The Villa Farnesina: Palace of Venus in Renaissance Rome

Introduction
	‘Not built with walls, but truly born’
	The Hybrid Estate: Multiple Structures, Multiple Arts
	Scholars and Critics on the Farnesina
	Agostino Chigi and his ‘familiares’
1 ‘Antique’ Imagination and the Creation of the Villa-Palazzo: Origins and Precursors
	1 Emulating the Ancient Villa
		The Villa in Antiquity
		Home Theatricals
		Vitruvius, Theory and Practice of Painted Decoration
		Statius, Vopiscus and the Interpretation of Ancient Sources
		The Ground Floor and the Main Reception Room: A New Reconstruction
	2 Imaginary Palaces
		The Bolognese Villa of Mino de’ Rossi
		Palaces by Filarete and Poliziano
		Niccolò da Correggio
	3 Siena and Rome: Chigi Patronage and the Launching of Peruzzi’s Career
		Peruzzi’s Earliest Commissions
		Self-fashioning, Marriage and Dynastic Alliance
		Patronage of Art and Architecture
		Chigi Town Houses in Siena and Rome
		The Tiber Site and Its Rival Neighbours
	4 The Villa Le Volte and the Conception of the Farnesina
		The Fabric of the Villa Le Volte
		The Farnesina: Applying the Lessons of Le Volte
		The House and the Street
	5 Villa Speculatrix: The Rising Structure from Basements to Rooftops
		Chthonic Architecture
		Staircases and Internal Circulation
		Fireplaces and Chimneys at the Structural Core
2 The Stanza del Fregio and Peruzzi’s First Architectural Wall-Painting
	1 Narrative in Architecture: The Stanza del Fregio, Ostia and the Chapel of St Helena
		The Room and the Painted Frieze
		Ostia and Rome
		The Chapel of St Helena
		Peruzzi’s Autumnal Landscape
	2 Sources Ancient and Modern
		Earlier Renaissance Models
		The Imperial Villa on Chigi’s Property
	3 Hybrid Creatures of Water and Land
		Water-Creatures
		The Libreria Piccolomini as Primary Source
		Lighting and Modelling: The Frieze between Painting and Sculpture
3 The Lost Façade-Paintings: ‘Di terretta con storie di man sua, molto belle’
	1 The Extant Spandrel Paintings, the Form of the Façades, the Possibilities of the Medium
		The Spandrel Paintings
		Multiple Fields and Irregular Façades
		Graphic Evidence: The Metropolitan Drawing
		Reconstructing the Complete Exterior
		The Meaning of the Terretta Medium
		Peruzzi’s Other Façades
	2 ‘Disegno rather than colorito’: The Drawings related to the Façade
		The Satyr-Caryatids
		The Mythological Scenes and the Mezzanine Windows
		Pasiphaë and Daedalus: The Design Evolves
		Mars and Venus Captured by Vulcan
		Stylistic Affinities across Peruzzi’s Oeuvre
	3 Adventures Underground: The Imperial Villa Rediscovered
		Caryatids, Captives and Satyrs
		Masks, Ancient and Modern
		Dividers and Supporters
		Paintings of Erotica
	4 Peruzzi’s Design Principles
		The Building Takes to the Air
		Peruzzi’s Theory
	5 Flights of Fancy: Images from Maiolica and Prints
		The Story of Pasiphaë Continued
		Evidence from Prints: An Apollo-Daphne cycle?
		The Power of Love
4 1512 Overtures: The Villa, the Landscape Architecture and the Literature of Celebration
	1 The New House Rises
		Approaching the Villa with Egidio Gallo
		The Culture of Festivity
		Blosio Palladio’s ‘Suburbanum’
	2 Hypogea and Hipocausta: The Secrets of the Lower Storeys
		The Summit and the Depths
		Ancient Materials from the Earth
		Chigi’s Private Bathing Suite
	3 ‘Twin Porticoes … Such as Never Existed in the Entire World’
		Drawing the Gaze: Blosio’s Response to the Interior
		The Painted Vault
		Sebastiano in the ‘Antico Soggiorno’
		The Galatea Loggia: Three Artists at Work
		Giant Heads
		Raphael’s Galatea in Conversation
	4 Fragrant Gardens, Shady Woods, Deep Meadows and Transparent Floods
		Reconstructing the Gardens: Poems and Documents
		‘The progress of this House’
		Egidio Gallo’s Landscape
		Blosio Palladio’s ‘Topiary’
		Entrances and Exits, Gates and Doorways
		Fountains and the ‘Mastery’ of Water
		Garden Sculpture Continued: Tiber, Pan, Psyche
		Reminiscences and Recreations
	5 Architecture in the Landscape: The Three Major Buildings
		Raphael’s Stable/Guesthouse
		The Main Carriage Gateway Rediscovered
		The Tiber Pavilion
		Grotto, Pool and ‘Cave of the Nymphs’
		Graphic Traces of Riverbank Structures, and Their Destruction
5 The Second Phase, 1518–1519: The ‘Hall of Perspectives’, the Nuptial Suite and the Loggia di Psiche
	1 The Piano Nobile Transformed
		Reconstructing the North and South Suites
		Disruption and Expansion
	2 The Sala delle Prospettive and its Frieze
		Columns in Perspective
		Rus et Urbe: The Painted Vistas
		The Fictive Architecture
		Gods and Niches
		Decorum and Decoration in the Upper Frieze
	3 Roxana, Alexander and the Nuptial Bedroom
		Roxana and Alexander in Double Perspective
		Vulcan and Companions
		Looking Up and Looking Back
	4 Psyche’s Upward Mobility
		Psyche Variations
		Peruzzi’s Structure, Giovanni’s Pergola, Raphael’s Figures
		Narrative Abandoned
		‘Cosa Vituperosa’ or ‘Myriad Pleasures’?
	5 Giovanni da Udine’s Biodiversity: ‘Painting and Poetry Truly Most Beautiful’
		‘Fruits and Flowers without End’
		Nature as Artefact
		Vegetable Love
		Giovanni da Udine’s Aviary
		All That Is Solid Takes to the Air
Index