Pier Francesco Orsini (July 4, 1523 – January 28, 1583), also called Vicino Orsini, was an Italian condottiero, patron of the arts and duke of Bomarzo.[1] He is famous as the commissioner of the Mannerist Park of the Monsters in Bomarzo (northern Lazio).[1]
Vicino Orsini | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Condottiero | |
| Duke of Bomarzo | |
| Patron of the arts | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Pier Francesco Orsini July 4, 1523  Rome, Italy |
| Died | October 28, 1585 (aged 62) Lazio, Italy |
| Spouse | Giulia Farnese |
| Parents |
|
| Occupation | Politician |
| Religion | Epicureanism |
| Military service | |
| Battles/wars | Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis |
Biography
Born in Corigliano Calabro, he was the son of Giovanni Corrado Orsini and Clarice Orsini di Franciotto di Monterotondo[2], the daughter of Cardinal Franciotto Orsini[3] and Violante di Vicino Orsini di Foglia[4]. «Franciotto Orsini of Monterotondo married Violante Orsini di Castello, daughter of Pierfrancesco I Orsini, also known as Vicino, who was lord of Bomarzo and transmitted the rights to the fief to the daughter. Franciotto was educated with his aunt in the house of Lorenzo and a native of Giovanni de Medici who, once a pope, named the cousin who had just been widowed a cardinal.»[5]
Vicino Orsini inherited the duchy of Bomarzo seven years after the death of his father, thanks to an intercession by Alessandro Cardinal Farnese (the future Pope Paul III). He later married Alessandro's relative Giulia Farnese, not to be confused with her maternal great-aunt and the cardinal's sister Giulia Farnese, the mistress of Pope Alexander VI. His wife Giulia Farnese (d. 1564) was the daughter of Galeazzo Farnese, Duke of Latera and Isabella, daughter of Giuliano dell'Anguillara and Girolama Farnese (d. 1504). Giulia's maternal grandmother Girolama Farnese was the sister of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, Pope Paul III, and Giulia Farnese, the mistress of Rodrigo Borgia, Pope Alexander VI.
The second Guilia Farnese's paternal great-grandfather was Bartolomeo Farnese, Count of Montalto and Canino, and the brother of Girolama, Alessandro (the future Pope Paul III) and Giulia Farnese. 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.[6]
Her grandmother Girolama was born in 1466 and was murdered with a sword on the 1st of November at not forty years of age, roughly ten years after her second marriage, for alleged infidelity by her stepson Giovanni Battista dell'Anguillara in Stabiae Castle. Her first marriage had been to Puccio Pucci, whom she married on the 10th of November 1483. From her second marriage to Count Giuliano dell'Anguillara and Stabiae whom she had married on the 15th of February 1495, came the daughter Isabella (Elisabeth) della Anguillara, who later married Galeazzo Farnese, the grandson of Bartolomeo, and the children of that marriage, the daughters Violante and Giulia Farnese.[7]
Some sources give the year of Girolama's death as 1504, some as 1505.
Puccio Pucci died in 1494, and she married her second husband the following year.[8]
Vicino's wife Giulia Farnese was thus related to Pope Paul III two times over, as the child of the only child of his tragically murdered sister, and through the line that inherited the family title and holdings through his brother Bartolomeo as the daughter of Bartolomeo's grandson.
Vicino's career as condottiero ended in the 1550s, when he was taken prisoner and the Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis ended the French-Spanish Wars in Italy. Orsini then retired to Bomarzo where he surrounded himself with writers and artists, and devoted himself to an Epicurean style of life, which negated any contact with religion. Here he had a family and, starting from 1547, created the famous Park, whose enigmatic constructions and sculptures are one of the most suggestive example of late Renaissance art in Italy.
After the death of his wife he dedicated the park to her memory.
Pier Francesco Orsini died on the 28 of January 1583.
Artistic tributes
- Alberto Ginastera's 1967 opera Bomarzo is based on the life of Orsini, as told in the book of the same name by Argentinian writer Manuel Mujica Láinez.
References
- ^ a b Mingarro 2005, p. 34, Introducción.
- ^ Editrice, Viella Libreria. Elisabetta Mori, L’Archivio Orsini. La famiglia, la storia, l’inventario, Roma, Viella 2016. p. 294.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Aa.Vv (2012-03-13). Bomarzo. Architetture fra natura e società (in Italian). Gangemi Editore spa. ISBN 9788849256802.
- ^ Editrice, Viella Libreria. Elisabetta Mori, L’Archivio Orsini. La famiglia, la storia, l’inventario, Roma, Viella 2016. p. 287.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Vicino Orsini tra Firenze e Bomarzo. Cultura, storia e immaginario". Academia.edu. p. 272.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Giulia Farnese". DeWiki.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Giulia Farnese". DeWiki.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Zapperi, Roberto (2013-02-12). Alle Wege führen nach Rom: Die ewige Stadt und ihre Besucher (in German). C.H.Beck. ISBN 9783406644528.
Bibliography
- Bredekamp, Horst; Janzer, Wolfram (1989). Vicino Orsini e il Sacro Bosco di Bomarzo. Un principe artista ed anarchico. Rome: Edizioni dell'Elefante.
- Mingarro, Miguel (2005). Los jardines del sueño: Polifilo y la mística del Renacimiento (in Spanish). Siruela. p. 488. ISBN 9788478449095.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help)