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Building Family Identity

The Orsini Castle of Bracciano from Fiefdom to Duchy (1470–1698)

by Paolo Alei (Volume editor) Max Grossman (Volume editor)
©2019 Edited Collection XXVI, 554 Pages

Summary

The Orsini of Bracciano were among the most powerful and influential signori di castelli of early modern Italy, controlling a vast domain that stretched from the Tyrrehenian Sea to the mountains of Abruzzo. This book explores the construction and decoration of their principal headquarters north of Rome between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries as well as the careers and artistic patronage of its leaders, who included captains, condottieri, cardinals and urban aristocrats. The castle is one of the largest in Latium and was once a centre of courtly culture and diplomacy, hosting princes, kings and popes. Today it boasts many beautifully preserved artworks of the Renaissance era, including frescos by Antoniazzo Romano and the Zuccari brothers.
The contributors to this study investigate the castle as a visual expression of the family identity of its builders. They trace its evolution from the fortified capital of a large fiefdom at the dawn of the age of artillery to the palatial residence of a ducal dynasty in the aftermath of the Italian Wars. Richly illustrated with numerous historic and new photographs, this book analyses a fascinating and mostly neglected facet of early modern Italian culture: the artistic patronage of seigniorial clans.

Table Of Contents

  • Cover
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • About the editors
  • About the book
  • This eBook can be cited
  • Contents
  • List of Illustrations
  • Acknowledgements
  • Introduction (Paolo Alei / Max Grossman)
  • Part I Arma et Litterae: The Castle of Bracciano in the Quattrocento
  • 1 Building with Magnificenza: The Orsini Castle of Bracciano (Paolo Alei)
  • 2 The State of the Condottiere: Bracciano in the System of the Italian States in the Age of Gentil Virginio Orsini (Stefania Camilli)
  • 3 The Poets and the Prince: Silius Italicus, Johannes Michael Nagonius and Gentil Virginio Orsini, Lord of Bracciano (Paul Gwynne)
  • 4 Francesco di Giorgio Martini, Gentil Virginio Orsini and the Defence of Bracciano (Max Grossman)
  • 5 Renaissance Paintings in the Castle of Bracciano: The Celebration of Gentil Virginio Orsini and the Pastimes of Courtly Women (Anna Cavallaro)
  • Part II Locus Amoenus: The Transformation of the Castle of Bracciano in the Cinquecento
  • 6 Isabella de’ Medici and Vittoria Accoramboni: The History and Legend of the Two Wives of the Duke of Bracciano (Elisabetta Mori)
  • 7 Palatium sive forticium: The Sixteenth-century Architecture of the Palazzo-Castello of Bracciano (Maria Giulia Aurigemma)
  • 8 Stories of Valour and Love for a Wedding: The Sala di Alessandro Magno and Sala di Psiche in the Castle of Bracciano (Claudia Daniotti)
  • 9 Astrological Fashioning in the Castle of Bracciano: The Frescoes of the Sala Papalina by the Zuccari Brothers and the Celebration of Duke Paolo Giordano Orsini (Paolo Alei / Bryony Bartlett-Rawlings)
  • 10 Living between Rome and Bracciano: Art, Cultural Interests and Social Behaviour at the Orsini Court in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Barbara Furlotti)
  • Part III Beyond the Castle Walls: The Orsini of Bracciano in the Seicento
  • 11 Paolo Giordano II Orsini, Orazio Torriani and the Remaking of Bracciano (Guendalina Ajello Mahler)
  • 12 The Orsini Portraits in the Castle of Bracciano (Eleonora Chinappi)
  • 13 Sweet Roman Hands and Actors: The Orsini as Theatrical Performers in Early Seventeenth-century English Drama (Eric Nicholson)
  • Appendices
  • Bibliography
  • Notes on Contributors
  • Series index

Building Family Identity

The Orsini Castle of Bracciano
from Fiefdom to Duchy (1470–1698)

Paolo Alei and Max Grossman (eds)

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Alei, Paolo, 1969- editor. | Grossman, Max, 1967- editor.

Title: Building family identity : the Orsini castle of Bracciano from fiefdom to duchy (1470-1698) / Paolo Alei and Max Grossman (eds).

Description: New York : Peter Lang, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017027966 | ISBN 9781787071797 (alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Castello Orsini Odescalchi (Bracciano, Italy) | Orsini family--Homes and haunts--Italy--Bracciano. | Orsini family--Art patronage. | Bracciano (Italy)--Civilization. | Bracciano (Italy)--Buildings, structures, etc.

Classification: LCC DG975.B7663 B85 2017 | DDC 945.6/3--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017027966

Cover image: Taddeo and Federico Zuccari, Marcus Curtius, 1559–1560. Fresco. Ceiling of the Sala Papalina, Castle of Bracciano. Photo by Marco Fiorani.

Cover design by Peter Lang Ltd.

ISSN 2296-4118

ISBN 978-1-78707-179-7 (print)  •  ISBN 978-1-78874-011-1 (ePDF)

ISBN 978-1-78874-012-8 (ePub)  •  ISBN 978-1-78874-013-5 (mobi)

© Peter Lang AG 2019

Published by Peter Lang Ltd, International Academic Publishers,

52 St Giles, Oxford, OX1 3LU, United Kingdom

oxford@peterlang.com, www.peterlang.com

Paolo Alei and Max Grossman have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Editors of this Work.

All rights reserved.

All parts of this publication are protected by copyright.

Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution.

This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming, and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems.

This publication has been peer reviewed.

About the editors

Paolo Alei received his DPhil from Oxford University and is now Adjunct Professor of Art History at the University of California, Rome. His research focuses on the relationship between art, architecture and rhetoric from the Quattrocento to the Seicento. He has published on Raphael and Titian and is currently writing on Caravaggio and energeia. He lives in the town of Calcata, in the heart of Tuscia, one of the many possessions of the Orsini family.

Max Grossman is a specialist of medieval and Renaissance architecture and urbanism in Italy and the architecture of the American Southwest. He conducted research in Tuscany for many years before receiving his PhD from Columbia University. He is Associate Professor of Art History at The University of Texas at El Paso and Director of its study abroad program in Rome. He is currently writing books on the civic architecture of the Sienese Republic and the architecture of the Texas Borderlands region.

About the book

The Orsini of Bracciano were among the most powerful and influential signori di castelli of early modern Italy, controlling a vast domain that stretched from the Tyrrehenian Sea to the mountains of Abruzzo. This book explores the construction and decoration of their principal headquarters north of Rome between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries as well as the careers and artistic patronage of its leaders, who included captains, condottieri, cardinals and urban aristocrats. The castle is one of the largest in Latium and was once a centre of courtly culture and diplomacy, hosting princes, kings and popes. Today it boasts many beautifully preserved artworks of the Renaissance era, including frescos by Antoniazzo Romano and the Zuccari brothers.

The contributors to this study investigate the castle as a visual expression of the family identity of its builders. They trace its evolution from the fortified capital of a large fiefdom at the dawn of the age of artillery to the palatial residence of a ducal dynasty in the aftermath of the Italian Wars. Richly illustrated with numerous historic and new photographs, this book analyses a fascinating and mostly neglected facet of early modern Italian culture: the artistic patronage of seigniorial clans.

This eBook can be cited

This edition of the eBook can be cited. To enable this we have marked the start and end of a page. In cases where a word straddles a page break, the marker is placed inside the word at exactly the same position as in the physical book. This means that occasionally a word might be bifurcated by this marker.

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgements

Paolo Alei and Max Grossman

Introduction

part i Arma et Litterae: The Castle of Bracciano in the Quattrocento

Paolo Alei

1 Building with Magnificenza: The Orsini Castle of Bracciano

Stefania Camilli

2 The State of the Condottiere: Bracciano in the System of the Italian States in the Age of Gentil Virginio Orsini

Paul Gwynne

3 The Poets and the Prince: Silius Italicus, Johannes Michael Nagonius and Gentil Virginio Orsini, Lord of Bracciano

Max Grossman

4 Francesco di Giorgio Martini, Gentil Virginio Orsini and the Defence of Bracciano←v | vi→

Anna Cavallaro

5 Renaissance Paintings in the Castle of Bracciano: The Celebration of Gentil Virginio Orsini and the Pastimes of Courtly Women

part ii Locus Amoenus: The Transformation of the Castle of Bracciano in the Cinquecento

Elisabetta Mori

6 Isabella de’ Medici and Vittoria Accoramboni: The History and Legend of the Two Wives of the Duke of Bracciano

Maria Giulia Aurigemma

7 Palatium sive forticium: The Sixteenth-century Architecture of the Palazzo-Castello of Bracciano

Claudia Daniotti

8 Stories of Valour and Love for a Wedding: The Sala di Alessandro Magno and Sala di Psiche in the Castle of Bracciano

Paolo Alei and Bryony Bartlett-Rawlings

9 Astrological Fashioning in the Castle of Bracciano: The Frescoes of the Sala Papalina by the Zuccari Brothers and the Celebration of Duke Paolo Giordano Orsini

Barbara Furlotti

10 Living between Rome and Bracciano: Art, Cultural Interests and Social Behaviour at the Orsini Court in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries←vi | vii→

part iii Beyond the Castle Walls: The Orsini of Bracciano in the Seicento

Guendalina Ajello Mahler

11 Paolo Giordano II Orsini, Orazio Torriani and the Remaking of Bracciano

Eleonora Chinappi

12 The Orsini Portraits in the Castle of Bracciano

Eric Nicholson

13 Sweet Roman Hands and Actors: The Orsini as Theatrical Performers in Early Seventeenth-century English Drama

Appendices

Bibliography

Notes on Contributors←vii | viii→ ←viii | ix→

Illustrations

Figure 0.1. Castle of Bracciano, general view. Photo by Fabio Baroni.

Figure 0.2. Attr. Lorenzo da Viterbo, Adoration of the Magi with the Orsini Family, c. 1464–1467. Fresco. Palazzo Ducale, Tagliacozzo. Photo by Elisabetta Mori.

Figure 0.3. Patrimony of the Orsini in Central Italy in the Age of Gentil Virginio. Stefania Camilli and Elisabetta Mori (graphic design by Valeria Bucci and Ricardo Carmona).

Figure 0.4. Attr. Mastro Simone, Giovanni da Capodistria and Giovanni Dalmata, Tempietto di San Giacomo, Vicovaro, c. 1448–1477. Photo by Marco Fiorani.

Figure 0.5. Palazzo Orsini-Colonna, Tagliacozzo. Photo by Marco Fiorani.

Figure 0.6. Castle of Bracciano, general view from the west. Photo by Marco Fiorani.

Figure 0.7. Abbey of S. Maria, Farfa, general view. Foto Scala, Florence, kb17600.

Figure 0.8. Antonio da Sangallo the Elder, Rocca of Pope Alexander VI Borgia, Civita Castellana, c. 1499–1503. Folco Quilici for Fratelli Alinari, Florence (1975), no. QFA-S-032605–00LZ.

Figure 0.9. Attr. Antonio del Massaro (called Pastura), panel with Felice Orsini della Rovere, early sixteenth century. Fresco. Sala di Felice della Rovere, Castle of Bracciano. Claudia Primangeli, Focus On Photo.←ix | x→

Figure 0.10. Giovanni Maria Butteri, Sacra Conversazione with Members of the Family of Cosimo I de’ Medici, 1575. Oil on canvas. Museo del Cenacolo di Andrea del Sarto, Florence. Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence, inv. no. 634800.

Figure 0.11. Joan Blaeu, “Dvcatvs Braccianvs,” Atlas maior, sive, Cosmographia Blaviana: qua solum, salum, cœlum, accuratissime describuntur, vol. 8, liber 16 (Amsterdam: Labore & sumptibus Ioannis Blaeu, 1662). National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh, id. no. 108520917.

Figure 0.12. Paul Bril, View of Bracciano, early 1620s. Oil on canvas. Roy and Marjory Edwards Bequest Fund and the Gallery of South Australia Foundation (2007), Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, inv. no. 20078P34.

Figure 1.1. Castle of Bracciano, general view from the south-west. Photo by Roberto Sigismondi.

Figure 1.2. Castle of Bracciano, entrance to the Torre di San Giacomo. Inscription in frieze above: “Ecclesiae Ductor statuit Neapuleo Gentis Ursinae, Sontes Arceo Servo Bonos.” Photo by Marco Fiorani.

Figure 1.3. Giovanni Dalmata, Tempietto di San Giacomo, lunette above entrance, Vicovaro, c. 1477. Photo by Marco Fiorani.

Figure 1.4. Maso di Bartolo, Luciano Laurana and Francesco di Giorgio Martini, Palazzo Ducale, Urbino. Mauro Magliani for Fratelli Alinari, Florence, no. CAL-F-009917–0000.

Figure 1.5. Luciano Laurana, Palazzo Ducale, courtyard, Urbino, 1466–1472. Mauro Magliani for Fratelli Alinari, Florence, no. CAL-F-008141–0000.←x | xi→

Figure 1.6. Attr. Francesco Rosselli, Tavola Strozzi, detail of the Castelnuovo, c. 1472. Oil on wood. Museo Nazionale di San Martino, Naples. Foto Scala, Florence, no. 0152945, with permission from the Ministero Beni e Attività Culturali e del Turismo.

Figure 1.7. Apostolic Palace, Vatican. Musei Vaticani.

Figure 1.8. Rocca Vecchia (originally Rocca dei Vico), Castle of Bracciano. Photo by Claudia Primangeli, Focus On Photo.

Figure 1.9. Giovannino de’ Dolci, Sistine Chapel, Vatican, 1473–1481. Musei Vaticani.

Figure 1.10. Perugino, Giving of the Keys, detail with portraits of Giovannino de’ Dolci (?) and Baccio Pontelli (?) at right, 1482. Fresco. Sistine Chapel, Vatican. Musei Vaticani.

Figure 1.11. Giovannino de’ Dolci, Rocca della Rovere-Farnese, Ronciglione, c. 1476–1480. Photo by Marco Fiorani.

Figure 1.12. Castle of Bracciano, facade of northern wing viewed towards the east. Photo by Marco Fiorani.

Figure 1.13. Palazzo di San Marco, Rome. Juergen Schonnop for Alamy Stock Photo, no. FWC27K.

Figure 1.14. Davide Ghirlandaio, Portrait of a Young Woman, detail of the Vatican complex, c. 1490. Oil on canvas. Originally in the Payson Collection, New York. From R. Van Marle, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, XIII, The Renaissance Painters of Florence in the 15th Century, The Third Generation, 2 (The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1931), 156.

Figure 1.15. Castle of Bracciano, view from the south. Photo by Marco Fiorani.

Figure 1.16. Triumphal Gate of Paolo Giordano Orsini viewed from the west toward the main entrance of the Castle of Bracciano. Photo by Marco Fiorani.←xi | xii→

Figure 1.17. Castle of Bracciano, general view of courtyard towards the west. Photo by Marco Fiorani.

Figure 1.18. Castle of Bracciano, west elevation of courtyard. Photo by Marco Fiorani.

Figure 1.19. SS. Apostoli, Rome, late quattrocento with Baroque modifications. Photo by Paolo Alei.

Figure 1.20. Palazzo della Cancelleria Vecchia (now Palazzo Sforza-Cesarini), courtyard loggia, Rome. Courtesy of Palazzo Sforza-Cesarini.

Figure 1.21. Castle of Bracciano, capitals of the ground-level arcade of courtyard. Photo by Marco Fiorani.

Figure 1.22. Castle of Bracciano, capital of the upper arcade of courtyard. Photo by Marco Fiorani.

Figure 1.23. Castle of Bracciano, main entrance into the northern wing from courtyard. Photo by Marco Fiorani.

Figure 1.24. Castle of Bracciano, entablature above the main entrance into the northern wing from the courtyard. Photo by Marco Fiorani.

Figure 1.25. Sistine Chapel, Apostolic Palace, Vatican, exterior of entrance portal. Musei Vaticani.

Figure 1.26. Attr. Antoniazzo Romano, detail of frieze, 1490. Fresco. Sala del Fregio, Castle of Bracciano. Photo by Marco Fiorani.

Figure 1.27. Painted coffers of ceiling, Sala del Fregio, Castle of Bracciano. Photo by Mario Verin.

Figure 1.28. Sala dei Cesari (originally Sala del Baldacchino) with lost bronze plates, Castle of Bracciano. DeAgostini Picture Library/Scala, Florence, no. DA57554.←xii | xiii→

Figure 2.1. Antoniazzo Romano and assistants, Triumphal Cavalry Procession of Gentil Virginio Orsini, detail showing Gentil Virginio Orsini Meeting Piero de’ Medici, 1490. Fresco. Sala dei Cesari, Castle of Bracciano. Photo by Mario Verin.

Figure 3.1. Workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio, Head of a Warrior (Alexander the Great?), c. 1483–1485. Marble. Gift of Therese K. Straus, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, no. 1956.2.1.

Figure 4.1. Major Orsini artillery fortresses. Max Grossman, from satellite image, Google Earth.

Figure 4.2. Castrum and town walls, Bracciano, twelfth to thirteenth centuries. Max Grossman, from satellite image, Google Earth.

Figure 4.3. Giacinto Gimignani, S. Sebastiano, detail showing Castle of Bracciano, 1668–1669. Oil on canvas. Collegiate Church of S. Stefano, Bracciano. Photo by Max Grossman.

Figure 4.4. Medieval tower in Via Fioravanti, Bracciano. Photo by Marco Fiorani.

Figure 4.5. Bracciano: Castrum and town walls (twelfth to thirteenth centuries), northern wing (c. 1470–1475), and new wings and external bastions (c. 1475–1485). Max Grossman, from satellite image, Google Earth.

Figure 4.6. Castelnuovo, aerial view, Naples, begun 1451. Satellite image, Google Earth.

Figure 4.7. Castelnuovo, battlements of tower, Naples. Photo by Justin Ennis (13 September 2010).

Figure 4.8. Castle of Bracciano, battlements of south-east tower and east wall. Photo by Roberto Sigismondi.←xiii | xiv→

Figure 4.9. Orsini Castle, main entrance, Mentana, late fifteenth century. MM, Wikimedia (4 June 2005).

Figure 4.10. Orsini-Colonna Castle, Avezzano, completed 1490. Barbaking, Wikimedia (28 October 2011).

Figure 4.11. Castle of Bracciano, south-east bastion of outer curtain with scanalature. Photo by Marco Fiorani.

Figure 4.12. Castelnuovo, tower and exterior curtain, Naples, 1451–1453. Scott Stensland, Wikimedia (23 March 2008).

Figure 4.13. Bracciano: northern wing (c. 1470–1475), new wings and external bastions (c. 1475–1485), and new town walls (c. 1480–1495). Max Grossman, from satellite image, Google Earth.

Figure 4.14. Bracciano, west wall of borgo and moat, from north. Photo by Max Grossman.

Figure 4.15. Andreas Cellarius, “Festungsbau & Zitadelle & Bastion & Ravelin & Redan & Glacis & Kurtine & Contrescarpe,” Perspektivische Ansicht eines Festungsbaus mit Zitadelle, 1645. Copper engraving on paper. Deutsche Fotothek, Wikimedia (10 April 2009).

Figure 4.16. Bracciano, west wall of borgo and moat, from south. Photo by Marco Fiorani.

Figure 4.17. Francesco di Giorgio Martini, Trattato di Architettura civile e militare con dissertazione e note per servire alla storia militare italiana, eds Cesare Saluzzo and Carlo Promis, vol. 3 (Turin: Tipografia Chirio e Mina, 1841), Table 14, from Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, ms. Magliabechiano II.1.141, fol. 64.

Figure 4.18. Francesco di Giorgio Martini, Rocca di Mondavio, c. 1483–1490. Photo by Diego Baglieri, Wikimedia (12 September 2015).←xiv | xv→

Figure 4.19. Rocca Orsini, Scurcola Marsicana, battlements, late fifteenth century. Pietro, Wikimedia (22 November 2014).

Figure 4.20. Castle of Bracciano, merloni of south wall. Photo by Marco Fiorani.

Figure 4.21. Castle of Bracciano, south-east tower. Photo by Marco Fiorani.

Figure 4.22. Castle of Bracciano, from south, c. 1890. Anderson for Fratelli Alinari, no. ADA-F-000032–0000.

Figure 4.23. Francisco de Hollanda, Veduta d’Insieme di Castelnuovo, 1540. Museo de Arquitectura y Pintura del Monastero de El Escorial, Madrid.

Details

Pages
XXVI, 554
Year
2019
ISBN (PDF)
9781788740111
ISBN (ePUB)
9781788740128
ISBN (MOBI)
9781788740135
ISBN (Hardcover)
9781787071797
DOI
10.3726/b10550
Language
English
Publication date
2020 (February)
Keywords
Renaissance art Renaissance architecture Latium castle signori di castelli
Published
Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, New York, Wien, 2019. XXVI, 554 pp., 134 fig. col., 59 fig. b/w

Biographical notes

Paolo Alei (Volume editor) Max Grossman (Volume editor)

Paolo Alei received his DPhil from Oxford University and is now Adjunct Professor of Art History at the University of California, Rome. His research focuses on the relationship between art, architecture and rhetoric from the Quattrocento to the Seicento. He has published on Raphael and Titian and is currently writing on Caravaggio and energeia. He lives in the town of Calcata, in the heart of Tuscia, one of the many possessions of the Orsini family. Max Grossman is a specialist in medieval and Renaissance architecture and urbanism in Italy and the architecture of the American Southwest. He conducted research in Tuscany for many years before receiving his PhD from Columbia University. He is Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Texas at El Paso and Director of its study abroad program in Rome. He is currently writing books on the civic architecture of the Sienese Republic and the architecture of the Texas Borderlands region.

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