41°54′15″N012°27′09″E / 41.90417°N 12.45250°E /41.90417; 12.45250
TheCasina Pio IV (orVilla Pia) is apatrician villa inVatican City which is now home to thePontifical Academy of Sciences, thePontifical Academy of Social Sciences and thePontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas. The predecessor of the present complex structure was begun in the spring of 1558 byPope Paul IV in theVatican Gardens, west of theCortile del Belvedere. Paul IV commissioned the initial project of the 'Casina del Boschetto', as it was originally called, from an unknown architect; the first mention of the single-storey building can be found on 30 April 1558, and a notice of the following 6 May, says that the Pope spent "two thirds of his time at theBelvedere, where he has begun to build a fountain in the woods".
Upon Paul IV's death on 18 August 1559,Pope Pius IV took on the project, which had not yet been completed, and, turning toPirro Ligorio, improved it. The complex, as it was completed in 1562, comprised an ellipticalcortile, two free-standing portals, and theloggia with its fountain. Rich sculpturalstuccos, once supplemented by some fiftyancient Roman sculptures, enliven the exterior (illustration).[1] A team of at least six major painters, includingFederico Barocci,Federico Zuccari, andSanti di Tito and their assistants,frescoed the interiors.[2]
The Casina's rich and at times obscure iconographic programme, of the efficacy of baptism, the primacy of the papacy and the welcomed punitive powers of the Church,[3] seems to have been inspired byCardinalCharles Borromeo, nephew of Pius IV, who probably had it in mind as the headquarters for the Academy he was about to found, on 20 April 1562, called AccademiaNoctes Vaticanae. Graham Smith[2] suggests that the interrelated iconography of the interior frescoes was inspired by CardinalMarcantonio da Mula.
Pope Pius XI, the founder of the currentPontifical Academy of Sciences, made the Casina the Academy's current headquarters in 1936.
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