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 THE SIGNATURA

Stanza della Segnatura

Painted in the years 1509/11 by Raffaello Sanzio (Raphael) (1483/1520). 8.20 x 6.40 m (27 x 21 feet)

The name was added not before mid-1500 when it hosted the court of the ecclesiastical tribunal of the Signatura Gratiae chaired by the pope

At the time of Raphael it was perhaps the private library of Julius II and with Leo X it became a studio and a music room

The iconographic program was certainly established by a theologian and represents the three highest categories of the human spirit: the True (supernatural and rational), the Good and the Beautiful

VAULT

Raphael respected the earlier work of Giovanni Antonio Bazzi aka Sodoma (1477/1549) author of the hexagon in the center and of eight small scenes. The master from Urbino added eight more scenes with female personifications, mythological and biblical stories, all on a background in imitation of gold mosaic:

“Theology” next to “Original Sin”, an event necessary for the advent of Christ and the redemption of man

“Justice” near the “Judgment of Solomon” with Solomon perhaps with the likeness of Julius II

“Philosophy” with dress in four colors: blue for air, red for fire, green for water and yellow for earth, near the “First movement or Astronomy”

“Poetry” near “Apollo and Marsyas”

LOWER PART OF THE WALLS

Caryatids and monochrome painted reliefs by Pietro Bonaccorsi aka Perin del Vaga (1501/47)

“The work, not that important in itself, was skillfully executed nevertheless. Among the usual female figures in chiaroscuro some small stories in bronze color were inserted, ingeniously conceived and painted by Perino with his famous illusionistic talent” (Hermann Voss)

FLOOR

Inlaid marble finished before Raphael began to paint

WALLS

All absolute masterpieces by Raphael:

 

“Disputation of the Holy Sacrament” (Theology or Supernatural True)

More than a dispute it is an explanation or exaltation of the Holy Sacrament with in the middle Trinity, Our Lady, St. John the Baptist and the four Books of Gospels opened by angels

At the sides (from the left) St. Peter, Adam, St. John the Evangelist, King David, St. Stephen, Jeremiah, (on the right side starting from left) Judas Maccabaeus, St. Lawrence, Moses, a not identified Evangelist, St. Bartholomew (or maybe Abraham) and St. Paul

Below from left maybe Bramante leaning against the balustrade, the four fathers of the Church i.e. Sts. Gregory the Great, Jerome, Ambrose and Augustine, St. Bonaventure between the two popes Julius II (as Pope Innocent III of the Counts of Segni 1198/1216) and Sixtus IV, Dante Alighieri behind what appears to be a pillar in the construction of the new Basilica of St. Peter

Below there is a graffito by a Landsknecht during the Sack of Rome in 1527: Martinus Luterus

“Gregory IX of the Counts of Segni (1227/41) receives the Decretals” from St. Raymond Peñafort (papal decrees on the basis of canon law) with Gregory IX depicted as Julius II and “Triboniano delivers the Pandects, a compendium of Roman civil law, to Justinian (527/565)” (LAW or Good)

On top “Virtues: Strength, Prudence and Temperance with five winged putti” three of which may represent the three theological virtues Faith, Hope and Charity

“School of Athens” (PHILOSOPHY or Rational True) in the niches on the left Apollo, on the right Minerva

From the left:

Maybe Epicurus with wreath and blue dress with the appearance of Federico Gonzaga

A young man with a white robe standing, maybe Francesco Maria Della Rovere nephew of Julius II and future Duke of Urbino

Pythagoras kneeling

Maybe Parmenides with his foot on a block of stone

Heraclitus writing with a purple tunic, maybe with the appearance of Michelangelo

Above Socrates standing and explaining to a group of people including perhaps Alexander the Great

In the center:

On the left Plato holding the Timaeus, perhaps in the guise of Leonardo Da Vinci

On the right Aristotle holding the Ethics

Below Diogenes the Cynic lying under the stairs

In the bottom right:

Group around Euclid maybe in the guise of Bramante

Standing behind there is Ptolemy, in front of Zoroaster, both holding globes, near Raphael with a black hat and maybe Perugino (or Sodoma?)

The “School of Athens” would appear in close relationship with the opposite “Dispute”: Raphael and the theological advisers to Pope Julius II placed the learned pagans who lived before the birth of Christ in a single imaginary building whose apse with the altar and the Epiphany of the Holy Sacrament is still under construction, as the planned new Basilica of St. Peter

So perhaps it alludes to the centrality of the Holy Sacrament that welcomes, however, the knowledge of the past in his building still under construction

The wise men cannot physically see the Holy Sacrament and are separately engaged in discussions in small groups, but nevertheless represent the past welcomed anyway into the Church with us standing in the middle of the room, flanked by the concepts of Beautiful and Good represented at the sides of this imaginary church

The future is all in the Holy Sacrament to which all the protagonists in the room, spectators included, tend

Maybe the consultants of Raphael have unwittingly introduced here a proto-Baroque concept of involvement of the viewer into a structure that unites architecture and painting, with the all humanistic novelty of accepting depictions of pagan theological representative speculation

It was not until the twentieth century that it would be possible to see pagans represented in painted religious scenes 

“Parnassus” (POETRY or Beautiful) mountain of southern Greece sacred to Apollo and the nine muses, among whom it can be distinguished with certainty only Thalia with her mask of comedy and Melpomene with her mask of tragic theater

Below on the left Sappho, above on the left Homer, between Dante Alighieri and Virgil, on the right Michelangelo and, sitting down, maybe Horace

“What is impressive about him is the rapid evolution whereby he begins with an archaic, fifteenth century style, switches to a Perugino kind of style, becomes Florentine in a certain way and then he begins the great classical moment, especially in the Stanza of the Signatura, which will be the benchmark of European classicism until the beginning of our century” (Federico Zeri)

“Raphael gives to every scene and to the whole a perfect eurhythmy and unity, visible sign of the humanistic agreement of the four faculties in the harmonious universe of knowledge, and their complementarity in achieving the Highest Good. His greatness lies in his ability to keep alive, visible and immediately expressed in the form of art the conceptual content of images, with a capacity that involves organizing every element of representation in a perfect match of form and content” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)

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