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    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
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    8 views17 pages

    Gerlini

    Uploaded by

    Juju Jing
    Gerlini

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 17
    ae rade oe Va. Fr haat fall Rouia. £202, sp. 30-52) 54-64 standing fee for work on the building (Cuanom, Agostino Chigi, 30 ot Fig. 16 - Hall of Galatea: Decorate parastas attributed to D, Beecs Century) on the let of Galatea, 32 The first decorations were Baldassare Peruzzi’s frescoes in the vault (completed in 1512); Sebastiane del Piombo painted mytholog [cal scenes in the lunettes (1871-12) and the Polyphemus (1512-13) and in 1513-14 Raphael painted the Galatea. The landscapes in the other panels date from the seventeenth century, Over the centures the Hall of Galatea has undergone various restorations, The first, ordered by the Famesi /, was executed in 1650 when the arches of the loggia were led in. It is thought that the decorations of the parastades were also conceived at this time since the name of Giovan Paolo Mare \s visible in the one on the left of the Galatea (fig. 16). However. recent restorations have shown that this signature is subsequent to the paintings of the parastades, which are mainly sixteenth cen ry and have been altributed to Beccafumi (R. YaROLI Pazza, Peruzz! @ Beccatumi alla Farnesina, in «Quaderni di Palazzo Venezian, 1981, no. 1 The landscapes in the wall panels were painted during the 1650 restorations, They have been attributed to Gaspard Dughet but are probably the work of artisis belonging to the area of seventeenth century Roman landscape painters. in 1699-94 Maratta restored the Galatea. This consisted mainly in fixing the fresco by means of large iron cramps. Recent restora- tions have shown that Sebastiano cel Piombo's Poiyphemus was not touchad at this time though it was disfigured by the 1863 restoration ordered by the Duke of Ripalta when Peruzzi's frescoes in the lunettes and vault were touched up too. The 1969-73 restorations promoted by the Accademia dei Lincel and carried out by the Istituto Centrale del Restauro involved all the paintings in the room {except for the seventeentn-century landscape Panels) and gave them back their original aspect. These restorations also led to the discovery of unknown six- teenth-century drawings: in fact, once the draperies painted under the Polyphemus and Galatea which dete from the Duke of Ripal- ta's restoration were removed, sketches of heads, whole figures and profi sanguine, charcoal and pencil were uncovered — some close to Sebastiano’s style and some in Raphael's. These drawings have been leit in situ but are visible because the panels with the draperies have been mounted on mobile stands. (T! Grawings, as well as the restorations of the Hall of Galatea have ished by A. MiGNos! TawriLto, Restauri alla Farnesina, in 10 PArter, 1972, series 5, 57. THE FRESCOES IN THE VAULT Though the work of various authors, the decoration of the room presenis 2 unified whole because it follows Peruzzi's general plan: the entire decoration was conceived in relation to the architecture. The surtace is divided by pilaster strips on which the vault rests as an architectural whole showing up the structure of ribs and frames outlining the geometrical spaces. Peruzzi's decoration fils the entire vault with compiex scenes of mythological, astronomical and astro- logical subjects: in fact the episodes of classical myths do not only symbolize the constellations, the planets and the zodiac but are dis posed in such @ way as to refer to the horoscope of the owner of he vile 1Ne en we enter the room from the Loggia of Psyche we are faced with the hexagon in which the first two signs of the Zociae, Aries and Taurus, are symbolized in the myth of Europa ravished by Jove in the form of a bull, Aries is painted at the too in nis symbolical rep resentation and Taurus is indicated in the illustration of the Ovidian episode: Europa confidently approaches the bull who will carry her off and who — in reward for having lent the king ot the gods the disguise for the rape — will be given a piace in the sky, But the sym- boolism goes beyond the representation of the two signs of the Zodi- ac since it also refers to the moment in which the planet Jove is In the sign of Aries. On the left, against the golden background of the sail, a river god stands — statuesque-lke the many examples which have come down to us from classical art: a symbol of the constella- tion of Eridanus which can be seen beneath Taurus in the southern sky. The swan next to the god — connected with the myth of Phaeton — has on the other hand a purely mythological meaning when the son of the Sun fell into the river Eridanus struck by Jove's bolt, the swan retired to the quiet waters of the lake. The next hexagon to the left represents Leda embracing the swan whose form Jove has assumed. But the mythological fable of Jove's lave for the queen of Sparta is simoly a pretext to conceal the astronomical meaning of the composition: for the Dioscuri who were placed in heaven among the constellations and symbolize Gemini ‘were born of the union of the king of the gods and Leda. The cor- responcing minor constellation — the Charioteer — is represented in a disc shown by a youthful classical figure lying on the clouds. The third hexagon records one of the labours of Hercules, The sirug- 34 gle with the hydra of Lerna, But only one detail of the myth was used to symbolize the constellation of Cancer who, instigated by Juno, bit Hercules while he was fighting with the monster and was therefore placed in the sky as the fourth sign of the Zodiac, The two following sails present the minor constellations which ‘appear under the sign of Cancer in the Southern sky: Argus and the Dog, The former is symbolized by the ship which carried the Arg- onauts to Colehis to conquer the golden fleece. The sign of Cancer 's followed by that of Leo, which is also alluded to in one of the labours of Hercules — The struggle with the Nemean ion. in the next he artist does not call on mythology but on one of the complex epresentations of the ancient bestiaries to symbolize the two con- stellations of the Serpeni and the Crow: a troe is painted on a shield borne by a female figure. A crow is perched in its foliage and a snake is wound around its trunk. This tree symbolizes Paradise in which the soul of the Christian who is ensnared by the devil (repre- senied traditionally as a snake) secks refuge. In the next sail a large vase symbolizes the constellation of the Crater which, together with those of the Grow and the Snake, can bbe seen in the sky in the sign of Leo. The fifth hexagon alludes to the Moan in the sign of Virgo, lowed by the constellation of the Lesser Dog: the Moon is repre- sented in the earthly form of Diana the huntress, the woman next to her is a reference to the Ovidian myth of Erigone who — with the help of the dog Maira — found the tomb of her father Icarus who had been killed by shepherds to whom he had offered wine. Erigone cd herself in despair and was tured info a star by Jove and placed in the sky with Icarus and Maira, The three of them form the Consiellation of the Lesser Dog. in the next sail we find Bacchus and Ariane, who is wearing the crown she received as a wedding gift: thus representing astronomically the constellation of the Crown, The sixth hexagon combines the fepresentation of two signs of the Zodiac: the Scales and Scorpio. Unlixe the other signs, these are Not presented as a myth but are symbolically next to the divinities of the two planets which were in those signs on the day the paintings in the roam refer to: ie. Mercury flying with his winged sandals, and Mars armed like a warrior on a triumphal Roman relief. In the next sail an old priest kneeling in front of an altar refers to the constel- lation of the Altar In the next nexagon Apollo standing by the side of a centaur in the act of shooting an arrow (fig. 17} indicates the Sun in the sign 35 of Sagittarius. Orpheus symbolizes the nearby consteilation of the Lyre in the adjoining sail. it should be noted that he is represented (according to the sixteenth century tradition) not with a a viol Astronomically the eighth hexagon signifies Venus in the sign of Capricorn: the her doves. Two ing hair may possibly represent Nemesi tune) for the jove of wi which is placed as a c lal Fig, 18 - B. Peruzzi: Hexagon with the rage of Ganymede. Jove assumed the form of a swan \d the Plough are symbol- as in other gaintings, the decoration presents 37 them mythologically and only @ careful study brings out the asiro- nomical meaning The left octagon shows the myth of Perseus in relation to the constellation of Pegasus (fig. 19). The hero, who is armed like a classical warrior, seizes the terrified Gorgon by the hair and wields his sword (0 cut off the monstrous head. Below, marble busts represent the men who have been petrified by Medusa’s glance, and the horse's head which be an n to Pegasus wha was born of the Gorgon’s blood, According to a late interpretation of the myth, he took the form of Fame: Peruzzi followse this version here and placed the great winged figure of Fame high up in the sky blowing into a and proctaiming the glory of the lord of the vi figure faces the small central actagon with the Chigi arms which Ripaita replaced with his The other octagon contains the myth of Callisto (fig. 20), the nymph whom Jove loved and piaced in the sky after Juno turned her into a bear out of jealousy. The nymph is on a golden chariot engraved with war scenes like a Roman triumphal biga. This is drawn by two bulls into the starry sky where heads of symbolizing the winds emerge from the clouds. Astronomically Fig 18 - Peruzzt: Cotagan witn tne myth of Perseus and the Gorgon 38 Fig. 20 - 8 Peruzst Octagon with the nymoh Calisto. this figuration represents the Great Bear which, together with the septem triones — the ploughing bulls — forms the consteliation of the Plough appearing between Pegasus and the sign of Leo. To sum up, the vault of the Hall of Galatea represents the moment in the sky in which Jove appears in the sign of Aries, the Moon in Virgo, Mars in tho Lyre, Mercury in Scorpio, the Sun in Sagittarius, Venus in Capricomn and Saturn in Pisces. It seems cer- tain thet this is a representation of Agostino Chigi’s horoscope. According to a document in the Archives of the Battistero Siena he was born on November 29, 1466 at 9.30 pm. which those days would have been after midnight. According to accurate astronomical calculations this was the celestial convergence painted in the vault of the Farnesina (see M ‘Quiwtan, The astrological vault of the Villa Farnesine, in «Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes», 1984, 47, pp. 91-105, as we as the fundamental F. Sax, La fede astrologica di Agostino Ci Roma 1934) This abstruse composition may cause wonder today but at a time when astrology was so papular the Magnificent Agostina could ot Dut be in love with this science and held in high esteem the astrologers who fo’ be gladdened by joyful events, ‘And the fact that Agostino, in that serene periad of his at the height of his fame, should nave wanted his iilustrious guests to see the representation of his propitious destiny — offered him by 39 yf the favorable conjunction of the stars on the day he was born — also in tune with the intellectuaiistic Renaissance taste. When Peruzzi painted the frescoes in the Hail of Galatea ne was already well known in Rome for his decoration of the apse of 8, Onofrio sul Gianicoio, ris first important work after the decorative work executed in the wake of Pinturicchio in the Libreria del Ouomo of Siena, Compared to the S. Onoftio paintings, tnose of the Far- nesina show Peruzz's style as having matured considerably in the course of a few years. While evidently stil following Pinturicchio (par- icularly in the rather affected grace of the figures) the compositions are constructed with greater ease and ireedom. The study of classi cal examples which Peruzzi applied himself to with an enthusiasm praised by his contemporaries — from Vasari, to Serlio, to Cellini — is already evident in these paintings. Almost all the nobly constructed figures find their direct inspira- ion in classical models and the colour is redeemed by fifteenth cen- tury taste so that the statuary nudes, which stand out like polished marbie against the plain background of the geometrical civisions, are highlighted by audacious iridescent effects in the draperies to which the original chromatism has been restored by the recent cleaning. Peruzzi's maturity also appears in his already extraordinary abi ty for perspective which was later to make him famous. The monochrome putt wo ride fantastic sea creatures or rise up on marbie spheres in the spaces between the hexagons and the lunettes and the ornate stucco cornices of the whole archi- teciural structure of the vault acquire relief through the perfection of the chiaroscuro and the rigorous application of perspective. This illusion was admired by famous sixteenth-century artists too since Vasari refers to this room (and not to the Hall of the Per- spectives as has erroneously been said). when he writes that ringing Cavalier Tiziano to see this work, he could in no way believe that this was painting; tor he marvelled at the illusion» (IV, p. 593) THE LUNETTE PAINTINGS. We learn from Vasari (V, p. 567) that after Peruzzi finished his work in the Hal of Galatea Agostino Chigi asked Sobastiano del Pioméo to decorate the lunettes. Chigi hac met this artist in Venice in 1509 and 8 a painter and musician and for his pleasant conversation. He brought him to Rome where he entrusted him with the decoration of the lunettes of this roam, The work was completed between 1511 and 1512 since these paintings are also reforred to in Blosio Pailacio’s poem, The lunettes of the Farnesina are Sebastiano’s tirst important work in ome and they are a milestone in the development of his style because they mark the passago from his Venetian to his oman period. His training as a painter at the schools of Giovanni Bellini and Giorgione was based entirely on colour and tone and when he came to Rome he was taced with the probiem of having to constrain Fis free use of light and colour within an architectural framework predisposed by the Tuscan Peruzzi, who had already developed a laste for classical forms, He was also faced with the dominant clas- sicism of the Roman milieu These tunettes are Sebastiano's first attempt to find harmony between colour and form: in them he renounces the Venetian tonal construction without, howaver, completely mastering the plastic volumetric structure of Roman painting. In fact the least success- ful are those where he had to face problems of formal dynamism; consequently the figures — which feel this spatial limitation — do rot sive» in the atmosphere but are masses painted against a background of colour; spatial perspective depth is iacking (in the luneite with the myth’ of Tereus the two female figures are con- fused because of their superimposition on one plane), there is no Movement (Daedalus does not give an impression of lightness of ight but seems suspended in the sky and Icarus does not fail but seems to be teaning against the base of the lunette); there is no drama {Teraus’s gesture is useless and Phaeton’s fall lacks im- etus). The only vital element of all the compositions — even the less successful ones — is colour: bright clothing, limpid flesh and fair hair. This sense of colour justifies Vasari's apt definition of them as poems in which the intimate lyricism is created by Sebas- iano's brush 4 The recent restorations of the frescoes have revived their joyous urs. His characters are Ven: ss emerging from behind the arches of the lunettes imagined as open loggias in front of a real, airy sky rather than an abstract one belonging to a mithologi- cal world. The opulent forms, the ample iridiscent silken robos, the lowing blonde hair, the golden softness of the flesh, the leasing gaiety, all belong to the world of the two Palma painters and a gay immediacy of daily lite. The composition of the first luneite on the wall towards the Porta Settimiana (an the left) refers to the dark myth of Phtiometa fig. 21), In Ovid's Metamorphoses the story is told af how Prone and her sister Philomela took revenge on Procne’s husband Tereus, who had conceived a sinful passion for his sister-in-law, by serving up their son in a banquet. Discovering this horrible crime the king hurled himself on the sisters to Kili them but the merciful gods turned the uniortunate man into a hoopoe, Philomela into a nightingale and Procne into a swallow. Sebas- iano transformed the tragic scene into a luminous painting ani- mated by beautiful Venetian figures wrapped in ample robes in the style of the Palmas, We next have the myth of Agraulos and Herse (fig. 21). The two daughters of Cecrops — the founder of Athens — lift the lid! of the basket in which Minerva has confined Erichthonius, the monster {hait child and half snake, born of the love between Earth and Vu can) which she had enitusted them with, The two sisters are beautiiul Venetian figures swathed In rich garments presented in warm and luminous colours, against the serene background of the sky in which two crows indicate that the curiosity of the two women was revealed to Minerva by Coronis who was then changed into a crow, The third lunette gives a representation of a detail of the myth Daedalus and learus who fled trom the labyrinth on their wonderful wings: overwneimed by the intoxication of flying, learus recklessly drew so close to the sun that the wax which held his wings in place melted and the incautious man fel! into the sea, Sebastiano's scene reflects the limitation of the space into which he has had to adapt ing from on high does not seem to plane in an infinite sky and Daedalus simply rests on the base of the lunete, 42 Fig. 21 - Sebastiano dal Piombo: Lunattes with the myth of Philomala and Proene {on the left) and Agrauios and Horse (on the right). Below: Landscapes, Roman Juno passes through the azure background of the next lunatle with her golden chariot drawn by two peacocks through the sky in which the messenger of the goddess unfolds the rainbow. This Is followed by the illustration of the myth of Scylla who, for love of her enemy king Minos, severs the purple hat (which made him invincible) from her sleeping father Nisus's need. Nisus’s figure amply draped in a large green cloak, is very beautiful ‘Sebastiano has eliminated any dramatic effect from the myih of the fall of Phaeton too. However this remains one of the most harmo- nilous scenes because of the freedom of the composition and the accurate study of the nude figure, as well as the chromatic harmony of the cloudy sky and the splendid drape tied around Phaeton’ waist 43 During the recent restorations this lunette required special treat- ment: the plaster was in such poor condition that in order to reinte grate it the fresco had to be detached and then replaced. ‘The next lunette depicts the myth of Oreitfyia, the young daugh- ter of Erechtheus carried off by Boreas in the dark mantle of storm clouds, The myth of the freezing North wind is followed by that of the Spring Zephyr: out of the god's mouth (only the head is represented in the upper left hand corer) comes the life-giving breath received by Earth, personified in @ heavy figure wrapped in an ample cloak The last lunette coes not illustrate @ mythological scene. It is a monochrome painting of a daringly foreshartened large head of a young man (fig. 22) and its attribution was a matter of discussion for a [ong time. Contemporary descriptions of the Farnesina do not men- ion it and it was only in the seventeenth century that the well-known legendary attrib Michelangelo was circulated: it was said that he «drew it in charcoal» (though the painting is a fresco) to reproach his rival Raphael for the smallness of his figures; or, according to another version (which goss back to an erroneous attribution of the lunettes to Danieie da Volterra) as a pastime while he was waiting for 44 the artist who was momentarily absent, This anecdote is untounded and an examination of the work does not confirm it, Modern schol- ars have wavered between Sebastiano del Piombo and Peruzzi but the most recant eritics have opted for the atter. in fact this boicly mod- led face, does not appear to be related to Sebastiano del Piomioo's, Venetian siyie (which he sill followed when he was painting at the Far- nesina) and a comparison with the other paintings in the room highlights the substantial differences, On the other hang we can see Peruzz's inf ence In the face which comesponds to the plastic ideal of his early Roman period. We find tha same fundamental elements of draughts- manship, chiaroscuro and modelling in other figures in the same room, ‘or example in Erigone, Ariadne, Orpheus, Venus, Ganymede, Nemesis, Leda, Calisto; and the comparison with the marble bust which leans out of the clouds in the group of men pelted by the Gorgon fin the com- position with Perseus and Medusa in the ieft hand octagon} Is even more: surprising. One could even consider this bust a smaller mirror view of the big head in the lunette; it presents the same foreshoriening, the same incination, the same clear and incisive outlining of the curling hair, the same plasticily obtained through light effects. The head was probably painted before Sebastiano decorated the lunettes: in fact it has ne icono-

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