Agostino Chigi
Encyclopedia
Agostino Andrea Chigi was an Italian
banker and patron of the Renaissance
.
Born in Siena
, he was the son of the prominent banker Mariano Chigi, a member of an ancient and illustrious house. He moved to Rome
around 1487, collaborating with his father. The heir of a rich fund of capital, and enriched further after lending huge amounts of money to Pope Alexander VI
(and to other rulers of the time as well) he strayed from common mercantile practice by obtaining lucrative monopolies like the salt monopoly
of the Papal States
and the Kingdom of Naples
, as well as that of the alum
excavated in Tolfa
, Agnato and Ischia di Castro
. Alum was an essential mordant in the textile industry.
After the death of the Borgia pope, Alexander VI and his short-lived Sienese successor Pius III Piccolomini
, he helped Pope Julius II
in the expenses attendant upon his election: the latter rewarded him, linking Chigi to the della Rovere
family, and creating him treasurer and notary of the Apostolic Camera
. The personal bond between the Pope and his banker remained close: Agostino accompanied Julius in the field in both his great military campaigns, of 1506 and 1510. In 1511 Agostino was sent to Venice, to buy Venetian support for the papal forces in the War of the League of Cambrai
.
Agostino established economic ties with the whole of Western Europe, at one time having up to 20,000 employees, receiving from Siena the title of Magnifico ("Magnificent").
Chigi, "indisputably the richest man in Rome", became also a rich patron of art and literature, the protector of Pietro Aretino
among others, though his own education suffered many lacunae, notably his lack of Latin. His Venetian mistress Francesca Ordeaschi was the toast of Rome. His artistic protégés included almost all the main figures of the early 16th century: Perugino
, Sebastiano del Piombo
, Giovanni da Udine
, Giulio Romano
, Sodoma and Raphael.
In Rome, Chigi's three artistic commissions involving Raphael remain the most prominent monuments of his contemporary fame: a chapel in Santa Maria della Pace
, his mortuary chapel, the Chigi Chapel
in Santa Maria del Popolo
, and the suburban villa known since 1579 as the Villa Farnesina, all of them intended to give substance to his legend. His splendid villa
he built on the shore of the Tiber
, in Trastevere, bears the name of its later owners: Villa Farnesina
(illustration). For its design, Chigi employeda the Sienese painter Baldassare Peruzzi
, virtually untried as an architect. Sebastiano del Piombo, Giovanni da Udine, Giulio Romano, Sodoma and Raphael were called upon to provide the decoration. Here Raphael frescoed his Triumph of Galatea
. Here Chigi held sumptuous repasts. In order to show his contempt of money, he was said to have all the silver dishes thrown into the river after the end of the parties: however, his servants were secretly ready to recollect them with nets draped under the windows. The villa called the Viridario in Chigi's time, served as banking facility as well as residence, setting Chigi apart from the ordinary run of bankers in Rome, who normally resided in a piano nobile
directly above but unconnected to their street-level botteghe.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
banker and patron of the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
.
Born in Siena
Siena
Siena is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.The historic centre of Siena has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. It is one of the nation's most visited tourist attractions, with over 163,000 international arrivals in 2008...
, he was the son of the prominent banker Mariano Chigi, a member of an ancient and illustrious house. He moved to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
around 1487, collaborating with his father. The heir of a rich fund of capital, and enriched further after lending huge amounts of money to Pope Alexander VI
Pope Alexander VI
Pope Alexander VI , born Roderic Llançol i Borja was Pope from 1492 until his death on 18 August 1503. He is one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes, and his Italianized surname—Borgia—became a byword for the debased standards of the Papacy of that era, most notoriously the Banquet...
(and to other rulers of the time as well) he strayed from common mercantile practice by obtaining lucrative monopolies like the salt monopoly
Sea salt
Sea salt, salt obtained by the evaporation of seawater, is used in cooking and cosmetics. It is historically called bay salt or solar salt...
of the Papal States
Papal States
The Papal State, State of the Church, or Pontifical States were among the major historical states of Italy from roughly the 6th century until the Italian peninsula was unified in 1861 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia .The Papal States comprised territories under...
and the Kingdom of Naples
Kingdom of Naples
The Kingdom of Naples, comprising the southern part of the Italian peninsula, was the remainder of the old Kingdom of Sicily after secession of the island of Sicily as a result of the Sicilian Vespers rebellion of 1282. Known to contemporaries as the Kingdom of Sicily, it is dubbed Kingdom of...
, as well as that of the alum
Alum
Alum is both a specific chemical compound and a class of chemical compounds. The specific compound is the hydrated potassium aluminium sulfate with the formula KAl2.12H2O. The wider class of compounds known as alums have the related empirical formula, AB2.12H2O.-Chemical properties:Alums are...
excavated in Tolfa
Tolfa
Tolfa is a town and comune of the province of Rome, in the Lazio region of central Italy; it lies to the ENE of Civitavecchia by road.It is the main center in the Monti della Tolfa, an extinct volcanic group between Civitavecchia and the Lake of Bracciano....
, Agnato and Ischia di Castro
Ischia di Castro
Ischia di Castro is a comune in the Province of Viterbo in the Italian region Latium, located about 90 km northwest of Rome and about 30 km northwest of Viterbo....
. Alum was an essential mordant in the textile industry.
After the death of the Borgia pope, Alexander VI and his short-lived Sienese successor Pius III Piccolomini
Pope Pius III
Pope Pius III , born Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini, was Pope from September 22 to October 18, 1503.-Career:...
, he helped Pope Julius II
Pope Julius II
Pope Julius II , nicknamed "The Fearsome Pope" and "The Warrior Pope" , born Giuliano della Rovere, was Pope from 1503 to 1513...
in the expenses attendant upon his election: the latter rewarded him, linking Chigi to the della Rovere
Della Rovere
Della Rovere is a noble family of Italy. Coming from modest beginnings in Savona, Liguria, the family rose to prominence through nepotism and ambitious marriages arranged by two Della Rovere popes, Francesco della Rovere, who ruled as Pope Sixtus IV and his nephew Giuliano...
family, and creating him treasurer and notary of the Apostolic Camera
Apostolic Camera
The Apostolic Camera, or in Latin Camera Apostolica or Apostolica Camera, is the central board of finance in the Papal administrative system, which at one time was of great importance in the government of the States of the Church, and in the administration of justice, led by the Camerlengo of the...
. The personal bond between the Pope and his banker remained close: Agostino accompanied Julius in the field in both his great military campaigns, of 1506 and 1510. In 1511 Agostino was sent to Venice, to buy Venetian support for the papal forces in the War of the League of Cambrai
War of the League of Cambrai
The War of the League of Cambrai, sometimes known as the War of the Holy League and by several other names, was a major conflict in the Italian Wars...
.
Agostino established economic ties with the whole of Western Europe, at one time having up to 20,000 employees, receiving from Siena the title of Magnifico ("Magnificent").
Pietro Aretino
Pietro Aretino was an Italian author, playwright, poet and satirist who wielded immense influence on contemporary art and politics and invented modern literate pornography.- Life :...
among others, though his own education suffered many lacunae, notably his lack of Latin. His Venetian mistress Francesca Ordeaschi was the toast of Rome. His artistic protégés included almost all the main figures of the early 16th century: Perugino
Pietro Perugino
Pietro Perugino , born Pietro Vannucci, was an Italian Renaissance painter of the Umbrian school, who developed some of the qualities that found classic expression in the High Renaissance...
, Sebastiano del Piombo
Sebastiano del Piombo
Sebastiano del Piombo , byname of Sebastiano Luciani, was an Italian Renaissance-Mannerist painter of the early 16th century famous for his combination of the colors of the Venetian school and the monumental forms of the Roman school.- Biography :Sebastiano del Piombo belongs to the painting school...
, Giovanni da Udine
Giovanni da Udine
Giovanni Nanni, also Giovanni de' Ricamatori, better known as Giovanni da Udine , was an Italian painter and architect born in Udine....
, Giulio Romano
Giulio Romano
Giulio Romano was an Italian painter and architect. A pupil of Raphael, his stylistic deviations from high Renaissance classicism help define the 16th-century style known as Mannerism...
, Sodoma and Raphael.
In Rome, Chigi's three artistic commissions involving Raphael remain the most prominent monuments of his contemporary fame: a chapel in Santa Maria della Pace
Santa Maria della Pace
Santa Maria della Pace is a church in Rome, central Italy, not far from Piazza Navona.The current building was built on the foundations of the pre-existing church of Sant'Andrea de Aquarizariis in 1482, commissioned by Pope Sixtus IV. The church was rededicated to the Virgin Mary to remember a...
, his mortuary chapel, the Chigi Chapel
Chigi Chapel
The Chigi Chapel is one of six chapels in the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo, Piazza del Popolo, Rome. The Chigi chapel, the second on the left-hand side of the nave, was designed by Raphael as a private chapel for his friend and patron Sienese banker Agostino Chigi, then completed by Gian...
in Santa Maria del Popolo
Santa Maria del Popolo
Santa Maria del Popolo is an Augustinian church located in Rome, Italy.It stands to the north side of the Piazza del Popolo, one of the most famous squares in the city. The Piazza is situated between the ancient Porta Flaminia and the park of the Pincio...
, and the suburban villa known since 1579 as the Villa Farnesina, all of them intended to give substance to his legend. His splendid villa
Villa
A villa was originally an ancient Roman upper-class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in Late Antiquity,...
he built on the shore of the Tiber
Tiber
The Tiber is the third-longest river in Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Umbria and Lazio to the Tyrrhenian Sea. It drains a basin estimated at...
, in Trastevere, bears the name of its later owners: Villa Farnesina
Villa Farnesina
The Villa Farnesina is a Renaissance suburban villa in the Via della Lungara, in the district of Trastevere in Rome, central Italy.The villa was built for Agostino Chigi, a rich Sienese banker and the treasurer of Pope Julius II. Between 1506–1510, the Sienese artist and pupil of Bramante,...
(illustration). For its design, Chigi employeda the Sienese painter Baldassare Peruzzi
Baldassare Peruzzi
Baldassare Tommaso Peruzzi was an Italian architect and painter, born in a small town near Siena and died in Rome. He worked for many years, beginning in 1520, under Bramante, Raphael, and later Sangallo during the erection of the new St. Peter's...
, virtually untried as an architect. Sebastiano del Piombo, Giovanni da Udine, Giulio Romano, Sodoma and Raphael were called upon to provide the decoration. Here Raphael frescoed his Triumph of Galatea
Galatea (Raphael)
The Triumph of Galatea is a fresco masterpiece completed in 1512 by the Italian painter Raphael for the Villa Farnesina in Rome.The Farnesina was built for the Sienese banker Agostino Chigi, one of the richest men of that age. The Farnese family later acquired and renamed the villa, smaller than...
. Here Chigi held sumptuous repasts. In order to show his contempt of money, he was said to have all the silver dishes thrown into the river after the end of the parties: however, his servants were secretly ready to recollect them with nets draped under the windows. The villa called the Viridario in Chigi's time, served as banking facility as well as residence, setting Chigi apart from the ordinary run of bankers in Rome, who normally resided in a piano nobile
Piano nobile
The piano nobile is the principal floor of a large house, usually built in one of the styles of classical renaissance architecture...
directly above but unconnected to their street-level botteghe.