1506/10
plus additional works until 1520, a masterpiece by Baldassarre
Peruzzi (1481/1536) for the banker Agostino
Chigi (1466/1520) from Siena just like Peruzzi
Agostino
Chigi became rich with the alum from Allumiere, necessary at the time for
tanning hides and dyeing fabrics
He used to
organize splendid banquets at the end of which he would invite his guests to
throw the silver plates into the Tiber River, only to secretly collect them
later with nets
Once
Agostino Chigi invited Leo X Medici (1513/21) for lunch in rooms covered with
tapestries and sumptuous carpets. To the reproach of the Pope for the excessive
glitz, he said that his friendship was really tested by the modesty of the
place which, as the tapestries and carpets were removed, proved to be a stable big
enough for one hundred horses plus staff
In 1590 it
passed to the Farnese family to which it owes the name Farnesina
In 1714 it
passed to the Bourbons of Naples
In 1861 it
passed to the ambassador Bermudez di Castro, who restored it
In 1884 the
walls by the Tiber were built
and part of the gardens, stables and lodge on the river maybe by Raffaello
Sanzio (Raphael) were destroyed
It finally became
property of the Italian state in 1927
"The
exciting program of building a suburban residence suited to the refined social
life of the owner, suggested to the architect the free floor plan of the
building, with two wings protruding on either side of the front and the space
they delimited, conceived as a scene for outdoor shows, in an original fusion
of the canonical types of the palace, the villa and the theater. The influence
of the ancient manifested in the desire to create the same continuity between
nature and architecture of the palaces and villas described by Latin writers.
Peruzzi opened two loggias and through direct access to the banks of the Tiber,
facilitated the natural landscape into the architectural organization of the
whole" (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)
The
exterior was originally decorated with magnificent paintings of which only
traces were revealed on the north side by recent restoration works
Ground Floor
LOGGIA OF
LOVE AND PSYCHE
Vault
Frescoes
"Fable of Cupid and Psyche" with, at the center, "Council of the
Gods" and "Wedding Feast", in the spandrels "Episodes of the
story taking place in the sky", in the pendentives "Genes with
attributes of divinity" painted in 1517 from drawings by Raffaello Sanzio (Raphael) (1483/1520)
They were
made almost entirely by Raphael’s pupils: Giulio Pippi aka Giulio Romano (1499/1546), Giovanni
Francesco Penni (about 1496/1528), Raffaellino del Colle (about
1490/1566) and Giovanni Ricamatore aka Giovanni da
Udine (1487/1564) who designed the festoons
During the
years 1693/94 they were retouched by Carlo Maratta (1625/1713)
"Concave
triangles are so admirably filled up with stories of Psyche, to give the
impression of windows behind which figures pass, and not areas whose bizarre
shape would create almost insurmountable obstacles" (Bernard Berenson)
"The
field of action consists of the ceiling vaults; the composition of the
individual scenes would then be subject to the existing architectural system.
And the latter was assured from the beginning through the greater effect of the
tectonic change in a freer pattern, semi-naturalistic: with the pattern of the
frame made out with garlands of fruit, whose implementation is left to the almost
Nordic sensitivity of Giovanni da Udine, the character of gay relaxation, that
knowingly was given to the style of the villa, was established" (Hermann
Voss)
Among the
various fruits in the decoration was painted also an eggplant with the obvious
form of a male phallus entering a fig tree with the obvious aspect of the female
sex
Here
Agostino Chigi married his beloved Venetian courtesan Francesca Ordeasca in
1519
"G.J.
Hoogewerff convincingly demonstrated that the decoration of the Loggia of
Psyche would have had originally included a series of tapestries representing
the episodes of the story taking place on earth and in the underworld. He also
identified in a series of prints linked to Raphael, the compositions that were
the basis of this series of tapestries, which perhaps had remained in draft
form, or lost in the ordeal suffered by the villa since the sack of Rome.
Nevertheless it is significant that the game of deception between fact and
fiction, is complicated in this cycle thanks to this additional element offered
by the presence of real tapestries alongside the fake ones painted with the fresco
technique" (Antonio Pinelli)
HALL OF THE
FRIEZE
Frieze
On the
north side and, in part, on the east side "Stories of Hercules", on
the other sides "Mythological Stories" about 1508 by Baldassare Peruzzi (1481/1536)
LOGGIA OF
GALATEA
Arches that
gave the garden closed in 1650
Retouched
frescoes in 1863, restored 1969/73
Ceiling
"Astrological
and mythological themes" that make up the horoscope of Agostino Chigi about
1511 by Baldassare Peruzzi
Walls
"Galatea
on a Chariot" 1513/14 masterpiece by Raffaello
Sanzio (Raphael) (1483/1520)
"The
subject refers to the description of an ancient painting given by the Greek
rhetorician Philostratus, and taken up by Poliziano. The free unfolding of the
body of the Nereid in the encounter with the sea air, the vital movement of the
other figures show that Raphael has been able to fully understand the sense of
fullness of physical life transmitted from classical myth, contributing to the
humanistic revaluation of the earthly world and starting up the fortune of
mythological fables in art" (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio
Giuliano)
On the left
"Polyphemus" 1512/13 by Sebastiano Luciani aka Sebastiano del Piombo (1485/1547) who also made the
lunettes with scenes from Ovid's Metamorphoses
1511/12: "Theseus, Filomele, Agraulo and Erse, Daedalus and Icarus, the
Fall of Phaeton, Juno on the winged chariot, Scilla, Orizia"
"Monochrome
Head" traditionally attributed to Michelangelo Buonarroti, but actually painted
by Baldassare Peruzzi
Grotesque
paintings on the pilasters maybe by Domenico Beccafumi (1486/1551)
Other
landscapes painted about 1650
HALL OF THE
PERSPECTIVES
Fake loggias
"Views of Rome", above the fireplace "Forge of
Vulcan", frieze atop the walls "Mythological scenes" 1518/19 by Baldassare Peruzzi
Some of the
views were damaged with graffiti by the Lansquenets during the sack of Rome in
1527. One of the graffiti describes Rome as Babylon
In this
room Agostino Chigi held his wedding banquet
BEDROOM
Ceiling
Century
with grotesque and mythological subjects
Walls
Stories of
Alexander the Great: "Marriage of Alexander and Roxanne with Hymen and
Hephaestion on the right", "Alexander and the family of Darius",
"Alexander taming Bucephalus" and "Forge of Vulcan" about
1517 by Giovanni Antonio Bazzi aka Sodoma
(1477/1549)
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