The Rome of the Medici
Agostino Chigi's elegant Villa Farnesina (1508-1511) was designed by the Sienese
architect and painter Baldassare Peruzzi (1481-15.36) in the classical style of
ancient Roman villas. The interior was lavishly decorated by some of the finest
artists in Rome, including Peruzzi himself, who painted the false perspective
views of the Salone delle Prospettive, and
Raphael, who painted his famous
Galatea fresco (1511-12). The classical style also interested Raphael, who
followed extracts from Pliny for his plan for the Villa Madama, which was never
finished. In 1514. the year Bramante died,
Raphael's architectural work was
finally recognized. He was summoned to Rome to continue the rebuilding of St
Peter's by Leo X, a Medici pope who favoured artistic links between Florence and
Rome (Julius II had died in February 1513).
Raphael was joined by
Giuliano da Sangallo, head of the leading Florentine family of
architects, and Fra Giocondo (1433-1515)- a Veronese humanist friar.
Fra Giocondo was an expert on classical architecture and editor of
an important illustrated edition of Vitruvius - the first-century
Roman architect - which was published in Venice in 1511.
Giuliano
da Sangallo also had a vast knowledge of Roman antiquity and, in
the latter part of his life, resided in Rome. However, his
best-known buildings were in Tuscany and in 1516, the war he died,
he provided designs for the facade of the Medici church of San
Lorenzo in the thriving Tuscan capital, Florence.
Andrea del
Sarto painted his Birth of the Virgin in the atrium of
Santissima Annunziata, Florence, in 1514. The painting reflects the
architectural ideals of Giuliano da Sangallo and clearly
shows the influence of
Durer in the movements and expressions
of the figures. In Rome, Raphael's work also showed an increased
awareness of movement, colour, and light, typified in his Fire in
the Borgo, in the passionate luminosity of the Expulsion of
Heliodonts, in the intense colour of the Mass of Bolsena,
and in the wonderful night scene of the Liberation of St Peter from
Prison. The wealth of commissions received by
Raphael and his
natural sociability encouraged the formation of a group of students
and collaborators that included Perino del Vaga (1500 01—47),
Giulio Romano (c.1499-1546), and Giovanni da Udine.
Raphael's architectural tastes centred around the classical
style - evident in Palazzo Branconio and Villa Madama - and the
master and his followers employed ancient styles of decoration for
the loggias of the Vatican. Before long,
Raphael had reached
heights of power and influence unknown to any previous artist. As
the result of a rather mysterious agreement between the pope,
Baldassare Castiglione, and the artist himself, he undertook to
reassert the historical image of the city of Rome as the capital of
the Christian world with a vast, ambitious, archeological and
construction project. In 1512, after returning to Milan for a short
time,
Leonardo da Vinci also made the essential trip to Rome,
by then a mecca for any painter in Italy and northern Europe:
Raphael himself had come in 1508 to decorate the Vatican
apartments of Julius II. Leonardo's young friend Agostino Busti,
also known as Bambaja (1447-1522), was also there, enthusiastically
gathering suggestions for future Milanese funerary monuments, but
although Leonardo's interest in classicism was important, it was
also limited. After a brief stay in Rome, he accepted an invitation
from the French king Francis I, calling him to Amboise, where he
remained until his death. Here, he put forward important suggestions
for the royal residence of Romorantin, which were later abandoned in
favour of the chateau of Chambord, where echoes of Leonardo
embellish the rooms. Homage to his style is evident in early
16th-century French architecture, which turned away from the
defensive structure of castles, preferring instead the elegant
construction of court palaces such as those at Gaillon, Chenonceaux,
and Blois.
