Raffaele Riario

Raffaele Riario, detail from Raphael's Rooms (1512–1514)

Raffaele (Sansoni) Riario (born May 3, 1460 in Savona , † July 9, 1521 in Naples ) was the famous art patron "Cardinal Riario", the son of Violante Riario della Rovere and Antonio Sansoni, who preferred because of the connection to his great-uncle Francesco della Rovere, who had become Pope as Sixtus IV (1471–1484) , to adopt the maiden name of his mother, Violante Riario , or that of his grandmother, Bianca della Rovere , the sister of the Pope.

Church career

On December 10, 1477, Pope Sixtus made the seventeen-year-old Raffaele Riario , grandson of his sister, a cardinal and appointed him cardinal deacon of San Giorgio in Velabro . In 1480 he became cardinal priest of San Lorenzo in Damaso . 1503 he got his uncle, Pope Julius II. To Cardinal Bishop of Albano , 1507 for the Diocese of Sabina , 1508 for the diocese of Porto-Santa Rufina and 1511 for the Diocese of Ostia . He also gave him numerous dioceses : Cuneo , Pisa , Salamanca , Tréguier and Osma . In addition, he was raised to dean of the College of Cardinals in 1511 , which was associated with the dignity of Cardinal Bishop of Ostia.

Raffaele was compromised by the Pazzi conspiracy in 1478 (although he was almost certainly not involved) because the conspirators (his uncle Girolamo Riario was among the masterminds ) took advantage of the newly appointed cardinal's visit to Florence for their assassination attempt. Protected from the vengeful mob by Lorenzo il Magnifico , he was still held in "protective custody" for over a month, which Pope Sixtus IV took as a reason for his war against Florence - in addition to the execution of the Archbishop of Pisa Francesco Salviati and other clergymen.

As long as Sixtus IV lived, he protected his great-nephew, who in 1483 also received the important office of Cardinal Chamberlain ( Camerlengo ).

The Palazzo della Cancelleria , originally Palazzo Riario

During the pontificate of his uncle Julius II (Giuliano della Rovere) (1503-1513) Cardinal Riario's position of power reached a new high point. Just one month after the new Pope took office, he was raised to cardinal bishop with the subsequent, previously mentioned sequence of suburbicarian (near Rome) bishoprics. Between 1485 and 1513 he had a large palace built as his residence in Rome, which was initially called Palazzo Riario and after his death was used by the Curia as the administrative seat and renamed Cancelleria Nuova (New Chancellery); the Palazzo della Cancelleria still serves as the seat of ecclesiastical authorities, including the Sacra Rota .

After surviving five changes of Pope, Raffaele Riario was probably involved in a conspiracy against the Medici Pope Leo X , which Cardinal Alfonso Petrucci organized in 1517 and for which he was brought to justice. He lost his offices and the rank of cardinal, but was - for lack of evidence and against a large payment - restituted after two months. The post of cardinal chamberlain ( Camerlengo ) he got back only pro forma. Politically it no longer played a role. About a year before his death, Cardinal Riario withdrew to Naples sick.

Patronage

Cardinal Riario called Michelangelo to Rome: he had bought a Cupid sculpture from a Roman banker , which was offered to him as a Roman antique, but which he recognized as a forgery - in order to look for the brilliant young sculptor who had made it.

Riario's first residence was the old Palazzo Colonna , which had belonged to Pope Martin V (1417–1431), and which he expanded between 1470 and 1480, in order to then pass it on to Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, who later became Pope Julius II. He then left 1485 to the construction of a new palace after receiving the title of cardinal priest of San Lorenzo in Damaso . During the first years of construction, he lived in what would later become the Palazzo Altemps , until in 1496 he moved into his new building, later known as the Palazzo della Cancelleria , one of the most beautiful urban Roman palaces of the High Renaissance; He also had his titular church rebuilt and architecturally incorporated it into the palace complex, which was completed in 1513. Between 1499 and 1503 Riario withdrew from Rome because he was in dispute with Pope Alexander VI. (1492–1503) and his son Cesare Borgia was advised.

Raffaele Riario died as Cardinal Bishop of Ostia .

literature

• Michael Schaich:  RIARIO-SANSONI, Raffaelo, Cardinal. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 8, Bautz, Herzberg 1994, ISBN 3-88309-053-0 , Sp. 162-166.
• Michele Camaioni:  Riario Sansoni, Raffaele. In: Raffaele Romanelli (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 87:  Renzi – Robortello. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2016.

Web links

• Sansoni Riario, Raffaele. In: Salvador Miranda : The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. ( Florida International University website), accessed February 1, 2017.
• Entry on Raffaele Sansone Riario on catholic-hierarchy.org ; accessed on February 1, 2017.
• Tomb in the REQUIEM project

predecessor	Office	successor
Oliviero Carafa	Dean of the College of Cardinals 1511–1521	Bernardino López de Carvajal
Oliviero Carafa	Cardinal Bishop of Ostia 1511–1521	Bernardino López de Carvajal
	Subdean of the College of Cardinals 1508–1511	Francesco Soderini
Jorge da Costa	Cardinal Bishop of Porto 1508–1511	Domenico Grimani
Cosimo dei Pazzi	Administrator of Arezzo 1508–1511	Girolamo Sansoni
Girolamo Basso della Rovere	Cardinal Bishop of Sabina 1507–1508	Giovanni Antonio I. Sangiorgio
Lorenzo Cybo di Mari	Cardinal Bishop of Albano 1503–1507	Bernardino López de Carvajal
Guillaume d'Estouteville	Cardinal Chamberlain 1483-1521	Innocenzo Cibo