User:Wikibunny77/sandbox/Fall of the Giants (Romano)

Fall of the Giants
Artist	Giulio Romano
Year	1532-1534
Medium	fresco
Location	Palazzo del Te, Mantua

The Fall of the Giants is a full room fresco from floor to ceiling done by Italian Renaissance artist and architect Giulio Romano, who worked on the room from 1532 to 1534, it is located in the Palazzo de Te,Mantua, which was also designed and built by Romano.The rooms of the Palazzo are said to tell the story of Ovid's Metamorphoses. a narrative poem consisting of 15 books that was written in 8 C.E. The Sala dei Giganti is one of twenty- seven rooms covered in illusionistic frescos. This room is one of the more popular rooms because of Romano's unique take on the mannerist style. His creation of the completely immersive room made for innovation and mystique within the renaissance art period and still creates an awfilled reaction to visitors today.

Style

The room forms a round panorama; with no beginning or end, its singular theme absorb you into the story of the heavenly god, Jupiter away from his throne, showing his willingness to fight against the giants attack, he carries a lightning bolt to wreak havoc against the mannerist style of the giants. Through floods and destruction, there is no doubt in your mind that Jupiter won this battle. According to Giorgio Vasari, it was Romano's intention to create this illusionistic landscape of mountains and buildings collapsing, surrounded by heavy clouds driven by the winds that distorted the Giant's face in horror. Walking into Sala dei Giganti, you walk into mid battle, the stucco brings a sense of excitement. The limitless room is shocking and unsuspecting, unlike any other room in the Palazzo, the scene is an intimate exchange between all powerful Gods and unsuspecting giants on a battle ground. Romano purposely puts the viewer on the ground with the giants, loosing the battle between them and the Gods to intimidate and express that the viewer should be uneasy in the presence of the patron Gonzago. The tall ceilings accentuate the experience through an amplification of sound that allows you to hear the quietest whisper.

In many respects the Sala dei Giganti (Fall of the Giants) differs from the other rooms of the Palazzo. In areas, such as the Sala di Psyche and the Sala di Ovidio, Romano had created scenes of erotic abandon and pastoral calm but in the Sala dei Giganti the viewer is confronted with scenes of chaos and violence.

Source

In order to explain these iconographic motifs it is wise to consult the contemporary translations of Ovid's Metamorphoses. These translations played an essential role in telling the Ovidian myths. One should not assume that the artists of the time, including Giulio Romano, translated these texts without having difficulty reading their original form. The frescos of Giulio Romano are most likely linked with the translation of the Venetian poet Niccolò delgi Agostini which first appeared in Venice, in the year 1522. A translation became the standard for the second quarter of the 16th century.

History

Patron

Done for his patron Federico II Gonzaga, the Metamorphoses was a popular subject to depict in the Cinquecento for multiple reasons. Its inherent possibilities for effective aesthetic design created a story the patron could tell to express their self-image in religion, morality, and political ideas. According to Vasari, a well known artist and historian of his time, Baldassare Castiglione was delegated by Federico II Gonzaga to procure Romano as the head artist and architect for the city of Mantua, Italy. In 1522 Romano was officially courted and in 1524, Romano moved to Mantua to build and paint the interior of the Palazzo de Te. Freud notes that looking deeper into the psychological aspects of Sala dei Giganti and its patron, it is easy to assume that Gonzaga wanted to prove his authority over Mantua and its people. Rather than seeing that this fantastical panorama showed narcissistic insecurity within the individual. The need to prove himself all powerful and dedicate an entire Palazzo to his own gloriousness pushed Freuds interpretation of Gonzaga and the Sala dei Giganti. There is a lot to be said about the Gonzaga family and Federico himself, but with the rapid, feverous building and patronage of the arts came some of the most unique works that are still studied for its mystery and beauty today.

The fresco is also said to be an allegory of Giulio Romano’s criticism of the Roman Emperor Charles V. The high tension that followed the Italians War (1494-1559) and the limitation church and state put on political dialog, there was no safe space to critique the imperial empire at the time. This theory holds weight in many aspects. For Gonzaga, the politically commentary helped built a repour with the emperor. Charles V liked it so much that he made Gonzaga the Duke of Mantua. Another popular theory is that the fresco was meant to be a way to show his patrons authority over Mantua. The room is so grand it is easy to feel small and overwhelmed by the scenes and movement happening around you. This helped Gonzaga create an authoritative feel in his character. These theories may hold some truths to it, but there is no certainty at what Romano attempted to portray.

Iconography

To fully understand the lay out of this room, you must understand how the architectural design supports the story of the fresco. Romano intentionally placed slingstone throughout the floor of the room. Hiding the sharp corners of the walls with a continuous scene that carries your eye around and up. This helped create the illusion of a panoramic scene, when in reality you are standing in a four cornered room with a domed ceiling. As you enter The Chamber of Giants, you are greeted with the horrific faces of the giants in the midst of chaos and destruction. Crushed by monumental marble and mountain, the giants are simultaneously trying to escape a flood. You notice above the fireplace, the face of Typhon, the son of Gaia (personification of Earth). He is the target of the heavenly god, Jupiter. He tries to save himself from Jupiter’s wrath by spitting fire, but to no avail, he is in seen in the midst of his defeat. To once again create an interaction with the architecture, Romano has Typhons weak attempt to attack Jupiter become a part of the fireplace below him by having the fire he spits connect with the fire in the fireplace. When looking for Typhons aggressor your eye is drawn to the heroic Jupiter, away from his thrown. He places himself by Juno, Jupiter’s wife and sister, showing his willingness to fight against the giants who are intent to raid Mount Olympus, Jupiter carries a lightning bolt to wreak havoc against the animated giants. As your eye continues to go up the walls to the ceiling, you are greeted with a myriad of characters. They look down at you, some in horror and curiosity, others in an impassive annoyance of the event below them. Notably, the Imperial eagle looks down at you from an umbrellaed throne, above the entire event, giving the impression that it is orchestrating the it all. While the four winds help create the chaos through their evangelical talents and menacing faces. According to other versions of the myth, Jupiter resisted the Giants' assault thanks to the intervention of Pan or of the asses of Silenus and Bacchus., but overall the scene is meant to create an unsettling atmosphere for its visitors.

Mannerism

Giulio Romano used mannerism in his frescos as a way to dramatize the scene depicted on the walls of Sala dei Giganti. This decision was both architectural and artistic. Mannerism is meant to blur the lines between architecture and fresco, giving you the illusion of architecture that isn’t there, further embedding you into your surroundings. When Romano saw a flat room, he took it upon himself to create an illusionistic space to not only surprise its viewers, but to also create a space of tension and uneasiness. This style was forward thinking for many Renaissance artists. It was seen as distasteful to some. With no known classical training in this style, Romano honed it as his own. The idea of illusion was not a new concept, but Visari considered Romanos take on it as one that pushed the limits of its architecture. Without allowing the viewer to escape to reality once they entered the room, the viewer no longer is given the line between picture and frame. This made the room and Palazzo de Te unique in its own right.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

References

• Bazzoti, Ugo, Grazia Sgrilli, Ghigo Roli, and Grace Bromelow. 2013. Palazzo Te: Giulio Romano's Masterwork in Mantua. London: Thames and Hudson.
• Dandelet, Thomas James. 2014. The renaissance of empire in early modern Europe. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Guthmüller, Bodo. “Ovidübersetzungen Und Mythologische Malerei. Bemerkungen Zur Sala Dei Giganti Giulio Romanos.” Mitteilungen Des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, vol. 21, no. 1, 1977, pp. 35–68.
• Tafuri, Manfredo. (1998). Giulio Romano (English ed., Architecture in early modern Italy). Cambridge ; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
• Pierguidi, S. (2004). "Gigantomachia" and the Wheel of Fortune in Giulio Romano, Vincenzo Cartari and Anton Francesco Doni, and the Authorship of the "Asinesca Gloria". Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 67, 275–284.
• Vasari, Giorgio, et al. Lives of the Artists. Oxford University Press, 2008.

• Forster, Kurt W., and Richard J. Tuttle. “The Palazzo Del Te.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 30, no. 4 (1971): 267–93. https://doi.org/10.2307/988701.

• Carabell, Paula. “Breaking the Frame: Transgression and Transformation in Giulio Romano’s Sala Dei Giganti.” Artibus et Historiae 18, no. 36 (1997): 87–100. https://doi.org/10.2307/1483601.

• Hartt, Frederick. “Gonzaga Symbols in the Palazzo Del Te.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 13, no. 3/4 (1950): 151–88. https://doi.org/10.2307/750211.

• Cole, Michael. “Toward an Art History of Spanish Italy.” I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance 16, no. 1/2 (2013): 37–46. https://doi.org/10.1086/674114.

• Pierguidi, Stefano. “‘Gigantomachia’ and the Wheel of Fortune in Giulio Romano, Vincenzo Cartari and Anton Francesco Doni, and the Authorship of the ‘Asinesca Gloria.’” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 67 (2004): 275–84. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40026035.
• Corrain, L. (2023). Art and Artifice: The Machine of Immersivity in the Camera dei Giganti/Chamber Of The Giants. AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433], 2(I). https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19938
• Linda, Svitlana. "The Mannerism of Giulio Romano: Innovation and dramatic imagery." Architectural Studies 9, no. 1 (2023): 47+. Gale Academic OneFile (accessed October 23, 2024). http://dx.doi.org/10.56318/as/1.2023.47.