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Exorcising the Borgia from Urbino: Timoteo Viti’s Arrivabene Chapel

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Robert G. La France
Robert G. La France*
Affiliation:
David Owsley Museum of Art, Ball State University
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Abstract

Bishop of Urbino Giovanni Pietro Arrivabene selected the foreign saints Thomas Becket and Martin of Tours as patrons for his burial chapel. Montefeltro court artist Timoteo Viti decorated the chapel with the saints’ images, including a fresco of Saint Martin exorcising a demon from a cow. This article argues that the chapel’s unusual, allegorical iconographic program condemns Cesare Borgia’s campaigns to dominate Central Italy. It also proposes that the kneeling figure in the altarpiece’s lower right register portrays the bishop’s heir. Finally, the accomplishment of the Arrivabene chapel demonstrates Timoteo Viti’s artistic independence from his famous colleague and collaborator, Raphael.

Type
Research Article
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 68 , Issue 4 , Winter 2015 , pp. 1192 - 1226
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 2015

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