VILLA FARNESINA, ROME

Baldassare Peruzzi built the Villa Farnesina for the papal bankerAgostino Chigiin 1508-1511—the first suburban villa built inRomein the 16th century. It replicated the country houses of the Roman patriciate described in ancient literature, its proportional relations of width, length, and height and tripartite plan taken directly fromVitruvius'treatise on architecture. Peruzzi provided a U-shaped two-storied structure with two openlogge(now glazed over) on the ground floor. TheLoggia di Psiche, between the two protruding wings, was originally the villa's main entry.In front of it was a podium, now sunken, used as a stage for theatrical productions. Its exterior frieze is sculptedall'anticawith putti clasping festoons and ribbons, heralding the lighthearted nature of the villa's interior ornamentations. In theLoggia de Psiche(1517-1518),Raphaeland assistantsfrescoedon the ceiling theCouncil of the Godsand theWedding Banquet ofCupidand Psyche, both made to look like tapestries hung to protect visitors from the sun. The second loggia, theSala di Galatea, overlooks the Tiber River and features Raphael's famedGalateafresco (1513) on one of the walls and a ceiling by Peruzzi (c. 1511) that depicts the owner's astrological chart. Sebastiano del Piombo rendered thelunettefrescoes with mythologies, including theFall of IcarusandFall of Phaeton. In c. 1517, Giovanni Antonio Bazzi, called il Sodoma, was charged with the decoration of the villa's bedroom, theStanza delle Nozze. He painted scenes from the life of the ancient hero Alexander the Great, including his marriage to Roxana, his meeting with Darius' widow, and his taming of Bucephalus, his horse. Next to theSala delle Nozzeis theSala delle Prospettive(1515-1517) by Peruzzi, a masterpiece of illusionism as the frescoes have transformed the room into a feigned loggia with painted views of the Roman countryside. Agostino Chigi died in 1520 and, at the end of the century, theFarnesepurchased the villa, hence the nameFarnesina. Today it functions as the Accademia dei Lincei, an academy of the sciences, and the Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe, the Roman department of drawings and prints.