17th century AD

This essay, an interpretation of a major Late Renaissance hall of state, is based upon four fundamental premises. First, the decorative program of the space of Maps (Sala del Mappamondo) in the Villa Farnese at Caprarola (Figs. 1-5) was based above all upon the ideology of status, privilege, service, and merit of its patron, Alessandro Farnese (15201589) who was a leading member of single of the principal upstart noble dynasties in Renaissance Italy and a cardinal of the Roman house of god for over half a century(1) next to the first Cardinal Farnese's familial and cardinalitial ideology was embedded within a larger single concerning the Church and the Christian Commonwealth. This ideology was earthed on theological doctrines clarified in the 1564 enacts of the Council of Trent and upon biblical history as the framework for understanding the postbiblical world.(2) Third, within these overlapping, sometimes conflicting ideologies the mythology of classical antiquity, an important constituting in Cardinal Farnese's Late Renaissance agriculture of classical revival, constituted a parallel to, or prefiguration of biblical history and meeting-house doctrine (just as the aged Testament prefigured the New, and the fresh Dispensation fulfilled the Old), as well as an "other" that allowed the introspective exploration and distancing of contemporary anxieties.(3) Finally, in order to stabilize a changing and contingent not away the aims and aspirations of Cardinal Farnese were oftentimes projected backward through mythology or temple history, or forward through millennial prophecy as a of gold age. In addition, since uncertainties and fears could not ever be suppressed--because a complete understanding of reality was never possible within a teleological general [i]or[/i] abstract notion of history until the trice of final revelation at the extreme point of time--mythology, history, and prophecy ofttimes expressed as well a destabilizing faculty of perception of troubles and trials.

[Figures 1 to 5 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

In light of the foregoing assumptions, the classical astronomical myths and the Renaissance geographical maps decorating the compass of Maps are interpreted below as a series of digests or signs constructing ideological meaning within a framework of biblical history. They are also understood as addressing of the like kind Counter-Reformation issues as papal primacy and the claims of the house of worship the nature of the Christian Commonwealth, Protestant and Turkish challenges to papal authority and house of god doctrine--especially concerning the Eucharist--and the conflicts of interest between the papacy and dynastic families living within the Papal State.

Previous studies of the extent of Maps, cited in the notes that go in the rear [i]or[/i] in the wake of have concentrated on attribution, dating, astronomical sources for the canopy of heaven map, textual sources for the mythological pageants cartographic sources for the maps, visual sources for the portraits of explorers, the possible horoscopic significance of a certain number of of the mythological scenes, and the general iconography of Late Renaissance decorative round of yearss employing maps. The results of these studies have been drawn upon and refined, but this essay for the first time pays particular attention to the visual and narrative makes of both individual compositions and the entire general impression These structures suggest certain intentional programmatic meanings, on the contrary if understood as an unstable, mingled multivalent sign system, the decoration can also be seen to make bare unintentional fissures or faults within the underlying ideologies.

Four alphabetic characters from Fulvio Orsini (1529 - 1600) in Rome to Cardinal Farnese in Caprarola written between March 4 and October 15 1573 document the following facts. First, by means of March 4 a friend of Orsini's, Orazio Trigini de' Marii, had prepared a discourse to help Cardinal Farnese decide in what manner to decorate the room. next to the first according to Orsini, not solitary was de' Marii's cosmographical knowledge (dottrina) and experience (practica) beneficial and based on good authors, he was also vers in Roman antiquity from which he could derive many particulars concerning the celestial signs, especially since he holded a manuscript by Hyginus (probably next to the first century A.D.) written in a actual ancient hand illustrated with the constellations in color. Third, by dint of March 4 de' Marii had agreed to make cartoons for the room's terrestrial and celestial maps. Fourth, Giovanni Antonio Vanosino da Varese, who had painted the terrestrial maps (cosmografia) in the third loggia of the Vatican commissioned by means of Pius IV (1559-1565), likewise had by dint of March 4 agreed to achieve the cartoons in fresco. Fifth, by means of September 6, 1573, neither de' Marii nor Vanosino could have done any work upon the project, since on that date Orsini and Vanosino were expecting momentarily to be order to appeared to Caprarola to decide with Cardinal Farnese the location and scale of the maps according to the room's compartmentalization in order to allow de' Marii to begin the cartoons. Sixth, Vanosino would bring with him to Caprarola a fresh world map ("un nuovo universale") upon canvas thirteen palmi high, which was awaited to please Cardinal Farnese. Finally, while he had rest few painters who would the two satisfy the cardinal and agree to go on to Caprarola, Orsini had sent an unnamed painter from Rome to Caprarola upon October 15 to execute that part of the space of Maps which was waiting for figures ("quella parse che s'aspetta alle figure").(4) This unnamed painter initially could have made single drawings and cartoons, since the building documents (misure) establish that the walls were not prepared for fresco until sometime after November 23 1573(5) If the vault was painted before the walls as was normal, it was complet in 1574 when this date was fresco upon both sides of the map of Europe upon the southwest window wall (Fig. 1 [nos. 51 52]) The walls themselves were not complet until the summer of the nearest year, because it was alone on July 21, 1575, that Orsini, who had been in novel correspondence with an unnamed painter at Caprarola, sent from Rome to Cardinal Farnese at Caprarola pair of rhymess of about fifty letters for line to be inscribed below the five navigators or explorers fresco above the sum of two units doors and three windows of the extent (Figs. 1 [nos. 35-39], 19 20) The two verses s were not used, however, in spite of the effort Orsini had made reading writers upon navigation and conferring with prompts to get them right, because the size of the alphabetic characters demanded by Cardinal Farnese meant that there was extent only for the names of those portrayed and their countries of origin.(6)