Giulia Farnese

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Giulia Farnese (* 1474 in Canino or Capodimonte ; † March 23, 1524 in Rome ), called la Bella , was one of the mistresses of the Borgia Pope Alexander VI. and sister of Pope Paul III.

Life

family

Giulia Farnese was born in the Palazzo Farnese in 1474 as the daughter of Pier Luigi Farnese the Elder , Lord of Capodimonte, and Giovanna Caetani , daughter of Onorato III. Caetani, Duke of Sermoneta , was born in Canino , a town near Lake Bolsen in the north of Rome . One of her maternal ancestors was Benedikt Caetani, known as Pope Boniface VIII (1294–1303). The paternal grandparents were Ranuccio Farnese the Elder , founder of the Farnese dynasty , and Agnes Monaldeschi, member of an old and noble family from Orvieto. She had three brothers and two sisters. Her eldest brother Angelo was born in January 1465 and inherited the property and real estate together with his brother Alessandro after their father's death in 1487. On May 11, 1488 he married Lella Orsini , with whom he had only female descendants. His daughter Francesca Farnese married Guido Sforza, second Count of Santa Fiora. Angelo Farnese died of the plague in May 1494, so that his youngest brother Bartolomeo Farnese became Count of Montalto and Canino instead of his brother . He was born in 1470 and married Iolanda Monaldeschi, with whom he had the son Pedro Bertodolo Farnese and the daughters Isabella and Cecilia. Bartolomeo died in 1552 and was the founder of the Duchy of Latera , which existed until 1668. The second oldest brother, Alessandro, was born on February 29, 1468 and was a notary, but who pursued an ecclesiastical career and later became Pope. Giulia's sister, Girolama, was born in 1466 and was murdered with a sword on November 1, 1505 by her stepson Giovanni Battista dell'Anguillara in the castle of Stabiae for alleged infidelity. In her first marriage she married Puccio Pucci on November 10, 1483. From her second marriage to Count Giuliano dell'Anguillara and Stabiae, which had been concluded on February 15, 1495, came the daughter Isabella (Elisabeth) della Anguillara, who later married Galeazzo Farnese, the grandson of Bartolomeos, and with him the daughters Violante Farnese and Giulia Farnese had. The other sister, Beatrice, was born in 1469 and was a nun in a Benedictine monastery from 1490. She died in 1507 as the abbess of the San Bernardino monastery in Viterbo .

According to the descriptions of Cesare Borgia , son of Alexander VI., And Lorenzo Pucci , brother of the first husband of their sister Girolama, Giulia is said to have black eyes, long dark hair, a round face, a clear and fair complexion and an extraordinary charisma. Furthermore, she is said to have been very beautiful, energetic, elegant, slim and of average size.

Beloved of the Pope

Lady with unicorn by Luca Longhi, possible portrait by Giulia Farnese

When she was born, it was agreed that Giulia Farnese would marry a member of the Orsini family. On May 21, 1489 she married Orsino Orsini , known as "the one-eyed" and Count of Bassanello. He was the son of Adriana de Mila and Ludovico Migliorati and thus the grandson of Gentile Migliorati and Elena Orsini on the paternal side and Pedro de Milà, Baron von Masalaves, and Cubella Dolce on the maternal side. Pedro de Milà was a cousin of Rodrigo Borgia. The wedding arranged by the families took place in the palace of Orsini's guardian , the Valencian Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia. In addition to the cardinal, the notary Beneimbene, the Bishop Martini of Segovia, the Aragonese Canons Garcetto and Caranza, the Roman Giovanni Astalli, Angelo Farnese, the protonotary Giacomo and his brother Don Nicola Gaetani were witnesses of this marriage in the “Chamber” as the bride's unions the Stars". Giulia Farnese's dowry was 3000 gold florins . After the marriage contract was concluded , the legal union of the young couple was celebrated on May 21, 1489 in the Borgia Palace with the participation of other guests such as Cardinal Gianbattista Orsini and Raynald Orsini, Archbishop of Florence.

After the wedding, Giulia Farnese and her husband lived alternately in the Vassanello Castle and in the Palazzo Orsini (today Palazzo Taverna ) on Monte Giordano in the Rione Ponte in Rome. It was in this palace, where Adriana de Mila lived, that Rodrigo Borgia and Giulia met before they were married. However, it is uncertain when exactly Rodrigo fell in love with Giulia Farnese and the affair began. Adriana de Mila eventually gave her consent to raise her son's social status in the Vatican. His illegitimate children from the relationship with the Roman Vanozza de 'Cattanei were placed in the care of Adriana de Mila, Giulia Farneses' mother-in-law, and lived with her and Giulia in the Palazzo Santa Maria in Portico, which was located near the Vatican and Regular visits made possible by Rodrigo. His daughter Lucrezia Borgia and Giulia became close friends. In 1492 Giulia Farnese gave birth to a daughter of the cardinal who was named Laura. The Romans ridiculed the young lover of the powerful cardinal and vice-chancellor of the Pope as the “ bride of Christ ”, a term actually reserved for nuns .

After Rodrigo Borgia on August 11, 1492 to Pope Alexander VI. had been elected, the Farnese family used Giulia's influence on the Pope, in particular to let their brother Alessandro Farnese rise in the ecclesiastical hierarchy. At the age of 25, Alessandro was actually made a cardinal . This young man, mocked by the Roman people with the expression "Cardinal Gonella" ("little skirt") and "Cardinal Fregnese" ("cunt"), should more than 30 years later as Paul III. become the mighty Pope of the Counter Reformation . He owed his rise not least to the love arts of his sister Giulia.

In 1494 she briefly aroused the anger of the Pope when, despite warnings of the impending French invasion of Italy under the leadership of King Charles VIII , she left the safe Pesaro and visited her terminally ill brother Angelo Farnese in Capodimonte. On their return to Rome, she and Adriana de Mila were captured by the French captain Yves d'Allegre, who demanded and received a ransom of 3,000 ducats from the Pope for the safe return of Giulia. We read about it in a letter from the envoy from Ferrara:

“The Pope would also have paid more than fifty thousand ducats to have Julia by his side again. As he says, she is his everything, his heart and soul. That is why he went to meet her, dressed like a punk in a black doublet with gold brocade borders, with a beautiful belt of Spanish fashion and a dagger and rapier in the hanger. "

Giulia Farnese's relationship with Pope Alexander likely ended in 1499 or 1500. The reasons for the separation are unknown, but it is likely that Giulia was replaced by younger lovers due to her age.

Life after the death of Pope Alexander VI.

Pope Paul III and his nephews - Giulia's brother Pope Paul III. with his grandchildren Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (left) and Duke Ottavio Farnese on the painting by Titian (around 1568, Museo di Capodimonte , Naples)

After the death of Alexander VI. in 1503, public interest in Giulia Farnese quickly waned. Laura Orsini was engaged to Niccolò della Rovere , a nephew of Pope Julius II , on November 16, 1505 in the Appartamento Borgia of the Apostolic Palace . The wedding took place on June 6 or July 6, 1506 in the palace of Cardinal Raffaele Riario . The dowry, which included 20,000 ducats, the Orsini Castle in Vasanello and a house near Palazzo Farnese, was notarized by the notary Camillo Benimbene in the name of the bride's mother. Children from this marriage and Giulia Farnese's grandsons were Lavinia, Elena and Giuliano della Rovere. In 1506, Giulia Farnese married the Neapolitan nobleman Giovanni Capece Bozzato, Baron von Afragola and Lord von Balsorano, whom she met in 1496 at the wedding of Jofré and Sancia Borgia , and became governor of Carbognano . After the death of her first husband on July 31, 1500 and the death of her second husband in 1517, she led a withdrawn life and managed her property as a widow until her return to Rome in 1522, where she aged in the house of her brother Alessandro died of fifty years. In her will, which is kept in the Naples State Archives , she bequeathed all of her possessions to her daughter with the Pope, Laura Orsini. The only thing she left for her brother was her bed, a cynical reference to an important cause of his ascent.

Presumably representation of Giulia Farnese on the tomb of Paul III.

Giulia Farnese's grave is unknown. Nevertheless, an image of her is said to have survived to this day, in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome . As part of the tomb of Pope Paul III on the left of the high altar, created by the master sculptor Guglielmo della Porta , contemporaries believed they recognized a statue of his sister, the "Bella Giulia". The stone was so lively and full of erotic charisma that time and again young men were carried away to "immoral acts" before it. Around 1600 the Vatican had this lying, originally naked figure clad in a metal shirt made of lead, which could still be removed in the 18th century for a tip.

Source collection

  • Danilo Romei, Patrizia Rosini (ed.): Regesto dei documenti di Giulia Farnese. Lulu, Raleigh 2012, ISBN 978-1-291-00120-4 . (Critical Edition)

literature

  • Hans Körner: Love of statues in St. Peter. Rome pilgrims and tourists in front of Guglielmo della Porta's tomb for Pope Paul III (= Düsseldorfer Kunsthistorische Schriften 1). Circle of Friends of the Seminar for Art History, Düsseldorf 1999, ISBN 3-00-004067-6 .
  • Roberto Zapperi : The four wives of the Pope. The life of Paul III. between legend and censorship. Beck, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-406-42825-8 .
  • Alois Uhl: Pope children. Life pictures from the time of the Renaissance. Piper, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-492-24891-4 .
  • Helge Gamrath: Farnese: pomp, power and politics in Renaissance Italy. L'Erma di Bretschneider, 2007, ISBN 978-88-8265-426-9 .

Web links

Commons : Giulia Farnese  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Giuseppe Moscatelli: Giulia "La Bella", la cortigiana pia . www.canino.info, accessed October 2011
  2. ↑ B. Quaglieri: Farnese, Angelo Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani . www.treccani.it, accessed October 2011.
  3. ^ V. Arrighi: Farnese, Girolama Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani . www.treccani.it, accessed October 2011.
  4. ^ Giuseppe Moscatelli: Giulia "La Bella", la cortigiana pia www.canino.info, accessed in October 2011.
  5. ^ Ferdinand Gregorovius: Lucrezia Borgia - Princess of the Renaissance. P. 44 limited preview in Google Book search
  6. ^ A b Ferdinand Gregorovius: Lucrezia Borgia - Princess of the Renaissance. P. 45 limited preview in Google Book search
  7. ^ Ferdinand Gregorovius: Lucrezia Borgia - Princess of the Renaissance. P. 46 limited preview in Google Book search
  8. ^ Alois Uhl: Pope children. Life pictures from the time of the Renaissance. P.56.
  9. ^ Alois Uhl: Pope children. Life pictures from the time of the Renaissance. P. 57.
  10. ^ Alois Uhl: Pope children. Life pictures from the time of the Renaissance. P. 58.
  11. ^ Fritz Meingast: Splendor and misery of women. Thirty-three portraits of world history. Vma-Vertriebsgesellschaft, Wiesbaden 2003, p. 120.
  12. ^ Danilo Romei, Patrizia Rosini: Regesto dei documenti di Giulia Farnese. Pp. 58-59.
  13. ^ Alois Uhl: Pope children. Life pictures from the time of the Renaissance. Pp. 58-59.
  14. ↑ Rudolf Walther: Legend and censorship. In: Die Zeit 01, 1998.
personal data
SURNAME Farnese, Giulia
ALTERNATIVE NAMES la Bella
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Mistress of Pope Alexander VI.
DATE OF BIRTH 1474
PLACE OF BIRTH Canino
DATE OF DEATH March 23, 1524
Place of death Rome