BARBERINI PALACE - NATIONAL ART GALLERY (eleventh part)

Room XIII - Sienese Painters and Leonardo

Vault: “God says to Abraham he will be the father of a multitude of nations” about 1612 by Antonio Viviani aka il Sordo

“The Three Fates” about 1545 Marco Bigio

“An ancient description allows to attribute the mysterious painting, long considered a work of Sodoma, to the Sienese painter Marco Bigio. The work depicts the three Fates busily spinning the destiny of men, accompanied by a large group of allegorical characters. On the right, Clotho, who presides at birth, place the thread from the spindle; on the left Lachesis spins the thread turned red to signify the physical love of maturity, which is also alluded by the young black woman with four breasts, symbol of fertility. Atropos the Fate in the center, cuts the thread of life decreeing the time of death. In the background one can see the tree of Adam and Eve, another dead tree with a bird of prey perched, and a skeleton with a scythe, the symbol of vanitas. The old man with the hourglass, Allegory of Time, holds in the fold of his dress medals with names of historical figures, such as those on the ground, over which two little boys are squabbling. The three different metals - gold, silver and bronze - allude to the different value of characters: the birds that populate the scene will pick up from the river Lethe, represented in the background, only the coins with the names of men worthy of immortal fame, and not those with the names of those who fall into oblivion” (Lorenza Mochi Onori)

“Rape of the Sabine Women” about 1507 and “Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine of Alexandria” about 1540 by Giovanni Antonio Bazzi aka Sodoma (1477/1549) from Vercelli but active in Siena

“Uncertain and discussed is the origin of the nickname 'Sodoma' that appears in documents from 1512 and with which Bazzi himself signed several times. It seems however out of the question that it would have referred to the artist's sexual preferences. Although of imaginative temperament, bizarre and unconventional, he lead a life morally irreproachable, he enjoyed the esteem and friendship of the most remarkable personalities of his time and was appointed by Pope Leo X with the title of 'Knight of Christ'. The nickname (...) was probably a pseudonym that (...) seems to derive from a humorous misunderstanding in the Tuscan dialect of his accent from Piedmont ('su'nduma!' = Come, let's go!)” (Enzo Carli - Biographical Dictionary of Italian Treccani)

“Madonna and Child with St. John” about 1530 by Domenico Beccafumi (1486/1551)

“Extraordinary brightness of contrasts in a continuous vibration of light and shadow, as Sanminiatelli expressed, seeing in the work the most restless interpretation of the expressive hermetic characteristics of Leonardo” (Lorenza Mochi Onori)

“Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine” about 1520 by Girolamo Genga (1476/1551)

“St. Catherine of Alexandria” about 1540 by Callisto Piazza da Lodi (1500/61)

“Madonna and Child with Sts. Elizabeth and John” by Martino Piazza da Lodi (about 1475/1530) artist who was in charge, together with his brother Callisto, of an important workshop in Lodi

“Madonna and Child with Sts. Nicholas and Catherine of Alexandria” by Bartolomeo Neroni aka Riccio (about 1500/71) in style similar to that of Sodoma

BARBERINI PALACE - NATIONAL ART GALLERY (tenth part)

Room XI - Raphael's Influence

Vault: “Scene of Genesis with God calling upon Adam and Eve to grow and multiply” about 1612 by Antonio Viviani aka il Sordo

“Lamentation over the Dead Christ with St. Paul and a Donor” and “Lamentation” by Giacomo Raibolini aka Giacomo Francia (1486/1557) son of the more famous Francesco Francia

“Marriage of the Virgin Mary” 1526 by Vincenzo Tamagni (about 1492/1530)

“The Holy Family with St. John” by Innocenzo da Imola (about 1484/1550)

Sculpture “Eros and Anteros” by Pierino da Vinci (about 1530/53) with the two sons of Venus, representing the carnal and the spiritual love

Room XII - Raphael

Vault: “Three angels appear to Abraham announcing the pregnancy of Sarah” about 1612 Antonio Viviani aka il Sordo

“Fornarina” 1520 by Raffaello Sanzio (Raphael) (1483/1520) perhaps Margherita Luti, a baker's daughter of Trastevere

“No portrait is superior to the portraits of Raphael, faithful rendering of bodily and spiritual qualities. And they are faithful to the literal truth, remarked in a most ruthless light, but rebuilt with intellectual and artistic energy, to be placed, in such genre, between the constellations” (Bernard Berenson)

“Madonna and Child,” by Pietro Bonaccorsi aka Perin del Vaga (1501/47)

Panels with allegories “Pandora opens the jar of defects and Minerva reproaching Cupid” and “Madonna with Child” about 1523 by Giulio Pippi aka Giulio Romano (1499/1546)

It is also known as Madonna Hertz because it was donated to the Gallery by Henrietta Hertz in 1915

“Because of some similarity with the Fornarina, it is assumed that the young girl loved by Raphael has been portrayed here in the likeness of the Virgin Mary. Unlike the master from Urbino, however, Giulio Romano shows a female figure drawn with less pronounced and gentler features, by introducing stylistic elements that are typical of the early Mannerism. As evidence of a new and subjective interpretation of the artist, the background of the sacred scene is a domestic, simple and intimate ambience, where one can see many fine details and, in the gloom beyond the door, the candor of a little dove” (Official website of the Barberini Gallery - www.galleriabarberini.beniculturali.it)

“Ceres” about 1512 maybe by Baldassare Peruzzi (1481/1536)

“Triptych with the Entombment of Christ” by the Dutchman Maarten van Heemskerck (1498/1574)

He lived in Rome during the years 1532/36 documenting with accurate drawings the Roman monuments and ruins

BARBERINI PALACE - NATIONAL ART GALLERY (ninth part)

FIRST FLOOR
Room X - Fiorentines

Vault: “Flood” about 1612 by Antonio Viviani aka il Sordo (1560/1620) pupil of Federico Fiori aka Barocci

The painting refers to the 1612 wedding between Mario Sforza and Renée of Lorraine, who lived on this side of the building when it used to be the main body of Villa Sforza

In the frame there are the symbols of the two families in stucco: the dolphin for Lorraine and the lion for Sforza

These rooms on the first floor are the apartment built in 1597 for Ludovico Sforza

“Mary Magdalene” about 1501 by Piero di Cosimo (1462/1521) a pupil of Cosimo Rosselli, from whom he got his name and with whom he also worked in the Sistine Chapel

“Madonna with Child” by Domenico Puligo (1492/1527)

“Madonna of the girdle” maybe by Giovanni Lorenzo Larciani, formerly known as the Master of Kress Landscapes (1484/1527)

St. Thomas had a vision of the Virgin Mary who gave him the girdle as evidence which he had invoked of her Assumption to Heaven, to which he hadn't attended along with the other apostles

The story is told in an apocryphal text of the fifth or sixth century and the girdle is preserved in the Cathedral of Prato near Florence

“Madonna and Child with Sts. Joseph and Peter Martyr” and “Holy Family” about 1529 by Andrea d'Agnolo aka Andrea Del Sarto (1486/1531)

His art is a synthesis of compositions inspired by Raphael and technique which adopts the atmospheric chiaroscuro of Leonardo da Vinci

“The famous chiaroscuro of Andrea del Sarto with its smooth shades happily mitigates the hard chromatic Florentine style (...). Andrea is infinitely superior to most of his fellow Florentines for the sake of pleasing color and for pictorial harmony, even though his works, compared to those of the Venetians, however, have a look arbitrarily polychrome and coloristic. Nor should we wonder why in his compositions deep shadows give way to sudden light: Andrea is still a drawing-oriented Tuscan, who with these means seeks to increase the plasticity conquered by Michelangelo and, in the spirit of the new age, supports his efforts with contrasts of every kind” (Hermann Voss)

“Madonna and Child with St. John” by Tommaso di Stefano Lunetti (1490/1564)

This painting was inspired by a lost work by Raphael

“The fundamental matrix of his work is the manner of Lorenzo di Credi, his teacher, from whom Lunetti, according to Vasari, was able to imitate the clarity in the rendering of surfaces, polished and molded, evidenced by his widespread use of light. From the master he also took his extreme attention to detail, especially the faces, and the symmetry in placing the main figures” (Valerio Da Gai - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)