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

VATICAN MUSEUMS - RAPHAEL ROOMS (first part)

STANZE DI RAFFAELLO
 

Built for Pope Nicholas V Parentucelli (1447/55) and originally decorated by various artists including Piero della Francesca

In 1508 Pope Julius II Della Rovere (1503/13) summoned for a new decoration Pietro Vannucci aka Pietro Perugino (about 1450/1523), Giovanni Antonio Bazzi aka Sodoma (1477/1549), Baldassare Peruzzi (1481/1536) and Lorenzo Lotto (about 1480/1556), but he later dismissed them all and gave the job to the young artist known as Raffaello Sanzio (Raphael) (1483/1520) who worked here in the years 1509/17

“In the commitment to the Vatican Stanze Raphael summarized the ancient thought reworked in the light of the humanistic-Christian doctrine. The complex iconographic program was probably conceived by a scholar of the Roman Curia (the names, among others, of Ludovico Ariosto and Celio Calcagnini have been mentioned) and intended to reaffirm the central role of the church” (Andrea Pomella)

 

Sala di Costantino - Room of Constantine

VAULT

In the center “Triumph of Christianity”, “Personifications of Italian provinces and continents”, “Virtues and symbolic attributes” with explanatory inscriptions 1582/85 by the Sicilian Tommaso Laureti (about 1530/1602) pupil of Sebastiano del Piombo

Tommaso Laureti conceived with Giambologna the Fountain of Neptune in Bologna and painted also the Room of the Captains in the Capitoline Museums

“Laureti adopted here a neoraffaellesque language very close to the first Roman Mannerism, also for cohesion with the frescoes on the walls, although a few roundels with prospective papal emblems are typical of his illusionist abilities. The central box with the Triumph of the Cross over the Gentiles' idols, carried out under Sixtus V, was probably adapted to the needs of the new pope and, in its essence symbolic entrusted solely to the spatial structure, it effectively becomes the centerpiece of the decoration” (Monica Grasso - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)

FLOOR

“Roman mosaic” of the third century from the Lateran area

WALLS

Completed in 1525, almost all decorated after the death of Raphael by Giulio Pippi aka Giulio Romano (1499/1546) with the help of Giovanni Francesco Penni (about 1496/1528) and Raffaellino del Colle (about 1490/1566)

“Figures of Popes enthroned and virtues”

“Baptism of Constantine” and “Donation of Constantine” are attributed to Giovanni Francesco Penni

“Apparition of the Cross to Constantine” and “Victory of Constantine over Maxentius” are attributed to Giulio Romano

“It is curious to note that in recent years Raphael is the first creator of two genres that cease after his death to reappear again between late 1500 and early 1600: the still life and the battle. The Battle of Milvian Bridge represents a type of painting that, in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century, especially with Cavalier d'Arpino, will become an archetype from which a genre will be born destined to great success in Italy and throughout Europe” (Federico Zeri)

“Complex correlation of levels that increase in accordance with their ambiguous broken rhythms and do not allow the viewer to locate a fixed point of reference. The derivation from Roman iconography is obvious (on the left Ludovisi Sarcophagus, in the center Relief with Trajan's deeds from the Arch of Constantine), but the relationship with the old is solved rhetorically speaking, according to an interpretation that plays down the violence of action to recover the symbolic value of the whole scene” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)

“Part of the nature of Giulio Romano was the not so common gift to represent the moving form, the interest in ancient culture and his remarkable formal skill, characteristics that made him suitable as any other for mythology and ancient history. His talent led him resolutely on the path that he had been beating working actively to the frescoes of the third room, i.e. pushing him towards powerful movement (...) and towards strong effects of modeling in the interest of a powerfully accentuated three-dimensionality” (Hermann Voss)