Categories: ArtCulture

Roman Renaissance in 16th century

The Renaissance in Rome had a season that goes from the forties of the fifteenth century, up to the peak in the first half of the sixteenth century, when the papal city was the most important place of artistic production of the entire continent, with masters who left an indelible mark in the culture Western figurative such as Michelangelo and Raphael.

The production in Rome in this period of time was almost never based on local artists, but offered to foreign artists a terrain of vast synthesis and comparison in which to put to good use their ambitions and abilities to the best, often receiving extremely vast and prestigious tasks.

Alexander VI (1492-1503)

Painting
The last part of the century was dominated by the figure of Pope Alexander VI Borgia, originally from Valencia. The ornate, overbearing, exuberant taste – borrowed from Catalan art – and updated with antiquarian quotations and references brought to the humanistic world finds its ideal interpreter in Bernardino Pinturicchio, already distinguished in the Roman environment. To him the Pope entrusted the decoration work of six large rooms recently renovated in the Apostolic Palace, called Appartamento Borgia. It was an artistic enterprise so vast and ambitiously unitary that it had no precedents in Renaissance Italy, except for the Sistine cycle.

The result was a treasure trove of precious and refined decorations, with endless gilding and grotesque in which the reflections of gold on walls and ceilings continually flicker, binding to the heritage of the international Gothic. The iconographic program merged the Christian doctrine with continuous references to the archaeological taste then in vogue in Rome, and was almost certainly dictated by the writers of the papal court. Emblematic was the repechage of the Greek-Egyptian legend of Io / Isis and Apis / Osiris, in which the double transformation of the protagonists in cattle refers to the heraldic alarm of the Borgias and to other meanings linked to the celebration of Pope Alexander as pacific ruler.

Sculpture
Under the pontificate of Alexander VI also occurred the first stay of the young Michelangelo in Rome. Involved in an attempt to defraud the cardinal Raffaele Riario, in which his dormant Cupido, appropriately buried, was passed off as an ancient statue, was then invited to Rome by the same cardinal, eager to know the architect able to rival the ‘ancient. So Michelangelo arrived in Rome in 1496, where he received the commission of a Bacchus, a well-rounded statue that recalls in its dimensions and ways the ancient art, in particular Hellenistic. The god is in fact portrayed during the intoxication, with a well proportioned body and with illusory and tactile effects that have no equivalent in the art of the time.

Shortly thereafter, in 1498, Cardinal Jean de Bilhères commissioned him a work with a Christian subject, the famous Vatican Pietà completed in 1499. Renewing the iconographic tradition of the wooden Vesperbilds of Northern Europe, Michelangelo conceived the body of Christ as softly resting on the legs of Mary with extraordinary naturalness, without the rigidity of previous representations and with an unprecedented composure of feelings. The two figures are connected by the drapery of Maria’s legs, with thoughtful and jagged creases, generating profound chiaroscuro effects. Extremely accurate is the finish of the details, especially in the anatomical modeling of the body of Christ, with effects of softness worthy of the wax statuary, as the detail of the meat between the arm and the side, modified by the firm hold of Mary opposite to the weight of the body abandoned.

The Cinquecento
Julius II (1503-1513)
Giulio II, a century Giuliano Della Rovere, was an extremely energetic pontiff, who took up Renovatio dell’Urbe’s projects with strength and determination, both on a monumental and political level, with the aim of restoring the greatness of Rome and papal authority. of the imperial past. If his pontificate is described as disastrous from a political and financial point of view, his intuition was infallible in the choice of artists who could best implement the vastness and audacity of his intentions, and his figure is remembered today above all for the artistic goals.

Nephew of Pope Sixtus IV, who for him was always an important model, since cardinal Giuliano had been an intelligent client and his direct experience as tied to Avignon had made him discover how the papal residence in France was much more splendid and grandiose than the Roman one.

His iron will pursued the myth of the restauratio imperii, strongly intertwining politics and art, and making use of the greatest living artists, the likes of Bramante, Michelangelo and Raphael, to whom he entrusted, involving them, projects of great commitment and prestige, in which they could develop their extraordinary abilities to the maximum.

Bramante
Bramante was in Rome at the dawn of the century, after the fall of Ludovico il Moro. Here he had resumed the meditations on the organic and coherent structuring of buildings with the cloister of Santa Maria della Pace (1500-1504) and with the temple of San Pietro in Montorio (1502). This last building, with a central plan, has a cylindrical shape surrounded by a Tuscan colonnade, with a drum and a dome, and was originally intended to be in the middle of a central porticoed courtyard. It was already evident how the motifs of ancient art were reworked into “modern” forms, providing fundamental insights to subsequent architects.

In 1503 Julius II appointed him superintendent general of papal factories, entrusting him the connection between the Apostolic Palace and the Belvedere summer residence designed at the time of Innocent VIII. The original plan, implemented only in part and distorted by the construction of a further transversal building at the end of the sixteenth century, provided a vast terraced courtyard between two large declining wings, with spectacular staircases and a large exedra at the peak, of clear ancient inspiration. (the sanctuary of Palestrina and the descriptions of Roman villas).

Under the supervision of Bramante, a new road layout was planned in the city, with the opening of Via Giulia and with the arrangement of the Lungara, which from the villages led to the Settimiana door and which in the projects would have to graft onto Via Portuense.

In the first months of 1506 the pontiff, given the impossibility of implementing the plans of his predecessors in the Vatican Basilica (construction of a dome to the grafting of the arms), took the bold decision to demolish and completely rebuild the basilica, dating back to the era of Constantine. Bramante elaborated several projects, but what was chosen showed the use in plan of the Greek cross, culminating in the reflections on the theme of the central plan elaborated in those years. A huge hemispherical dome and four smaller domes were provided at the ends of the arms, alternating with four corner towers. From 1506 to 1514Bramante followed the work on the basilica and although his project was later abandoned by his successors in favor of a Latin-cross basilica, the diameter of the dome remained unchanged (40 meters, almost as much as that of the Pantheon) and the dimensions of the cruise, with the pillars already being completed at the architect’s death.

Baldassarre Peruzzi
The other great architect active in the capital in those years was the Sienese Baldassarre Peruzzi. He worked mainly for the refined banker Agostino Chigi, for whom he designed the villa of the Farnesina (at the time called Villa Chigi), composed as a free use of classical elements, of particular originality in the facade on the gardens, where there are two side walls and a central loggia on the ground floor that acts as a filter between the natural environment and the architectural structure.

Michelangelo: the Tomb of Julius II (first project)

It was probably Giuliano da Sangallo who told Pope Julius II, in 1505, the amazing Florentine successes of Michelangelo, including the sculpture of the colossal David..

Convened in Rome, Michelangelo was entrusted with the task of a monumental burial for the Pope, to be placed in the tribune of the new basilica of San Pietro.

The first project involved a colossal architectural structure isolated in space, consisting of three orders that gradually narrowed from one rectangular base to another almost pyramidal shape. Around the catafalque of the Pope, in an elevated position, there were about forty statues sized on a scale superior to the natural, some free in space, others leaning against niches or pillars, under the sign of a taste for grandeur and complex articulation, on all four facades of architecture. The theme of statuary decoration was the transit from earthly death to the eternal life of the soul, with a process of liberation from the captivity of matter and the slavery of the flesh.

He left for Carrara to choose the marbles, but Michelangelo suffered, according to ancient sources, a kind of conspiracy against him by the artists of the papal court, including especially Bramante, who turned the Pope’s attention away from the project of the burial, judged a bad omen for a person still alive and full of ambitious projects.

It was so that in the spring of 1506 Michelangelo, while he was full of marble and expectations after exhausting months of work, made the bitter discovery that his mammoth project was no longer at the center of the Pope’s interests, set aside in favor of the basilica and new war plans against Perugia and Bologna.

Buonarroti, unable to receive even a clarifying hearing, quickly escaped to Florence, where he resumed some projects suspended before his departure. It took the repeated and threatening demands of the Pope for Michelangelo to finally take into consideration the hypothesis of reconciliation. The occasion was given by the pope’s presence in Bologna in 1507: here the artist fused a bronze statue for the Pope and a few years later, in Rome, he obtained the “reparation” commission for the decoration of the vault of the Sistine Chapel.

Michelangelo: the vault of the Sistine

Settlement processes had cracked the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the spring of 1504, making it inevitable a remake. The choice fell on Buonarroti, despite his lack of experience with the fresco technique, to keep him busy with a large company. After some hesitations a first project was elaborated, with figures of apostles on the pediments and architectural quadratures, soon enriched with the Stories of the Genesis in the central panels, figures of Veggenti on the pediments, biblical episodes and Ancestors of Christ on the sails, as well as the decoration of the lunettes above the fifteenth-century series of the popes. To this are added other filling figures, such as theIgnudi, medallions with other biblical scenes and the figurines of the bronze Nudes.

The central scenes are read from the altar towards the main entrance door, but Michelangelo began to paint on the opposite side; Theologians at the service of the Pope certainly helped him to elaborate a complex of great completeness and multiple readings: the stories of Genersi for example can also be read at the meeting, as prefigurations of the Passion and resurrection of Christ, following the reading that ideally made the papal procession when it entered the chapel during the most important solemnities, those of the Holy Week.

In July 1508 the scaffolding, occupying about half of the chapel (so as not to prejudice liturgical activities), was ready and Michelangelo started the fresco. Initially he was helped by a series of colleagues specifically called from Florence, but dissatisfied with their results he fired them shortly, proceeding in the huge task in solitude, apart from some apprentices for the secondary preparatory tasks. If for central scenes he used cartons that had been dusted, in the side scenes of the lunettes he proceeded with incredible quickness, painting on sketches directly sketched on the wall. In August 1510the work was almost in half and it was time to take down the drapery to rebuild it on the other side.

On this occasion, the artist could finally see his work from below and made the decision to increase the scale of the figures, with less crowded but with more effect from below, more bare spaces, more eloquent gestures, less depths. After an interruption of about a year of work, due to the military commitments of the pontiff, Michelangelo returned to work in 1511, proceeding with an incredible speed. The energy and the “terribleness” of the figures is extremely accentuated, by the powerful grandeur of the Creation of Adam, to the swirling movements of the first three scenes of Creation, in which God the Father appears as the only protagonist. Also the figures of the Prophets and the Sibylsthey gradually grow in proportions and in psychological pathos as they approach the altar, until the divinatory fury of the enormous Jonah.

On the whole, however, the stylistic differences are not noticed, thanks to the chromatic unification of the whole cycle, set in clear and bright tones, as the last restoration has rediscovered. It is in fact above all the color to define and shape the shapes, with iridescent effects, different levels of dilution and with different degrees of finiteness (from the perfect finiteness of things in the foreground to an opaque nuance for those backwards), rather than the use of shades dark shadow.

Raffaello: the Stanza della Segnatura
The other great pictorial undertaking of the pontificate of Julius II is the decoration of a new official apartment, the so-called Vatican Rooms. Refusing to use the Appartamento Borgia, the pope chose some rooms on the upper floor, dating back to the time of Niccolò V and in which there were already fifteenth-century decorations by Piero della Francesca, Luca Signorelli and Bartolomeo della Gatta. First he had the ceilings painted by a group of painters, including Perugino, Sodoma, Baldassarre Peruzzi, Bramantino and Lorenzo Lotto., in addition to the grotesque specialist Johannes Ruysch. At the end of 1508 Raffaello was added, called on the advice of Bramante, his fellow citizen.

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The first evidence in the vault and the lunettes of the Stanza della Segnatura convinced the pontiff to such an extent that he entrusted the decoration of the whole room and therefore of the whole complex to Sanzio, without hesitating to destroy the most ancient works.

The Stanza della Segnatura was decorated with scenes linked to the categories of knowledge, perhaps in relation to a hypothetical use as a library. The Dispute of the Sacrament was a celebration of theology, the Athens School of Philosophy, the Parnassus of poetry and the Virtues and the Law of Jurisprudence, each of which also corresponded to symbolic figures on the ceiling.

Raphael refused to operate a simple gallery of portraits of illustrious men and symbolic figurations, as for example Perugino or Pinturicchio, but he tried to involve the characters in an action, characterizing them with motions and expressions.

Raphael: the Room of Heliodorus
In the summer of 1511, when work had not yet been completed in the Stanza della Segnatura, Raphael was already elaborating the drawings for a new environment, the room then called Eliodoro, used as a room of the Audience.

The pontiff had returned to Rome in June, after the heavy defeats in the military campaign against the French, which had meant the loss of Bologna and the continuing threat of foreign armies. The new frescoes reflected the moment of political uncertainty, underlining the Pope’s ideology and his dream of renovatio. The scenes of Eliodoro chased by the temple and the Meeting of Leo the Great with Attila show miraculous interventions in favor of the Church against internal and external enemies, while the Mass of Bolsena tributes the special devotion of the Pope towards the Eucharist and the Liberation of St. Peter from prisonrecalls the triumph of the first pope at the height of tribulations.

The Sanzio updated its language for scenes that required a historical and dynamic component capable of involving the viewer, inspired by Michelangelo’s frescoes and using a more dramatic lighting, with denser and fuller colors. The excitement of gestures takes on a strong expressive charge, prompting an accelerated reading of the image (Eliodoro’s chase of the temple), or on subtle compositional balances (Mass of Bolsena), or accentuated luministic contrasts with a paused articulation of the story (Liberation of St. Peter).

The study of the preparatory models makes it possible to point out an actualization of the frescoes to the events of 1511 – 1512, with the momentary triumph of Julius II: the Pope was thus added or placed in a more prominent position in the frescoes.

Leo X (1513-1521)
The election of Leo X, son of Lorenzo de ‘Medici, was hailed as the beginning of an era of peace, capable of redeeming the unity of Christians, thanks to the calm and prudent character of the pontiff, so different from temperament warlike of Julius II. A lover of the arts, especially music, inclined to luxury and the splendor of liturgical ceremonies, Leo X had himself portrayed by Raphael sitting at a table, between two cardinals, his relatives, in the act of leafing through a richly miniated Bible using a lens of magnification.

Raffaello: the Borgo Fire Room
Raphael enjoyed at Leo X the same unconditional admiration of his predecessor. Active in the third room of the papal apartment, then called dell’Incendio di Borgo, he created a decoration based on the commendatory celebration of the homonymous ancestors of the pontiff, Leo III and Leo IV, in whose faces he always inserted the effigy of the new pope, alluding to events of the early years of his pontificate.

For example the Incendio di Borgo, which was the first scene to be completed, still with a strong direct intervention by Sanzio (the following scenes will be mostly painted by the aid), alludes to the work of pacification of Leo X to extinguish the break out of wars between Christian states.

Raffaello: the Sistine tapestries
Shortly after the start of the work, Raffaello was appointed head of the San Pietro factory after the death of Bramante (1514) and shortly thereafter he was commissioned to prepare a series of tapestry cartoons with Stories of Saints Peter and Paul, to be Brussels and to be placed in the lower register of the Sistine Chapel. The pontiff thus entered actively into the decoration of the papal chapel that had so characterized the artistic investments of his predecessors, at a time when, among other things, it was the site of the most important liturgical ceremonies, being the unusable basilica.

In the selection of the subjects, numerous symbolic allusions were considered between the incumbent pontiff and the first two “architects of the Church”, respectively preachers to the Jews and to the “gentiles”, with Leo as the restorer of unity. The technical difficulties and the direct confrontation with Michelangelo required a notable commitment from the artist, who almost had to abandon painting of the rooms. In the tapestry scenes, Raphael came to an appropriate figurative language, with simplified compositional schemes on the foreground and an action clarified by eloquent gestures and sharp contrapositions of groups.

Raphael: architecture and study of the ancient
At the death of Bramante, Raphael assumed the difficult task of a new superintendent at the San Pietro factory. His experiences in architecture were now far beyond the simple baggage of a painter and he had already had experience studying the ancient and working above all for Agostino Chigi (stables of the Villa Farnesina, Cappella Chigi). In the early works he showed an adherence to the schemes of Bramante and Giuliano da Sangallo, distinguishing itself for the renewed suggestions with the old and a closer relationship between architecture and decoration, giving life from time to time to a solution of great originality, of which historiography has recognized the importance only in relatively recent times.

In San Pietro, with Fra ‘Giocondo, he elaborated several projects, up to restore the Latin-cross basilica plan, set on the Bramante cruise. The most singular activity of Sanzio in those years, however, is the design of Villa Madama, for Cardinal Giulio de ‘Medici (from 1518). In the original plans the villa had to develop around a central courtyard, with multiple pathways and visuals, up to the surrounding garden, archetype of the Italian garden, perfectly integrated with the surrounding environment of the slopes of Monte Mario. In the decoration the models of ancient Rome were revived, with stuccos and frescoes always harmoniously connected to the rhythm of the structures.

Then the famous Letter to Leo X, written with Baldassare Castiglione, in which the artist expresses his regret for the decadence of the ancient monuments of Rome and offers the pope a project for a systematic survey of an ancient Roman plant ].

Michelangelo: the tomb of Julius II
The growing success of Raphael, favored by the new pontiff from the beginning of the pontificate, put Michelangelo in a certain isolation, despite the resounding success of the Sistine. The artist thus had time to devote himself to projects temporarily shelved, first of all the one for the tomb of Julius II, on behalf of the Della Rovere heirs. Abandoned the pharaonic initial project, in 1513 a new contract was stipulated, which included a tomb leaning against a wall, with the smaller sides still very protruding, then reduced to a more traditional facade tomb (1516), on the stock for example of the Monuments funeral of the cardinals Ascanio Sforza and Girolamo Basso Della Rovere ofAndrea Sansovino (1505-1507), an arcosolium set on the triumphal arch scheme.

In the project of Michelangelo, however, the dynamic momentum towards the top prevails and the prevalence of the plastic decoration on the architectural elements prevails. Already in 1513 the artist had to have sculpted the Moses, which recalled the Seers of the Sistine, and a series of dynamic figures to lean against the pillars, the so-called Prisons, or nudes that break free from the disruptive expressive charge.

Interrupted again for the projects at the church of San Lorenzo in Florence, Michelangelo arrived at the completion of the work only in 1545, with a very undersized work compared to the grandiose projects developed in previous decades.

Sebastiano del Piombo
In this particular conjuncture also originates the association between Michelangelo and the Venetian Sebastiano del Piombo (in Rome from 1511), from which was born for about two decades a friendship and a collaboration that can also be read as an attempt to oppose hegemony by Raphael.

Already for the Pietà of Viterbo (1516-1517), Vasari reported the news of the cardboard supplied by Michelangelo, interpreted by the friar with a “highly praised gloomy landscape”. Towards the end of 1516 a double commission of Cardinal Giulio de ‘Medici lit the competition between Sebastiano / Michelangelo and Raphael, engaged in a large altarpiece each, destined for the cathedral of Narbonne. Sebastiano painted the Resurrection of Lazarus, with the Savior and the sculptural Lazarus drawn directly by Michelangelo. A Sebastian are instead rich chromatic orchestration, already far away from tonalityVenetian, and the atmospheric sense that gives a new and mysterious and emotional intonation to the scene.

Raphael instead elaborated the famous Transfiguration, made more dynamic by the combination with the episode of the healing of the obsession. The dazzling upper area contrasts with the lower dynamic and disharmonic, creating an effect of violent contrast, but linked emotionally by the contemplation of the Savior

Hadrian VI (1522-1523)
The brief pontificate of Hadrian VI marked the arrest of all the artistic sites. The death of Raphael and a pestilence that ravaged the city throughout 1523 led to the removal of the best urban students, such as Giulio Romano. The new pontiff was also hostile to artistic activities. The Dutch pope was in fact linked to a monastic spirituality and did not like at all humanistic culture nor the lavish court life, much less the use of art in a political or celebrative function. The Italians saw in him a pedantic foreign professor, blind to the beauty of classical antiquity, which greatly reduced the salaries of the great artists. Musicians like Carpentras, the composer and singer fromAvignon who was master of the chapel under Leo X, left Rome at that time, due to the indifference of Hadrian, if not in open hostility towards art.

Adriano came to threaten to have Michelangelo’s frescoes destroyed in the Sistine Chapel, but the brevity of his power did not allow him to carry out his intent.

Clement VII up to the Sack (1523-1527)
Giulio de ‘Medici, elected on November 19, 1523 with the name of Clement VII, resumed work on the pontifical palaces, relocating to his uncle Leo X. Among the first acts of the new pontiff was to order the resumption of work in the Sala di Costantino, of which Raphael had in time to draw the general program and the cartoons for the first two scenes, jealously guarded by his students and collaborators. This circumstance meant that Sebastiano del Piombo ‘s application was refused to take care of the decoration, supported by Michelangelo.

Among the students of Raphael assume a position of prominence Giovanni Battista Penni and, above all Giulio Romano, considered the true “heir” of the urban and who since 1521 had sought a synthesis of the monumental works of Raphael and Sebastiano del Piombo in the Lapidation of saint Stefano, in the church of Santo Stefano in Genoa. The artistic supremacy of Giulio Romano ends in 1524 with his departure for Mantua.

Meanwhile Sebastiano del Piombo from the death of Raphael has no more rivals as a portraitist on the Roman scene.

The artistic climate under Clement VII gradually evolves towards a more than ever “archaeological” taste, ie where the ancient is now a fashion that profoundly influences decoration, both with the revival of motifs and with the search for objects (statuary in head), which are integrated, if fragmentary, and freely grouped. The painting was more than ever sought after and listened, gradually moving away from the heavy legacy of the last Raffello and the vault of the Sistine Chapel. Young artists like Parmigianino and Rosso Fiorentinothey meet the taste of the most avant-garde patrons, creating works of extreme formal elegance, in which the naturalism of the forms, the measurability of space and the likelihood are never less important. An example is the vigorous Christ dead of Rosso, who starting from the Michelangelo model (the Ignudi), arrives at an extenuated sensuality of the body of Christ, where only the symbols scattered here and there clarify the religious significance of the work, preventing, for example, to qualify the painting as a representation of the Death of Adonis.

On this splendid and cosmopolitan culture of the Clementine age, in the spring of 1527, the catastrophe of the Sacco di Roma fell. The consequences on the civil, political, religious and philosophical level were disastrous (it was really the end of an era, read as a sign of the coming Advent of the Antichrist), while on the artistic level there was a diaspora of the artists in all directions, which led to an extraordinary spread of Roman ways.

Source from Wikipedia

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