The Fall of Giants

Oculus, Wiki Commons

A pupil of Raphael, Giulio Romano was a skilled artisan, not only excelling in architecture but in painting and drawing as well. This combination of talents is exemplified in his Palazzo della Te, namely his Chamber of Giants. Vasari himself praises the artist for his innovation in this room and for what was, “Accomplished by Giulio with good judgment and admirable skill, and to him our artisans owe a great debt for such inventions.”

            Giulio Romano's illusionism invents a dome overhead and dissolves the room's architecture in the Fall of the Giants, a story from Ovid’s Metamorphose.

In the center of a sky painted with masterly perspective there appears to be a round temple painted sotto in su and the throne of Jupiter, over which an eagle presides. Disgruntled and angry earthly beings, the giants plan to overthrow the gods. Giulio Romano depicts the moment when, aided by Juno, Jupiter takes his revenge, punishing the giants by unleashing the fury of the elements against them and striking them with his thunderbolts.

Fall of Giants, Commons

The architectural features of the room include the walls, vault, and originally the floor, which merge without distinction. Vasari tells us in fact that the floor was made of river pebbles that continued, painted, around the base of the walls. A fireplace on the east wall, traces of which can be seen, was cleverly incorporated into the scheme: the real flames that burned here continued as painted flames issuing from the mouth of the giant Typheus. As Vasari puts it, “when a fire is lit, makes it seem as if the giants are burning… and so, without any deviation Giulio used this invention of the fire to make an extremely beautiful decoration for the fireplace.” Romano rendered the figures and setting, so that from the viewers perspective, it appears as though everything is crashing down into the room. According to Vasari, what is marvelous about the work “is that the entire painting has neither beginning nor end, and that it is all tied together and runs on continuously without boundary or decoration so that the details near the buildings seem very large, while those in the landscapes recede into infinity.”

The Chamber of Giants is an example of the complexities of mannerist art. Gone are the days of perfect proportion and exact linear perspective. Instead, Romano gives us something to marvel at.