Agostino Chigi, the patron and wealthy Sienese banker in the service of the Pope, had reserved for the Loggia della Galatea a very special function, superior to the other rooms of his villa across the Tiber: that of representing his destiny and ambitions through an autobiography in images that alluded not only to his horoscope but also to the allegory of earthly existence, subject to the passions and whims of fortune. The evocation of ancient myth and Ovid's themes, meta-mythologies bent to represent the predictions on the future Chigi family, culminated in the representation of Galatea, a true incarnation of the virtues of Love in a neo-platonic key, understood as the elevation of the soul and the conquest of virtue. The volume offers a new and exhaustive interpretation of the cycle of frescoes, never attempted before, identifying the relationship between the images of the planets and extra-zodiacal constellations depicted in the vault and the myths of the air painted in the lunettes. The unity of the plan among the various registers of the Loggia, which remained uncomprehended until today, allows for bringing up the central role of the painting of Raphael inside the astrological and autobiographical device of the client--Publisher.
Mural painting and decoration, Italian--Italy--Rome
Mural painting and decoration--16th century