Raphael and the Antique into Agostino Chigi’s Villa 1 October 2020 -10 January 2021 The exhibition at the Villa Farnesina on the occasion of the 5th centenary of the death of Raffaello Sanzio and Agostino Chigi (April 1520 - April 2020)

The anniversary of Raphael's death (April 6th, 1520 - April 6th, 2020) coincides with another anniversary: the death of the Pope's very rich banker, the Sienese Agostino Chigi, which took place on April 11, 1520, only five days after the Master of Urbino. As it is known, the two great protagonists of the Renaissance, in different capacities, were joined by a very close relationship founded on friendship and animated by the humanistic ambition of the magnum facere: besides the popes Julius II and Leo X, Agostino Chigi was the most assiduous and generous client of Raphael. This latter frequented the Chigian residence, currently Villa Farnesina, not only as an artist in charge of performing the famous fresco in the Loggia di Galatea and decorating the vault of the Loggia di Psiche, but also as a "relative" of the landlord, admiring and studying the ancient collections that the banker was collecting in the villa and its gardens (not only statues, but reliefs, medals and spectacular cameos), example models for the inventions that Raphael and his workshop as well as other artists spread through paintings, tapestries, prints and pottery. The exhibition, curated by the Lincei Fellow Alessandro Zuccari and the art historian Costanza Barbieri will highlight a crucial aspect of the Renaissance that has not been sufficiently highlighted so far: if the classical turning point of Raphael in the second decade of the sixteenth century is well known, little attention has been paid to the influence that the prestigious collection of statues, sarcophagi, reliefs, cameos and ancient coins collected by Agostino Chigi in his Villa had on Urbinate artist. In-depth investigations allow today to reconstruct in a more detailed way those "magnificent collections", dispersed after the death of the Sienese banker and transmigrated to other great Roman and European collections. Thanks to important loans of works from the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the Capitoline Museums and the Museum of Palazzo Altemps in Rome, the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen-Skulpturensammlung in Dresden, the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and the Vatican Museums - it will be possible to rearrange, at least partly, the Chigi collection in its original place and to have full understanding about the source of inspiration for the classic style of Raphael and his workshop, Peruzzi, Sebastiano del Piombo and Sodoma contributing to the development of the full Renaissance.

Ulteriori info: Barbara Notaro Dietrich cell 0039 3487946585; [email protected]