Villa Madama
Prime Minister of Italy
Antonio da Sangallo the Younger
Villa Madama is a Renaissance-style rural palace (villa) located on Via di Villa Madama #250 in Rome, Italy. Located west of the city center and a few miles north of the Vatican, and just south of the Foro Olimpico Stadium. Even though incomplete, this villa with its loggia and segmented columned garden court and its casino with an open center and terraced gardens, was initially planned by Raphael, and highly influential for subsequent architects of the High Renaissance.
Construction
In the 1518, then the Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, cousin of the reigning pontiff Leo X, commissioned the initial design of the villa from Raphael. However Raphael died in 1520, and the work continued under disciples of Raphael, including Antonio da Sangallo the Younger in construction and a large team involved in the decoration. There appear to have been frequent disputes over the plans. Construction soon ceased and the villa was far from complete, when after the death of Leo X in 1521, the cardinal had returned to Florence. In 1523, with Giulio de' Medici's ascension to Pope Clement VII, work restarted and the apartment and garden loggia were completed that year. The decorations of the Villa are by Giulio Romano and Baldassare Peruzzi, both major architects in their own right; Giovanni da Udine completed the bas-reliefs in stucco, inspired by the classic Ancient Roman reliefs unearthed from the then rediscovered Domus Aurea of Nero; and finally, both Giovan Francesco Penni ("il Fattore") and the Florentine sculptor Baccio Bandinelli worked there too. Aside from the Raphael loggia, the villa's greatest artistic element is the salone painted by Giulio Romano, with its magnificent vaulted ceiling.
In 1527, during the Sack of Rome, parts of the structure were pillaged and suffered from fire. Some sections were rebuilt, but the villa was never completed. It is not entirely clear how much of the layout and decoration can be attributed to any one of the artists involved.
Legacy and gardens
The Villa Madama was one of the first of the revived Roman type of suburban villas designed for parties and entertainment built in 16th century Rome, and it was consciously conceived to rival descriptions of the villas of Antiquity, like Pliny's famous description of his own.
It had a courtyard with a monumental flight of steps, a circular court around which formal gardens were arranged, an open-air theater excavated in the hillside, a hippodrome below, and a terraced garden with views of the Tiber river.
In the garden facing the loggia, the Elephant Fountain, designed by Giovanni da Udine, commemorates the Indian elephant "Annone", brought to Rome by a Portuguese ambassador for the consecration of Leo X in 1514.
Ownership after completion
The "Madama" of its name was Margaret of Austria, the same who is remembered in Palazzo Madama in Rome, seat of the Italian Senate. After the death of Clement VII, the villa remained Medici property, first belonging to Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici, and later to Duke Alessandro, Lord of Florence, who married Margaret of Parma the illegitimate daughter of Charles V, but left her a widow at the age of 15. She married Ottavio Farnese, a nephew of Pope Paul III and was soon widowed again, but at Margaret's death, the villa passed into the Farnese family, Dukes of Parma and Piacenza, who let it slowly fall into ruin.
The villa was restored by Carlo, Count Dentice di Frasso, who acquired the property in 1925, and his American wife, the former Dorothy Cadwell Taylor. Eventually the Frassos leased it to the Italian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and it was soon purchased by Mussolini in 1941. Mussolini's monumental neo-Roman Foro Italico sports complex is next to the villa, on the site of its racetrack.
Villa Madama is the property of the Italian Government, which uses it for international guests and press conferences. Entrance is limited and touring of gardens requires prior permission with Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On April 20, 2015 the Italian EU Presidency hosted a dinner in the Villa Madama for all Speakers and Presidents of national parliaments of the European Union.
Further reading
- Attlee, Helena (2006). Italian Gardens - A Cultural History (paperback). London: Frances Lincoln. pp. 240 pages. ISBN 978-0-7112-3392-8.
- Greenwood, W.E. Villa Madama Rome, A Reconstruction (New York: William Helburn, Inc., 1928)
External links
- Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs website: Villa Madama
- Satellite photo.
Media related to Villa Madama (Rome) at Wikimedia Commons
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- Baronci Altarpiece (1500–1501)
- St. Sebastian (1501–1502)
- Resurrection of Christ (1499–1502)
- Mond Crucifixion (1502–1503)
- Madonna and Child with the Book (c. 1503)
- Solly Madonna (c. 1500–1504)
- Oddi Altar (1502–1504)
- Conestabile Madonna (c. 1502–1504)
- Portrait of a Man (c. 1503–1504)
- Vision of a Knight (1503–1504)
- The Marriage of the Virgin (1504)
- Diotallevi Madonna (c. 1504)
- Portrait of Perugino 1 (c. 1504)
- Colonna Altarpiece (c. 1503–1505)
- St George (c. 1503–1505)
- Three Graces (c. 1503–1505)
- St Michael (c. 1504–1505)
- Christ Blessing (c. 1502–1504)
- Portrait of Pietro Bembo (c. 1504)
- Portrait of Elisabetta Gonzaga 2 (c. 1504–1505)
- Portrait of Emilia Pia da Montefeltro 2 (c. 1504–1505)
- Small Cowper Madonna (c. 1504–1505)
- Terranuova Madonna (c. 1504–1505)
- Madonna del Granduca (c. 1505)
- St George and the Dragon (c. 1505)
- Young Man with an Apple (c. 1505)
- Self-portrait (1504–1506)
- La donna gravida (1505–1506)
- Madonna del Cardellino (c. 1505–1506)
- Young Woman with Unicorn (c. 1505–1506)
- Madonna del Prato (1506)
- Madonna with Beardless St Joseph (c. 1506)
- Portrait of Agnolo Doni (c. 1506)
- Portrait of Guidobaldo da Montefeltro (c. 1506)
- Portrait of Maddalena Doni (c. 1506)
- Ansidei Madonna (1505–1507)
- Madonna of the Pinks (c. 1506–1507)
- Bridgewater Madonna (c. 1507–1508)
- The Deposition (1507)
- Madonna of the Baldacchino (c. 1506–1508)
- La belle jardinière (1507–1508) (completed by Ridolfo Ghirlandaio)
- Canigiani Holy Family (c. 1507–1508)
- Colonna Madonna (c. 1507–1508)
- Portrait of a Young Woman (La Muta) (c. 1507–1508)
- Esterhazy Madonna (c. 1508)
- Niccolini-Cowper Madonna (1508)
- Tempi Madonna (1508)
- St Catherine of Alexandria (c. 1507–1509)
- Portrait of Tommaso Inghirami (c. 1509)
- Garvagh Madonna (c. 1509–1510)
- Portrait of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (c. 1509–1511)
- Portrait of a Cardinal (c. 1510–1511)
- Alba Madonna (c. 1511)
- Madonna of Loreto (c. 1511)
- The Prophet Isaiah (1511–1512)
- Madonna of Foligno (c. 1511–1512)
- Portrait of Pope Julius II (1511, 1512)
- Galatea (c. 1512)
- Madonna with the Fish (c. 1512–1514)
- Madonna della Seggiola (c. 1513–1514)
- Madonna of the Candelabra (c. 1513–1514)
- Sistine Madonna (c. 1513–1514)
- Madonna dell'Impannata (c. 1513–1514)
- Madonna della Tenda (c. 1513–1514)
- Portrait of a Young Man (c. 1513–1514)
- Sibyls (1514)
- Portrait of Bindo Altoviti (c. 1512–1515)
- Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione (c. 1514–1515)
- Christ Falling on the Way to Calvary (c. 1514–1516)
- Creation of the World (1516)
- Portrait of Andrea Navagero and Agostino Beazzano (1516)
- Portrait of Cardinal Bibbiena (c. 1516)
- La velata (c. 1516)
- Visitation (c. 1517)
- Ecstasy of St Cecilia (c. 1514–1517)
- Madonna with the Blue Diadem (c. 1510–1518)
- The Holy Family of Francis I (1518)
- St. Michael Vanquishing Satan (1518)
- Ezekiel's Vision (c. 1518)
- Portrait of Doña Isabel de Requesens y Enríquez de Cardona-Anglesola (with Giulio Romano) (c. 1518)
- St Margaret and the Dragon (c. 1518)
- La Fornarina (1518–1519)
- Small Holy Family (c. 1518–1519) (with Giulio Romano)
- Portrait of a Young Woman (c. 1518–1519) (with Giulio Romano)
- Transfiguration (1516–1520)
- Madonna de Bogota (c. 1517–1520)
- Portrait of Pope Leo X with Two Cardinals (c. 1518–1520)
- Madonna of the Rose (1518–1520)
- Self-Portrait with a Friend (1518–1520)
- The Parnassus (1509–1511)
- The School of Athens (1509–1511)
- Disputation of the Holy Sacrament (1510–1511)
- Cardinal and Theological Virtues (1511)
- The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple (1511–1512)
- The Mass at Bolsena (1512–1514)
- The Meeting of Leo the Great and Attila (1513–1514)
- Deliverance of Saint Peter (1514)
- The Fire in the Borgo (c. 1514–1517) (executed by Giulio Romano)
- Miraculous Draught of Fishes (1514–1516)
- Christ's Charge to Peter (1514–1516)
- Healing of the Lame Man (1514–1516)
- Death of Ananias (1514–1516)
- Stoning of St. Stephen (1514–1516)
- Conversion of the Proconsul (1514–1516)
- Sacrifice at Lystra (1514–1516)
- St Paul in Prison (1514–1516)
- St Paul Preaching in Athens (1514–1516)
- Lucretia (1500s)
- Adoration of the Shepherds (c. 1508)
- Jonah (1520) (executed by Lorenzetto)
- Elijah (c. 1520–1524) (executed by Lorenzetto and Raffaello da Montelupo)
- Chigi Chapel (1507–1520) (continued by other architects)
- Palazzo Jacopo da Brescia (1515–1519)
- Palazzo Branconio dell'Aquila (c. 1520)
- Sant'Eligio degli Orefici (1509–1575) (completed by Baldassare Peruzzi and Bastiano da Sangallo)
- Villa Madama (1518–1525) (completed by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and other disciples)
- Villa Farnesina (decoration)
- Giovanni Santi (father)
- Imperia Cognati (mistress and model)
- Margarita Luti (mistress and model)
- Giulio Romano (disciple and collaborator)
- Raphael and La Fornarina (1813 painting)
- Raphael (1894 opera)
- La Fornarina (1944 film)
- Raffaello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module
- SS Raffaello
- Raphael (crater)
- Vatican loggias
- 1 Also attributed to Lorenzo di Credi
- 2 Attributed
Preceded by Villa Giulia | Landmarks of Rome Villa Madama | Succeeded by Fontana delle Api |