DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68272#0061
VILLA MAD AM A, FARNE SIAN GARDENS AND VILLA PAPA GIULIO. 43
Vasari, says that Giulio Romano’s designs differed from Raphael’s in respect of that which
he completed of what the latter had begun. In a letter written by Baldassare Castiglione to
the Duke of Urbino on August 13th, 1522, he says that the design of the villa ordered by
Monsignor de Medici was given by Raphael to him shortly before his death, and is at Mantua.
There is a sketch of the villa in the background of the fresco of the Battle of Constantine,
painted in 1524, the year that Giulio Romano left Rome. When Giulio had to leave Rome
Giovanni also followed and helped him in Mantua. Here Giulio was architect for the Palazzo
del Te, a single-storeyed Doric villa-palace, a building of much character. It has a fine loggia,
opening into an enclosed garden court planned in the centre of the palace. The great arches of
this loggia repose on a group of four columns, a daring combination which has rarely been
successfully imitated. This building at Mantua places us in touch with the current architectural
ideas of Raphael’s school in Rome, and helps us to understand the scheme of the Villa Madama.
Benvenuto Cellini called at Mantua on his way to France in 1528, and saw the Palazzo del Te
in company with his old associate in Rome. He says in his memoirs : “ This painter lived
54.—THE FARNESIAN GARDENS ON THE PALATINE : ENTRANCE GATEWAY BY VIGNOLA.
From Pevcier and Fontaine.
like a nobleman, and was employed in a work for the Duke without the gate at Mantua at a place
called the Te. This work was grand and magnificent, as it appears to this day.” It is, in
fact, by far the soundest of Romano’s architectural essays.
The whole question of Raphael’s work as an architect is a very complex one. The truth
probably is that he was too much occupied with his other works to have given really serious
attention to architecture. As Bramante’s nephew he had probably heard a good deal about it,
and he was surrounded by some reliable and able architectural assistants, such as Antonio San
Gallo and Baldassare Peruzzi. The latter, as the architect of the Farnesina, Agostino Chigi’s
villa, which Raphael was decorating with the Story of Galatea in 1512-13, had already displayed
his extraordinary architectural gifts, which later on were to be so fully revealed in the Palazzo
Massimi. It is difficult to follow out the entire scheme of the proposed Villa Madama, of which
all that was built is a mere fragment of the original design. It would be quite characteristic of
the age to plunge into so great an undertaking as this with only a very general idea of its final
form. The whole plan was probably in quite a fluid state at the time of Raphael’s death in 1520
Vasari, says that Giulio Romano’s designs differed from Raphael’s in respect of that which
he completed of what the latter had begun. In a letter written by Baldassare Castiglione to
the Duke of Urbino on August 13th, 1522, he says that the design of the villa ordered by
Monsignor de Medici was given by Raphael to him shortly before his death, and is at Mantua.
There is a sketch of the villa in the background of the fresco of the Battle of Constantine,
painted in 1524, the year that Giulio Romano left Rome. When Giulio had to leave Rome
Giovanni also followed and helped him in Mantua. Here Giulio was architect for the Palazzo
del Te, a single-storeyed Doric villa-palace, a building of much character. It has a fine loggia,
opening into an enclosed garden court planned in the centre of the palace. The great arches of
this loggia repose on a group of four columns, a daring combination which has rarely been
successfully imitated. This building at Mantua places us in touch with the current architectural
ideas of Raphael’s school in Rome, and helps us to understand the scheme of the Villa Madama.
Benvenuto Cellini called at Mantua on his way to France in 1528, and saw the Palazzo del Te
in company with his old associate in Rome. He says in his memoirs : “ This painter lived
54.—THE FARNESIAN GARDENS ON THE PALATINE : ENTRANCE GATEWAY BY VIGNOLA.
From Pevcier and Fontaine.
like a nobleman, and was employed in a work for the Duke without the gate at Mantua at a place
called the Te. This work was grand and magnificent, as it appears to this day.” It is, in
fact, by far the soundest of Romano’s architectural essays.
The whole question of Raphael’s work as an architect is a very complex one. The truth
probably is that he was too much occupied with his other works to have given really serious
attention to architecture. As Bramante’s nephew he had probably heard a good deal about it,
and he was surrounded by some reliable and able architectural assistants, such as Antonio San
Gallo and Baldassare Peruzzi. The latter, as the architect of the Farnesina, Agostino Chigi’s
villa, which Raphael was decorating with the Story of Galatea in 1512-13, had already displayed
his extraordinary architectural gifts, which later on were to be so fully revealed in the Palazzo
Massimi. It is difficult to follow out the entire scheme of the proposed Villa Madama, of which
all that was built is a mere fragment of the original design. It would be quite characteristic of
the age to plunge into so great an undertaking as this with only a very general idea of its final
form. The whole plan was probably in quite a fluid state at the time of Raphael’s death in 1520