Rampa Elicoidale, with the Palazzo Ducale behind it.
Several car parks have been created around Urbino’s historical centre. One of these is the Parcheggio Mercatale. When we visited the town, it was not possible to park in the square itself, because it was filled with stands for the annual Festival of the Duke (Festa del Duca). The parking garage underneath the square was, on the other hand, fully available. After we had left our car in a spot that was much too tight, we walked towards the gate that gives access to the centre of town. This gate is a tower known as the Rampa Elicoidale. The name refers to the winding staircase inside the tower, which is so wide that in the past the Duke of Urbino could descend on horseback. Although it is possible to buy a ticket for the elevator at the tourist office, we chose to go up using our two good feet. The staircase leads to the façade of the ducal palace with its two characteristic little towers. A second staircase then gives access to the Piazza Duca Federico, where we find the entrance to the Palazzo Ducale. The piazza was named after Federico da Montefeltro, who between 1444 and his death in 1482 was first Lord and then Duke of Urbino. It was Federico, more than anyone else, who would leave his mark on the palace.
Palazzo Ducale
Federico da Montefeltro had a long reign of 38 years. He was the illegitimate son of Guidantonio da Montefeltro, Lord of Urbino, although there is an alternative theory that his real father was Bernardino Ubaldini (1389-1437), who was married to Guidantonio’s illegitimate daughter. In any case, Guidantonio decided to legitimise him, as his marriage had failed to produce offspring. However, after the death of his first wife Guidantonio married again, and his second marriage proved to be more fruitful. Several children were born, among them his son Oddantonio da Montefeltro. It was Oddantonio who succeeded Guidantonio in 1443 and immediately saw himself promoted to Duke by Pope Eugenius IV (1431-1447). Oddantonio was some five years younger than his half-brother. His excessive taxes (intended for financing his parties) and sexual misconduct made him immensely unpopular. In 1444 he was murdered, just seventeen years old. His body was found with the severed penis of the deceased in his mouth. Federico was now the new ruler of Urbino. De facto he was also Duke, although he would only be formally granted the title thirty years later.
Façade with little towers (torricini).
Federico da Montefeltro would be remembered as a famous condottiero or mercenary captain. By offering his services to the highest bidder, winning victories and taking cities, he would make an immense fortune. But in 1444 Federico was just 22 years old and a rather poor man. As a consequence, building a splendid new palace was not yet an option. The future Duke therefore opted for a modest start by renovating and expanding a palazzo built by his father Guidantonio. The renovation involved a number of rooms opposite the church of San Domenico, along what is now the Piazza Rinascimento. One of the men who participated in this project, which was executed in the 1450s, was the Tuscan architect Maso di Bartolomeo (ca. 1406-1456). A second expansion took place in the 1460s and 1470s, when Federico was much better off financially. This expansion was led by Luciano Laurana (ca. 1420-1479), an architect who was from the Croatian town of Vrana, which was then under Venetian rule. The aforementioned conspicuous façade with the little towers (torricini) and the large courtyard are attributed to him, as is the Duke’s bedroom. Lastly, when Federico was still alive there were renovations in the 1480s led by Francesco di Giorgio Martini (1439-1501). He created the Rampa Elicoidale among other things. The decorations in the various rooms were made by the sculptor and architect Ambrogio Barocci from Milan.
Federico’s first marriage to Gentile Brancaleoni was childless. Gentile died in 1457, and three years later Federico remarried. The bride was Battista Sforza (1446-1472), daughter of Alessandro Sforza, Lord of Pesaro. After six daughters a son was finally born in 1472, but Federico paid a high price for this heir to the throne. Just a few months after having given birth, Battista died, and Federico remained a widower for the remaining ten years of his life. His son Guidobaldo (1472-1508) married Elisabetta Gonzaga (1471-1526). As Guidobaldo was impotent, he and Elisabetta failed to procreate. Fortunately, the Duke had a daughter named Giovanna, who was married to Giovanni della Rovere, a nephew of Pope Sixtus IV (1471-1484). Their son Francesco Maria I della Rovere became the new Duke of Urbino in 1508. Francesco’s son Guidobaldo II della Rovere ruled the duchy between 1538 and 1578. He had the Palazzo Ducale renovated again, adding a second floor. Architects involved in this project were, among others, Bartolomeo Genga (1518-1558) and Filippo Terzi (1520-1597).
Scale model of the Palazzo Ducale.
Guidobaldo’s son Francesco Maria II della Rovere was the last Duke of Urbino. Although he had a son born in 1605, this Federico Ubaldo della Rovere died young in 1623. When Francesco Maria II himself passed away in 1631, the duchy of Urbino became part of the Papal States. From now on the Palazzo Ducale served as the residence of the papal legates. Virtually all furniture, clothes, books, art and jewellery were removed from the palace. Some items were auctioned off, but a large part was shipped to Florence as the dowry of Vittoria della Rovere (1622-1694), granddaughter of Francesco Maria II. Shortly after her first birthday she had become engaged to Ferdinando II de’ Medici, the young Grand Duke of Tuscany (1621-1670). This explains why many masterpieces from Urbino can currently be found at the Uffizi in Florence. One famous example is the double portrait of Federico da Montefeltro and Battista Sforza, painted by Piero della Francesca (ca. 1415-1492). Another example is the Venus of Urbino by Titian (ca. 1488-1576), a painting that was probably purchased by Guidobaldo II for his young wife Giulia Varano (1523-1547).
Ottaviano Ubaldini and Federico da Montefeltro.
Galleria Nazionale delle Marche
The removal of all the objects from the rooms made the Palazzo Ducale an empty shell, a bit like the Castello Estense in Ferrara. With the unification of Italy in the nineteenth century, the building also lost its function as the residence of the papal legates. Fortunately, a new purpose was found for the remarkable palazzo in the early twentieth century. Currently the ducal palace accommodates the national art gallery of the Marche, founded in 1912. In the absence of objects from the palace itself, the collection is mostly composed of artworks that come from churches and convents in and around Urbino. I got the idea that the objects are moved around from time to time, as during our visit I sometimes found them in other places than the authors of my travel guide. The description below is based on our tour of the dozens of rooms that the Palazzo Ducale has.
Our visit started in the large courtyard, the Cortile d’Onore. On the architraves we read a long Latin text praising the achievements of FEDERICVS VRBINI DVX, Federico, Duke of Urbino. In older parts of the palace he is still called FC, Federicus Comes or Count Federico. Next, we enter the library, where we no longer find any books, but which does have a nice scale model of the Palazzo Ducale (image above). The model, with a scale of 1:100, is the ultimate proof that the palazzo was not based on a blueprint, but has rather grown organically. We continue the tour and enter a series of rooms that are part of the Appartamenti della Jole. They were named after Jole, concubine of the Greek hero Hercules. The two have been depicted as a telamon and caryatid that support the fireplace in the first room. The room itself is fairly empty, but we do find a relief here of Federico and his younger brother and advisor Ottaviano Ubaldini, sculpted by the studio of Ambrogio Barocci (image above). Also interesting is an anonymous relief of a woman from ca. 1490-1500. The woman is believed to be Battista Sforza. A relief of the Madonna and Child with angels, made around 1455 by Michele di Giovanni da Fiesole, nicknamed Il Greco (ca. 1418-1480), warrants closer inspection as well. The fireplace is also attributed to this sculptor.
In one of the next rooms, a reception hall, we can still see traces of fifteenth-century frescoes. They represent famous heroes from Antiquity, including Mucius Scaevola, Furius Camillus, Hannibal, Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar. The frescoes date from the 1460s and were painted by Giovanni Boccati (ca. 1410-1486). Later they were covered by plaster and wallpaper, only to be rediscovered in 1939. Unfortunately, the state of conservation of the frescoes is rather poor. If we continue our tour, we finally stumble upon an original object from the palace, a wooden alcove from ca. 1455-1460. The bed of the Duke was placed inside the alcove to protect the sleepers against the winter cold; in spite of the presence of fireplaces, it was apparently impossible to sufficiently heat the Palazzo Ducale during the winter. The alcove was possibly decorated by Fra Carnevale (ca. 1420-1484), a Dominican friar who had been apprenticed by Antonio Alberti da Ferrara and Filippo Lippi before he took his vows. He certainly painted the Crucifixion that hangs in the same room.
Now we get to a true highlight in the collection, the Flagellation of Christ by Piero della Francesca. The Flagellation is a small panel painting that measures 58.3 by 81.5 centimetres. Although it is called the Flagellation of Christ, the actual flagellation takes place in the background. Christ has been tied to a column and is clobbered by two men. The column is topped by the statue of a pagan deity. The other figures are the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate and King Herod Antipas. Pilate is said to have been modelled after the Eastern Roman emperor John VIII Palaiologos, the emperor who travelled to Italy in 1438-1439 to attend the Councils of Ferrara and Florence, which aimed to reconcile the Churches of the East and West. Behind the prefect we see a staircase, the famous Scala Santa that was reportedly later taken to Rome. King Herod remains a bit anonymous, as we do not get to see his face. In the foreground Piero della Francesca painted a conversation between three men. Their identities cannot be established with certainty. One of the reasons for this uncertainty is that we do not know who commissioned the painting. We do not know why it was painted either, nor when exactly (the museum dates it to ca. 1453-1460). Lastly, there is no reliable information about the original location of the work. It is first mentioned in 1717, in an inventory of the cathedral of Urbino.
Flagellation of Christ – Piero della Francesca.
Flagellation of Christ (detail).
Of course, there has been a lot of speculation about who the three men might be. One theory is that the young, blond man in the centre is Oddantonio da Montefeltro, half-brother of Federico. As was already mentioned above, he was murdered in 1444, so if it is indeed him, we are looking at a posthumous portrait. The man on the right in the beautiful blue robe with the golden decorations has sometimes been identified as the humanist Giovanni Bacci. It was Bacci who commissioned Piero della Francesca to paint frescoes about the History of the True Cross in the Cappella Bacci in the church of San Francesco in Arezzo. The man on the left may be Basilios Bessarion (ca. 1403-1472), the metropolitan of Nicaea who accompanied the emperor John to the Councils of Ferrara and Florence. Bessarion decided to stay in Italy, converted to Catholicism and ultimately became a cardinal. He might even have been elected pope, but his Greek background proved to be a disadvantage. Thanks to the cardinal Italy was once again introduced to the Greek language, literature and philosophy, and especially to Plato. But since we have no certainty about the identity of the three men, the exact nature of the conversation remains unclear as well. The only thing that we can be one hundred percent sure about is the identity of the painter. This is because Piero della Francesco left his signature on the dais with Pilate’s throne. Here we read the words OPVS PETRI DEBVRGO SCI SEPVLCRI, a reference to his place of birth, the town of Sansepolcro in Tuscany.
Flagellation of Christ, foreground.
Madonna of Senigallia – Piero della Francesca.
The Galleria Nazionale delle Marche possesses another work by Piero della Francesco. Although I found this Madonna of Senigallia miles away from the Flagellation of Christ, I will discuss the painting here. The work comes from the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Senigallia, which was built in 1491 on the occasion of the birth of Francesco Maria I della Rovere, who was already mentioned above as the son of Giovanni della Rovere and Giovanna da Montefeltro and the future Duke of Urbino (as of 1508). The Madonna of Senigallia was painted well before 1491, possibly between 1474 and 1478. It was in 1474 that Federico da Montefeltro made a pact with Pope Sixtus IV. Part of the deal was a marriage between Federico’s daughter Giovanna and Sixtus’ nephew Giovanni. The Holy Father also recognised Federico as Duke of Urbino. The wedding ultimately took place in 1478, so it is possible that the Madonna of Senigallia was painted four years previously on the occasion of the engagement and perhaps as a dowry. The two angels flanking the Madonna and Child are sometimes identified as Giovanni della Rovere and Giovanna da Montefeltro. The Christ child is wearing a conspicuous red coral necklace. In the Middle Ages people believed that such a necklace protected children against evil, while the red colour is also a reference to Christ’s blood sacrifice for the sake of humanity.
Website of the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche: Home – Galleria Nazionale delle Marche GNDM.IT