ROME - Cultured and a perfectionist, the great Raphael boasted a profound knowledge of classical culture, so much so that he was even able to recognize the different styles of the reliefs on the Arch of Constantine.
Much came to him from the work of superintendent of antiquities and director of archaeological sites that he did for the papacy, it is clear.
But the privileged friendship with one of his most important patrons, the Sienese Agostino Chigi, banker to the popes and refined collector, with whom he shared a passion for art and the antique, counted for a lot.
An important friendship, the one between the famous painter and the powerful merchant.
So much so that in spite of the thousand onerous commitments that filled his Roman years,
Born 17 years apart, Chigi and Raphael both died in April 1520, the banker only four days after the artist.
And with them the collection of antiquities put together by Chigi dissolved, even the house changed hands, sold in 1579 to the nearby Farnese, from which it later took its name.
500 years after those events, the story of that professional and friendly partnership comes to life again in an exhibition "Raphael and the antique in the villa of Agostino Chigi" which from 6 April to 2 July brings back to the banker's residence, since 1944 headquarters of representation of the Lincei, some of its most loved treasures.
And at the same time, shedding light on the continuous play of references and quotations that is hidden behind every single decoration of the rooms,
Curated by Alessandro Zuccari and Costanza Barbieri, the exhibition of the Lincei - the last remnant of the celebrations for the five hundredth anniversary of the great painter's death - sheds light on the influence that the extraordinary collection of statues, sarcophagi, cameos, reliefs, books and ancient coins collections by Agostino Chigi, among the most relevant of the Renaissance, had on the art of Raphael and on the passion for the ancient that also led him to reconstruct and experiment with the ancient Egyptian blue for his very sweet Galatea.
From the Roman marble group of Pan and Daphnis to the winged Psyche of the early imperial age, both today in the Capitoline museums, from the bronze head of Antinous which comes from the archaeological Florence to the cameo with the figures of Mars and Venus from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna,
the itinerary therefore offers a prodigious taste of what the villa must have been like at the time, designed to amaze and fascinate its visitors at every step.
While for the occasion the spectacular original entrance which opened right from the Loggia of Cupid and Psyche has been restored and two installations bring attention both to the lost stables and to the bridge that the Farnese family would have wanted to build over the river to connect the palace and villa.
Unscrupulous and highly skilled, Chigi "the magnificent", as his contemporaries called him, was also an enormously successful entrepreneur who, thanks to loans granted to popes and rulers, had built an empire between salt mines and alum extraction.
The residence on the Tiber that he had had Baldassarre Peruzzi design with the loggias,
A place of pleasure where to realize the cultural dream of its era, that of living "in step with the old", the genius of the past in dialogue with the best expressions of the present, so much so that in the cellars he had even had a typography set up where to print in Greek Pindar and Theocritus.
When he died, aged 54, the patron was at the height of his power.
He had recently married Francesca Ordeaschi, a shameless and revolutionary marriage for the time, because the beautiful bride was a courtesan who had brought to Rome making her the mother of her children.
The work on the villa had been rushed precisely for this wedding, celebrated in the presence of Leo X. At the time, there must have been at least 80 statues and ancient fragments in the house, much more was on display outside.
A fortune that neither Agostino,
nor his wife were able to truly enjoy: perhaps poisoned, Francesca Ordeaschi Chigi died seven months after her husband, leaving their children orphans.
Statues, cameos, jewels, books ended up in the homes of other powerful people, Cesi, Farnese, Gonzaga, Medici.
The utopia of classical perfection of Raphael and his banker friend vanishes.
And who knows if five centuries later, with the objects returned home again in dialogue with the paintings that crowd the walls, that dream, at least for a while, may not really come back to life.
(HANDLE).
utopia of classical perfection of Raphael and his banker friend nuanced.
And who knows if five centuries later, with the objects returned home again in dialogue with the paintings that crowd the walls, that dream, at least for a while, may not really come back to life.
(HANDLE).
utopia of classical perfection of Raphael and his banker friend nuanced.
And who knows if five centuries later, with the objects returned home again in dialogue with the paintings that crowd the walls, that dream, at least for a while, may not really come back to life.
(HANDLE).
