VATICAN MUSEUMS - ROOM OF THE FIRE OF BORGO

Stanza dell’Incendio di Borgo

The iconographic program alludes to the function that the room had at the time of Julius II when here met the Holy See's highest court, the Signatura Gratiae et Iustitiae, chaired by the pontiff

The room later became Leo X's dining room

The paintings aim to exalt the policy of Leo X by references to events in the lives of popes with the same name, Leo III and Leo IV

VAULT

Commissioned in 1508 by Julius II to Pietro Vannucci, aka Pietro Perugino (about 1450/1523). Raphael did not touch the work of his teacher

In the four round panels “Holy Trinity”, “Creator enthroned between angels and cherubs”, “Christ as Sol Iustitiae and tempted by the devil”, “Christ between Mercy and Justice”

WALLS

Painted in the year 1514/17 by the pupils of Raffaello Sanzio (Raphael) (1483/1520) for Leo X Medici (1513/21) who used the room as a dining room and wanted to show on the walls his political aspirations

Raphael produced himself only cartoons and drawings, as he was busy as architect of the new Basilica of St. Peter and had been appointed Superintendent of the Antiquities of Rome

“Fire in the Borgo neighborhood” close to the Vatican, extinguished, according to the Liber Pontificalis, by the blessing of Pope Leo IV (847/855) in 847

Almost completely painted by Giulio Pippi aka Giulio Romano (1499/1546) and Giovanni Francesco Penni (about 1496/1528)

In the background there is the façade of the old Basilica of St. Peter

“The spatial composition does not tend to harmonize in a balanced structure the subsequent units of the action, as well as the architecture does not form an organic dimensional container: they appear rather like slipping surfaces, like scenes and backdrops for theater, offering to the story a symbolic reference to the place and allowing figures to emerge in leading roles, dominating the scene, isolated and mighty. Here the style of Raphael has a radical transformation, which opens a new course in the history of painting: Raphael leaves the tension to comparisons with nature and the basis of organic form inherited from 1400s, altering the harmonious and proportional foundation of fifteenth-century perspective. His interest focuses on the expressiveness of the individual elements, giving up their integration” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)

“The favor with which the two figurative inventions of the 'Boy embracing the column' and the 'Woman with the pitcher on her head' in the Fire of Borgo were received and proposed again in many representations in the sixteenth century cannot be explained only by the typically Mannerist taste for ennobling quotations, but also by their specific iconographic role: they propose themselves to viewers as spectators in the image, suggesting indirectly, but with the evidence of two wonderful vivid dramatic inventions, some type of reaction, a behavior pattern, a proposal for self-identification” (Antonio Pinelli)

“The fresco of the Fire in the Borgo Neighborhood with its definitive overcoming of the symmetry in architecture, with the increase of spatial impression of the whole and the high motion content of each single figure indicates further progress (...). Some of the individual figures, for the lovely agreement between the motives of the clothing and the movement, belong to the most beautiful things that Raphael ever created” (Hermann Voss)

“Coronation of Charlemagne” by S. Leo III (795/816), by Giovanni Francesco Penni, with the help of Giulio Romano, where Charlemagne is represented with the face of the French king Francis I and Leo III with the face of Leo X

It alludes to the agreement signed in Bologna in 1515 between Francis I and Leo X

“Naval Victory of Leo IV over the Saracens” at Ostia in 849 by Giulio Romano, with Leo IV represented as Leo X

Behind him are portraits of Cardinal Bernardo Dovizi da Bibbiena and Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, cousin of the Pope, who would later himself become pope with the name of Clement VII (1523/34)

The painting alludes to the desire of Leo X to organize a crusade against the Turks. He failed and it was the last time anybody tried to organize a crusade

“Oath of St. Leo III” maybe by Giulio Romano or Pietro Bonaccorsi aka Perin del Vaga (1501/47)

Leo III (795/816) was purified with a unilateral statement in St. Peter's Basilica of “false accusations” on December 23, 800, two days before crowning Charlemagne emperor

We do not know what kind of charges they were and, in any case, at the time it was enough to assert one's innocence before God to be believed innocent. The character with the gold chain on the left is Charlemagne

The painting alludes to the Lateran Council of the years 1512/17 that Leo X was leading at that time, during which he reaffirmed the bull of Boniface VIII Unam Sanctam according to which the pope was accountable only to God

It has been suggested that the Reformation could have been avoided if the reforms of the Lateran Council had been more innovative or fully implemented. The promulgation of the 95 theses of Martin Luther in fact took place only six months after the closing of the Council itself

“The spiritual tension that had supported the programs of the first two rooms relaxes here to give way to the courtesan celebration of the reigning pope” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)

In the lower part of the wall monochrome paintings “Six seated figures of emperors and kings protectors of the Church”

VATICAN MUSEUMS - ROOM OF HELIODORUS

Stanza di Eliodoro
 

It was destined to private audiences of the pope

The program is political and aims to document, in different historical moments, from the Old Testament to medieval times, the miraculous protection given by God to the Church, threatened in its faith (Mass of Bolsena), in the person of the pontiff (Liberation of St. Peter), in its territory (Encounter of Leo the Great with Attila) and in its assets (Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple)

The subjects of the paintings were also chosen to express the political program of Julius II Della Rovere (1503/13), aimed to restore the threatened temporal power of the papacy and aimed at freeing Italy, at that time occupied by the French

In the grotesque and in the arcades some parts are attributed to Luca Signorelli, Bramantino, Lorenzo Lotto and Cesare da Sesto (1477/1523)

Two scenes in monochrome “Wheat harvest” and “Grape harvest” painted in 1702/03 by Carlo Maratta (1625/1713)

VAULT

Painted by Guillaume de Marcillat (about 1469/1529) after Raphael's design. The four scenes take up the themes of the walls below with relevant biblical stories

WALLS

Great masterpieces by Raffaello Sanzio (Raphael) (1483/1520) painted in the years 1512/14 with his assistants:

“Leo the Great stops the invasion of Attila” with the help of Giulio Romano and Giovanni Francesco Penni

On the vault “History of Noah” as a reminder that God always saves the righteous

Leo X Medici (1513/21) appears twice, both as Pope and as cardinal, since after the death of Julius II in 1513 the portrait was replaced with that of the new pope

“What Raphael still had not dared in the Expulsion of Heliodorus, a complete violation of the symmetry, was obtained with the conditions imposed by the subject in the fresco with Leo the Great stopping the invasion of Attila. The meeting takes place in the open field, so there was no support from central architecture. Even that unnatural 'tectonic' quality of the landscape was abandoned, which in Parnassus had been caused by the need to adapt the fresco to a wall with a window. In the part with figures the contrast of the two halves of the scene is reminiscent of the fresco of Heliodorus; however the group of the pope and his retinue, that there appeared only as an aid for the composition, is entered here in the dramatic action and has thus lost the appearance of idle immobility” (Hermann Voss)

“Mass of Bolsena”

On the vault “Sacrifice of Isaac” example of obedience and faith

The miracle of Bolsena, according to tradition, occurred in 1263 in the town in the province of Viterbo: while a priest was celebrating Mass, the consecrated wafer would have bled

The miracle was officially recognized by the Catholic Church and this event gave rise to the feast of Corpus Christi

In the painting we see Julius II who assists at Mass in memory of his visit in 1506 in Orvieto, where the Sacred Body is preserved, the altar cloth stained with blood

In the face of the only woman dressed in black on the left some scholars think to recognize the daughter of Julius II, Felice Della Rovere, one of the most influential women of the Renaissance, also thanks to her marriage to Gian Giordano Orsini

“If the fresco of Heliodorus inaugurated that chiaroscuro that strongly dominates and subordinates the individual shades of color to the whole, to the space, the Mass of Bolsena is surprising just because of the harmonic fullness of color and its beauty. Raphael, who in his paintings on wood makes you feel mostly the lack of taste for the real, sensual  charm of colors, in this fresco exploits the special beauty of the fresco technique like few other artists” (Hermann Voss)

“Another element that arouses astonishment in the art of Raphael, is, for example, in the Room of Heliodorus, the use of light and the study of Venetian painting. Scenes such as the Mass of Bolsena or the Liberation of St. Peter denote no doubt the study of Venetian painting, but Raphael reinterprets everything, everything merges into a personal style with a unique technique” (Federico Zeri)

“Expulsion of Heliodorus” with the help of Giulio Romano and Giovanni Ricamatore aka Giovanni da Udine (1487/1564)

On the vault “Burning Bush” representing the inviolability of Church property

The story is taken from the Book of Maccabees in the Bible: Heliodorus of Antioch was a minister of King Seleucus IV of Syria in charge of desecrating the Temple of Jerusalem

Onias the priest prays to God at the center of the scene and then a divine messenger on horseback appears, with two assistants on foot, or half-flying, sending off and beating up Heliodorus and his thugs to the right of the scene

The guy with the beard who holds the chair of Julius II on the right is considered a self-portrait by Raphael

Under the painting graffito by a Landsknecht, a German mercenary soldier in 1527 during the Sack of Rome: V. K. Imp. - Got hab dy sela Borbons = vivat Karolus Imperator - God has the soul of the Bourbon

“The space created by the deep and dark nave traversed by gold flashes creates a strong illusion of breaching of the wall, which draws the viewer in the action and arouses in him an intense feeling of immediacy. The two distinct lines in the side scenes create violent dynamic tensions in the composition, enhanced by dramatic and agitated movements of the figures, effectively rendering the flagrancy of the divine intervention” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)

“Only in the Room of Heliodorus Raphael's tension becomes fully understandable: if the Expulsion of Heliodorus preserves the principle of symmetry in architecture at least, the very monumentality of the figures, however, smothers the architectural element, and the painting style strips it of its rigidity to the point that it gives an impression of asymmetry. While in the two main frescoes of the first room, the Dispute and the School of Athens, the movement presses from both sides in equal measure towards the center of the scene, in the fresco of Heliodorus the latter remains completely empty. The dramatic content focuses instead on the right half of the scene, in a group which for the energy of the movement and the passion of the expression does not seem to belong to the first Raphael. The left half restores the balance with its extreme calm” (Hermann Voss)

“Liberation of St. Peter” with the help of Giulio Romano

On the vault “Jacob's Ladder” prefiguration of the founding of the Church

The Liberation of St. Peter is one of the most striking paintings in the history of art

“The extraordinary emotional power of this work is mainly due to the unusual treatment of light that becomes the protagonist in the image. For each moment of the action corresponds a different characterization of light sources so intensely expressive to contrast with the darkness of the cell and of the night and, at the same time, to mark the unity of the composition without no longer any need of supporting geometric patterns” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)

“Even more daring than the Mass of Bolsena and apparently even richer in effects is the next work, the Liberation of St. Peter, in which the chiaroscuro is used as the basis of its conception, in the joint action of the three different types of lighting: natural light (moonlight), artificial light (torches) and supernatural light (glory of the angel). On the other hand this deep work, which moves in a particular way beyond the boundaries of time, could be considered more as an absolutely personal inspiration of the genius of Raphael that as a model rich in influence for the following period” (Hermann Voss)

Under the fresco, between the caryatids there is the word Glovis connected to the Medici family: the luck of Giuliano de' Medici, the pope's brother, bad for so many years, had begun to change, to turn positive

The mysterious word Glovis read backwards without the last letter is in fact si volge which in Italian means it is turning

VATICAN MUSEUMS - GROOMS' ROOM

Sala dei Palafrenieri
 

Also known as Sala dei Chiaroscuri (chiaroscuri room) for the type of paintings, Sala dei Cubicularii (room of the guards) for the supervisors of the cubiculum (bedroom) of the Pope or, indeed, Sala dei Palafrenieri Grooms Room for those who used to transport the pope's chair

It was also known as Sala del Pappagallo (parrot's room) for here was the parrot in a cage, according to the custom documented since the eleventh century to keep a parrot in a room of the papal apartments wherever they were, even in Avignon

Massive and spectacular ceiling carved and gilded with Medici family symbols, maybe designed by Raphael

It had been decorated by Raphael in 1517 but it was repainted in the years 1560/82 by order of Pius IV Medici (1559/65) first and Gregory XIII Boncompagni (1572/85) after, by the brothers Federico Zuccari (about 1542/1609) and Taddeo Zuccari (1529/66) with “Apostles and Sts. Stephen and Lawrence” in fake niches and “Allegories of Virtues” in fake broken pediments

Other painters worked here including Giuseppe Cesari aka Cavalier d'Arpino (1568/1640), who debuted here with his first work (“Allegory of Fatigue” with Samson holding the door in Gaza), and the brothers Giovanni Alberti (1558/1601) and Cherubino Alberti (1553/1615

The five pillars that separate the room into two parts were inserted under Pius VII Chiaramonti (1800/23)