Giulio Romano And The Palazzo Del Te PDF Download

This thesis examines Giulio Romano's Late Renaissance masterwork, Palazzo del Te (c. 1525-36) in Mantua, in the context of playing a critical role in the political success of his patron, Federico II Gonzaga, vis-à-vis Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. At the Palazzo del Te, Giulio combined a multiplicity of techniques throughout, as well as viewer engagement in the Sala dei Giganti (c. 1530-34). The clever complexity of Giulio's palazzo stood in contrast to the conventional, two-dimensional portraits executed by many Cinquecento court artists for their benefactors. For centuries, scholars have deliberated Giulio's underlying intentions for his mysterious Room of the Giants at the palace. The debates range from Vasari's praise of the chamber in the 16th century; to the 20th and 21st centuries, when many academics have surmised that Giulio's Sala dei Giganti exalted the Gonzaga and somehow referred - or paid tribute - to the Imperial Emperor. In contrast, I assert that Giulo's Room of the Giants represented something dramatically different. The space, with its Fall of the Giants frescoes, conceivably held covert criticism of Emperor Charles V and the authoritarian political regime of the Holy Roman Empire. Giulio's masterpiece-chamber potentially comprised indirect political dissent against foreign, Imperial occupation of the Italian peninsula, and also condemned the vicious quagmire of dynastic politics in early 16th century Italy. During the savagery of the Italian Wars (1494-1559), deliberately obscure discourse was of crucial importance, as the State and Church limited all forms of critical dialogue. This thesis additionally considers the duality of Giulio's Palazzo del Te - although the palace was an autonomous work of art, according to Adorno's Aesthetic Theory - it was also an exhibit of Federico's princely power, whilst demonstrating an oppositional stance against the totalitarian political environment of early 16th century Italy, mostly via Giulio's "ugly" giants in the Sala dei Giganti. After his visit to Palazzo del Te in 1530, the Imperial Emperor was so stupefied by Giulio's palazzo and the Sala di Psiche (c. 1526-28), the companion room to the Sala dei Giganti, that the Habsburg monarch elevated Federico II Gonzaga to the first Duke of Mantua. Conversely in 1532, Charles V visited Palazzo del Te again and viewed the Sala dei Giganti - when he had to interpret for himself the enigmatic iconography of Giulio's Fall of the Giants frescoes. I argue that it was plausible that the emperor comprehended Giulio's arcane, political game of protest, which was similar to the Humanist Annibale Caro's construal of the moral allegory at the gardens of Bomarzo: Monarchs must not abuse their power, nor should they position themselves higher than the gods. Giulio Romano's genius and sophisticated, subtle wit, especially at his Late Renaissance chef d' oeuvre, Palazzo del Te, solidified his own artistic reputation while enabling his patron to triumph - in the midst of the treachery and chaos of Charles V's gigantic, political re-structuring of early 16th century Italy and her loss of political autonomy.