L'Italo-Americano

www.italoamericano.org 8 THURSDAY, APRIL 3, 2025 L'Italo-Americano wise rectangular design of the building's footprint. The courtyard walls are frescoed as well, from the very top of the peristyle with its surrounding columns, to the walkway. Emphasizing further the science behind t h e c o n s t r u c t i o n o f t h e palace, the walls have an interesting array of well-pre- served geometrical forms. To ascend to the piano n o b i l e , w e w e r e g r e e t e d again with another unique feature of this remarkable palace: a graceful, winding staircase. While not unique i n R e n a i s s a n c e p a l a c e s (Palazzo Barberini has one), its twisting form serves to break the monotony of the palace's rectangular spaces. From above, the view look- ing down over the railing reveals not only the staircas- es graceful swirl but the arti- s a n s h i p t h a t c r e a t e d t h e b e a u t i f u l m a r b l e balustrades. Throughout the p a l a c e , s c i e n c e i s a l w a y s complemented by artistic design. As we wandered through the upper floors, the fres- c i a n s . T h e t e c h n i q u e i s a marriage between art and s c i e n c e . T h e t e c h n i q u e would influence all art and architecture for centuries. A m o n g t h e m o s t f a m o u s executions of this method are Masaccio's Holy Trin- ity in Santa Maria Novella in Florence and Raphael's School of Athens in the Vatican. Among its most dramatic applications, we find Francesco Borromini's Forced Perspective Gallery, in Rome's Palazzo Spada: a miniature faux gallery that gives the architectural illu- sion of distance and space. Upon exiting the room, we stepped into the open-air oval courtyard in the center of the palace. With mathe- matical precision, Vignola fitted the oval space propor- tionally and harmoniously within the context of the sur- rounding rectangular palace. Few palaces have this unique feature: the plaque on the wall informed us that this w a s n o e a s y t a s k f o r a n architect, as calculations had to be precise for the oval space to fit into the other- coes, walls, and ceilings all b u t o v e r w h e l m e d u s . T o focus on just one recurring theme of the frescoes, in one room, nine panels recounted Hercules' labors, between ceiling reliefs of putti. The F a r n e s e f a m i l y n o d o u b t wished to associate itself with such mythical Greek heroes, which represented, to the Renaissance mind, the c u l t u r a l a c h i e v e m e n t s o f Greek classical culture. The appearance of Greek mythology in paintings and marbles in Italian palaces expresses Italians' efforts, beginning with the Romans, to elevate their cultural and social power. After all, those r u s t i c e a r l y p e o p l e w h o inhabited the land around a n d o n t h e s e v e n h i l l s o f Rome were little more than g o a t h e r d s a n d a g r a r i a n t r i b e s u n i f i e d u n d e r t h e authority of Romulus and Titus Tatius. Moreover, their immediate descendants — a n u p s t a r t a n d i n s e c u r e Roman culture — developed Greco, Taddeo and Federi- co Zuccari, Bartholomew Spranger, and Jacopo Zan- g u i d i ( d e t t o B e r t o j a ) . T o accomplish the task before them, they employed legions of assistants to aid them in c o m p l e t i n g t h e c o l o s s a l undertaking in record time. When viewing frescoed walls and thirty-foot ceil- ings, it is always instructive to try to imagine the com- plexity of the scaffolding that carpenters had to con- struct to facilitate artists' a s c e n t t o t h e t o p o f t h e rooms. Designing and con- structing scaffolding was in itself a unique engineering skill. Michelangelo is credit- ed with having solved the problem of how to build the scaffolding that would allow h i m t o f r e s c o t h e S i s t i n e C h a p e l : h i s d e s i g n s t i l l remains a mystery to art his- torians today. The first room we entered gave us a hint of the palace's uniqueness. On one wall is a stunning three-dimensional fresco, known as three-point perspective: an invention of R e n a i s s a n c e m a t h e m a t i - I n t h e e a r l y n i n e - teenth century, when t h e g r e a t F r e n c h writer Stendhal vis- i t e d F l o r e n c e , h e claimed that he was so over- whelmed by the town's vast accumulation of culture that he fainted. This condition has become famously known a s t h e S t e n d h a l S y n - d r o m e , s o m e t i m e s e v e n referred to as the Florence Syndrome. But this is an experience that the traveler can have just about any place in Italy, even in its most out-of-the- way villages. Only recently did I have that same faint feeling when Carole and I visited the unassuming vil- l a g e o f C a p r a r o l a , o n c e known during the Renais- sance as a rustic hamlet ded- icated to raising goats, as its name implies. In spite of its humble ori- gins, the small town is the site of one of Italy's most important cultural sites, the s e l d o m - v i s i t e d F a r n e s e Palace. Originally designed a s a p e n t a g o n a l f o r t r e s s , Cardinal Alessandro Far- n e s e , w h o w o u l d b e c o m e Pope Paul III, commissioned a remodel of the fortress into a family palace. The cardinal chose Jacopo Barozzi da Vig- n o l a ( 1 5 0 7 - 1 5 7 3 ) a s t h e palace's architect, who also contributed some of its col- orful marble floors. While we can cite numer- ous famous palaces in Italy a n d t h r o u g h o u t E u r o p e known for their opulence, I have yet to visit one that rep- r e s e n t s i n s o d r a m a t i c a f a s h i o n t h e a c c o m p l i s h - ments of Italian Renaissance art, architecture, and sci- ence. But at the same time, we must not become fawn- ing, servile tourists before such architectural treasures. We must be aware, too, that t h e p a l a c e i s a s o b e r i n g insight into the unintended consequences of the Renais- sance power and hierarchy. Upon entering, my wife, Carole, and I were surround- ed by floor-to-ceiling well- preserved frescoes. Their colors are as brilliant as the day they were painted on the fresh mortar. The Farnese family could well afford to h i r e s o m e o f t h e m o s t famous artists of the six- teenth century: Antonio Tempesta, Giovanni Bat- tista, Francisco da Tivoli, El KEN SCAMBRAY Renaissance dominion and hierarchy: art, nature, and science in Caprarola's Palazzo Farnese CONTINUED TO PAGE 10 A view of Caprarola and, bottom right, the royal staircase at Palazzo Farnese (Photos: Luca Lorenzelli/Dreamstime; Laudibi/Dreamstime) HERITAGE HISTORY IDENTITY TRADITIONS

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