Stufetta e Loggetta del Card. Bibbiena
Only two rooms left of the apartment built on the third
floor of the Vatican Palace for the secretary of Leo X Medici (1513/21),
Cardinal Bernardo Dovizi aka Bibbiena
Decoration of the school of Raphael
in 1516 influenced by the decorations of the Domus Aurea
STUFETTA
(Room of the Stove)
Small caldarium (heater) of 2.5 m (8.2 feet) per side with
hollow space in the walls for the steam
Paintings “Cupids in chariots” below and “Myth of
Venus” at the top
On the vault “Ornamental and mythological scenes” alluding
to the power of Love rather inappropriate for the bathroom of a cardinal
LOGGETTA
(Small Loggia)
Corridor of 16 m (52.5 feet) with decorations “Myth of
Apollo and Marsyas” and grotesque in compendiario
Roman style (stylized style)
Cardinal Bibbiena was a powerful prelate, tied to the Medici
family and especially to the Medici Pope Leo X who entrusted him with important
diplomatic missions in France
He wished that Raphael, who had portrayed him in a famous
painting now in the Galleria Palatina in Florence, had married his niece Maria
Bibbiena, and, as reported by Vasari, he haunted him to give him her as wife
In the Pantheon next to Raphael's tomb there is a memorial
plaque to Maria Bibbiena with the words To Maria Bibbiena wife of him, who,
with her death, prevented the happy wedding and before it was taken still
maiden
The body of Mary, however, is not in the Pantheon, and from
Raphael's letters one can infer that the great artist wasn't even thinking
about getting married
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