DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.53068#0220
RAPHAEL
by Leo X Conservator of Roman Antiquities, and his commission expressly laid
upon him the particular duty “of opposing the destruction of ancient fragments
of marble bearing inscriptions”. Fra Giocondo had made complaints about this;
more than 7,000 columns and fragments were reported to have been utterly
destroyed or employed in recent buildings of Rome. Bramante, to begin with
took as much as he needed; it was at the cost of such noble material that the
Palazzo Giraud came into being. In the instructions to Raphael there was
nothing about the preservation of works of art in the sphere of sculpture or
architecture, and one might be tempted to lay the blame for this preference
given to inscriptions upon eyeless literati of the Papal Chancellery; but Raphael
himself seems occasionally to have stressed, and made use of, his right of turning
to account remains of Antique works in his buildings. Sentimentalism over
ruins seems always to have been remote from creative and, especially, con-
structive men, in Renaissance times indeed completely so. In spite of all pro-
verbial admiration for them, ruins were at that time regarded practically as
stone-quarries. An architect of the next generation, Pirro Ligorio, found the best
lime could be extracted, by pounding them to dust, from the ancient marble statues
that were every day being brought to light. Cardinal Ridolfi obtained from the
Thermae of Caracalla the material for his in the Borgo; Cardinal Farnese
satisfied his requirements in building materials for his palace from the Trajan
Column, the Arch of Titus, and the Temple of Faustina; fragments of sculptures
went to the lime-kiln. They may have believed that new works of equal rank
thus came into existence. What mattered one or several bays of the Basilica of
Constantine, if their admired coffering was revived in the vaults of the new
basilica of St Peter’s? Raphael himself came into conflict with the ^Conservator'^
on the Capitol when he wished to have brought away a few antiques secured
as a bequest from the Patrician Gabriele de’ Rossi. He based his demand on
the Papal commission; but the magistrate appealed in the name of the Will of
the testator and of the “rights of the People” to the Holy See itself, and the
master was obliged to abandon his claim—but not to the spiritual possession of
the objects. In the collection of this Gabriele de’ Rossi there were a Diana of
Ephesus and a Sacrifice of a Bull1. Even though he did not possess them, Raphael
immortalised them in his works.
§ Plans for the Mausoleum of Augustus: The Memorial to Leo X: Castiglione’s
Participation
In these questions he may already at an early stage have been thought
capable of judging. Bramante called him in as umpire in a competition; three
sculptors had to make copies of the Laocoon group, and Raphael gave the prize
and the execution in bronze, for Cardinal Grimani, to the young Jacopo San-
sovino. The confidence of the Pope had now appointed him to be judge over
1 Later on the garden front of the Villa Medici in Rome, now in the Uffizi.
202
by Leo X Conservator of Roman Antiquities, and his commission expressly laid
upon him the particular duty “of opposing the destruction of ancient fragments
of marble bearing inscriptions”. Fra Giocondo had made complaints about this;
more than 7,000 columns and fragments were reported to have been utterly
destroyed or employed in recent buildings of Rome. Bramante, to begin with
took as much as he needed; it was at the cost of such noble material that the
Palazzo Giraud came into being. In the instructions to Raphael there was
nothing about the preservation of works of art in the sphere of sculpture or
architecture, and one might be tempted to lay the blame for this preference
given to inscriptions upon eyeless literati of the Papal Chancellery; but Raphael
himself seems occasionally to have stressed, and made use of, his right of turning
to account remains of Antique works in his buildings. Sentimentalism over
ruins seems always to have been remote from creative and, especially, con-
structive men, in Renaissance times indeed completely so. In spite of all pro-
verbial admiration for them, ruins were at that time regarded practically as
stone-quarries. An architect of the next generation, Pirro Ligorio, found the best
lime could be extracted, by pounding them to dust, from the ancient marble statues
that were every day being brought to light. Cardinal Ridolfi obtained from the
Thermae of Caracalla the material for his in the Borgo; Cardinal Farnese
satisfied his requirements in building materials for his palace from the Trajan
Column, the Arch of Titus, and the Temple of Faustina; fragments of sculptures
went to the lime-kiln. They may have believed that new works of equal rank
thus came into existence. What mattered one or several bays of the Basilica of
Constantine, if their admired coffering was revived in the vaults of the new
basilica of St Peter’s? Raphael himself came into conflict with the ^Conservator'^
on the Capitol when he wished to have brought away a few antiques secured
as a bequest from the Patrician Gabriele de’ Rossi. He based his demand on
the Papal commission; but the magistrate appealed in the name of the Will of
the testator and of the “rights of the People” to the Holy See itself, and the
master was obliged to abandon his claim—but not to the spiritual possession of
the objects. In the collection of this Gabriele de’ Rossi there were a Diana of
Ephesus and a Sacrifice of a Bull1. Even though he did not possess them, Raphael
immortalised them in his works.
§ Plans for the Mausoleum of Augustus: The Memorial to Leo X: Castiglione’s
Participation
In these questions he may already at an early stage have been thought
capable of judging. Bramante called him in as umpire in a competition; three
sculptors had to make copies of the Laocoon group, and Raphael gave the prize
and the execution in bronze, for Cardinal Grimani, to the young Jacopo San-
sovino. The confidence of the Pope had now appointed him to be judge over
1 Later on the garden front of the Villa Medici in Rome, now in the Uffizi.
202