Avis de soutenance - doctorat - Francesco GUIDI

This research is devoted to the reconstruction of Giovanni Poggi's patronage in art and architecture. Poggi (1493-1556), general collector in Spain, Apostolic nuncio, and finally cardinal, started his patronage in 1549, when he came back to Rome, where he met Pellegrino Tibaldi. The young artist was charged with the decoration of the Poggi vigna in Rome, which is now lost. In the thesis I have focused mainly on the loggia, which used to be the most beautiful feature of the vigna, whose decoration can be deducted thanks to a drawing in Florence and some new archivistic discoveries. Then Poggi patronized the construction and decoration of a palace and a chapel in his hometown, Bologna. Facing the various artists who worked in the decoration of the palace, I have tried to show their importance for an historically grounded understanding of the patron's taste, but I have also explained their position in Renaissance art history. Pellegrino Tibaldi's frescoes depicting some scenes from the life of Odysseus are the fruits of his dialogue with Primaticcio's new solutions for ceiling decoration in Fontainebleau, as well as with the experiments on Michelangelo's maniera carried out by the previous generation of North Italian artists; but the ironic account of Odysseus' adventures has to be linked to a well-known tradition deeply rooted in Bolognese culture. The thesis also covers the frescoes in the rooms of David and Moses, painted around 1555. While the scholars have usually linked this decoration to Prospero Fontana and his workshop, I think that I can cautiously propose an attribution to Orazio Samacchini and a group of co-workers. In those frescoes, we face an effort to understand and assimilate Tibaldi's manner through a new reflection on Parmigianino as it was proposed by Nicolò dell'Abate. If we look at the rooms of David and Moses from this perspective, it becomes clear their importance in the development of Bolognese painting in the second half of the XVIth century, before the Carracci's takeover. Nicolò dell'Abate is also one of the painters who worked for Poggi. I think it is of key importance to reflect on the room of the Landscapes, painted by Nicolò and his workshop, which was an almost unprecedented decoration for an urban palace. But this also helps to better understand Nicolò and his role in Poggi's campaign, and in general in the history of art: he was great specialist – landscapes and courtly painting – and that is why Poggi and the other patrons selected him. The new take on the Poggi's chapel proposed in this thesis can be an important addition to the history of architecture in Bologna in the 1540s. The construction of the chapel was completed in january 1549, and it has a striking – yet almost unnoticed – feature which can be helpful for a better understanding of the cultural components of the project: the angular niches. This motif was also unprecedented in Bologna, but it had already been deployed by Sebastiano Serlio in the court of the castle of Ancy-le-Franc. I therefore propose a revision of the traditional attribution to Bartolomeo Triachini. Triachini could have played a role in the building of the chapel, but I think that he was not capable of such an innovative solution. It may be necessary to suggest that Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola must have played a part in the project, maybe just as a consultant. Vignola has worked in France from 1541 to 1543, and he used the rare angular niche in his project for the Villa Cervini in Montepulciano and in the court of the Farnese palace in Piacenza. When it comes to the decoration of the chapel, carried out in 1551-1553, once again we face Pellegrino Tibaldi, this time developing the lesson he received in Rome in the late 1540s, while working with Daniele da Volterra. The vault was decorated by Prospero Fontana, who then completed the altarpiece in 1561, five years after Poggi's death.