Giulio Pippi ( – 1 November 1546), known as Giulio Romano and Jules Romain ( , ; ), was an
Italian Renaissance painter and
architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
. He was a pupil of
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), now generally known in English as Raphael ( , ), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of paintings by Raphael, His work is admired for its cl ...
, and his stylistic deviations from
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 ...
classicism help define the sixteenth-century style known as
Mannerism
Mannerism is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, when the Baroque style largely replaced it ...
. Giulio's drawings have long been treasured by collectors; contemporary
prints of them
engraved
Engraving is the practice of incising a design on a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an inta ...
by
Marcantonio Raimondi were a significant contribution to the spread of sixteenth-century Italian style throughout Europe.
Biography

Giulio Pippi was born 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, ...
and he began his career there as a young assistant to the leading painter and architect
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), now generally known in English as Raphael ( , ), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of paintings by Raphael, His work is admired for its cl ...
. He became an important member of Raphael's large team working on the frescos in the
Raphael Rooms and
Vatican loggias using designs by Raphael and, later painting a group of figures in the ''
Fire in the Borgo'' fresco. He also collaborated on the decoration of the ceiling of the
Villa Farnesina. Despite his relative youth, increasingly he became indispensable to the master and after the death of Raphael in 1520, he took a leading role in completing the Vatican commissions, designing the frescoes of the life of Constantine as well as completing Raphael's ''Coronation of the Virgin'' and the ''Transfiguration'' in the Vatican. In Rome, Giulio decorated the
Villa Madama for Cardinal Giuliano de' Medici, afterward
Clement VII.
The crowded frescoes he designed lack the stately and serene simplicity of his master.
On Raphael's death,
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6March 147518February 1564), known mononymously as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was inspir ...
attempted to take over completion of the commission for the
Raphael Rooms at the Vatican, but along with
Perino del Vaga, Giulio was able to keep it, as they had the drawings for much of the uncompleted work that was being executed under the supervision of Raphael.
From 1522 he was courted by
Federico Gonzaga, ruler of
Mantua
Mantua ( ; ; Lombard language, Lombard and ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Italian region of Lombardy, and capital of the Province of Mantua, eponymous province.
In 2016, Mantua was designated as the "Italian Capital of Culture". In 2 ...
, who wanted him as court artist, apparently especially attracted by his skill as an architect. The contemporaneous historian of the Renaissance,
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 ...
(1511–1574), tells how
Baldassare Castiglione was delegated by Gonzaga to procure Giulio to execute paintings as well as architectural and engineering projects for the
duchy of Mantua. In late 1524, Giulio agreed to move to
Mantua
Mantua ( ; ; Lombard language, Lombard and ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Italian region of Lombardy, and capital of the Province of Mantua, eponymous province.
In 2016, Mantua was designated as the "Italian Capital of Culture". In 2 ...
, where he remained for the rest of his life. In Mantua, rather than his given name, "Giulio Romano" was used to identify him by his geographical origin because he was not a native artist. Mantua is where he executed his most well-known work, hence that name became associated with him thereafter. His move to Mantua meant he escaped the disaster of the
Sack of Rome in 1527, which hugely disrupted artistic patronage in Rome and dispersed the remainder of Raphael's workshop.
His masterpiece of architecture and fresco painting in Mantua is the suburban
Palazzo Te, with its famous illusionistic frescos (–1535) and his use of the
Palladian motif for arches used in the design. He also helped rebuild the ducal palace in Mantua, reconstructed the cathedral, and designed the nearby Church of San Benedetto. Giulio sculpted the figure of Christ that is positioned above Castiglione's tomb in the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, in
Curtatone, near Mantua. Sections of Mantua that had been flood-prone were refurbished under Giulio's direction and the duke's patronage and friendship never faltered. The studio he established in Mantua became a popular school of art. Giulio's annual income amounted to more than 1000 ducats.
In
Italian Renaissance
The Italian Renaissance ( ) was a period in History of Italy, Italian history between the 14th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Western Europe and marked t ...
tradition, many works by Giulio were only temporary. According to Vasari:

He traveled to
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
in the first half of the sixteenth century and brought concepts of the Italian style to the French court of
Francis I.
Giulio designed tapestries as well. It also is rumored that he contributed to a collection of drawings upon which a group entitled, ''
I Modi
''I Modi'' (''The Ways''), also known as ''The Sixteen Pleasures'' or under the Latin title ''De omnibus Veneris Schematibus'', is a famous Erotic art, erotic book of the Italian Renaissance that had engravings of sexual scenes. The engravings ...
'', was engraved by
Marcantonio Raimondi. All of those original drawings are said to have been destroyed because the content was no longer considered socially acceptable.
Giulio Romano has the distinction of being the only Renaissance artist to be mentioned by
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
. In Act V, Scene II of ''
The Winter's Tale'', the statue of Queen Hermione that was described as coming to life during the play was identified by the bard as having been sculpted by "that rare Italian master, Julio Romano".
He died in Mantua in 1546. According to Vasari, his best pupils were
Giovanni dal Lione,
Raffaellino dal Colle,
Benedetto Pagni,
Figurino da Faenza,
Giovanni Battista Bertani and his brother Rinaldo, and
Fermo Guisoni.
Architecture
On the whole, Giulio Romano was more influential as an architect than as a painter and his works had an enormous impact on Italian Mannerist architecture. He learned architecture the same way he learned painting, as an increasingly trusted assistant to Raphael, who was appointed the papal architect in 1514 and his early works are very much in Raphael's style. The project for the
Villa Madama outside Rome, built by the future Medici
Pope Clement VII
Pope Clement VII (; ; born Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici; 26 May 1478 – 25 September 1534) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 November 1523 to his death on 25 September 1534. Deemed "the most unfortunate o ...
was given to Giulio on Raphael's death. It already shows his taste for playful surprises within the style of Renaissance
classical architecture
Classical architecture typically refers to architecture consciously derived from the principles of Ancient Greek architecture, Greek and Ancient Roman architecture, Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or more specifically, from ''De archit ...
. Planned on a huge scale, it was incomplete by the Sack of Rome, and never finished.
The
Villa Lante al Gianicolo (1520–21) was a smaller suburban villa in Rome, with a famous view over the city. Romano made the whole building suggest lightness and elegance to exploit the ridge-top position and to overcome the rather small Roman footprint. The orders are delicate, with
Tuscan or
Doric columns and
pilaster
In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...
s in pairs on the main floor, and extremely shallow
Ionic pilasters above, whose presence is mainly conveyed by a different colour. Alternate loggia openings are heightened by arches above the
entablature. Romano's willingness to play with the conventions of the
classical order
An order in architecture is a certain assemblage of parts subject to uniform established proportions, regulated by the office that each part has to perform.
Coming down to the present from Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman civiliz ...
s is already in evidence; the Doric here has
guttae, but no
triglyphs
Triglyph is an architectural term for the vertically channeled tablets of the Doric order, Doric frieze in classical architecture, so called because of the angular channels in them. The rectangular recessed spaces between the triglyphs on a Dori ...
, on its narrow entablature. The volutes of the Ionic capitals are repeated in the window surrounds between them: "The canonic orders here begin to be treated visually as independent from their structural purposes, and this liberation offered the architect new expressive possibilities."
His last building in Rome, the
Palazzo Maccarani Stati (started 1522–23), was a considerable contrast, being a palazzo in the city centre, with shops on the ground floor, and a massive, imposing feel. The
rustication and exaggerated size of
keystones that were to be so prominent in his later buildings in Mantua, are already present on the ground floor, which dispenses with any classical order, but the two upper floors have increasingly shallow orders in pilasters, somewhat in the manner of the Villa Lante.
His first building in Mantua has remained his most famous work in architecture. The
Palazzo del Te was a pleasure palace outside the city that was begun around 1524 and completed a decade later. Here Giulio was able, because of the function of the building, to indulge to the full his playful inventiveness.
Selected paintings and drawings
*''
Deesis with Saint Paul and Saint Catherine'' - Parma
*''The Stoning of St. Stephen'' (
Santo Stefano, Genoa): "Giulio never did a finer work than this," said
Vasari. Domenico del Barbiere engraved the subject, so that it influenced designers who never saw the original in Genoa.
*''Adoration of the Magi'' (Louvre)
*''Fire in the Borgo'', fresco (
Raphael Rooms in Vatican City)
*''Emblematic Figures'', pen and brown ink and wash over graphite (Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco)
*''
Portrait of a Young Woman'', after a design by Raphael, and later modified by Raphael (
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg)
*''
The Battle of the Milvian Bridge''
*''
The Triumph of Titus and Vespasian''
*''
Portrait of Doña Isabel de Requesens y Enriquez de Cardona-Anglesola''
*''
Madonna of the Cat'' (
National Museum of Capodimonte, Naples, 1522–23)
*''Noli me tangere'',
Prado Museum,
Madrid
Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
*''Adoration of the Shepherds'' in collaboration with
Giovanni Francesco Penni, Prado Museum, Madrid
File:Giulio Romano.jpg, ''Madonna & Child'',
File:Giulio Romano - Margherita Paleologo (1510-66) - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Margherita Paleologo'' (1510–66)
File:Romano pushkin.jpg, ''Donna alla toeletta'', 1520
File:Giulio Romano - Adoration of the Shepherds - WGA09609.jpg, ''Adoration of the Shepherds ''
File:P1080752 Louvre Raphael Portrait de Dona Isabel de Requesens INV612 rwk.JPG, ''Portrait of Doña Isabel de Requesens'' (with the possible intervention of Raphael)
File:ST_JOHN_THE_BAPTIST_IN_THE_WILDERNESS_LIECHTENSTEIN._THE_PRINCELY_COLLECTIONS.jpg, ''St. John the Baptist in the Wilderness''
Notes
References
Bibliography
*Talvacchia, Bette, "Giulio Romano." Grove Art Online,
Oxford Art Online
Oxford Art Online is an Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press ...
, Oxford University Press, accessed March 30, 2016
subscription required
External links
*
Vita
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 ...
, who describes his meeting with Giulio:
:"At this time Giorgio Vasari a great friend of Giulio, though they only knew each other by report and by letters, passed through Mantua on his way to Venice to see him and his works. On meeting, they recognised each other as though they had met a thousand times before. Giulio was so delighted that he spent four days in showing Vasari all his works, especially the plans of ancient buildings at Rome, Naples, Pozzuolo, Campagna, and all the other principal antiquities designed partly by him and partly by others. Then, opening a great cupboard, he showed him plans of all the buildings erected from his designs in Mantua, Rome and all Lombardy, so beautiful that I do not believe that more original, fanciful or convenient buildings exist."
''The engravings of Giorgio Ghisi'' a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which contains material on Giulio Romano (see index)
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Romano, Giulio
Giulio Romano
16th-century Italian painters
Italian male painters
Italian Mannerist painters
Italian Mannerist architects
Italian Roman Catholics
1490s births
1546 deaths
Painters from Rome
Catholic painters
16th-century Italian architects