DOI Artikel:
Krasny, Piotr: Exempla viva: the prelates of the Roman Catholic Church as inspirers of Charles Borromeo’s instructions on shaping sacred srt
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.38234#0046
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10. The Donation of Constantine, fresco by Giulio Romano and Francesco Penni in the Apostolic Palace on
the Vatican, 1523. Photo: K. Blaschke
that Giulio, as a friend and the most trusted collaborator
of Giberti, indicated to Sanmicheli the general forms of
the furnishings to be introduced into the chancel of Ve-
rona Cathedral. The arrangement of its choir, as we shall
see in what follows, became one of the leading patterns for
furnishing a Catholic sacred interior, thus making Giulio
an important contributor to the Church reform initiated
by north-Italian prelates.65 It is not known to what degree
these actions revealed his personal religious outlook, but
the artist obviously appreciated the role in which he was
cast by Giberti, as was clearly attested by his later activity.
At the end of his life Giulio was using most of his
strength and time working in Mantua for Cardinal Er-
cole Gonzaga who, as related by Vasari, in 1545 decided
to avail himself of the advice and assistance of Giulio in
renovating, or rather building almost entirely anew, the
Duomo of that city’.66 All other artistic undertakings of
Gonzaga also had religious character (e.g. the paintings
of Sts Peter and Paul and a design for wall paintings show-
ing the calling of the first Apostles in the cardinals private
chapel), which seems to attest to the fact that the prelate
La Basilica di San Pietro. Fortuna e immagine, ed. by G. Morello,
Rome, 2012, pp. 245, 347, 260-261, 264, figs. 3, 36.
65 M. Tafuri, Giulio Romano, p. 18 (as in note 55). C.L. Frommel,
‘Gian Matteo Giberf, pp. 139-140 (as in note 55).
66 ‘per servirsi del consiglio ed aiuto di Gulio in rinovare e quasi far di
nuovo tutto il duomo di quella città’, G. Vasari, Le Vite, p. 552 (as
in note 56); English translation after: G. Vasari, Lives, p. 166 (as in
note 56).
aimed at creating a new model of episcopal patronage of
the arts, one unaffected by manifestations of his secular
fascinations. Significantly, no official portrait of Gonzaga
painted during his lifetime survives, and the only likeness
of the cardinal executed on his commission shows him
kneeling in prayer in the scene of the Deposition in a side
altarpiece in San Vicenzo in Mantua (later removed to the
church of Sant’Egidio in that city).67 So, while working for
the cardinal Giulio did not have an opportunity to paint,
for example, mythological subjects that had secured him
earlier a peculiar renown.68 But at the end of his life he
confessed to Vasari that this collaboration had brought
him great satisfaction, while the Mantuan bishop admit-
ted in a conversation with the Florentine historiographer
that, as regards art in the Duchy of Mantua, ‘Giulio was
more the master of that State than he was himself’.69 This
last statement apparently demonstrated a special position
of the artist in the circle of Gonzagas collaborators, just as
67 M.G. Grassi, ‘La Deposizione con il cardinale Ercole Gonzaga in
S. Egidio in Mantova’, Civiltà Mantovana, seria 3, 28,1993, no. 8,
pp. 45-61.
68 See especially M. Jaffé, ‘Rubens and Giulio Romano at Mantua’,
The Art Bulletin, 40, 1958, no. 4, pp. 325-329; B. Guthmüller,
‘Ovidübersetzungen und mythologische Malerei. Bemerkungen
zur Sala dei Giganti Giulio Romanos’, Mitteilungen des Kunsthi-
storischen Institutes in Florenz, 21,1977, no. 1, pp. 35-68.
69 ‘Giulio è più padrone di quello stato, come non era egli’,
G. Vasari, Le Vite, p. 553 (as in note 56). For English translation
see: G. Vasari, Lives, p. 167 (as in note 56).
10. The Donation of Constantine, fresco by Giulio Romano and Francesco Penni in the Apostolic Palace on
the Vatican, 1523. Photo: K. Blaschke
that Giulio, as a friend and the most trusted collaborator
of Giberti, indicated to Sanmicheli the general forms of
the furnishings to be introduced into the chancel of Ve-
rona Cathedral. The arrangement of its choir, as we shall
see in what follows, became one of the leading patterns for
furnishing a Catholic sacred interior, thus making Giulio
an important contributor to the Church reform initiated
by north-Italian prelates.65 It is not known to what degree
these actions revealed his personal religious outlook, but
the artist obviously appreciated the role in which he was
cast by Giberti, as was clearly attested by his later activity.
At the end of his life Giulio was using most of his
strength and time working in Mantua for Cardinal Er-
cole Gonzaga who, as related by Vasari, in 1545 decided
to avail himself of the advice and assistance of Giulio in
renovating, or rather building almost entirely anew, the
Duomo of that city’.66 All other artistic undertakings of
Gonzaga also had religious character (e.g. the paintings
of Sts Peter and Paul and a design for wall paintings show-
ing the calling of the first Apostles in the cardinals private
chapel), which seems to attest to the fact that the prelate
La Basilica di San Pietro. Fortuna e immagine, ed. by G. Morello,
Rome, 2012, pp. 245, 347, 260-261, 264, figs. 3, 36.
65 M. Tafuri, Giulio Romano, p. 18 (as in note 55). C.L. Frommel,
‘Gian Matteo Giberf, pp. 139-140 (as in note 55).
66 ‘per servirsi del consiglio ed aiuto di Gulio in rinovare e quasi far di
nuovo tutto il duomo di quella città’, G. Vasari, Le Vite, p. 552 (as
in note 56); English translation after: G. Vasari, Lives, p. 166 (as in
note 56).
aimed at creating a new model of episcopal patronage of
the arts, one unaffected by manifestations of his secular
fascinations. Significantly, no official portrait of Gonzaga
painted during his lifetime survives, and the only likeness
of the cardinal executed on his commission shows him
kneeling in prayer in the scene of the Deposition in a side
altarpiece in San Vicenzo in Mantua (later removed to the
church of Sant’Egidio in that city).67 So, while working for
the cardinal Giulio did not have an opportunity to paint,
for example, mythological subjects that had secured him
earlier a peculiar renown.68 But at the end of his life he
confessed to Vasari that this collaboration had brought
him great satisfaction, while the Mantuan bishop admit-
ted in a conversation with the Florentine historiographer
that, as regards art in the Duchy of Mantua, ‘Giulio was
more the master of that State than he was himself’.69 This
last statement apparently demonstrated a special position
of the artist in the circle of Gonzagas collaborators, just as
67 M.G. Grassi, ‘La Deposizione con il cardinale Ercole Gonzaga in
S. Egidio in Mantova’, Civiltà Mantovana, seria 3, 28,1993, no. 8,
pp. 45-61.
68 See especially M. Jaffé, ‘Rubens and Giulio Romano at Mantua’,
The Art Bulletin, 40, 1958, no. 4, pp. 325-329; B. Guthmüller,
‘Ovidübersetzungen und mythologische Malerei. Bemerkungen
zur Sala dei Giganti Giulio Romanos’, Mitteilungen des Kunsthi-
storischen Institutes in Florenz, 21,1977, no. 1, pp. 35-68.
69 ‘Giulio è più padrone di quello stato, come non era egli’,
G. Vasari, Le Vite, p. 553 (as in note 56). For English translation
see: G. Vasari, Lives, p. 167 (as in note 56).