Descrizione
Storia dell’arte [149] Nuova Serie 2018|1
Maria Giulia Aurigemma
Dietro le Logge vaticane. Le “Storie di san Pietro” vasariane per Pio V e Gregorio XIII
Already in 1571, the devout Pius V commissioned Giorgio Vasari to paint a cycle on St Peter glorifying his humilitas and primacy, along Bramante and Raphael’s cordonata behind the Loggias with cloister-style lunettes alongside (first published here in full), two overdoor paintings in the Old Hall of the Swiss Guards, plus a lunette on the Marshal’s Staircase with the Washing of the Feet, the only subject connected to a papal ritual. The painter prepared his cartoons, sometimes using drawings of his early works, and was well compensated for seven lunettes in May 1573; though aware of the responsibility of painting alongside Raphael’s cycles, Vasari was simultaneously engaged on the more visible and prestigious Sala Regia and therefore worked as usual with few direct interventions and the help of experienced assistants.
