This means the
suburban villa built by Peruzzi at the beginning of the
1500's for the Sienese banker Agostino Chigi, passing,
in 1580, to the Farnese family. Built along the banks of
the Tiber, about halfway between the islet Tiberina and
the Regina Coeli
prison, it is the absolute prototype of the suburban
villa in Rome, uniting harmony and proportion, according
to those canons of the Roman culture of the 16th century.
There is a central block with side projections, loggia
and reservoir, besides the frescoes by Raphael and shop,
the famous room with Chigi's horoscope, decorated by
Baldassarre Peruzzi and Sebastiano del Piombo, Venetian
Artist, who was in Rome thanks to the assistance of the
rich banker.
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The villa holds, on the ground
floor, the famous portrayal of the Galatea. Raphael painted
it for the famous Siena banker in 1511, under a lunette
frescoed by Sebastiano del Piombo - the author, together
with Peruzzi, of the rest of the decoratI ions of the room.
The Nereid is standing on a shell pulled by a pair of
dolphins driven by the little Palemones, around the agitated
I retinue of tritons and nereids and above a cherub throwing
darts,
Some years later, in 1517,
Raphael and his school frescoed, for Chigi, the ground floor
gallery of his suburban villa. The subject tells of the
fable of Psyche taken from the Golden Ass by Apuleius.
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The decoration of the loggia
develops around a mock pergola, in which, between festoons
of fruit and flowers, the 10 panels unfold displaying the
figures that, silhouetted against the blue sky, glorify the
fable. On the ceiling are the famous Council of the Gods and
the Wedding feast of Eras and
," Psyche. Outside Villa Chigi, the remains ofthe stables
were also by Raphael. The design was done in about 1512 and
provided a fa(:ade on to Via della Lungara. The work jamaged
and only fragments of the the bases of pilaster strips
remain. |
