Raffaello and Michelangelo

In the Libro del Cortegiano, Raffaello and Michelangelo are named together in very significant circumstances, from which one can deduce that, in the eyes of Castiglione, they represent the culmination of the perfection attained in the arts by modern culture. Due to the merits of their pictorial, architectural and sculptural works, the Rome of Popes Giulio II and Leone X seemed to rise from the dust and ruins, and reach an excellence equal, if not superior, to that of classical Rome. Both in the letter of dedication to Miguel da Silva, that introduces the work, and in the closing chapters of the first book, dedicated to the relationships between the different artistic forms, Castiglione’s observations are neither generic nor banal: they demonstrate, if anything, the privileged position that Baldassarre had among the great artistic events of his era, of which he rightly put himself forward as the judge and interpreter.,

Educated at the Sforza court dominated by the personality of Leonardo, then later, at the court of the Gonzagas, he was able to observe the prodigious talent of Andrea Mantegna; then, at the court of Urbino, he came into contact with the legacy of the great humanists, from Alberti to Piero della Francesca. Finally he arrived in Rome: and here he saw before his very eyes, during the reign of Pope Giulio II, the creation of the vault of the Sistine Chapel painted by Michelangelo, and the Stanze Vaticane, the work of Raffaello. The Cortegiano was to be the literary equivalent of these works of art: it was the proof that modern authors were not denied the possibility of attaining aesthetic levels already reached in antiquity.

With Raffaello, in particular, Castiglione tied a close friendship of which there are various precious testimonies: the portrait of Castiglione painted by Raffaello around 1515, and currently at the Louvre; the letter, written jointly, addressed to Leone X about the restoration of ancient monuments; the eulogy De morte Raphaelis pictoris, composed by Castiglione in 1520, after the death if his friend; the letter in Raffaello’s name addressed to Castiglione himself.