta models:
1635-40
Face of St. Teresa,
1646
Bernini's imposing marble
Study for the Papal
sculpture is set opposite
Coat of Arms for the
the statue of Innocent X Pam- Fountain of the
philj (1645-50), carved ten Rivers, 1647-51

years later by another great Moor's Head, 1654


sculptor, Alessandro Algardi Angel with Title,

from Bologna, whose more 1667-68

classical style made him Study of Horse, 1669


Bernini's rival in Rome.
.

98 RoMh. WUhRh TO IM) I ...

Piazza N WON A
Founinin oJ ihc lour Rivers. 164<S-5 1

M Bernini presented the design oi ihis tminiani \o pope Inno-


IP. .'^/
eent .\ Paniphilj. in an alleiiipl \o reiiaui llie pope's tavor
aller a liMiy periinl ot disiiraee.

In llie lalesi o\ ihe dainii: aivliilecluial desi^ins lor llie toun-

houiiuun oj ihc
tains ol Rome. Bernini eanie up \sith an enonm>us siruclure
TinktT\ of rocks and rigiires, cxeciiled b\ his eollahi>ral(Ms. syniboliz-
inu ihe ri\eis Daiuihe. Ciangcs, Nile and I'lale. one lor each of
the ccMilinenls within the Church's sphere, ihe obelisk with
the I'aniphilj de\ ice. a i\o\c with an oli\e branch in its beak,
is a Roman imitation from the time o\ Domitian. originally in
Maxentius's Circus. It v\as raised w ilh great daring b\ Berni-
I Diinuim (>/ llic Miioi
ni, in competition with Borromini. who built the ctuiich of

Santa Agnese in front and the w ater conduit for the fountain.
Bernini even studied the noise made by the water, setting a
fantastic garden of marvels among the rocks, with a lion, a

dolphin and a seahorse surrounded by moss, mistletoe and a


palm tree.

In 1651 Bernini also sculpted the statue of the Moor for the

fountain next to Palaz/o PamphilJ. Its final transformation,

with the addition of a large pool at

ground level, was carried out b> Bor-


romini to make it symmetrical with
the other fountain, known as the
Fontanel dci CalderuL or Fountain of
^ the Tinkers.

Giacomo Antonio
Model for
Fancclli.
the River MIe.
Ca (JOro. Venice

I uuniain oJ ihc I uur Rim . . J loiinidin oj the roiir Rivers, riie danges
1
^.^

-M

j^y.,|.a,.;r

1 l-:rf
100 RoMl . W'm Kl IC) HM)

Blessed l.iulovicd Alherloni

Rape of Proserpine (detail) Ecstasy of St. Teresa (detail)

San Francesco a Ripa

Blessed Ludoviea Alherluni, 1674

Bernini's mysticism of the senses is bine with the light that enters through
exalted in this famous statue of a the window behind to create waves o\
recuinhent fi*:ure, the last work the an intense atmosphere o{ intimacy, from
artist carried out for Cardinal Altieri, the folds o{ the drapery that follow the
where the woman is represented dying soft yielding o{ the body to the expres-
in the throes of erotic abandon. The pat- sion on the dying woman's face and the
terns ot the polychrome marble com- hands clutchimz at her breast.
Bernini 101

San Pietro in Montorio


Raymondi Chapel, 1642-46 or 1638-48

The chapel, which is the second on the left,

is conceived as a unitary whole and is one


of his most original sepulchral monuments after

the Tomb of Maria Raggi in Santa Maria sopra


Minerva. A marble relief by Bernini's pupil
Francesco Baratta stands on the altar. The graz-
ing light plays a fundamental role in conveying
the sense of a miraculous vision, interrupted by
the gestures of the putti at the sides, who lift the
lids of the two sarcophagi to peer inside with
curiosity.

Only by standing on tiptoe can the observer see


the marble figures of the Raymondi inside the
half-open caskets. The same people are depict-
ed, still alive, in the busts set in the ornate nich-

es above the sarcophagi.


102 Rt)\n . Where to find

luiliiiu Inn Willi llif


Hi\cn Christ.
Ciirolanm lav/a
alloi Ik-rnini

lU-rnini the

Architect. 1629

From this moment on.

Bernini was to spend


almost fifty years
working on the
basilica, tackling first

the problems of the

organization and
decoration of the
interior and then the
external ones of the
facade, in 1637, and
the layout of the open
space in front of the
church, under
Alexander VII in

1667. He set two rows


of niches around the
Baldachin, placing
gigantic statues of
martyrs in the bottom
row and relics in the

upper one.
His major contribution St. Peter's
to the interior

decoration was made Baldachin, 1624-33


in the nave and aisles,

where he introduced
lively colors, with

sources of light,

marble decorations in
A huge and
eted
stirred
in

by the wind.
theatrical invention with

phmt shoots and with


It won
a
t\\

mock
isted

out over other designs, which


columns cov-
fringe o\' brocade

various colors and


proved too small tor the immense si/e of Michelangelo's
statues carved from
white Carrara marble.
dome. It is 29 meters high and fits perlectl\ into the churcirs
vast interior.

Realized over the space of nine years, it was the first work
executed by Bernini in his long acli\'it\ inside St. Peter's
basilica and the Vatican Palaces.
To obtain the bron/.e. Pope L'rban VIII Barberini ordered the
decorations of the Pantheon to be melted down.
The papal coats o\' arms at the base o\' the columns represent
the keys to the Kingdom oi' IIea\en. The small heads set
above the esciUcheons constitute an incredible sequence de-
picting, with extreme realism, the tra\ ail of a Noung woman,
perhaps the pope's o\\ n niece.
Bernini 103

Justice
Tomb of Urban VIII, 1628/39-47

Located in the right-hand niche of the apse of St. Peter's, it

was commissioned in 1628 and completed between 1639


and 1647, three years after the death of the Barberini pope.

Bernini was able to impart a sense of unity to the commemora-


tive and sepulchral monument, enriching it with variations of
color and an extraordinarily dynamic rhythm. It became the
model for all subsequent tombs up until the time of Canova.

St. Longinus, 1635-38 Monument to


Countess Matilda,
1633-37
Just as he used the
Bernini exalts the
statue of St. Bibiana
sense of harmony
to represent a moment through the use of
of silent communion white marble, a single

with God, painted on material for a return to


a more classical style.
the vault above, here
The tomb of Countess
Bemini depicts Longi- Matilda, the heroine
nus at the emotional of Canossa who
moment of his conver- donated her
possessions to the
sion, when, looking up,
Church, was erected at
he sees the Cross and
the behest of Pope
exclaims "Truly this Urban VIII to

man was the Son of symbolize the

God." foundations of the


Church's temporal
There is a perfect cor-
authority.
respondence between
his upward gaze and
the light that floods
down from the dome
of St. Peter's.
104 ROMI . \\ HI Rl. TO MND

(though these seem still to have provid-


ed the inspiration for the preparatory
drawings), it is still p^issiblc to discern a

rcterence to the so-called Aniinous in


I he \alican. In the bronze angels with
iheir agitated drapery, the \ery last of

his creations. The figure o\' Antinous


\sas keenly studied by artists belonging
lo classical circles, such as Algardi.
l)uc|uesnoy and Poussin.

Cathedra Pari, 1657-66

The creali\c fanlasy and soaring per-


spective of St. Peter's Throne
breaks with the completely static and
solemn rhythm of Michelangelo's archi-
tecture, standing out in a ruddy glow of
bronze forms that rise all the way to the
eye of the window, where the dove of Monument to Alexander VII,
the Holy Spirit is placed at the center. 1671-78

Chapel of the Sacrament, echoes the structure of the previous


It
1673-75 memorial to Urban VllI but with dif-

ferent solutions. In connection with this

D espite a move away from


sculptures of classical antiquity
the work reference has been made
entific
(Golzio, 1939)
management of
owing
artistic
to a "sci-

work"
to the division of

labor, with artists acting as mere execu-


tors. "In fact they worked from the mas-
ter's models and drawings under his di-

rect and continuous supervision, so that,

even if Bernini's concrete intervention


was of scanty significance - he probably
just gave the final touches to the pope's
face (Golzio, 1939) - the monument in

its stylistic coherence and unity has to be


considered his unique and original cre-
ation" {Bernini in Vaticano, 1981 ). Dur-
ing the papacy of Innocent XI, who as-

cended the throne in 167b, a new attitude

of severity forced Bernini to co\er up


the statue o\' Truth, "which was too at-

lracli\e." Unwillingly, the artist dressed

It in metal clothes, painted white, "at the


cost of indescribable thoueht and effort."
Bernini 105

Colonnade of St. Peter's,


IS
1657-65

Only Bernini had the genius and ized with careful attention to heights so
the problem-solving skills re- that the pope would still be able to bless
quired to find a way through all the pilgrims from his palace, on the right,
topographic and liturgical problems maintains a proportion that does not
posed by this work. The support and clash with the imposing facade. Bernini
authority of Pope Alexander VII proved used optical rather than structural solu-
essential to overcoming all the jeal- tions to link the cornice of the colon-
ousies and intrigues that arose over nade with the perspective of the crown-
the final solution. ing section, above the tympanum of the
The form of a universal embrace, real- fagade.
106 Ki)\ii . Where to find

St. Peter's

Loggia dklua Lancia

"Pasce Ovfs .Mta\."


1633-46
Broad rcliol inside the

portico aK>ve the


central diHir of the

basilica. Although the


work was not finished

until long afierward.


the design is

conteni[x>rary with the


Monument to

Countess Matilda. The


execution was carried
out chiefly by his
schwil and the relief
was placed on the

inside wall in 1649.

Constantino 1 662-68

Rather than a simple equestrian statue, this work is a rep-

resentation of the first Christian emperor at the moment


when he received the revelation of the Faith.
As in the later equestrian statue carved for the king of France.
Louis XIV (p. 86). an important contribution to the scenic ef-
fect is made by the drape hanging in the background and by

the harmonious setting in an ar-

chitectural niche on one side of


the spectacular entrance to the
Scala Regia.

ScalaRci^ia, 1664-66

On the arch that forms the of-


ficial entranceway to the

Papal Palace, two large figures of


Fame play trumpets and support
Alexander VIFs device, sur-
mounted b\ the papal keys and
tiara. They herald the eternal \ ic-

tory of the papac\ and. at the


same time, that o\' Constantine.
represented on horseback in the

statue on the right.

This admirable handling o\' a

small and iiTcgular space to cre-


ate the impression o\' a broad and
solemn staircase was begun at

I he same lime as the construction


ol the cc^loniiade o\' St. Peter\. It

entailed setting a row of columns


within the existing "tiinncr" and
making the walls converge as
lhc> rise to the upper lloor.
Bernini 107

Guido Reni (1575-1642), St. Philip Neri, 1615, Baciccio ( 1 63^^ 709), Sketch for the Ceiling of the
1

Chiesa Nuova, Rome Church of 1 1 Gesii, 1676-79, Galleria Spada. Rome

Giovanni Francesco Romanelli (1610-62).


The Rape ofOreithyia, 1655, Galleria Spada, Rome

Orazio Gentileschi
(1562-1647),
The Baptism of Christ
(detail), 1605, Santa
Maria della Pace, Rome

Pompeo Batoni
(1708-87),
Hagar m the Desert.
1776,
Galleria Nazionalc
d'Arte Antica, Rome

Angels
AND Saints
IN Ecstasy
Qani(o

^a.--
38 ^'.y'
^ ''LL

To>ji\

'<
>.
^7-/
-tAJ Vmberto Tonte
/VaraheriUi
IS-
Tonte
Garibaldi hr.
%. '^^ 2H- -
33
-v
Vonte
f avoar

moihoieo ''^ ai K, tta


piazzA
4 J

di Maudo
Ai^u
f
&r^'
k^
Vonte VI ^
^16 '^'

TaiaXino l^'
fir^u,
^
% Qi '^ Spaana

%l
di
X : Piazza
fontana \< V //

^0*
'

/ riniCa

yiaoaiio onti

G'

5/

o. Giovanni
in Jaieranc
Francesco Borromini
Bissone (Lugano), September 27, 1599 - Rome, August 2, 1667

mong exponents of the to be his great rival in Rome. Portly but

early Roman baroque, handsome, Borromini had a stubborn


the name of Borromini and surly character that can be compared
holds a special place with Caravaggio's. Both were of North-
for the extravagance of em origin and arrived in papal and opu-
his architecture. lent Rome, where they found themselves
Rather than classical in conflict with the banal realities of
proportions, his struc- power. Both relied on the quality of their
artistic work to sus-
tures appear to echo tain the moral val-
those of "chimeras" ues of their lives
(Chantelou). and their religious
Bom at Bissone on feelings.

Lake Lugano, on Both men tended to

September 27, 1599, look for what is es-


his real name was sential: "He greatly
Giovanni Domenico valued his art, for
Carlo Fontana,
Castelli. His adopted
Caricature of Self-Portrait,
love of which he
surname of Borro- Borromini, private San Carlo alle Quattro spared no effort. In
collection, Rome Fontane, Rome
mini comes from order that his de-
the league of seven cantons of Catholic signs should tum out perfectly, he made
Switzerland, known Borromean
as the models out of wax, and sometimes clay,

League. His father had worked as archi- with his own hands" (Baldinucci, 1682).
tect for the Visconti and when still very An irascible and often violent man, he
young he went to Milan to learn stone- put an end to his life by falling on a

cutting. By the age of fifteen, he was in sword, in a fit of fever and insomnia. He
Rome, following in the footsteps of the survived one more day and this gave
Lombard stonemasons who had gone him time to repent and to add some sub-
there to work on St. Peter's. Here he tly ironic maxims to his testament. "A
worked with his relative Carlo Mademo few days before he died he burned all
and, on his death in 1629, came under the drawings that he had meant to send
the direction of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, to the engraver but had not been able to
one year younger than himself, who was do so" (Baldinucci, 1682).

Left, plan showing location of Borromini's works


1 10 Rt)\ii . Where to find ...

San Carlo allc Quattro Fontane, 1 634-67

" i

This work was comiiiissioiicd b\ (he Discalccd Religious


I-alhcrs of ilic Trinilarian Order al a iiioiiieiil ( l(-)34-37)

Ir-T^
11 1 '

wlieii, alter ceasing wt)rk on Pala//.o Barberiiii. the artist was


faced wiili a psychological crisis. By 1635 the doimiti^is and
cloister of the monastery were already complete: the solution
was a daring one, allowing the most to be made of the limited

CJ space available.
The cloister, revolutionary
ga\e a
in the
dignified tone to a small area.
compactness of
The harmony of
its structure,

the
SailCarlo alle
minimal pioportions is linked to the unbroken fascia with
Quattro fimlane
plan rounded corners that runs in the middle between the litihter
BORROMINI 1 1 1

The dome The cloister

arches, open at the top and soberly ca- wonderful talent and great refinement
denced at the bottom. of understanding by laying out on such
Sharing the humanitarian beHefs of the a small site a habitation with so many
newly-estabHshed order, Borromini ac- amenities and a church of such beauty
cepted no payment for the work, which and grace, with altars and other fittings,

took seven years. so airy, well-adorned, rich and lumi-


nous that there is no dispassionate spirit

who would not call it a miracle of the


Interior of the Church, 1638-41 art" (Passeri, 1772).

The church's facade was the architect's


The church is the same size as one of last work, which he executed between

the piers of the dome of St. Peter's. 1662 and his death in 1667. It can be
Challenging the stateliness of classical said that the construction of this com-
architecture, this new approach to con- plex spanned the whole of his career.
struction led Milizia to describe it as The tiny proportions and charm of this

"Borromini's delirium" a century later church make it a forerunner of eigh-


(1768). However Borromini did not teenth-century architecture. It is popu-
lack supporters: "he gave proof of a larly known as San Carlino.
1 1 2 RoMh. \\Hf Rh TO FIND

Area SUM AN ^1()^ASTKR^

-.a ScifUci Liicui in Si'lci, 1636

The all;ii on the Icll (l.aiuli Chapel).


ikIiIn adorned \s ith siuceoes. is one
ot (hose niinoi intei\enlit)ns lo whieh the
arehiteet dexoted ihe same passion and
care as lo his major construclions. li is

contemporary with the renovation of


Palazzo Faiconicri, on \ ia Ciiiilia.

One is reminded ot the sonnet hy the Ro-


man poet Carlo Belli, who compared Bor-
romini with the industrious beaver:
"And a garrulous custodian used to say
Thcit in his country these animals
Put no less effort into huildiny, their houses
Than does the architect Borromino"
l.ancii Chapel . 1636

San Giovanni in Laterano, 1644-53

On the death of Bernini's patron. Pope Urban


mini became one of the most important architects work-
VllI, Borro-

ing in Rome. Pope Innocent X chose him to carry out the re-

construction of the Lateran basilica, to which he wished to


link his name now that St. Peter's was finished.

The work took around a decade ( 1644-55) and entailed the re-

modeling of the nave and four aisles and the installation of


twelve aedicules with columns o{ verd antique and l\ nipana.
On the pillars of the nave he set the dove, symbol of the Pam-
philj family.

Borromini's renovation drew heavy criticism bccau.se he had


destroyed the frescoes by Gentile da Fabriano, covered the
BORROMIM 113

Latkran Baptistery,
1637-50

External frieze
The external frieze
with heraldic symbols
was executed in 1637.
In 1650 a memorial
tablet to Cardinal

Francesco Adriano
Ceva designed by
Borromini was placed
in the chapel of San
Venanzio (on the left

of the altar).

The nave

original columns with brick pillars and renowned German students of Borromi-
given everything a uniformly pale col- ni, Eberhard Hempel, states: "Between
or, as was his custom. Yet this is to ig- the two great reconstructions, that of St.

nore the complexity of a project of re- Peter's and that of San Giovanni in Lat-

structuring that set out to preserve the erano, fell the time of the Counter Re-
ancient basilica, rather than destroy it, formation. Religious motives now de-
as the great architects Bramante and manded the most complete preservation
Michelangelo had decided to do with of ancient places of worship in their
the original St. Peter's. original form."
In confirmation of this, one of the most

San Giovanni in Oleo

was
For a long time, this
considered a classical
work. The purity of the
forms is connected with Bor-
romini 's interest in the archi-
tecture of the early sixteenth
century - when this oratory

was built - by artists like


Bramante and Baldassare Pe-
ruzzi.

The Utopian vision of the an-


cient monuments, which he
undoubtedly studied at
length in Rome, was one of
the characteristics of his ef-
fort to reconstruct and rein-
vent the past, as is evident in
the crowning part of this
building (1658).
1 14 RoMi . Where to find

The spiral staircase

Palazzo Barherini. 1626-32

From 1626 lo 162^) Bonoiiiini worked under the super\i-

sion of Maderno and then, from 162^) lo 1632. under that

of Bernini. This subordinate position led him to abandon the


projeel.

A comparison between the window attributed to Borromini


and Bernini's architecture reveals the nature o\' the conflict

thai arose between liie two architects as the work proceeded.


Bernini introduced a distinct change in la>out with respecl lo
the closed block designed by Maderno. opening it up in the

two lateral wings. Borromini was wholl\ responsible lor the


design of the elliptical staircase in the right-hand wing, which
is one of the most unusual and elegant sexeiileenth-century
works in Rome and shows that the humble "stonecutter."" as

IkM'nini had described him in the contract for St. Peter's, was
able lo follow a vision o\' his own in his first commission,
licrnini, Palazzo
Barberini, portal producing an example of sublime archilcclure.

OlIIIK WORKS IN l'\r\//() B\KIIIKIM T A\ BK KOI N[) IN THK ( HAPTKK ON R M'MAKI


BORROMIM 115

The campanile The lantern

Sant'Andrea delle Fratte

Dome and campanile, 1654-65

The perfect technical mastery he ac- which can be seen clearly from via Capo
quired during the hard work he did le Case, has been defined as "a votive
as a stonecutter until over the age of basket offered to the Deity." The sculp-
thirty allowed him to shape material to ture blends into the architecture, creating,
suit his ideas. Not just the campanile, as a separate phenomenon, a stmcturc rich

but the whole of the architectural struc- in ideas carved out of the living brick and
ture appears to be in motion, as if car- serving as a prelude to his unusual ap-
ried along by the flow of light. proach to the construction of walls. The ar-

Described as a "futurist architect of the ticulated concave-convex mass of the


seventeenth century," Borromini broke lantern, which covers the dome beneath,
with the classical tradition and fore- has its own curved diagonal buttresses and
shadowed in brilliant fashion what was stands on a base with an undulating plan.
to be one of the indelible characteristics This spatial element, used again in the

of eighteenth-century architecture, the fagade o^ Siui Carlino, seems to dciive from


rococo style. The unusual bell tower, Roman tombs like the Conocchia at Capua.
1 !(-) ROMI . Will Kl to MM) ....

Palazzo Carpegna

Accadcmia c/i San Luccl 1633-50

II llial BoncMiiini was able \o constnicl in ihis JTiiikliiiL:

a: near piazza di Tic\i. comniissioiicd IrDiii him b\ C\h:iiI

Amhrogio Carpegna. was llie uniisiiai porlieo. in spile o{ llie


many studies lie eanied out. In faet he was working contem-
poraneously on the Collegio di Propaganda Fide and Sant'
Andrea delle Fratte. in the same area. A series ol" drawings
and surprising plans ha\e sur\ i\ed to show how far his con-
cept of the Italian private palace had e\ol\ed since Palazzo
Barberini. and now roreshad(n\ed that o[ the eighteenth cen-
lilippo Juvarra tury. A draw ing w iih two flights o{ stairs that depart from the
(I67S-17.^6).
oval entrance and join up again on the landing shows alTini-
Si(iiria\i\ Palazzo
Madama, Turin ties with the staircase that (iuarini would design (1679-81)
lor Palazzo Carignano in rurin. as well as lilippo .lii\ ana's
one lor Palazzo Madama ( 1728).
BORROMIM 1 1 /

I
Collegia di Propaganda Fide, lateral facade and detail of the portal

Collegia di Propaganda Fide, church of the Re Magi, interior and ceiling

Collegio di Propaganda Fide, 1662-66

Constructed during the last few years of his life, although


the earliest plans date back to 1647, it relics for its effect

on the lateral fagade, which would be copied throughout the


eighteenth century.
The highly functional design, combined with an extreme ele-

gance due to the concise handling of form, hinges on a system


of mixtilinear and strongly projecting cornices. The windows
look like large and deep holes, from which only the coupled
columns emerge, illuminated by the grazing light.
Having destroyed the oval chapel built earlier by Bernini -
not without a touch of satisfaction as it had stood in front of
his own house - Borromini created a new one whose space
was defined by his typical beveled comers.
1 IS RoMi . Wni ki It) I i\i)

Pi\//\ N wow
Innoccnl \ uaiilctl U^ liiiii llic square uilo a lu\iiiioiis and
worllis selling lor llie I'ainphilj laniil) residence.

Borroniini designed llie poo\ e\ea\aled annind llie nuilliloil

hasin o\ llie toiinlain in fronl o\' ihe jxilaee. biiili b\ Cuaet>-


nio della I'orla (l575-7(i) for (negor\ XIII. This nuuil
uould he laken up h\ Bernini in liis tuerall resirueluring of
ihe squaie.

Palazzo Pamphilj, 1646-47

Between 1646 and 1647, Borroniini helped the elderl> ar-

chitect Girolamo Rainaldi to build an extension onto the


facade of the palace for Innocent X. Although his design was
not accepted, he had a considerable intluence on the work. It

was he who built the Gallery, on the left o{ the facade o'i Sant'
Agnese, with its fine external Serliana. Pietro da
liiiii I

Cortona frescoed the rooms inside \Kilh Scenes


from the Aeneul and a number t>f brillianl itleas

from Borroniini "s late si\ le can be seen in llie el-

euant doorframes.

Pcikizzo (iiusiinlcini. 1^4^-51

The palace's large poilal is b\ I^cm roiiiini.

who worked on it while cair\ ing out renova-


tions in the area o\ La Sapien/a.

.?Ma
In ink ( iim'ii k on Bi knini, mi Foi ntain of thk Foi k Rivkrs
BORROMINl 119

Sanf Agnese in Agone, 1653-57

Erected at the pope's behest on the and homogeneous structure. The interi-

site where a little church stood to or, in the shape of an elliptical Greek
commemorate the martyrdom of St. cross, opens onto the square through the
Agnes, who was shown naked to the harmonious facade, which echoes
crowd at the circus (the room under- Michelangelo's idea for St. Peter's,

neath, open to visitors), the church was bringing together all the elements of its

begun by Girolamo and Carlo Rainaldi composition, from the campaniles to the
in 1652. It is not known why the project light dome. Its sinuous forms and cen-
was then entrusted to Borromini (1653- tralized perspective inspired Bernini in

57), who altered the plan and the posi- his more classical design for Sanl 'An-
tion of the facade, creating a compact drea al Quirinale.
120 R()\lh. WHtRh TO FIND

Biblioteca
Alessandrina
Between 1659 and
1661 Borromini was
busy working on two
libraries, the

Biblioteca Angelica
on piazza
Sant'Agostino and
the Biblioteca

Alessandrina, on the
north side of
La Sapicnza University
While little of
Borromini's design
has survived in the
former, the latter
established a
prototype for
eighteenth-century Scinf Ivo alia Sapicnza, 1642-30
libraries: a large,

three-story-high hall,
the end of a laic .si\lccnth-ccnliir\ ihc
in which the Set at pttrlicci,

church has a tall, convex (.Iriiiii. on \\ hich rests the dome


bookshelves become
elements of the vviih its incredible spiral crown. In the plan ot the church and
architectural structure. the drum, he echoed the form oi the Barherini bee. together
with the image of an arrow loosed boldl\ at the sk\.
Extraordinar\ in its lightness, the spire is a brilliant and free

interpretation of the Ciothic forms he had studied in Milan


C^ithedral and of Oriental ideas with which he was acquainted
through missionaries.
The dome of Sant'Ivo was to become the element most w ide-

ly imitated in the eighteenth century, all over Hurope.


BORROMINl 121

Palazzo Spada Capo di Ferro, 1632-36

The restoration of the palace for Cardinal Spada was one


of Borromini's first independent commissions, carried
out between 1632 and 1636, at the same time as the work on
San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane and the enlargement of Palaz-
zo Falconieri on via Giulia. In 1660 he built the Perspective
Gallery, one of
his last works,
in which he
skillfully creat- Sant'Andrea
DELLA VaLLE
ed an effect of
spaciousness in Lantern of the dome,

an area that was 1621-22

only nine meters The capitals of the

lantern were carved


long. Even the
by Borromini in 1621.
sculpture at the immediately after his
end looks enor- arrival in Rome, when
mous, in spite of he was working with
Maderno, who built
its small size.
the dome (1622).
The idea provid-
ed the inspira-
tion for Berni-
ni's Scala Regia
in the Vatican.

Perspective Gallery

Palazzo Falconieri (formerly Odescalchi), 1646

1646 he restructured the fagade on via Giulia, adding San Girolamo


In DELLA CaRITA
baroque herms, busts of women and falcon's heads.
Alongside the Tiber, he erected a loggia with three arches that Spada Chapel, 1660
seems to hover in the air, forming a highly distinctive feature He designed the entire

of the Roman decoration of the first

chapel on the right


landscape. In
and, for the first and
fact the idea of
only time, resorted to
setting the log- a spectacular effect by
gia at a height making use of a large

of three stories piece of agate. He


placed this in the
and giving it
hands of the two
Palladian win- angels on the
dows and a cop- balustrade, as if it

ing of female were a precious


praying mantis.
heads was all
his. The whole

structure is a
baroque rework-
ing of Raphael's
Logge in the
Vatican.
Ri)\ii . Wherhto mnd

Oratorian Monasterw 1 62 -6 1

1621 the confraternity of St. Philip in the modest material oi' brick, chosen
In
Ncri chose Borromini to supervise b\ the fathers themsehes. The conca\e
the work on the sacristy, and afterward shape interacts with the space outside to

called on him again to build its new or- create a continuil\ o\' linear de\elop-
atory (1637-40). The success he had at- ment v\ ith the square and the fac^-ade o\'

tained with the Trinitarian Fathers at the Oratorian Church (Chiesa Nuo\a).
San Carlo allc Quattro Fonlane had The structure does not unify the points
earned him some renown and he had of \ iew. as in the Renaissance tradition,

developed a particular s\nipalh\ for bul multiplies them to produce a sense


these reliLiious orders inclined toward of nKuement toward innumerable \an-
severe spiritual discipline. ishing points. This succint use of multi-
In fact Borromini worked not onl\ w ilh ple perspective would be adopted by
the Oraloriaiis and the Trinitarians, hul Bernini for the colonnade in St. Peter's

also the Agustinian nuns o\ Sanla Mai ia square, where the two arms are laid out
in Selci. along two intersecting circumferences
The front lacing onto the st|uarc is a and there is no unif\ing \anishing
work of ureal creative uenius. couched point.
BORROMIM 123

Monastery
Interior, Oratorian Clock tower, Oratorian Monastery
(Opus Architectonicum I, 39)

Each of the elhptical spaces housing the Later on, Borromini designed the li-

refectory and the recreation hall has an brary (1642-44) and monastery (1647-
external courtyard. The pattern of solids 49) of the Oratorians, along with hous-
and voids is a function of the essentiali- ing for members of the order and the
ty of the structures, which forms the ba- fagade on piazza Monte Giordano with
sis of composition. its clock tower.
124 R()\I1 . WlU.Rh TO HM)

Santa Maria dci Scttc Dolori, o'i Hadrian \ Villa at Tixoli. During the
1643-49 period when he was most heavily en-
gaged on the restoration of the basilica
t6 Tust as Michelangelo, who had a of San Giovanni. Borromini took on the
J particularly strong influence on design of this small church, whose con-
him. foreshadowed the Baroque, so struction would proceed only slow ly

Borromino anticipated the eighteenth and be left incomplete. His intention


century" (Argan, 1952). The interior was to reproduce the typical elements
with its system of chapels and o{ his method of building along diago-
vestibules, as well as the exterior with nal directrices on a large scale. Work on
its concave and central projection are a the fayade, left in a rustic state, had
precise transcription on a mixtilinear started in 1643-46. while that on the in-

plan of the diacta in the Golden Square terior was resumed in 1646-49.

San Giovanni dei


FlORKMINI

Altar of the Presbytery

Borromini "s altar in ihc presb\tery

is a hcMiiagc to Madcnio. who had


built it.

Note, in addition. Madcnio"s tomb and


Boiromiiii's memorial tabid on ihc
lliird pillai on the Icfl. as ihc ailist had
icc|ucslcd in his will.

A particular feature, in ihc cr\pl. is the

morluar\ chapel o\ the I-alconieri.


again b\ Borromini. as is the sepulchral

monument on the left of the altar in the


presbytery.
BORROMIM 125

St. Peter's

From 1624 to 1633 he worked in the

basilica as a stonecutter. The cherubs


with festoons on the inside doors of the
portico and on the relief of Attila have
been identified as his earliest works. He
also carved the elegant jambs of the door
in the chapel of the Sacrament and the
base of Michelangelo's Pieta.
At the time of the closure of the Holy
Door after the Jubilee of 1625, a docu- Design for the
ment refers to him with the title of "mas- Baldachin of
St. Peter's with the
ter," officially given to him by Maderno,
who him drawing up archi-
already had
Risen Christ, c. 1624,
Girolamo Frezza
after Bernini
I
tectural plans. With Bernini he began to
Sketch Jar IwiMcil
Column, c. 1624 collaborate on the monumental architec-
ture of the basilica, but withdrew after
their first disagreements, which were partly over money:
Borromini was paid 25 sciidi a month, while Bernini re-
ceived 250.
It is clear, from the two designs for the Baldachin of the high
altar, that Borromini's conception, with its dolphin-backed
summit, won out over Bernini's more classical and Olympian
stylization. At that moment Bernini recognized the merit of
his work, but later Borromini was to complain, quite rightly,
that his more novel and creative ideas had been stolen.

Railings of the Chapel of the Sacrament,


1628-30

Borromini's hand can be recognized in the linear rather


than plastic treatment of the decorative motif. Four ele-
gant volutes enclose the three horizontal fascias decorated
with spirals, squares and oblique lines. At the top, the coat of

arms of Urban VIII, between two festoons and a cherub's


head, while the two lateral panels are crowned by the Barberi-
ni symbol of the sun with bees and leaves, which are interwo-
ven with elegant hieroglyphs.
The ciborium in gilded bronze on the altar is by Bernini
(1674) and is inspired by Bramante's Tempietto
di San Pietro in Montorio.

Chapel of the
Base for Michelangelo's Pieta, Sacrament, 1628-30

1626

o n the occasion of its

from the chapel of the Choir


to the first chapel on the
transfer

right,

near the entrance, Borromini set


the famous marble group on
an oval base of white marble,
with a band of portasanta.
12(1 Rl)\ll . \\ 111 Rl U) UNO

I crJiiiando luga ( IdW- ~S


1 1 i. ha(;culc oj Saiila Maria .\/r/--/n/c. 1 4 .^

Arc HITECTURE
IN ROMK AFTER
BORROMIM

l-'ilippo Raizu/zini i IdSO- 1 , . li.

The Houses on Piazza Sanlliinazio iBurioi. 1727-28

r ^^1

Giuseppe Sardi l(->()-1753).


(
Domenico Gregorini and Fielro Passalacqua,
Facade of the Church of the Sania Croce in Gerusalemme. 1 743
Maddalena, 1735
127

Bibliography of sources for quotations

G. Vasari, Le Vite de piu eccellenti pittori, scultori ed


architettori, VXoxQncQ 1550 and 1568

A. CoNDivi, Vita di Michelangelo Buonarroti, Rome 1553

B. Varchi, Orazione Funebre, Florence 1564

G. Baglione, Le vite de' pittori, scultori, architetti ed


Dal pontificato di Gregorio XIII del 1572 infino
intagliatori.

a tempi di papa Urbano VIII nel 1642, Rome 1642

G.R Bellori, Le vite de' pittori, scultori e architetti moderni,


Rome 1672
F. Baldinucci, Vita del cavaliere Gio. Lorenzo Bernino,
Florence 1682

L. Pascoli, Vite de pittori, scultori, ed architetti moderni,


Rome 1730-36

G. B. Passeri, Vite de pittori, scultori ed architetti che hanno


lavorato in Roma, morti dal 1641 fino al 1673, Rome 1772

P. Freart de Chantelou, "Journal du voyage du chevalier


Bemin en France," previously unpublished MS published and
annotated by L. Lalanne in Gazette des Beaux- Arts, 1877-85

C. Ricci, L'arte in Italia, Bergamo 1911


A. Venturi, Rajfaello, Rome 1920

V. GoLZio, Documenti artistici del Seicento nelV Archivio Chigi,


Rome 1930

V. GoLZio, Bernini a Roma, Rome 1939

J. Burckardt, Der Cicerone, Basel 1856


K Hartt, Giulio Romano, Hartford 1958
G. C. Argan, Borromini, Florence 1962

M. Fagiolo, V. Martinelli, Bernini in Vaticano, Rome 1981

K. Clark, The Nude, a Study in Ideal Form, London 1956


Li via Velani is an art histori
and lives in Rome, where si

works as director of ll

twentieth-century collections
the Galleria Nazionale d'Arie
Moderna and the Manzii
^
Collection at Ardi
She has organized exhibitiorif^
in Italv and abroad.

Giovanni Grego is a graphic


designer who lives and works in

Rome, where he specializes in the


use of graphics in the field of the
visual art. He has been
responsible for the design of
numerous catalogues for
exhibitions and other educational
events staged by the various
Cultural Assets Services.

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