Stucco Reliefs in a Pilaster

1518 · Loggia on the second floor, Palazzi Pontifici, Vatican

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For the decoration of the loggia, Raphael devised the scheme and provided the compositions for the narratives, while the actual work was delegated to the most senior assistants. Giulio Romano took charge of the figurative scenes with Gianfrancesco Penni collaborating on the preparation of the cartoons and Giovanni da Udine as overseer of the decorative areas. As part of the decorative scheme, there is a series of reliefs on the pilasters.

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About the Artist

Giovanni Da Udine

1487 – 1564

Italian painter, stuccoist, and architect (full name: Giovanni di Nanni da Udine). He was one of Raphael 's leading assistants in Rome and is chiefly important for his role in reviving antique techniques of stucco and the ancient taste for grotesques, inspired by archaeological discoveries. In 1502 he was apprenticed to Giovanni Martini (also called Giovanni da Udine; d 1535), a painter in Udine, and subsequently he may have studied with Giorgione in Venice. In Rome, he joined Raphael's workshop, where he may have learnt techniques of still-life painting from a Netherlandish colleague. In 1522 he returned to Udine; he spent most of the rest of his life there, but he had further sojourns in Rome (where he died) and also worked in Florence and Venice. His light and graceful style, seen best in the Vatican Loggie (1517-19), was imitated all over Europe, particularly by Neoclassical designers.

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