
Cardinal Andrea della Valle (29 November 1463, in
Rome
Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
– 3 August 1534) was an Italian clergyman and art collector.
Life
Andrea belonged to an ancient family of Roman nobles. He was the son of Filippo della Valle, a Roman patrician; the family tomb is in
Santa Maria in Aracoeli
Santa Claus (also known as Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle or Santa) is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring gifts during the late evening and overnight hours on Chris ...
, where an inscription to their father was placed by Andrea and his brother Bartolomeo. Andrea also had a sister, Sigismonda.
Andrea was elected
bishop of Crotone in 1496. In 1503-05 he directed the
Apostolic Chancery
The Apostolic ChanceryCanon 260, ''Code of Canon Law'' of 1917, translated by Edward N. Peters, Ignatius Press, 2001. (; also known as the "Papal" or "Roman Chanc(ell)ery") was a dicastery of the Roman Curia at the service of the pope. The princ ...
and served as Apostolic secretary during the pontificate of
Pope Julius II
Pope Julius II (; ; born Giuliano della Rovere; 5 December 144321 February 1513) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 1503 to his death, in February 1513. Nicknamed the Warrior Pope, the Battle Pope or the Fearsome ...
. He was transferred to the titular diocese of
Miletus
Miletus (Ancient Greek: Μίλητος, Mílētos) was an influential ancient Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia, near the mouth of the Maeander River in present day Turkey. Renowned in antiquity for its wealth, maritime power, and ex ...
in 1508, which he resigned in favour of his nephew Quinzio Rustici on 26 November 1523. He participated in the
Fifth Lateran Council, 1512, and was created
cardinal
Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to
* Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds
**''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae
***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...
priest in the consistory of 1 July 1517. He participated in the conclaves of 1521-22 and 1523.
["Andrea Cardinal Della Valle"]
'' Catholic-Hierarchy.org''. David M. Cheney. Retrieved May 16, 2016. As archpriest of the
patriarchal Liberian basilica (1520) he ceremonially opened and closed the
Holy Door in the Jubilee Year of 1525.
Art collector
Cardinal della Valle is best remembered, however, as the collector of one of the first collections of Roman antiquities that marked the
High Renaissance
In art history, the High Renaissance was a short period of the most exceptional artistic production in the Italian states, particularly Rome, capital of the Papal States, and in Florence, during the Italian Renaissance. Most art historians stat ...
. He inherited some antiquities, which had been collected by the della Valle in the previous century, according to
Vasari
Giorgio Vasari (30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance painter, architect, art historian, and biographer who is best known for his work '' Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects'', considered the ide ...
. and eagerly acquired more. Inspired by the
Cortile del Belvedere
The (Belvedere Courtyard or Belvedere Court) was a major architectural work of the High Renaissance at the Vatican Palace in Rome. Designed by Donato Bramante from 1505 onward, its concept and details reverberated in courtyard design, formalize ...
, in 1520 he commissioned the Rafaellesque sculptor architect
Lorenzetto Lotti to create a suitable setting for the sculptures and inscriptions and other antiquities that he had amassed, the result of a generation of rediscoveries at the turn of the 16th century. On the main floor of the palazzo's new second inner courtyard, the sculptures were displayed in a sort of
loggia
In architecture, a loggia ( , usually , ) is a covered exterior Long gallery, gallery or corridor, often on an upper level, sometimes on the ground level of a building. The corridor is open to the elements because its outer wall is only parti ...
, described by
Giorgio Vasari
Giorgio Vasari (30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance painter, architect, art historian, and biographer who is best known for his work ''Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects'', considered the ideol ...
as a ''hortus pensilis'' or hanging garden (''giardino di sopra'') that included planted raised boxes and an
aviary
An aviary is a large enclosure for confining birds, although bats may also be considered for display. Unlike birdcages, aviaries allow birds a larger living space where Bird flight, they can fly; hence, aviaries are also sometimes known as flig ...
, which "blurred the distinction between garden and courtyard," with inscriptions inviting peace, relaxation and thought, an invocation of ''rus in urbe''. The architectural framing and the great care with which the ensemble was presented— as decorative as it was scholarly, evoking Classical harmony, symmetry and equilibrium, was a model for other Roman collections. Many visitors left written impressions during the 16th century, and more than one artist made sketches.
Maarten van Heemskerck
Maarten van Heemskerck (born Maerten Jacobsz van Veen; 1 June 1498 – 1 October 1574), also known as Marten Jacobsz Heemskerk van Veen, was a Dutch portrait and religious painter, who spent most of his career in Haarlem. He was a pupil of Jan ...
's early drawing of the loggia, showing the two famous armless satyrs supporting baskets on their heads, set against the piers of the arches, was etched by
Hieronymus Cock in 1558 and circulated among connoisseurs of the Antique. Here, in the serene and ordered presentation that was eventually developed in the 1520s and 30s by Lorenzetto— Heemskerck's drawing still shows a picturesque disorder— were undertaken the first systematic restorations and completions of Roman sculptural fragments, work that, according to Vasari's anecdotes, had occasionally been undertaken piecemeal for the
Medici
The House of Medici ( , ; ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first consolidated power in the Republic of Florence under Cosimo de' Medici and his grandson Lorenzo "the Magnificent" during the first half of the 15th ...
by
Donatello
Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi ( – 13 December 1466), known mononymously as Donatello (; ), was an Italian Renaissance sculpture, Italian sculptor of the Renaissance period. Born in Republic of Florence, Florence, he studied classical sc ...
and
Verrocchio
Andrea del Verrocchio ( , , ; born Andrea di Michele di Francesco de' Cioni; – 1488) was an Italian sculptor, painter and goldsmith who was a master of an important workshop in Florence.
He apparently became known as ''Verrocchio'' after the ...
, but which became common practice and developed into a Roman industry during the sixteenth century; Vasari, following his description of della Valle's antiquities, remarks, "And to tell the truth, these antiquities restored in this manner have much more grace than those mutilated trunks, members without heads or figures defective and incomplete in any other way".
At his death the Palazzo Valle passed to his nephew, Camillo Capranica, of another antiquities-collecting family and gained the name Palazzo Valle-Capranica, while the collection was housed separately, in the palazzo of bishop Bruto Della Valle; there it was inspected by
Gabriele Simeoni in 1557, who left descriptions in French and Italian.
[Simeoni, ''Les illustres observations antiques'' Lyon, 1558, and ''Illustrazione de gli epitaffe et medaglie antichi'', Lyons, 1558.] In 1584 the collection was purchased en bloc by
Cardinal Ferdinand de' Medici and dispersed among various Medici dwellings. Most of the collection is at the
Villa de Medici in Rome, but part was transferred to Florence, where della Valle sculptures can be seen today in the
Palazzo Pitti
The Palazzo Pitti (), in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present ...
and the
Boboli Gardens
The Boboli Gardens ( /’bo.bo.li/) is a historical park of the city of Florence that was opened to the public in 1766. Originally designed for the Medici, it represents one of the first and most important examples of the Italian garden, which l ...
, in the
Uffizi
The Uffizi Gallery ( ; , ) is a prominent art museum adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums and the most visited, it is also one of th ...
, and at the Medici villa at
Poggio Imperiale. Somelike the collection's prize
menologium rusticamwere lost in the process.
A theatre was built in the Cardinal's courtyard, which gave its name to the ''via Teatro Valle''.
References
*
Bibliothèque nationale de France: "Dessins de la Renaissance"Two drawings of the collection at Palazzo Valle, one by
Martin Heemskerck (1498-1574), who was in Rome ca 1532– 1536, the other attributed to
Hendrick van Cleve, ca 1550. Illustrated. (in French). Among identifiable pieces, the ''Marsyas'' of the Uffizi, the ''Apollo with Lyre'' of Poggio Imperiale, the ''Minerva'' of Palazzo Pitti and others.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Della Valle, Andrea
1463 births
1534 deaths
Clergy from Rome
16th-century Italian cardinals
Cardinal-bishops of Albano
Cardinal-bishops of Palestrina
16th-century Italian Roman Catholic bishops
Bishops appointed by Pope Alexander VI
Bishops appointed by Pope Julius II
Bishops appointed by Pope Adrian VI
Bishops appointed by Pope Clement VII