Sala Clementina
Clementine
Room
Frescoes on
the vault and on the walls by the brothers Giovanni
Alberti (1558/1601) and Cherubino Alberti
(1553/1615) for Clement VIII Aldobrandini (1592/1605) with a decorative model
of “perspective quadrature”
Here it is introduced
for the first time in Rome the optical effect of the “broken” ceiling that will
have a huge success in the incipient Baroque period
On the
smaller walls “Stories of St. Clement” with a coastal landscape by Paul Brill (1554/1626)
“No one had
hitherto ever seen in Rome or in any other place an illusionistic painting so
big and so full of decorative invention. Indeed the Sala Clementina still
represents the first example of exclusively illusionistic decoration of a large
room, a conception that was later further developed by the Baroque style”
(Hermann Voss)
The room is
used for private audiences of the pope and here the body of John Paul II was
exposed before the funeral
Ducal
Room
Two
adjoining rooms that Gian Lorenzo Bernini
(1598/1680) joined together with a wonderful invention of putti holding a
curtain open between the two rooms, executed by Ercole
Antonio Raggi (1624/86)
Vault
“Grotesque
decorations” by G.P. Venale and “Landscapes with
Four Seasons” maybe by Matteo Neroni aka Matteo da
Siena (active 1567/92) or by Marco dal Pino aka Marco
da Siena (c. 1525/87)
“The
strength of Matteo da Siena was in the genre of landscape fresco in which the
landscape is placed playfully in the invention of an overall decorative larger
set, thus assuming a role, but of secondary importance. His landscapes,
therefore, express something characteristic in a few strokes, they had, in
short, a narrative function. The landscapes of the Four Seasons have met with
much approval thanks mainly for this feature. Without giving up completely to
the traditional marginal accumulation of details in landscapes, they are still
enjoyable thanks to a certain simplicity and to the unitary nature of the
setting” (Hermann Voss)
Walls
“Landscapes”
by Paul Brill (1554/1626) and “Grotesque
decorations” of the period of Benedict XV (1914/22) who had also the terra
cotta floor substituted with a marble one
Pauline Chapel
1537/40 Antonio Cordini aka Antonio
da Sangallo the Younger (1483/1546) for Paul III Farnese (1534/49)
It was formerly
used for conclaves, now it is used for weddings
On the side walls:
“Compared to
previous representations of the same subject, Michelangelo introduces an
important novelty: we don't see just angels around Christ, but obviously also
groups of men and women identified as an army of chosen ones who had already
crowned the Christ of the Last Judgment. Around 1540 St. Paul was at the center
of the debate between reformers and conservatives. To authorize the Lutheran
interpretation of salvation were his own writings, which were undergoing
continuous and painstaking exegesis. Representing around 1543 in the very heart
of the apostolic see, in full theological battle, those who are sanctified by
'faith that is toward me' as the vernacular translation of the Acts of the
Apostles of his friend Antonio Brucioli recited, was an iconographical novelty
and a clear stance in the debate on salvation, which was occupying him at that
time with his friends of the school of Reginald Pole, convinced, as the
Lutherans, that salvation was assured by a living faith and not by the exercise
of works” (Antonio Forcellino)
“The beauty,
strength and harmony of St. Peter's muscles set in motion a theatrical machine
that in gestures and facial expressions tell the feeling without giving
anything to the decorum, the establishment, the hierarchical character
recognition; especially without giving in anything to the story as fact
confined to specific age. Michelangelo comes to a spiritual representation
placed in an eternity which coincides with the perennial nature of faith. We
are, remember, in the chapel that Paul III wanted to be destined for the
conclave. Peter's gaze was therefore turned to the cardinals who elected the
pope and it was the first thing the newly elected pope would have seen
immediately after his election. Then Peter would remind that pope of his
Church, made not of armed and powerful people but of people touched by devout
faith” (Antonio Forcellino)
Other frescoes on the walls:
“Healing of
St. Paul in the house of Ananias”, “Fall of Simon Magus” and “Stoning of St.
Stephen” 1573/77 by Lorenzo Sabatini (about
1530/76)
“Baptism of
the centurion” 1580/85 by Federico Zuccari
(about 1542/1609) who also did the fifteen “Stories of Sts. Peter and Paul” and
“Allegorical Nudes” on the vault
