Descrizione
[159] Nuova Serie 1 | 2023Storia dell’arte n. 159
Nuova Serie 1 | 2023
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Gabriele Quaranta
Ragguagli su Giovanni Vigevani, precoce committente del Bernini: tratti biografici e il palazzo all’Aracoeli
Giovanni Vigevani was portrayed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini as early as in 1620-1622, possibly as the artist’s first attempt to reproduce a live model. However, up until now, almost nothing was known about Vigevani himself. This essay aims to shed some light on his life and patronage. Based on widely unpublished documents, it reconstructs his professional and political milieu, his two marriages, his progeny, his activity as an art collector and as a real estate patron. This activity culminated in his palace by the slopes of the Capitoline Hill, along the Via d’Aracoeli and Via delle Botteghe Oscure. This building was conceived both as a family residence and as a property investment, since its different wings had been imagined as lavish apartments to rent out to noble tenants. While the largest part of the building was destroyed during the fascist period, several pictorial decorations have been recovered, such as the fifteen canvases with Stories of the Jerusalem Delivered, reassembled in the ceiling of the Sala dei Capitani at the Palazzo dei Conservatori, as well as some fresco fragments, partly still preserved in the depositories of the Musei Capitolini.
