Traditionally considered a pontiff little inclined to the development of the arts of his time, Pio V Ghislieri was nevertheless aware of the value of the image and of the representative function of architecture. Until his death (1572), he shared the leadership of the great architectural commission with Archbishop Carlo Borromeo in the State of Milan. His inheritance was collected by the cardinal nephew, Michele Bonelli, a central figure for the creation of a dynastic idea and a cultural legacy of the family that reached the rank of ducal with him. He continued the construction site of the Ghislieri College of Pavia, where he introduced important variations to the original project by Pellegrino Tibaldi; moreover, he promoted the reconstruction of the Roman church of the secular canons of San Giorgio in Alga, San Salvatore in Lauro, in forms that announced requests for renewal of the Jesuit model of Vignola. Michele Bonelli, upon a re-reading of these two construction sites, appears a warned figure of the contemporary debate on magnificentia. The Cardinal Alessandrino, in fact, came to formulate a coherent program of commissions that aimed at a reinterpretation of the motto attributed to his uncle pontiff: «non tam lapidibus, quam virtutibus Rempublicam a Pontificibus aedificari Piusdicebat oportere».
Michele Bonelli e la magnificentia: committenze architettoniche tra la Lombardia e Roma nel secondo Cinquecento
Angelini Gianpaolo
2021-01-01
Abstract
Traditionally considered a pontiff little inclined to the development of the arts of his time, Pio V Ghislieri was nevertheless aware of the value of the image and of the representative function of architecture. Until his death (1572), he shared the leadership of the great architectural commission with Archbishop Carlo Borromeo in the State of Milan. His inheritance was collected by the cardinal nephew, Michele Bonelli, a central figure for the creation of a dynastic idea and a cultural legacy of the family that reached the rank of ducal with him. He continued the construction site of the Ghislieri College of Pavia, where he introduced important variations to the original project by Pellegrino Tibaldi; moreover, he promoted the reconstruction of the Roman church of the secular canons of San Giorgio in Alga, San Salvatore in Lauro, in forms that announced requests for renewal of the Jesuit model of Vignola. Michele Bonelli, upon a re-reading of these two construction sites, appears a warned figure of the contemporary debate on magnificentia. The Cardinal Alessandrino, in fact, came to formulate a coherent program of commissions that aimed at a reinterpretation of the motto attributed to his uncle pontiff: «non tam lapidibus, quam virtutibus Rempublicam a Pontificibus aedificari Piusdicebat oportere».I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
