Architecture And Antique Sculpture In Early Modern Rome

Abstract

By the early sixteenth century in Rome, the display of antiquities in palace and villa architecture was widespread. Moving antiquities onto center stage, patrons appropriated for themselves the prestige of coordinated sculpture displays that had long been a part of civic and ecclesiastical architecture, as well as the symbolic values associated with “the antique.” Sculpture became an increasingly prominent element in the design of loggias, courtyards, and façades oriented toward the display of antique and pseudo‐antique objects. A variety of new solutions emerged, from sculpture courts, to arrangement of spolia in architect‐driven, ordered and planned schemes, to the full integration of sculpture and architecture in bold, inventive designs, such as the Villa Madama or the Palazzo Farnese. Experiments took place in elite commissions like these, as well as in painted versions of integrated sculpture displays, or evocations of literary descriptions of ornamented architecture. New approaches clarified sculpture's role in architectural design as a means of unifying and embellishing walls, adding new meanings and contexts to architectural space. The integration of antique sculpture and architecture in early modern Rome can be explored from multiple perspectives, taking account of its significant impact on architectural theory and practice.

Displays of Sugar Sculpture and the Collection of Antiquities in Late Renaissance Venice

“…With the help of later inventories and a drawing by Cooper, 86;Perry, 1981. For architecture and the collection of antique sculpture in general, see Christian, 2017. 142 De Paoli, 2008, 128-30. 143 See Bristot;Hochmann, 2016;Wolters, 149-53, 182.…”

Raphaels Vitruvius and Marcantonio Raimondi‘s Caryatid Façade

“…The image, on the whole, reveals a close familiarity with the display of antique sculpture in Rome, as well as with the question of how sculpture can be harmoniously integrated with architectural settings. 79 Raphael and his workshop were deeply engaged with these issues, not least in the design of the Villa Madama, built in harmony with the antiquities collection meant to be housed there. It was in the early sixteenth century that architects devised what Marcello Fagiolo and Maria Luisa Madonna have termed the 'facciata museo', 80…”