English
Villa Farnesina is one of the most representative and beautiful Renaissance buildings in Rome, located in the middle of the Trastevere next to the Tiber river. It´s a place with a lot of history, so much so that it goes back to the times of Julius Caesar.
The place where the villa is built was always the residence of Roman noblemen or aristocracy. In this very same place, the emperor Julius Caesar had a palace surrounded by vineyards and crops, and the story says that it was in this place that the Caesar kept his lover, the mother of his son Caesarion, Cleopatra.
With the arrival of the Renaissance, Roman nobility began to show its economic and social power by building huge constructions. The most important surnames competed amongst each other by ordering the construction of their palaces or summer houses, where they used to carry out their social and leisure activities, to the most famous artists and architects of the time. Villa Farnesina is one of these places.
It was ordered by the banker Agostini Guidi in 1505. For that, he called upon the most famous artists of the time, among them Baltassare Peruzzi, for the construction and deign, as well as the decoration of some parts of the palace. Also, he called upon Rafael, who painted the famous frescos of the facade and decorated the whole inside of the building with paintings, now a Renaissance nobility symbol.
As well as Rafael, Peruzzi himself and Sebastiano del Piombo participated in the decoration of the walls and ceilings of the palace. The frescos chosen for the decoration of the villa capture some of the classic myths, among which there´s the famous Triumph of Galatea, made by Rafael. If all of this luxury wasn´t enough, the owner of the villa back then, Agostino Guidi, ordered to decorate the ceiling of the palace with the exact position that the stars had at the time of their birth.
The rooms and chambers of the palace are decorated and furnished with the best materials of the time, showing the social position of its owner and his good taste and love for Renaissance art in every room. However, it´s not just because of the decoration and the magnificent frescos painted by the best artists but also the history of the villa that makes this place great, since this was the preferred place of the most important people in Rome at that time. They say that the wealth and ostentation was so huge at the villa that every time that there was a social gathering there, the dishes and glasses made with gold were thrown into the Tiber instead of being washed and kept for another occasion.
It´s in this place filled with history and beauty, today an architectonical legacy of the city and museum of the Rome National Academy, that on the 4th of September there will be a music concert called ´Music, mythology and Rafael´s frescos´. The concert will begin at 11am and it will perform pieces of the most famous Italian musicians of the Renaissance, an excellent idea if you´re in Rome during those days.
For more information visit:
http://www.classictic.com/en/Musica-Mitologia-y-Frescos-de-Rafael/16675/118383
