La prima architettura: le Stanze di Raffaello al tempo di Giulio II

This is a Study of the architectures depicted in the frescoes of the Stanze di Raffaello (Vatican Palace) painted between the artist's arrival in Rome in 1509 and the death of Pope Julius II in 1513. Starting from a concise description of the remodeling of the papal apartment, the study follows the progressive chronology of the execution of the frescoes and proposes a new reconstruction of the relationship between the preparatory cartoon in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana and the architecture depicted in the School of Athens. The rapid development of Raphael’s architectural ideas is brought to light through an analysis of the architectures represented in the preparatory studies, their dimensions, and the graphic reconstructions of the buildings represented in them. the rapid development of the artist's ideas in the realm of architecture emerges with clarity. A detailed analysis of the buildings represented in the paintings reveals their close connection to the Bramantesque building sites. The study of the relationship between actual constructions and painted architecture makes possible an understanding of the evocative function ascribed to architecture as an image of the aspirations of a papacy that considered the large-scale construction site as a metaphor for the renewal of the role of the Catholic Church. The relationship between reality and representation, central to the culture of Humanism, appears at full strength in the first buildings designed by the young artist, preluding the extraordinary results of his later direct experience with the realities of constructing architecture