Renaissance Rome

Tourist itineraries – Discovering… Renaissance Rome!

Around the second half of the fifteenth century, artists, painters, architects and sculptors moved from Florence, at that time indisputable theater of the Italian Renaissance, to Rome. Florence was the “cradle of the Renaissance”, but cultured and refined Popes as Martino V and Eugene IV became true patrons; it is precisely thanks to the funds granted by the clergy that artists such as Michelangelo, Raffaello, Pietro da Cortona, Bramante and many others started to work in Rome.

We begin our journey to the discovery of the Renaissance Rome, aware that it is impossible to see in a single visit all Renaissance art in Rome.

About half of the fifteenth century, the urban redefinition of the city had strong impulses with the restoration of the walls, the settlement of the pontifical district par excellence, Borgo </ strong>, and the expansion of the Basilica di San Pietro, along with the reconstruction of many other cult buildings of the city.

The building of Palazzo Venezia, the first real Renaissance Roman building, dates back to those years, while the paintings of Beato Angelico, Benozzo Gozzoli and Piero della Francesca began to adorn the apostolic palaces.
Later, with the pontificate of Sisto IV, Melozzo da Forlì frescoed the apse of the Basilica of the Apostles and the Vatican Library. During this period of great ferment, the embellishment works of the Palatine Chapel began, which, in honor of Sisto IV, was then called Sistine Chapel. Ghirlandaio, Botticelli and Cosimo Rosselli, directly from Florence worked on the Chapel, well before Michelangelo’s intervention.
At the end of the century, Roman artistic scene was occupied by the new talents that grew up in the workshops of the great masters: Filippo Lippi, Perugino, Pinturicchio and Mantegna.

With the rise to the papal throne of Pope Alexander VI Borgia, who entrusted Pinturicchio with the decoration of his Vatican apartments, arrived in Rome also Michelangelo Buonarroti who received the commission of the statue of the Pietà which today is admired by tourists of all nationalities in the basilica of St. Peter. It is at the beginning of the 16th century, the age of splendor of the city of Rome and its Renaissance style.

When Pope Julius II was elected, the city had a further urban and artistic impetus. During his pontificate there were three great Renaissance artists in Rome who responded to the name of Bramante, Michelangelo and Raffaello.

If Michelangelo is the author of Piazza del Campidoglio and Palazzo Farnese close to the Campo dei Fiori square, to Bramante, author of the San Pietro in Montorio Temple and the Cloister in Santa Maria della Pace close to Piazza Navona, the Pontiff entrusted the project for the renovation of San Pietro and the reorganization of the road system of a part of the city.

Subsequently, after a series of misunderstandings and court jealousies, the Pope entrusted Michelangelo with the decoration of the vault of the Sistine Chapel. Raffaello, on the other hand, was involved in a cycle of frescoes that represent one of the highest artistic levels of all times: the rooms of the Pontifical apartment; the “Stanza della Segnatura”, with the famous fresco of the Athens school; the “Stanza di Eliodoro” with, inter alia, the scene of the encounter between Saint Leone Magno and Attila. Then, under the papacy of Medicean Leo X, Raffaello frescoed the famous “Incendio di Borgo” and the Constantine Room, and assumed responsibility for the reconstruction of the Basilica of St. Peter. During this period Raffaello also designed the work of Villa Madama on the slopes of Monte Mario.

In the most successful period of Raphael, Michelangelo, now no longer the favorite artist of the Pontifical Court, he devoted himself to projects interrupted during the work of the Sistine Chapel. At this stage he produced one of the most beautiful statues ever made by an artist, the Mosè that is within the St. Peter’s Basilica and whose beauty expressive fueled legends and myths.

Among the most important artistic projects of the Renaissance in Rome must be remembered the reconstruction and decoration of the Sistine Chapel, the palatine chapel of the Vatican dedicated to Sisto IV. Lorenzo the Magnificent for this ambitious project sent to Rome the most illustrious Florentine artists of the moment, including Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio and Cosimo Rosselli.
The work continued under the direction of Michelangelo and other great artists of the time. Inside the Vatican Museums, in addition to the Sistine Chapel, you will have the chance to admire several testimonies of Roman Renaissance art, including the masterpieces by Raffaello, the other protagonist of Renaissance art in Rome, who painted paintings and frescoes that are now kept in Raffaello’s Rooms and Loggia.
If you are a fan of Renaissance art, we suggest you also visit the Borghese Gallery, where you can find important works by Raffaello and Caravaggio.

Renaissance art testimonials are almost everywhere wandering around Rome. Among the Renaissance palaces we still remember Palazzo Farnese, built by Antonio da Sangallo and finished by Michelangelo, Palazzo Spada, home of the Spada Gallery, Palazzo della Cancelleria, today the seat of the Tribunal of Sacred Rota, and the beautiful Palazzo Venezia.

Of great artistic interest are also the Renaissance churches of Rome, such as the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo, inside which are the masterpieces of Bernini and Caravaggio, the Church of Sant’Agostino, which contains a fresco by Raffaello and the famous Madonna dei Pilgrims by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. We also recall the Renaissance facade of the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi by Giacomo della Porta and the Church of Santa Maria della Pace, where you can admire the chapels designed by Sangallo, the “Sibille” painted by Raffaello, the frescoes by Baldassarre Peruzzi and above all the famous Bramante Cloister.

Finally, among other monuments of the Roman Renaissance we suggest visiting Ponte Sisto, dedicated to Sisto IV, Via Giulia, the famous Roman road designed by Bramante, and Campo de’ Fiori, where the statue of Giordano Bruno is located.