Italian Renaissance Painting: The Sixteenth Century

Professor David Rosand


Raphael in Rome

Alba Madonna (ca. 1510). Panel, transferred to canvas, tondo: diameter 95 cm. Washington, National Gallery of Art

Madonna della Sedia (ca. 1513-14). Panel, tondo: diameter 71 cm. Florence, Galleria Pitti

Madonna di Foligno (Madonna and Child with SS. John the Baptist, Francis, and Jerome, and the Donor Siaismondo de' Conti (1512). Panel, transferred to canvas, 301 x 198 cm. Rome, Pinacoteca Vaticana

Sistine Madonna (Madonna and Child with SS. Sixtus and Barbara) (1512-13). Canvas, 265 x 196 cm. Dresden, Gemaldegalerie Portrait of Pope Julius II (ca. 1511-12). Panel, 108 x 80 cm. London, National Gallery

Portrait of Tommaso Inghirami (ca. 1513-14). Panel, 91 x 61 cm. Florence, Galleria Pitti Portrait of Baldasar Castiglione (ca. 1514-15). Panel, transferred to canvas, 82 x 66 cm. Paris, Musee du Louvre

The Vatican Stanze

Stanza della Segnatura (1508-11)

Ceiling (c. 1508-9, begun by Sodoma): Theology / Adam and Eve (Original Sin) / Justice / Judgment of Solomon / Philosophy / The Universe (Urania) / Poetry / Apollo and Marsyas

Walls: Disputa (c. 1509-10), Parnassus (c. 1510-11), School of Athens (c. 1510-11), Jurisprudence (Virtues of Justice: Fortitude, Prudence, Temperence; Civil Law: Consigning of the Pandects to Justinian; Canon Law: Approval of the Decretals by Pope Gregory IX) (c. 1511)


Stanza d'Eliodoro (1512-14)

Ceiling (1514): Appearance of God to Noah, Sacrifice of Isaac, Moses and the Burning Bush, Jacob's Ladder Walls: Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple (c. 1512), The Mass at Bolsena (c. 1512-13), Deliverance of St. Peter from Prison (c. 1512), Repulse of Attila by Pope Leo 1 (c. 1513-14)



Stanza dell'Incendio (1514-17)


[Ceiling decorated by Perugino (1508)] Walls: The Fire in the Borgo (c. 1514-15), Coronation of Charlemagne (c. 1516-17), The Battle of Ostia (c. 1515), The Oath of Pope Leo 111 (1516-17)



Rome and the Papacy of Julius II

Raphael

Reading Assignments

Vasari, Lives of the Artists, vol. I: Life of Raphael (L)(R)

Wolfflin, Classic Art, chapter IV: Raphael (3. "The Camera della Segnatura," 4. "The Camera d'Eliodoro," 5. "The Tapestry Cartoons," 6. "The Roman Portraits," 7. "Roman Altar-Pieces") (L)(R)



Further Suggestions

David Rosand, "'Divinita di cosa dipinta': Pictorial Structure and the Legibility of the Altarpiece," in The Altarpiece in the Renaissance, ed. Peter Humfrey and Martin Kemp (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), pp. 143-164: some basic issues of structure and meaning, especially in Raphael's Disuta (R)

Ingrid D. Rowland, "The Intellectual Background of the School of Athens: Tracking Divine Wisdom in the Rome of Julius II," in Marcia Hall, ed. Raphael's "School of Athens" (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997, pp. 131-170: an excellent discussion of the humanist culture of the papal court

John Shearman, "The Vatican Stanze: Functions and Decoration," in George Holmes, ed., Art and Politics in Renaissance Italy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), pp. 185-240: a good introduction to the subject

Carl Gustaf Stridbeck, Raphael Studies, I. A Puzzling Passage in Vasari's "Vite" (Stockholm Studies in History of Art), (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1960): an interesting reading of the structures of the School of Athens within the context of Renaissance intellectual theory and practice

Arnold Nesselrath, Raphael's School of Athens (Vatican City State, 1996): presentation of the recent restoration of the fresco

Guido Cornini, et al., Raphael in the Apartments of Julius II and Leo X (Milan: Electa, 1993): important studies with excellent illustrations