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Architecture

Raphael's career as an architect saw him work on St Peter's Basilica, Vatican

Details of the Loggia of Galatea

published 1845

Etching | RCIN 854182

An etching by Carlo Pontani depicting a plan and details of the Loggia of Galatea, the garden loggia on the Tiber side of the Villa Farnesina, Rome. This print was published by Pontani in "Opere architettoniche di Raffaello Sanzio, incise e dichiarate dall'Architetto Carlo Pontani", published in two volumes in 1841 and 1845. The print is lettered with the title in Italian and a scale. Signed by the printmaker. Annotated on the verso.

Agostino Chigi, a Sienese banker, commissioned the Villa Farnesina from Baldassarre Peruzzi, who designed and erected it in c.1506-1510. In the Loggia of Galatea, Baldassarre Peruzzi in c.1510-11 frescoed a sky like the one that would have been seen in 1466 at the hour of Chigi's birth, with stories of gods and heroes, which symbolized constellations, planets, and signs of the zodiac (see Bibliographic References).

The loggia frescoed by Peruzzi comprises 26 compartments located in three areas separated by architectural elements. In the hexagonal compartments are represented the planetary gods - Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Apollo (representing the Sun) and Diana (representing the Moon) and the signs of the Zodiac, beginning with Aries and ending the figurative journey in Pisces. In the pediments, interspersed with the signs, the constellations of fixed stars are highlighted, which, in the sky, are placed in relation to each zodiacal divinity. In the ceiling panel several constellations are emphasized in two large horizontal formats: on the right Ursa Major; on the left Perseus and Pegasus. Below the ceiling, the nine lunettes depicting stories from the Metamorphosis by Ovid have been attributed to Sebastiano dal Piombo (see Bibliographic References).
  • Added to the Prince Consort's Raphael Collection (c.1853-1876)