![]() ![]() ![]() But even before the death of Imperia in 1511 he had begun to court Margherita Gonzaga, the natural daughter of Francesco Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua he failed to pull this marriage off however, even though he had promised to give up all his business interests so as to appease the prejudices of the Mantuan court. He then embarked on an affair with the courtesan Imperia, famous for her beauty and culture, who bore him a daughter, Lucrezia. The rich banker also managed to ingratiate himself with the next pope, Leo X Medici, by organising feasts and lending sums of money.īefore moving into the Far¬nesina, Agostino Chigi lived in a house in Via dei Banchi with his young wife Margherita Saracini, who died childless in 1508. In 1509 Julius II accepted him into the papal familia and allowed the Chigi arms (six hills crowned with a star) to be charged with the Della Rovere oak. He assisted in Julius II’s election, and apart from financial matters, the two were quite attached by a shared love for art, literature, theatre and the an¬cient world. After the very brief pontificate of Pius III Tode¬schini Piccolomini, his business relations with Julius II della Rovere were no less profitable. By rationalising and nurturing the extraction and sale of this valuable mineral salt, which was indispensable for the dyeing of fabrics, Agostino became the pos¬sessor of a flourishing international monopoly with his own fleet, anchored at Porto Ercole. However the real ba¬sis of his immense fortune came from the rights he owned to the alum mines of Tolfa near Rome. With the election of the Borgia pope Alexander VI in 1492, business increased for the sienese bankers, and Agostino’s affairs prospered so well that within a short time he was lending huge sums of money to Cesare Borgia, Piero de’ Medici, Guidobaldo da Montefeltro and even to the French king Charles VIII. After receiving train¬ing in his father’s bank, he soon became familiar with the finances of the Papal States and at just twenty years old, he founded his first company in Rome. Agostino came from a family of mer¬chants who became bankers. It should re¬ally have been named after Agostino Chigi, the high¬ly ambitious patron and art-lover who was born in Siena in 1466 and who commissioned the Villa as the tangible sign of his own personality and high culture, decorating it magnificently and living in it until his death in 1520. The sober volumet¬ric and spatial layout of the Villa, devised by the architect Baldassarre Peruzzi, is indeed the per¬fect setting for its rich interior decoration, boasting frescos by great masters such as Raphael, Sebastiano del Piombo, Giovanni Antonio Bazzi known as Sodoma, and Peruzzi himself.Īfter a somewhat troubled history and many changes of ownership, the Villa now bears the name and preserves the memory of the Farnese family, who acquired it in 1579 in violation of the binding legal conditions imposed by its original owner. It is a masterpiece in which architectural design and pictorial decoration fuse in¬to a single marvellous synthesis. What makes the Golden House unique in Roman architecture is that Severus and Celer were using concrete in new and exciting ways rather than utilizing the material for just its structural purposes, the architects began to experiment with concrete in aesthetic modes, for instance, to make expansive domed spaces.The Villa Farnesina in Rome, built in the early six¬teenth century for the rich sienese banker Agostino Chigi and now owned by the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, is one of the noblest and most harmonious creations of the Italian Renaissance. They also used concrete extensively, including barrel vaults and domes throughout the complex. The architects, Severus and Celer, are known (thanks to the Roman historian Tacitus), and they built a grand palace, complete with courtyards, dining rooms, colonnades and fountains. Although the choice was not in the public interest, Nero’s desire to live in grand fashion did spur on the architectural revolution in Rome. ![]() ![]() The destruction allowed Nero to take over valuable real estate for his own building project a vast new villa. ( photo source)The Emperor Nero began building his infamous Domus Aurea, or Golden House, after a great fire swept through Rome in 64 C.E. Severus and Celer, octagon room, Domus Aurea, Rome, c. ![]()
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