TRIUMPH OF THE RENAISSANCE

From the middle of 1400 the Popes had brought to Rome the greatest artists of the time, Sixtus IV, in 1483, commissioned the Sistine Chapel to: Perugino, Sandro Botticelli, Cosimo Rosselli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Pinturicchio, Piero di Cosimo, Luca Signorelli.

A few years before Pope Nicholas V had frescoed by Fra Angelico and Benozzo Gozzoli the Niccolina chapel, while Pope Alexander VI Borgia, between 1492 and 1494 commissioned Pinturicchio the paintings of his apartment.

The nephew of Pope Sixtus IV, Pope Julius II, called Michelangelo to Rome to fresco the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel between 1508 and 1512, and shortly after commissioned Raphael, between 1509 and 1520, the paintings of his “Rooms”.
Meanwhile in Rome there was a new flowering, they rediscovered classical antiquity, not for nothing that Raphael was in charge of “custody and registration of antique marbles”.
An incredible amount of sculptures returned to the light and if it was also rediscovered the Domus Aurea of Nero.

In this climate and with this enthusiasm Agostino Chigi gathered Baldassarre Peruzzi (1481 - 1536), in his early twenties and Raphael (1483 - 1520) and Sebastiano del Piombo (1485 - 1547) and Sodoma (1477 - 1549).
The flourishing youth of these artists lives in the freshness and joyfulness of the Villa.
The place chosen by Agostino Chigi had to be particularly favorable, since the villa was built on the ruins of a Roman Domus, which is assumed to belong to Vipsanio Agrippa, the son-in-law of Augustus.

In addition to the structures, were found some of the frescoes of the domus, which today can be found at the National Roman Archaeological Museum.
This part of Trastevere until 1800 was rich in vegetation, Septimius Geta son of Septimius Severus, here had his Horti (=gardens), here Cardinal Neri Corsini built the Palazzo Corsini with a huge garden, that from Via della Lungara climbed up to the peak of Gianicolo hill and is nowadays partly occupied by the Botanical Gardens.

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