Agostino Chigi | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Agostino Chigi | |
| Born | Agostino Andrea Chigi November 29, 1466 |
| Died | April 11, 1520(1520-04-11) (aged 53) |
| Occupations | Banker,entrepreneur andshipowner |
| Father | Mariano Chigi |
Agostino Andrea Chigi (29 November 1466[1] – April 11, 1520) was an Italian banker and patron of theRenaissance.
Born inSiena, he was the son of the prominent banker Mariano Chigi, a member of the ancient and illustriousChigi family.[2] He moved toRome around 1487, collaborating with his father. The heir of a rich fund of capital, and enriched further after lending huge amounts of money toPope Alexander VI (and to other rulers of the time as well), he strayed from common mercantile practice by obtaining lucrative monopolies like thesalt monopoly of thePapal States and theKingdom of Naples, as well as that of thealum excavated inTolfa,[3]Agnato andIschia di Castro. Alum was an essential mordant in the textile industry.
After the death of the Borgia pope Alexander VI and his short-lived Sienese successorPius III Piccolomini, he helpedPope Julius II in the expenses attendant upon his election. The latter rewarded him, linking Chigi to thedella Rovere family, and creating him treasurer and notary of theApostolic Camera. The personal bond between the Pope and his banker remained close: Agostino accompanied Julius in the field in both his great military campaigns of 1506 and 1510. In 1511 Agostino was sent toVenice to buy Venetian support for the papal forces in theWar of the League of Cambrai.[4]
Agostino established economic ties with the whole of Western Europe, at one time having up to 20,000 employees, receiving from Siena the title ofIl Magnifico ("Magnificent").[5]
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Chigi, "indisputably the richest man in Rome",[6] became also a rich patron of art and literature, the protector ofPietro Aretino among others, though his own education suffered many lacunae, notably his lack ofLatin.[7] His Venetian mistress Francesca Ordeaschi was the toast of Rome.[8] His artistic protégés included almost all the main figures of the early 16th century:Perugino (from whom he commissioned the eponymousChigi Altarpiece),Sebastiano del Piombo,Giovanni da Udine,Giulio Romano,Sodoma andRaphael.
In Rome, Chigi's three artistic commissions involving Raphael remain the most prominent monuments of his contemporary fame: a chapel inSanta Maria della Pace; his mortuary chapel, theChigi Chapel inSanta Maria del Popolo; and the suburban villa known since 1579 as theVilla Farnesina, all of them intended to give substance to his legend.[9] His splendidvilla that he built on the shore of theTiber, in Trastevere, bears the name of its later owners:Villa Farnesina (illustration). For its design, Chigi employed the Sienese painterBaldassare Peruzzi, virtually untried as an architect. Sebastiano del Piombo, Giovanni da Udine, Giulio Romano, Sodoma and Raphael were called upon to provide the decoration. Here Raphael frescoed hisTriumph of Galatea. Here Chigi held sumptuous repasts. In order to show his contempt of money, he was said to have all the silver dishes thrown into the river after the end of the parties; however, his servants were secretly ready to recollect them with nets draped under the windows. The villa called theViridario in Chigi's time served as banking facility as well as residence, setting Chigi apart from the ordinary run of bankers in Rome, who normally resided in apiano nobile directly above but unconnected to their street-levelbotteghe (it:bottega, place of business).
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