Lecture 4: Urbino, continued The Papal Court in Rome

Lecture 4:
Urbino, continued
The Papal Court in Rome
Studiolo, Palazzo
Ducale, Urbino,
1472-76, paintings by
Justus of Ghent,
intarsie produced in
Florence by the
workshop of
Giuliano da Maiano.
Studiolo: Italian for “study,” a
small decorated room used for
private contemplation and study.
Intarsia – Italian term for pictorial
marquetry.
Studiolo of Federigo da Montefeltro, 1472-76.
Urbino, Palazzo Ducale, view of intarsia
illusionistic cabinets and imprese.

Justus of Ghent (van Wassenhove) Dante (l); Moses (r.)
ca. 1476, oil. Urbino, Palazzo Ducale , Studiolo

Justus of Ghent, Communion of the Apostles, oil and tempera on
canvas, 1474, commissioned by Federigo for the Confraternity of
Corpus Domini, now Urbino, Galleria Nazionale delle Marche

Paolo Uccello, Predella, Communion of the Apostles
Altarpiece, tempera on panel, 1468.

Piero della Francesca, Portraits of Battista Sforza (d. 1472)
and Federigo da Montefeltro (d. 1482), ca. 1472. Formerly
Urbino, Palazzo Ducale, now Florence, Uffizi

Piero della Francesca, Reverse of Portraits of Battista Sforza
and Federigo da Montefeltro Formerly Urbino, Palazzo Ducale,
now Florence, Uffizi

Virgil, Works, ca. 1470-74, fol. 45v-46r, with illumination by
Guglielmo Giraldi, now Vatican Library, Ms. Urb. Lat. 350

Italian States in the
15th century:
Republic of Venice
Marquisate of Mantua
Duchy of Ferrara
Republic of Florence
Republic of Siena
Duchy of Milan
Duchy of Savoy
Kingdom of Naples
Papal States
Terms

 Typology: a method of interpreting the Bible by identifying persons
and events in the Old Testament as antitypes or prefigurations of
those in the New; and those in the New as types or fulfillments of
Old.
 Metonymy – in grammar and rhetoric, a figure of speech in which
something is designated by another thing related to it by contiguity
or proximity. For example, a container can signify its contents, an
object can be designated by its inventor or maker, or an instrument
for its possessor
 Figura serpentinata: Italian for “serpentine figure;” a human figure
depicted in spiraled or torsioned pose to suggest movement and that
is visually pleasing and ornamental
 Antithesis: in grammar and rhetoric; an opposite or contrast in
words, sentences or clauses in order to emphasize a contrast in ideas.
It makes the idea more vivid and memorable and so ornaments and
embellishes a written or spoken text.
Sixtus IV
(Francesco della Rovere)
b. 1414, provincial of the
Franciscan order,
appointed a cardinal 1467,
elected 1471, d. 1484
Family coat of arms is a stylized oak tree
bearing acorns (Latin for red oak is robur)
Constructed dedicated space for the
Vatican Library; added extensively to its
holdings.
Renovated the cappella magna in the Vatican
Palace as the Sistine Chapel; decorated the
walls with fresco paintings.
Renovated churches and constructed new
churches; rebuilt the Ospedale Santo
Spirito, renovated streets and an aqueduct.
Rescinded the decrees of the Council of
Constance.
Condoned the Pazzi Conspiracy in 1478;
after its failure placed Florence under papal
interdict until 1481.
Melozzo da Forli,
Sixtus IV Appoints
Bartolomeo Sacchi
[Platina] Prefect of the
Vatican Library, fresco
transferred to canvas,
ca. 1475-77. Vatican
Pinacoteca.
Raffaele Riario – nephew and Apostolic
Protonotary, named cardinal in 1477;
builder of the Palazzo della Cancelleria.
Giuliano della Rovere - created cardinal in
1471; papal legate to France in 1480.
Giovanni della Rovere – Duke of Sora,
Prefect of Rome. In 1474 married Giovanna
da Montefeltro, daughter of the Duke of
Urbino.
Girolamo Riario – Captain General of the
Papal armies; lord of Imola. In 1473
married Caterina Sforza, illegitimate
daughter of the Duke of Milan.
Sistine Chapel, Vatican Palace, Rome; rebuilding begun 1473;
painting begun 1481, completed 1482?; officially dedicated by
Sixtus IV 9 August 1483.

Plan of Interior, Sistine Chapel (l);
Etching of Papal Consistory, 1582 (r)

Sistine Chapel, view towards entrance wall

Pietro Perugino, Delivery of the Keys (Conturbatio
Iesu Christi legis latoris – Challenge to Jesus Christ,
the bearer of the [Gospel] law)

Sandro Botticelli, Punishment of Korah (Conturbatio Moise
legis scripte latoris – Challenge to Moses, the bearer of the
written law)

Julius II
(Giuliano della
Rovere); b. 1443,
appointed cardinal
1471, elected 1503, d.
1513
Nephew of Sixtus IV; trained as canon
lawyer.
Papal legate to France, cardinal deacon
of S. Pietro in Vincoli, Rome, bishop
of Ostia.
Allied Papal States with France, Spain
and the Holy Roman Empire in war
against Venice, then with Venice
against the French
Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel
ceiling, fresco, 1508-12

Sistine Chapel Ceiling, diagram

Michelangelo, Creation of
Adam

Michelangelo,
Lybian Sybil, from
the Sistine Chapel
Ceiling
Sybil: Pagan
priestesses, usually of
Apollo; their
prophecies were
recorded in books.
Raphael, Stanza della Segnatura, fresco,
1508-12

Raphael, Parnassus, Stanza della Segnatura,
1509-11

Raphael, Parnassus, Stanza della Segnatura,
1509-11

Marcantonio Raimondi, Parnassus, engraving, ca. 1511

Leo X
(Giovanni de’Medici)
b. 1475
appointed cardinal
1492
elected 1513, d. 1521
Continued Julius II’s war with France;
restructured papal authority in France
with the end of the Pragmatic Sanction
of Bourges and the Concordat of
Bologna (1516)
Presided over the 5th Lateran Council
Restored the Medici to power in
Florence in 1513; removed Julius II’s
nephew Francesco Maria della Rovere
as duke of Urbino in 1517 with his own
nephew Lorenzo di Piero de’ Medici
Continued Julius II’s rebuilding of St.
Peter’s; authorized the selling of
indulgences to raise funds
Raphael, Stanza dell’Incendio, fresco,
1516-17, Vatican Palace

Raphael, Fire in the Borgo, fresco, Stanza
del’Incendio

Raphael or workshop,
Portrait of Cardinal
Bernardo Dovizi da
Bibbiena, oil, 1516,
Florence, Palazzo Pitti
B. 1470, d. 1520
Member of the court of
Urbino
Papal treasurer and
commander of the papal army
(1517)
Author of La calandria, an
Italian comedy in imitation of
Plautus’s Menaechami,
performed in Rome in 1514
Raphael, St. Michael
the Archangel
Vanquishing the Devil,
oil, 1517, Paris, Louvre
Diplomatic gift for Francis I, King
of France