L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2016 www.italoamericano.org 15 L'Italo-Americano LAURA STORTONI-HAGER ALL AROUND ITALY TRAVEL TIPS DESTINATIONS ACTIVITIES A s we have seen, the Ducal Palace inside the city of Mantua was not large enough for the complicated life of Duke Federico II. He needed another space, a larger space, a summer palace outside the city walls, a refuge from the concerns of the court; further, an escape from the demands of his large family, and from the disapprov- ing eyes of his mother and of his wife. The Palazzo del Te was built especially for his beloved mistress Isabella Boschetti, nick- named "La bella Boschetta." The Duke called on Mannerist archi- tect/painter Giulio Pippi(1499- 1546), called Giulio Romano obviously because he came from Rome. Federico gave the artist complete carte blanche and a very large budget. Giulio Romano surpassed himself and created a real wonder. Great as the Palazzo Ducale is, the Palazzo del Te, according to most critics, exceeds it for the classical excellence of its architecture, as well as for the originality of the frescoes it contains. The Palazzo del Te (pro- nounced as if the final "e" had an accent) lies outside the original walls of the town, and is a subur- ban villa that was built in an area where the Gonzaga family had a farm. Its name has nothing to do with tea, but is a shortened form of "teyeto," tilden wood. This was originally the country place where the Gonzaga kept their famous horses. Giulio Romano, an early, extraordinary representative of Mannerism, had been the best apprentice of Raffaello, and had had much experience in papal Rome, both as a painter and as an architect. At the time Federico II invited Giulio to his court, Mantua was not yet a duchy, and Federico was only a Marquis with very high political and dynastical ambitions. Giulio accepted the invitation and arrived in Mantua in 1524, and lived and worked there until his death, a few years after the untimely death of the Duke. He was man of unbound energy, who worked tirelessly as an architect and an engineer to fix Mantua's permanent flooding problems; but he also worked as a painter. It was said that he and the Duke were more than Maecenas and artist, they were boon com- panions. Both of them appear to have been handsome, tall, beard- ed men, Federico in his famous portrait by Titian, Giulio in his engraved self-portrait. Having received the commis- sion, Giulio built the Palazzo del Te very quickly, between 1525 and 1526, but the decorations took many more years to be com- pleted. In contrast with the con- strained ducal palace in town, the Palazzo del Te is a vast sprawling edifice on one floor. The plan of the palace is classically laid out like an ancient Roman villa, according to the precepts of the great Roman architect Vitruvius. The edifice is low and elongated, developing longitudinally. It has a square plan and a vast garden in the back. For the surface, Giulio chose a rough stone that gives the palace a rustic appearance. The palazzo is stately and decorous, and emanates an air of serenity. Therefore the visitor is stunned when he enters the building, only to find the most ingenious, sur- prising, shocking decorations possible. The interior of the Palazzo del Te has been regarded as an archi- tectural caprice twisting and pushing classical tenets to the limit. Most of the halls are paint- ed to illustrate mythological scenes, inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses. Vasari wrote as follows about the frescoes: "The rooms are filled with such a vari- ety of fantasies that the brain reels at the thought of them." In the Loggia delle Muse we see the Muses on Mount Parnassus. Here we also see Castalia, the fountain of poetry and music. We also see the winged horse Pegasus, who with a stroke of his hoof opens up a river whose water would turn anyone into a poet. And of great beauty is the Hall of Love and Psyche. But the most famous room is the large, awe-inspiring Sala dei Giganti, The Hall of the Giants, rightfully regarded as the climax of Giulio Romano's innovative genius. Here we see the fall of the Giants (also called Titans) after they rebelled against Zeus. The trompe l'oeil decorations, achieved with the "di sotto in su" manner (worm's eye view) refined by Mantegna, cover every inch of the room, creating a visual a space that leaves no respite between one wall and the other, and that culminates in a vertigi- nous dome. The Giants, brothers of the chief God Zeus were excluded from Mount Olympus by the twelve reigning Gods. One day they decided to rebel against Zeus and attempted to storm the mountain, arriving at the top while the Gods were all present and banqueting. The giants attacked. Venus is terrified, but Zeus and other gods strongly react and defeat the Giants, push- ing them downwards with thun- der and lightning. The rejected Giants, depicted with brutish fea- tures, now lose their human fea- tures completely, and fall back, crumbling down under the weight of broken pillars and boulders, and turning into bits of stone. Giulio's illusionistic fresco can almost make the viewers believe that they are also about to be crushed by the crumbling stones. For the first time in art history one sees frescoes in a room where the domed ceiling has been incorporated into the walls, a room where one cannot distinguish where one wall starts and the other ends, so that the spectator is swallowed up by the terrifying scene. There is no attempt to harmony, as the classi- cal rules are purposely fractured in the Mannerist way for dramat- ic effect. The Hall of the Giants is spectacular: its aim is to stun, to overcome, to show a world- view emphasizing the insecurity and the precariousness of the world. We are here close to the Baroque worldview. Why was such subject chosen for the villa's main hall? It was not pretty. It was powerful. The answer is: it was an admonition. Governing authority must be respected, and there must be no rebellion. Rebellion will be defeated. Federico only lived forty years (1500 to 1540), and during that time he was con- sumed by two passions. One was the long-lasting, relentless pas- sion for his mistress Isabella Boschetti, the other was the pas- sion for political advance- ment. He looked to the Emperor Charles V to advance his dynas- tic ambitions, and finally the Emperor elevated him to Duke in 1530, when he visited the Palazzo del Te, Mantua, Italy. This palace was built between 1524 and 1534 by architect Giulio Romano for the duke Federico the second Gonzaga.— Photo by citylights Palazzo del Te. So Federico was the first Duke of Mantua after many generations of marquises. Prior to that, through his dynastic marriage, Federico had also gained the territory of Monferrato in Piedmont. The moralité of this story is that the underlings must not defy the Gods, or the rulers above them, or else they will be destroyed. The aim might have been to please the Emperor Charles V. Or does the subject, as some have surmised, represent the victory of Charles V over the Protestants? But in spite of the Michelangiolesque terribilità of the Hall of the Giants, another room, La Sala dei Cavalli, the Hall of the Horses, is regarded as one the most harmonious and perfectly measured hall ever to be designed in the Renaissance. Here the horses of the Duke are immortalized. They are so well depicted that they seem to jump out of the walls. The Gonzaga loved horses, but also made a shrewd business of them, import- ing and marketing the best thor- ough-breads in Europe. In this hall we see six different horses, including the Duke's two favorites, Morel Favorito and Glorioso. The passion for a strange, fatal woman, Isabella Boschetti, is also immortalized in an "Impresa" (or motto) that the Duke devised to repeatedly advertise his love for her appears in the frescoes of several halls, namely the Hall of the Sun and Moon, the Hall of Psyche, the Hall of the Horses, and the Hall of the Winds. It represents a sala- mander, in traditional iconology a cold blooded animal reputed to be able to withstand fire. The Impresa is a Latin phrase: "QUOD HUIC DEEST ME TORQUET." This means "what is lacking to this (one) torments me." But it could also mean: "what is missing in this (one) tor- ments me." Or: "what is withheld from this (one) torments me." Was Isabella cold towards Federico, and not reciprocating his ardent love? Or, was Federico warning courtiers that withhold- ing respect from Isabella would torment him, the ruler? Perhaps that phrase means all of the above. I reflect at length over this sentence and this blatant proof of the Dukes's love. What kind of a woman was Isabella Boschetti to have such power, such an impact? The power of Helen of Troy, the power of Roxelana, of Shah Jehan's deceased wife Mumtaz that caused him to build the Taj Mahal, the power of Duchess of Windsor for whom a throne was renounced? As a woman, I would like to know. But all I know is that without the mysterious Isabella, we would not have the Palazzo del Te. Mantua: The Palazzo del Te

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