Illustrious men in Seville and Saluzzo: humanist and renaissance models in the Casa di Pilatos and the Casa Cavassa

Abstract

In the first mid of 16th century the Casa de Pilatos in Seville and the Casa Cavassa in Saluzzo, in north Italy, reveal a similar artistic and cultural patronage. In both cases, the commitments of the two buildings, don Fadrique Enriquez de Ribera, Marquis of Tarifa, and Francesco Cavassa, main functionary of the Marquisate of Saluzzo, promote a whole decoration of their palaces clearly inspired by models drawns from Humanistic culture and Italian Renaissance art, more precisely the sculpure decoration of the Certosa of Pavia in Lombardy. In particular, in both the palaces one of the most important painted decoration is devoted to the humanistic theme of the Uomini illustri (Wase or Famous Men), fol­lowing a very similar iconography. The renaissance style showed by the two palaces is dramatically in contrast, on one hand, with that of Seville still dominated by the Arabic culture and, on the other hand, that of Saluzzo at that time caracterized by the Gothic art.

As Vicente Lleò Cañal has demonstrated, the Marquis of Tarifa committed the plastic and painted decoration of his palace after coming back of a journey in the Holy Land, made between 1518 and 1520, during which he visited many cities and was fascinated above all by the Certosa of Pavia and Genoa. There­fore he committed to Genoan sculptores the graves for his parents whereas the painted decoration of the Galleria of his palace was realized by Spanish painters but the subjct, the Uomini illustri – Cicerone, Creso, Tito Livio, Orazio, Cornelio Nepote e Quinto Curzio are still visible – is based on a topos of the Italian Humanistic culture. The composition of these figures reminds closely that of the Uomini illustri in Casa Cavassa, with each figure seating in a nich accompanied by an inscription drawn by his own work, which is a very unique solution (in Italy, where this subject was common, usually the inscription was by an author different from the personage represented). Also the plastic decoration com­mitted by Francesco Cavassa was made by an artist, Matteo Sanmicheli, who reveal a style derived from the Certosa of Pavia. Both the palaces, therefore, demonstrate the intention of the patrons to provide the city with an example of cultural and artistic renewer inspired to Classics, throw models uptodate with the Italian Re­naissance art.