renovatio urbis Architecture, Urbanism and Ceremony in the Rome of Julius II Nicholas Temple 1 Agli amici di Antognano, Roma (Accademia Britannica) e Lincoln 2 Contents Illustration Credits Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1 - SIGN-POSTING PETER AND PAUL The Tiber’s Sacred Banks Peripheral Centres “inter duas metas” Papal Rivalries Chigi Chapel Chapter 2 - VIA GIULIA & PAPAL CORPORATISM The Politics of Order The Julian ‘Lapide’ Via Giulia The Legacy of Sixtus IV Quartière dei Banchi Via del Pellegrino, via Papale and via Recta Solenne Possesso and via Triumphalis Papal Corporatism Pons Neronianus and Porta Triumphalis Early Christian Precedents 3 Meta-Romuli and Serlio’s Scena Tragica Crossing Thresholds: Peter and Caesar The Papal ‘Hieroglyph’ and the Festa di Agone Chapter 3 - PALAZZO DEI TRIBUNALI and the Meaning of Justice sedes Iustitiae The Four Tribunals The Capitol and Communal/Cardinal’s Palace St Blaise and Justice Iustitia Cosmica Caesar and Iustitia pax Romana Chapter 4 – CORTILE DEL BELVEDERE, VIA DELLA LUNGARA and vita contemplativa “The Beautiful View” via suburbana/via sanctus Passage and Salvation Chapter 5 - ST. PETER’S BASILICA Orientation and Succession Transformations from Old to New Territorium Triumphale Sixtus IV and the Cappella del Coro Julius II and Caesar’s Ashes Janus and Peter 4 Janus Quadrifrons The Tegurium Chapter 6 - THE STANZA DELLA SEGNATURA A Testimony to a Golden Age Topographical and Geographical Connections in facultatibus Triune Symbolism Conversio St Bonaventure and the Itinerarium Mentis in Deum Justice and Poetry Mapping the Golden Age Conclusion - pons/facio: POPES AND BRIDGES The Julian ‘Project’ Pontifex Maximus Corpus Mysticum Raphael’s Portrait Notes Bibliography Index 5 Illustration Credits The author and publishers gratefully acknowledge the following for permission to reproduce images in the book. Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders. The publishers would be grateful to hear from any copyright holder who is not acknowledged here and will undertake to rectify any errors or omissions in future editions of the book.
Photo Scala, Florence, 4, 6, 84, 109, 110, 112, 114, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129 © 2010. Photo Scala, Florence, 71, 83, 94, 107 © 2009. Copyright The National Gallery, London/Scala, Florence, 135 Milan, Civica Raccolta Stampe Achille Bertarelli, 12, 59 Courtesy of the Anne and Jerome Fisher Fine Arts Library, University of Pennsylvania, 44, 88 Courtesy of the Anne and Jerome Fisher Fine Arts Library, University of Pennsylvania Libraries. Fetterolf Fund, 64, 78, 82 The Royal Collection © 2010 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, 19 Florence, Galleria Uffizi, Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe, 50, 66, 96, 98 Md.15, by permission of Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, with all rights reserved, 53 Md.14, by permission of Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, with all rights reserved, 56 Ms.131v, by permission of Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, with all rights reserved, 85 Ms.36v, by permission of Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, with all rights reserved, 123 Conway Library, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, 38, 39, 134 @ The Trustees of the British Museum, 65, 102 Berlin, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Kupferstichkabinett, Berliner Skizzenbuch, 69, 95 Civiche Raccolte d’Arte Applicata ed Incisioni, Castello Sforzesco – sezione numismatica, 101 © Nationmuseum Stockholm, 103 6 University of Chicago Library, Special Collections Research Center, 99 7 Acknowledgements The content of this book first emerged as a doctoral thesis in 2001, and subsequently reformulated as a series of research papers written at various times in Leeds, Rome, Philadelphia and Liverpool.
These were written with the aim of testing my ideas and gauging response from other academics in the fields of architectural/urban history and Renaissance studies. To attempt an ambitious topic such as this, over a relatively long period of time, inevitably requires the critical and sympathetic support of colleagues, students, friends and family. To begin with, I would like to thank my original PhD supervisors; Professor Peter Carl, who was a fountain of knowledge during the early phases of the research and who continued to provide inspiration in shaping this book, and Professor Derek Linstrum, whose erudition and scholarly patience gave direction to the research over a number of years. It is with great sadness that Professor Linstrum died in July 2009 before he had a chance to see the manuscript go to print.
In addition my external examiners, Professor Dalibor Vesely and Dr Hugh Cullum, were supportive from the start that the thesis deserved to be published in some form. At the beginning of the research, I recognised the potential usefulness of the study on readings and interpretations of the contemporary city. I would like to thank some of my ex-students for allowing me to ‘test’ these ideas in studio, in particular Jaskran Kalirai, Chris Smith and Mark Cannata. In my initial attempts to submit the thesis for publication I received enthusiastic support from Professor George Hersey, Professor David Leatherbarrow and Peter Potter, Editor-in-Chief of Cornell University Press.
I am very grateful to Professor John Barrie Hall, Annabel Ritchie and Simone Medio for their translations; to Peter Baldwin for his patient work in drawing illustrations and cataloguing images, and to Karine Hebel-Deane for formatting the text. The librarians at the British School at Rome (Valerie Scott) and the Anne and Jerome Fisher Fine Arts Library at the University of Pennsylvania (Dr William Keller) gave invaluable support in directing me to sources. I also wish to thank my university at Lincoln for providing financial support to purchase images for the text. For advice on issues of etymology and classical sources I wish to express my deepest gratitude to Professor John Barrie Hall, Professor John North, Professor Robert Maltby and Chris Siwicki.
On editorial issues, relating to earlier published versions, I appreciate the advice and guidance of Professor Christopher Pelling and Professor Stephen Parcell. I must also thank Blackwells Publishing and McGill-Queen’s University Press for permission to republish parts of earlier chapters. For patience and commitment to the project I must extend my warmest thanks to Georgina Johnson and Francesca Ford at Routledge and Professor Caroline van Eck, editor of the Classical Tradition series. Finally, I wish to thank my wife and family for their support and patience over the long periods when I was otherwise immersed in researching and writing this book, at the same time as juggling my other duties as an academic and head of school.
8 Introduction _____________________________________________________________________ This book examines the inter-relationships between architecture, urban design and ceremony in Rome during the pontificate of Julius II (1503-13). It considers how these initiatives, which included proposals for new ceremonial streets, bridges, public squares and buildings, were motivated by a desire to remap – and at the same time transform - the topography of the ancient and medieval city. I argue that these ambitious initiatives formed part of a more general vision, promulgated by humanists and artists in the papal court, that promoted the idea of early 16th century Rome as both the altera Ierusalem and the renewed imperial city. Drawing upon the history of the physical terrain of ancient Rome and the biblical narratives of the Holy Land, this collective vision was underpinned by a shared belief in the imminence of a Golden Age under Julius II, when the iniquities and sins of past ages would be swept aside by the creation of a new papal empire of faith.
Communicated through papal sermons and eulogies, this essentially humanist ‘project’ enabled Rome to be re-conceptualized as the redeemed city, whose physical transformations were visibly and spatially juxtaposed against the older and moribund counterparts of the medieval city. The implied moral distinction, underlying the contrast between old and new, culminated in the ambitious redesign of the sacred enclave of the Vatican, to which all ceremonial routes ultimately converged. The book identifies three principal streets in this earlier ancient/Medieval network, each of which variously played a role in shaping the symbolism of Julius II’s pontificate; 1) the route of the papal coronation (via Papale), 2) the principal pilgrimage route (via Peregrinorum), and 3) the legacy of the ancient via triumphalis and its various re-tracings and re-interpretations in Julius II’s own role as warrior pope and ‘2nd Caesar’. The streets are explored in the context of the political and administrative objectives of the Julian papacy and their supporting symbolic itineraries.
Allied to these were other civic and religious ceremonies to be examined, such as the Festa di Agone of 1513, which drew upon in more explicit ways the dual status of Julius II as military figure and key-bearer of St. 9 The principal author of these urban and architectural projects, Donato Bramante, was not only architect to the pope but also papal hagiographer and keen promoter of Julius II as 2nd Caesar. My investigations examine the political, religious and artistic motives behind Bramante’s ambition to create a unified urban/architectural scheme, and how this was inspired by a providential view of Rome’s topography. Expressed elsewhere in the writings of humanists and antiquarians, this redemptive notion of the city was based on the premise that the layout of Rome could be interpreted as a series of inter-related ‘mytho-historic’ narratives, shaped by creative interpretations of auspicious events or religious practices of the past.
Summarized in the form of paradigmatic themes - such as the patriarchal role of Noah in Etruria, Apollo as the pagan ‘version’ of the Savior and the triumphal symbolism of Peter’s martyrdom and burial – these complex mytho-historic narratives were conceived as if inscribed upon existing terrain and topographical features of the city (Tiber River, Janiculum, Monte S. Egidio, Vatican, Capitol, Campus Martius etc). The propensity to treat Rome’s topography in this way gave legitimacy and credibility to both Bramante’s project of renovatio urbis and to the hagiographical treatment of Julius II, in respect of his multiple identities and affiliations. In both enterprises of Julian renovatio, humanist and architect cleverly weave together complex symbolic themes that incorporate references from the Apostolic Succession, Roman imperialism, Etrusco-Roman heritage and Judeo-Christian tradition.
Added to the symbolic treatment of topography were more specific political and strategic agendas underlying Bramante’s urban and architectural projects, in the way they transformed the territorial and jurisdictional relationships between the Vatican and the rest of Rome. Through an outline investigation of the political and religious initiatives of the Julian pontificate I examine the impact of Bramante’s developments on the historical rivalries between the papacy, the Popolo Romano and the baronial families of Rome. The pope’s ‘incursions’ on the east bank of the Tiber River, in the form of administrative and judicial complexes, are explored in the light of Julius II’s attempt to extend papal control over the whole city. The study will draw upon a range of literary and representational sources to ascertain the degree to which Bramante’s urban and architectural scheme for the east and west banks of the 10 Tiber River sought in various ways to emulate ancient paradigms, and at the same time appropriate more recent architectural and urban models.
These references include commemorative inscriptions, sculptured reliefs, numismatic sources, papal sermons, contemporary commentaries, drawings and frescoes. Besides providing a framework for establishing a clearer picture of the underlying meanings of these ambitious projects the sources will also contribute towards explaining the possible ceremonial functions and symbolic meanings of Bramante’s urban scheme - one of the earliest examples of conscious urban planning. The book comprises six chapters of varying length. In the first, entitled ‘Sign-posting Peter and Paul’, I introduce the topography of Early Christian Rome, or more specifically the east and west banks of the Tiber River, and provide an overview of the city and its changing religious and political landscapes from the period of Constantine.
The chapter highlights how Rome of the martyrs and saints was understood as a series of thresholds to sacred shrines and venerated monuments, most notably those of St Peter and St Paul fuori-le-mura. It then outlines how this legacy of Early Christianity persisted in the medieval city, and at the same time was appropriated by urban, political and religious changes.