View Page: Divine Nepotism

	Divine Nepotism
	written by lmschultz / 08.01.2005

Section Four

4 of 7

Patron

Fig. 5

Minerva Overcoming the Giants. This portion of the narrative program represents the battle between the church and heresy.

Cortona’s success is distinguished by the way he applied this synthesis of traditions to organize composition of the largest scale and greatest complexity. The frescos in the Barberini indicate important innovations in a conceptual context as well. The design and decoration of the ceiling reflect the combined secular and ecclesiastical aspirations of the family. Cardinal Francesco Barberini, lived in the palace with his younger brother Taddeo. Taddeo had been chosen from among the Pope’s nephews to carry on the family name. These two brothers, one with secular ambitions as the Prefect of Rome, one with ecclesiastical ambitions as a Cardinal, were the most immediately involved with the design of the palace. The north wing of the palace contained the apartments of the secular arm of the family while the new south wing housed the ecclesiastical members. The Salone served the two wings in common and just as the palace consists of two groups of apartments, so is the imagery of the ceiling painting divided according to this distinction. The divine mission of the papacy, represented by the scene of Minerva overcoming the Giants echoes the battle between the church and heresy. The worldly mission of the papacy, personified by Hercules overcoming the harpies, represents the virtuous church’s battle over vice.
The original program, designed by poet Francesco Bracciolini, is a combination of elements taken from the Old and New Testaments, from mythology and from ancient and modern history. Unlike the formal prototypes for the ceiling, the iconographic tradition from which the salone fresco derives is entirely Roman in character. The Sala Clementina and Sala di Constantino in the Vatican palace provided inspiration for Christian images and personifications associated with papal aspiration. The Galleria Farnese provided iconography of the aspirations and virtues of their family. A combination of papal and familial traditions was found in Vasari’s Sala di Cento Giorni in the Palazzo della Chancelleria. The Barberini fresco surpasses these prototypes in the degree to which it depicts the origin, means and ends of those virtues. It illustrates the ideal papal virtues operative under Urban’s reign and confirms for the viewer that these same virtues make the Barberini pope worthy of election and guarantee his immortality.

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