Remains of a 16th-century fresco showing parrots flying in a garden were recently discovered in the courtyard of Sant Marceau in the Vatican, painted to give Pope Pius IV a better view from the windows of his apartment. The existing mural fragments are located at a height of about 20 meters. Experts have drawn a rendering of the murals through data research.
(Vatican News Network) In the Vatican, between the courtyard of Sant Marceau and the passage of the courtyard of the Marshal, an inconspicuous and always shaded place, until a recent expedition, at a height of about 20 meters. Fragments of the mural. After the efforts of the architects, these murals were rediscovered: a garden with various birds, especially parrots, flying under the blue sky. These frescoes date from the mid-16th century.
When Pope Pius IV stood at the window of his apartment, all he could see was the bare walls. At that time, sunlight could only penetrate the narrow quadrangle for a few hours. Pius IV could not see the blue skyline of the Vatican gardens that he once adorned, nor the Villa Pius built in 1558 that bears his name. He decided to change his perspective by calling an artist to paint the drab walls.
And now, when we walk into this courtyard, the first thing we see are those yellow walls. However, if we look up, some blue fragments, red lines and golden outlines can be spotted at a height of about 20 meters.
During a recent expedition, Vatican architects came across fragments of colorful frescoes on a wall. These were the decorations of the colonnades and gazebos where birds and other animals lived.
The researchers restored the entire facade through some technical means, and compared it with the existing mural fragments to provide a complete rendering. The frescoes are divided into three parts: the bottom part is of grapes and small exotic mammals, the middle part is a typical garden building, and the top part is the coat of arms and name of Pius IV. At the top of the murals, there are large vases imitating copper products. The whole background is blue with parrots and other birds flying in it, which is where the name Parrot Garden comes from.
This blue sky is similar to the sky in Michelangelo’s The Last Judgment. Michelangelo used a lot of lapis lazuli to paint this sky. Perhaps Pius IV was attracted by this sky, so he asked the murals in the courtyard to imitate this style.
The author of the courtyard frescoes remains a mystery to this day. But according to a 2016 book published by the Vatican, architect Maria Mari believes the frescoes may have been painted by Taddeo Zuccari, a well-known artist at the time , worked for the Vatican for a long time with his brother and their studio.
Architect Maria Mari emphasizes that with the help of new technologies, such as projections on the facade, we can virtually recreate these murals. But she also prefers to restore and consolidate what remains, and possibly restore other fragments of the painting.
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2023-08-10 13:31:06
