Maria del Popolo in Rome, for which he commissioned Andrea Sansovino to create sepulchres for a number of cardinals and Pinturicchio to paint the frescoes in the apse. Among the innumerable Italian churches that benefitted from his encouragement of the arts was Sta. Following an overall plan, he added many fine buildings to Rome and laid the groundwork in the Vatican Museum for the world's greatest collection of antiquities. With his wealth of visionary ideas, he contributed to their creativity. His name is closely linked with those of such great artists as Bramante, Raphael, and Michelangelo. The enduring impact of the life of Julius II stemmed from his gift for inspiring great artistic creations. Toward the end of his life, he viewed with concern the replacement of French by Spanish efforts to attain supremacy in Italy. The territories in northern Italy occupied by the French revolted, the French left the country, and the Papal States were augmented by the acquisition of Parma and Piacenza. Louis XII had defeated the troops of the alliance at Ravenna in April 1512, but the situation changed when Swiss troops were sent to the Pope's aid. After concluding an alliance with Venice and Ferdinand II of Spain and Naples in October 1511, he opened the council in May 1512 at the Lateran Palace. Several cardinals defected to Louis XII and called a schismatic council, to which Julius responded by summoning the fifth Lateran Council. Having become an exponent of Italian national consciousness, Julius II proposed to drive the French from Italy, but his second war, which lasted from September 1510 to May 1511, was unsuccessful. The league troops defeated Venice in May 1509 near Cremona, and the Papal States were restored. Then, in March 1509, he joined the League of Cambrai, an anti-Venetian alliance formed in December 1508 between Louis XII, who then ruled Milan, Emperor Maximilian I, and Ferdinand II of Spain, who had been king of Naples since 1503. As a first step as pope, Julius subjugated Perugia and Bologna in the autumn of 1508. Large portions of it had been appropriated by Venice after Alexander VI's death. Julius II viewed as the main task of his pontificate the restoration of the Papal States, which had been reduced to ruin by the Borgias. Immediately after his election he decreed that all future simoniacal papal elections would be invalid and subject to penalty. Alexander VI twice attempted to seize him.įollowing the death of the Borgia pope in 1503, Giuliano returned to Rome, having been 10 years in exile, and, after Pius III's brief pontificate, was, with the liberal help of simony, elected Pope Julius II in October 1503. After accompanying Charles on his forced return to France, Giuliano took part in Louis XII's invasion of Italy in 1502. He accompanied the French king on his expedition against Naples in the hope that Charles would also depose Alexander VI. When Rodrigo Borgia, elected pope as Alexander VI in 1492, plotted Giuliano's assassination, Giuliano fled in 1494 to the court of Charles VIII of France. Peter's, the Cardinal's candidate, the weak Innocent VIII, was elected through bribery. He is shown with his protégés in Melozzo da Forlì's superb fresco of Sixtus IV in the Vatican Museum.Īfter the death of Sixtus IV, for whom Giuliano commissioned a bronze sepulchre by Antonio Pollaiuolo, now in the Vatican Grotto of St. The Cardinal, who lacked any interest in spiritual pursuits, became an outstanding patron of the arts. The Pope lavished on him six bishoprics in France and three in Italy along with an abundance of wealthy abbeys and benefices. In this office Giuliano displayed all of the attributes of cupidity and corruption of an unscrupulous Renaissance prince. In 1468 he became a Franciscan, and in 1471 Sixtus IV made him a cardinal. Giuliano was the son of the impoverished Rafaello della Rovere, Pope Sixtus IV's only brother. He commissioned Michelangelo's "Moses" and paintings in the Sistine Chapel and Raphael's frescoes in the Vatican. Although he led military efforts to prevent French domination of Italy, Julius is most important for his close friendship with Michelangelo and for his patronage of other artists, including Bramante and Raphael. 1513, Rome), greatest art patron of the papal line (reigned 1503-13) and one of the most powerful rulers of his age. Original name Giuliano Della Rovere (b.1443, Albisola, d.
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