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The Room of Maps at Caprarola, 1573-75
Abstract
This essay interprets the astronomical and geographical maps in the Villa Farnese at Caprarola in terms of the ideology of its patron, Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. The decoration-programmed by Cardinal Farnese, Fulvio Orsini, and Orazio Trigini de' Marii, and executed by Giovanni de' Vecchi, Raffaellino da Reggio, and Giovanni Antonio Vanosino da Varese-is read as a sign system constituting meaning within biblical history and the major discourses of the Counter-Reformation, including the nature and claims of the Christian Commonwealth, challenges to papal authority and Church doctrine, and the conflicts of interest between the papacy and family dynasties.
... This palace is architecturally, aesthetically, culturally, and historically more unique than other palaces, villas, or houses of the Farnese family, including the ones that belong to the public or are under private ownership. Based on the previous architectural documentation and interpretation studies [37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44] the authors could estimate the cultural significance and outstanding values of the palace: ...
The valorisation of cultural identity-centred brand icons has become a requested action nowadays promoting the marketing statement of local heritage sites that aren’t designated as UNESCO World Heritage. Thus, these sites might compete to enhance and safeguard cultural heritage and authentic cultural knowledge. Moreover, lessening the high negative impact of the customization approach on the conservation statement of the cultural asset, the research adopts a people-centred approach developing the interlinkages between cultural tourism marketing and conservative management to enhance the rapport between the community and the palace in a community-based cultural tourism manner. Therefore, this empirical study reviews the cultural significance of the Farnese Palace in Caprarola and its reflection on its marketing statement developing its brand image. It applies an integrated method that combines quantitative and qualitative analysis. It mainly assesses 165 online questionnaires with the public audience. The findings of this study draw a proposal for generating a people-centred heritage branding image (logo and slogan) of the Farnese Palace in Caprarola that seeks to generate a lifelong learning memory for the community and a long-term brand image for the visitors’ mentality.
... 5). Lippincott, 1990; Partridge, 1970Partridge, , 1971Partridge, , 1978Partridge, , 1995Partridge, , 2001Recupero, 1990), the researcher could estimate the cultural significance and outstanding values of Palazzo Farnese a Caprarola: ...
Heritage is a term that uses past lived experiences to represent the tangible and intangible socio-cultural expressions in the present and develop a future vision. The idea of heritage aims to pause the wave of modernisation or globalisation against the cultural identity of the autochthonous/Indigenous/local communities. Based on this concept, this research seeks to fill the gap between the heritage marketing process and the augmentation level of branding the site or city image. It strategically links the rural, urban, or cultural landscapes “overall”, the key stakeholders, the community, and the visitors. In this way, heritage becomes a mental priority and a form of psychosocial support for the communities and the visitors. Through edutainment activities, they can experience the culture as their lifelong learning or short-term memories. On the other hand, this form of branding could help preserve cultural identity as a source of socio-economic development.
The research adopts grounded theory as a research methodology in an interpretive-constructivism paradigm. The researcher used both qualitative and quantitative research methods to ensure integrated results. In addition to some international case studies, the investigation of the research is based on two empirical case studies in the Viterbo province of Italy: the Cultural Landscape of Civita di Bagnoregio; and the Farnese Palace in Caprarola – Villas of the Papal Nobility (Tentative Italian UNESCO World Heritage Sites). The research studies the qualitative methods of urban development and the urban identity preservation policies, which sustain the [local] cultural identity of the communities, and represent cultural heritage as the main generator of future heritage.
Contributing to the future of the heritage industry, the research contributes to the definition of the “Cultural Identity” concept based on heritage preservation valorising the values of cultural diversity in the same demographic area. The research outcomes aim to inform local authorities and decision-makers to generate socio-economic opportunities, especially for heritage custodians and the youth, enhancing the level of stewardship or “their sense of the place”. Heritage-based incentives and motivations can lead to innovative business ideas and promote the use of heritage while building better inter-relationships.
Additionally, the research develops a People-centred Heritage Branding Approach that invests the manifestations of the cultural identity to create a sustainable brand image and enhance community engagement. Thus, the research generates tools that provide insight into the updated socio-economic needs of the communities and at the same time, mitigates the rapid modification and deterioration of their cultural knowledge.
Based on EU Horizon 2020 Project Be.CulTour, the research strategically supports the communi-ty-cantered cultural tourism process by operationalising a dynamic partnership among three partners: people or the host community, the public sector, and the private sector. Subsequently, it develops a People-Public-Private Partnership as a circular/participatory business model (a corporate entity) to recognise the modern and contemporary interactions of the heritage community.
... Furthermore, the images in part 2 of the Astrolabium Planum relate to the calculation of a single horoscope-a particular moment, a date, and a time of day-and thus scholars were in effect suggesting that the Salone images were representative of precise moments in time. When the intention by artists and commissioners was to create in a fresco an image that did depict a precise moment in time, then we have examples of a number of extant/surviving horoscopic ceilings: the Old Sacristy of San Lorenzo, whose fresco represents a horoscope dated to 6 July 1439 at about 12 noon (Beck 1989); the ceiling depicting a sky map in the Villa Farnese at Caprarola (Partridge 1995); the decoration of the vault of the Camera dello Zodiaco of Federico Il Gonzaga (Lippincott and Signorini 1991); Giovanni Antonio Vanosino da Varese's ceiling (Hess 1967); and the horoscope tile in the Sala Bologna, Vatican Palace, 1575 (Urban 2013). Scholars have recreated these ceilings astronomically and astrologically and understand that they remect the skies at particular times and dates. ...
Giotto's frescos in the Salone of the Palazzo della Ragione, Padua, were painted across three registers. The upper register contains celestial astronomical imagery that few scholars have been able fully to understand. Using two sections of this upper register as case studies, I reconstructed the skies over Padua in the medieval period using astronomical and astrological software, together with the knowledge of poetic astronomy and naked eye astronomy. This approach showed that, rather than being simple decorations, these images are instead reflective of the constellations that dictated the seasons and the cycle of the year as seen over Padua c. 1309. Furthermore, they reveal a night sky that was populated with a constellational iconography that, I argue, was part of an ensouled cosmology.
Este artículo proporciona una perspectiva a la producción cartográfica a finales del siglo XVI al analizar las características distintivas, el uso de fuentes y los cambios a lo largo del tiempo en los mapamundis de 1587, 1590 y aproximadamente 1604 del noble milanés Urbano Monte (1544-1613). Sus mapas eran los más grandes del siglo XVI; no eran murales, fueron trazados en una proyección polar norte y se diseñaron para ser girados en torno a su punto central con el fin de facilitar la visualización de los detalles de los mapas a pesar de su gran tamaño. Aunque el tamaño de los mapas podría sugerir que estaban destinados a nobles, el público deseado por el cartógrafo fue en realidad estudiantes. Los mapas son recopilaciones de imágenes y textos de una amplia variedad de mapas y tratados geográficos contemporáneos, producto de la investigación en bibliotecas más que de entrevistas con exploradores. Algunos de los cambios que introdujo de su mapa de 1587 a su mapa de 1590 estuvieron motivados por el horror vacui, el miedo a dejar espacios en blanco en su mapa. Su mapa impreso hacia 1604, que sólo existe en la copia de prueba de Monte, es un desastre impublicable, ya que Monte cambió la proyección que utilizaba pero no alteró en consecuencia la geografía de su mapa.
Le eruzioni dei vulcani italiani rappresentate su mappe e affreschi
We examined ancient maps in manuscripts and in print or frescoes to look for the representation of the state of activity of Italian volcanoes between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The first evidence is found in a manuscript of an Arab geographer of the XII century, and in manuscripts of the fifteenth century. The printed maps of the 1500s are influenced by the production of Giacomo Gastaldi who, in our opinion, makes a peculiar error by reporting an activity, probably untrue at Filicudi. This error characterizes many subsequent maps and is finally corrected with the production of maps by authors of the Reign of Naples. The maps reproduced after Gastaldi and the eruption of Vesuvius in 1631 are a reference mark that can be used to date some remakes and corrections of the maps of the Vatican Gallery. We aim to show that the detailed knowledge of the record of activity of Italian volcanoes may help to better trace the origin of some maps and define also the age of restoration of the frescoes of the Vatican Museum.
The cartographic image of the peripheral European north was vague in the European political and cultural centers of the Late Renaissance, where the ethos was flavored by ambitions of supremacy through exploration and the Counter-Reformation. Maps were practical and symbolic manifestations of those aims. The author discusses the cartographic image-shaping of the European north in the mural atlases of three Late Renaissance Italian galleries. The article’s iconographic scope is derived from the concept of the cycle of mural maps. Holistically interpreted, the cycles of maps reveal the muralists’ desire to satisfy their patron’s will by designing the space according to various cartographic skills and artistic principles. The mural atlases are interpreted as fundamental elements of such cycles. The study is based on personal observations made in the galleries along with existing literature. The map cycles reveal the impulse during the Later Renaissance for obtaining up-to-date geographical information about the European northern periphery. The study reveals Olaus Magnus’s important role in upgrading geographical knowledge about the region, and how in the mural maps reflect his cartographic perception. The author concludes that Olaus Magnus’s depiction of the geographical shape of the European north impacted the iconography of the studied map cycles.
With the discovery of the tombs of the first early Christian martyrs in 1578, the papacy and the curia could not only sustain their claims for the primacy of Rome in theological matters based on the fact that it was the primary place of early Christian martyrdom, but now it became possible to support this claim with visual evidence. This evidentiary character of early Christian Martyrdom had significant consequences for the adoption and interpretation of the Roman liturgy, especially the veneration of saints that the Protestants so vehemently attempted to deny. This chapter explores the influence of this discovery in general but also in the context of an emergent scientific discourse at the Roman curia about celestial phenomena that received new impetus after the observation of a series of comets around the Jubilee Year of 1575, the interpretation of which would influence the pope’s decision to reform the Julian calendar. This reform would furthermore be adopted by the Oratorian—and later Cardinal-elect—Cesare Baronio who was commissioned to provide corrections for a new edition of the Martyrologium Romanum. The chapter suggests a far larger interrelationship between Baronio’s work on the Martyrologium and the discourse around the correct interpretation of celestial phenomena by Roman curialists. Additionally, it suggests an important influence on Baronio’s Martyrologium by some major iconographic programs developed in the Vatican Apostolic Palace at the time of Gregory XIII’s papacy.
This article analyzes contemporary stagings of Baroque operas that challenge the historical practice of orthodox ‘period’ productions, arguing that postmodern scenographers alter spectators’ perception and encounters with the past. Focusing on the scenography of two productions that appropriate Baroque theatricality, namely Herbert Wernicke's La Calisto (1993, Brussels) and Stefan Herheim's Xerxes (2012, Berlin; set Heike Scheele, cost. Gesine Völlm), I propose that the juxtaposition of aestheticized appearance with metatheatricality and a self-aware pastiche can be read as a rhetorical move to playfully approximate the past as part of a thoroughgoing change in the nature of historicism in the medium.
Ο αναγεννησιακός χάρτης αποτελεί ταυτόχρονα εργαλείο γνώσης και αντικείμενο αισθητικής απόλαυσης. Με τη διπλή τους γνωστική και αισθητική ιδιότητα, οι ζωγραφισμένοι χάρτες λειτουργούν ως οπτικά εργαλεία που καθιστούν δυνατή τη σύνδεση του αόρατου με το ορατό και, ταυτοχρόνως, ως καλλιτεχνήματα που επιτρέπουν τη μετατροπή του φυσικού δημιουργήματος σε ανθρώπινο επινόημα και κατασκεύασμα. Οι δύο αυτές λειτουργίες εμφανίζονται αλληλένδετες στα θεωρητικά κείμενα της εποχής. Οι φορητοί ζωγραφισμένοι χάρτες αποτελούν μέρος της παράδοσης των ζωγραφισμένων χαρτών. Συνδέονται με την παραγωγή αυτοτελών χαρτών σε περγαμηνή (πορτολάνοι και mappaemundi), κυρίως όμως με την παραγωγή τοιχογραφη μένων χαρτών, των οποίων μετατρέπουν τη δημόσια λειτουργία σε ιδιωτική. Οι ζωγραφισμένοι χάρτες έλκουν την καταγωγή τους από τη μικρογραφική τοπογραφική παράδοση. Στο πλαίσιο της παράδοσης αυτής, ο χάρτης καθίσταται σταδιακά ένα συμπληρωματικό εργαλείο ανάγνωσης και κατανόησης του κειμένου, έως ότου αυτονομηθεί από το κείμενο και αποβεί ξεχωριστό, αυτοτελές αντικείμενο. Η κατοχή και η έκθεση φορητών ζωγραφισμένων χαρτών, προσέλαβε σημαντικές διαστάσεις κατά τον 15ο και τον 16ο αιώνα, όπως προκύπτει από τις απογραφές της κινητής περιουσίας ηγεμόνων, πατρικίων, αξιωματούχων αλλά και πληβείων σε διάφορα κέντρα της Αναγέννησης (Φλωρεντία, Βενετία, Μοδένα, Μάντοβα, Άμστερνταμ αλλά και στις αυλές της Αγγλίας, της Γαλλίας και της Ουγγαρίας). Ανάμεσα στα χαρακτηριστικά της παραγωγής φορητών ζωγραφισμένων χαρτών σημαντικότερα είναι το εμπορικό ενδιαφέρον που παρουσίαζαν, οι μεγαλύτερες καλλιτεχνικές τους δυνατότητες (χρωματισμός, αντοχή υλικών), η ευελιξία στην έκθεση και η διασφάλιση των απόρρητων τοπογραφικών πληροφοριών. Η παράδοση των φορητών ζωγραφισμένων χαρτών επέδρασε στη χρήση των έντυπων χαρτών (επιχρωματισμός και έκθεση). Ο χάρτης της Ελλάδας του Μουσείου Μπενάκη με αρ. ευρ. 33115 (εικ. 2), είναι ανυπόγραφος και αχρονολόγητος. Είναι ζωγραφισμένος με τέμπερα σε ξύλο, έχει διαστάσεις 110 x 88 εκ. και δωρίθηκε στο μουσείο από την Η. Kecveis-Tobler το 1997. Το έργο σχετίζεται με τον χάρτη της Ελλάδας στη Guardaroba των Μεδίκων, τον πρώτο αναγεννησιακό κύκλο ζωγραφισμένων χαρτών που επιμελήθηκαν ο Ignazio Danti (1563-1575) και ο Stefano Buonsignori (1576-1586). Τον χάρτη της Ελλάδας στη Guardaroba φιλοτέχνησε ο Stefano Buonsignori το 1585 (εικ. 3). Τα δύο έργα στηρίζονται στην ανανεωμένη πτολεμάίκή χαρτογραφία της Ελλάδας, ιδίως την ιταλική (Giacomo Gastaldi, 1548-1560) (εικ. 4) που ενσωματώνει δεδομένα και τεχνικές από την παραγωγή των ναυτικών χαρτών-πορτολάνων της βενετικής ιδίως σχολής (Γεώργιος Σιδερής) (εικ. 5). Οι διαφορές μεταξύ των δύο έργων εντοπίζονται στην απόκλιση στον υπολογισμό των μεσημβρινών, στην απουσία μαρτελογίου στον ελληνικό χάρτη, σε διαφορές στην τοπωνυμία, τη θέση και τον διάκοσμο του επίτιτλου κοσμήματος (που δανείζεται στοιχεία από άλλον χάρτη του ίδιου κύκλου (εικ. 6-7), όπως και γενικότερα στον διάκοσμο των χαρτών. Το αθηναϊκό έργο ακολουθεί διακοσμητικές πρακτικές που συναντάμε σε έναν άλλο μεγάλο κύκλο χαρτογραφικής διακόσμησης, τη Στοά των Γεωγραφικών Χαρτών στο Βατικανό (1579-1581), που επιμελήθηκε ο Egnazio Danti (εικ. 8-9). Οι διαφορές αυτές επιτρέπουν να υποθέσουμε ότι το έργο αντιγράφηκε επιτόπου, και ενδεχομένως πριν ολοκληρωθεί ο χαρτογραφικός διάκοσμος της Guardaroba. Ο χάρτης της Κέρκυρας της Συλλογής Κυριαζοπούλου (εικ. 10) είναι και αυτός ανυπόγραφος και αχρονολόγητος, ζωγραφισμένος με την τεχνική της τέμπερας σε ξύλο, και διαστάσεων 35,7 x 38 εκ. Πρόκειται για ένα μικρότερο έργο, με αρκετές φθορές, το οποίο στηρίζεται στον χάρτη-τοιχογραφία της Κέρκυρας, που περιλαμβάνεται στη Στοά των Γεωγραφικών Χαρτών του Βατικανού (εικ. 11-12), τη χαρτογραφική ευθύνη της οποίας είχε ο δομινικανός Egnazio Danti, κοσμογράφος του πάπα από το 1580 και μετά. Ο χάρτης της Κέρκυρας της Συλλογής Κυριαζοπούλου στηρίζεται στον βατικανό χάρτη χωρίς να τον αντιγράφει. Από αυτόν κρατά τις γεωγραφικές συντεταγμένες, το περίγραμμα και τον προσανατολισμό του νησιού, τη βινιέτα με την αναπαράσταση της πόλης της Κέρκυρας (εικ. 13-14), το χαρακτηριστικό σε όλα τα έργα της Στοάς ανεμολόγιο και τον ειδικό εικαστικό χειρισμό της θάλασσας που περιβάλλει το νησί. Οι διαφορές, πέρα από τη διακόσμηση, εστιάζονται κυρίως στο ανάγλυφο και τον χρωματισμό του χάρτη. Ο κατασκευαστής του χάρτη της Συλλογής Κυριαζοπούλου εμφανίζεται περισσότερο ενημερωμένος ως προς την ορθότερη εκφορά των τοπωνυμίων του νησιού. Η χαρτογράφηση στηρίζεται στους έντυπους χάρτες του νησιού που κυκλοφόρησαν από τα βενετικά τυπογραφεία κατά την περίοδο 1565-1575, ιδιαιτέρως τον χάρτη του G. Fr. Camocio (περ. 1571) (εικ. 15). Τα δυο έργα των ελληνικών συλλογών σχετίζονται μεταξύ τους, όπως και με τα υπόλοιπα έργα των μεγάλων χαρτογραφικών κύκλων της Φλωρεντίας και του Βατικανού. Η συνάφεια είναι αισθητή τόσο στο επίπεδο της αισθητικής, όσο και σε εκείνο της τεχνοτροπίας και της χαρτογραφικής εκτέλεσης. Ο κοινός χρωματισμός των χαρτών, το κοινό χέρι των τοπωνυμικών εγγραφών —ακόμη και στις λεπτομέρειες του καλλιγραφικού χειρισμού τους-, τα κοινά διακοσμητικά μοτίβα με πλοία και θαλάσσια κοίτη μέχρι τα δάνεια κοσμημάτων και τεχνοτροπιών από άλλα σύγχρονα έργα των ίδιων κύκλων, όλα υποδηλώνουν την ύπαρξη ενός συγκεκριμένου εργαστηρίου παραγωγής ζωγραφισμένων χαρτών, το οποίο —στο περιθώριο των μεγάλων εργασιών χαρτογραφικής διακόσμησης που αναλάμβανε- παρήγαγε και αυτοτελή φορητά αντίγραφα. Η πρακτική αυτή συνεχίστηκε πιθανότατα από άλλους καλλιτέχνες αργότερα, όταν πλέον οι κοσμογραφικές αίθουσες είχαν ολοκληρωθεί και οι καλλιτέχνες τους είχαν σκορπιστεί σε άλλα μέρη. Πρόκειται για μια διαδικασία διάχυσης των έργων: η παραγωγή φορητών αντιγράφων ανανέωνε την παλαιά παράδοση κατοχής και έκθεσης ζωγραφισμένων φορητών χαρτών και ανταποκρινόταν στις επιθυμίες των καλλιεργημένων και εύπορων κοινωνικών elites της Ιταλίας του φθίνοντος 16ου και του 17ου αιώνα, που αποζητούσαν φορητά ζωγραφισμένα ενθύμια από τις λαμπρές κοσμογραφικές αίθουσες του Βατικανού ή της Φλωρεντίας. Η κατοχή και η έκθεση ζωγραφισμένων χαρτών, όπως οι δύο που μας απασχολούν εδώ, αποσκοπούσε να προσδώσει αίγλη και κύρος στους κατόχους, να υπαινιχθεί τον κοσμοπολιτισμό και τον πατριωτισμό τους, τις γνώσεις και τη γεωγραφική τους ενημέρωση. Επιπλέον, οι φορητοί ζωγραφισμένοι χάρτες, καθώς παρέπεμπαν στα συστήματα πανσοφίας των κοσμογραφικών αιθουσών, υπαινίσσονταν ότι οι κάτοχοι τους ήταν σε επαφή με τις εξέχουσες πολιτικές και διανοητικές κοινότητες που είχαν τη δυνατότητα της εποπτικής θεώρησης αλλά και της διαχείρισης του κόσμου.
The study is dedicated to cityscapes of Genoa found in Italian palaces and books, and in collections of urban iconography in XVI century. Two images are given special interest: the view of Genoa in the Epitome de la Corographie d'Europe of G. Guérault (1553) and A. van Wyngaerde's etching (1553). The latter is here proposed as model for the Civitates Orbis Terrarum, considering its analysis and the relationships of Spanish Court with German and Flemish printers. Also examined is the relation of Wyngaerde's view with some Spanish works, and especially with the view of Genoa painted at Viso del Marqués palace. There, together with the traditional landmarks of Genoa, can be seen contemporary buildings admired by the committente of the Spanish palace and kept in mind by Genoese painters that had worked in them before.
How did maps of the distant reaches of the world communicate to the public in an era when exploration of those territories was still ongoing and knowledge about them remained incomplete? And why did Renaissance rulers frequently commission large-scale painted maps of those territories when they knew that they would soon be proven obsolete by newer, more accurate information? The Mapping of Power in Renaissance Italy addresses these questions by bridging the disciplines of art history and the histories of science, cartography, and geography to closely examine surviving Italian painted maps that were commissioned during a period better known for its printed maps and atlases. Challenging the belief that maps are strictly neutral or technical markers of geographic progress, this well-illustrated study investigates the symbolic and propagandistic dimensions of these painted maps as products of the competitive and ambitious European court culture that produced them.
Il pontificato non vuol esser cercato, e chi lo cerca non lo trova
Paul III Farnese to Cardinal Alessandro Farnese
The Massive Palazzo Farnese at Caprarola looms over its plain, a mute witness to the former power of the family (fig. 1). The rocca was initiated by the first Cardinal Alessandro (Pope Paul III) and fully and magnificently developed by the second Cardinal Alessandro, his grandson. Inside, its decoration boasts of family deeds and silently eliminates family failures. Much of the decoration was minutely described by contemporaries, and documents and decoration have been carefully studied by modern scholars. However one of the major halls, that which evoked the greatest contemporary admiration, the Sala della Cosmografia, can profitably be looked at again (figs. 2-4, 8, 9).
Contextual and interpretive approaches have broadened perspectives on historical cartography since the 1980s, but maps still continue to be understood as a means of encoding and communicating spatial information and ideas. These established approaches to maps, however, are embedded in modernist assumptions and may misrepresent the function and meaning of maps, especially in contexts such as Renaissance Europe. This article considers the meaning of the magical associations and aspects of Renaissance maps from a relational perspective. It is argued on historical and theoretical grounds that maps engaged, and were recognized to engage, directly with the workings of the world and thus exercised causations of a magical kind.The explicit magical associations of cartography waned towards the end of the 17th century, but the magic of maps became hidden rather than lost in the process.
The Vatican Map Gallery (1579-81) contains fifty-one historical paintings in its vault and twenty-three historical vignettes on its monumental maps of Italy. Inspired by an early-Christian conception of the past, the vault paintings illustrate a "perfect" history, typified by saints' miracles. The contrasting vignettes demand more painstaking interpretation. Embedded in geography, they appear to exemplify a terrestrial history (reminiscent of Orosius) that, when not bathed in blood, teaches the vanity of earthbound strivings. Maps for history did not again take this form.
Francesco II Gonzaga, fourth Marquis of Mantua (1484–1579), commissioned sophisticated painted cycles of maps and city views for his two country palaces at Gonzaga and Marmirolo and for his Mantuan townhouse, the Palazzo di San Sebastiano. Archival research enables us to reconstruct these lost cartographical ensembles, which constitute important early examples of a genre of palace decoration which became fashionable in Renaissance Italy. Francesco's efforts to collect the highest‐quality cartographical materials for the creation of these map cycles are chronicled in his correspondence, which reveals him to have been a well‐informed patron, capable of uncompromising standards and discriminating taste.
Though some Renaissance literary and philosophical texts describe Proteus as a deceptive shapeshifter, while others treat him as a prophet, contemporary visual images consistently depict him as godlike and venerable. Spanning a century, these images from France, Germany, and Italy show the struggle with Proteus as a heroic encounter with a prophetic deity, though later images tend to intensify and dramatize this confrontation. Francis Bacon's interpretation of wrestling with Proteus as emblematic of scientific experimentation may also have influenced subsequent depictions of this mythic scene.
MLN 119.1 Supplement (2004) S88-S107
Historians of cartography have observed that the proliferation of maps and mural map cycles in 16th century Italy is evidently intertwined with the shifting configurations of political and territorial hegemony that mark the early modern period. These maps trace and celebrate the expansion of Europe into Africa, Asia, and the Americas, and document claims to territorial possessions within both Europe and its newfound lands. They appear in paintings as accoutrements of political power, they fresco the walls of the private quarters and public chambers of powerful rulers and regimes. Most of them use Ptolemaic techniques to create mathematically proportioned projections and scales; the resulting precisions imply that the jurisdictions and polities they document are precise and "real"—that they are legitimate and historically stable and continuous. But frequently these maps are in fact graphic representations of what Eric Wolf once called "imagined entities," rather than actual jurisdictions or polities. As such, they are polemical and controversial—fluid rather than frozen in time and space. In this paper for Salvatore I want to look at [End Page S88] how and why three such imagined entities were depicted in the Galleria delle Carte Geografiche in the Vatican Palace.
The Galleria was executed from 1578-1581 during the pontificate of Gregory XIII (1572-85). Its walls (close to 400 feet long) are decorated with thirty-two panels of maps of various regions in Italy designed by the Dominican cartographer, Ignazio Danti, and its vault is frescoed with an intricate arrangement of panels of various sizes, shapes, and hues. Originally there was an anamorphosis located at the north end of the Gallery opposite the entrance, a mirror displaying an image of the Eucharist reflected from a distortion hidden above. [End Page S89]
A walk down the length of the gallery from south to north simulated a walk down the Italian peninsula from north to south, following the spine of the Apennines from Venice and Genoa down to Sicily. At the south entrance to the corridor two maps designating Italia Antiqua (to the left) and Italia Nova (to the right) faced each other. This pair introduce the two walls of maps of particular regions, many of which contain detailed miniatures of important cities. The maps are scaled and contain much hydrological and topographical detail with particular attention given to lighting the undulation of hills and valleys; some have diminutive vignettes of specific historical events. Framing the south door, which was the entrance to the Galleria, were smaller maps of Venice and Ancona (to the left) and Genoa and Civitavecchia (to the right). Framing the portal at the north end which originally displayed the mirror reflecting the anamorphosis of the Eucharist, were maps of The Isle of Corfú and the Tremiti Islands to the left and the Isle of Malta and The Isle of Elba to the right.
The south entrance of the Galleria (framed by maps of Genoa, Venice, Civitavecchia and Ancona which introduce the maps of Italia Antiqua and Italia Nova) connects to the Gallery and Chapel of Pius V. On this level, both the Gallery and the Chapel of Pius V provide entrances on their eastern sides into a series of rooms that lead to the stanze and loggia of Raphael, and to the Sala di Costantino. A staircase flanking the western end of the Cortile della Sentinella descends from the southern entrance to the Chapel of Pius V down a floor directly to the western entrance to the Sistine Chapel which in turn opens into the Sala Regia at its eastern entrance. These are all public rooms; the Sala Regia and the Cappella Sistina are of particular importance. The Sala Regia was the primary locus of public consistories, the room where Popes formally received secular rulers and ambassadors; the Cappella Sistina was the locus of the sermons delivered coram papam. The north entrance to the Galleria, framed by maps of Elba, Malta, the Tremiti Islands, and the Isle of Corfù led to Gregory's private chambers and to the Tower of Winds. [End Page S90]
The maps...
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