Either a Caesar, or Nothing | 2019 Honors College Research Project

Either a Caesar, or nothing Reimagining the Borgias’ Vatican

2019 MEHA + NCHC Conferences

Project Statement This project looks at how the Vatican gardens might have looked should Pope Alexander VI, Rodrigo Borgia, have commissioned their construction rather than his successor and bitter rival, Pope Julius II, Giuliano della Rovere.

The Borgia family is often credited as the peak of corruption within the Catholic Church.

Seemingly obsessed with power and prestige, the ambitious family managed to exert control over Italy, Europe, the Renaissance, and even the New World. In fact, the Borgias were severely misunderstood, and they only played in the vicious games of Renaissance Italy to survive. This can largely be explored in The Borgias: The Hidden History by G. J. Meyer, and the quintessential political discourse, The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli.

This creative project looks at how landscape architecture is a form of power exercised over the natural world and does so through the vessel of the Borgia family. It takes the key players – Machiavelli, Cesare, Lucrezia, the pope, and Leonardo da Vinci – and uses the garden as an exploratory device into their lives, their impact on European history, and their philosophies on power. Each plot dedicated to the individual delves into this reasoning and how it sculpts the natural world.

Works Cited Dunant, Sarah. Blood and Beauty: A Novel About the Borgias. Random

House: New York, 2014. Print.

Dunant, Sarah. In the Name of the Family: A Novel. Random House:

New York, 2017. Print.

Hibbert, Christopher. The Borgias and Their Enemies. Mariner Books:

Boston, 2009. Print.

Hofmann, Paul. “Glorious Gardens of the Vatican”. The New York Times. 6 Jul. 1997.

Web. Isaacson, Walter. Leonardo da Vinci. Simon & Schuster: New York, 2017. Print.

Meyer, G. J. The Borgias: The Hidden History. Bantam Books: New York, 2014. Print.

Ricci, Corrado. Vatican: Its History, its Treasures. Kissinger Publishing: Whitefish,

2003. Print.

Strathern, Paul. The Artist, the Philosopher, and the Warrior: Da Vinci, Machiavelli,

and Borgia and the World They Shaped. Bantam Books: New York, 2011. Print.

Rodrigo Borgia, Pope Alexander VI The Power of the Church

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Dates: • 1492 — election as pope; Christopher Columbus sails west • 1494 — French invasion of Italy by Charles VIII • 1495 — Charles withdraws to France • 1497-1503 — war against the Roman Orsini family • 1503 — death Description: • largely blackened by rivals in Guiliano della Rovere’s league • not immoral, perverse, greedy, or bacchanalian in nature, • affable man, prone to bouts of laughter and genuine care • nepotism and simony undid his papal reign The power of the Church was that entity which exerted absolute control over Europe. It dominated the thereafter, not the here-and-now. People, cities, even kings could be stripped from the Church’s graces, ruined with a signing of a pen.

It was ecclesiastical, bureaucratic, a ladder within the hierarchy of the Curia, College of Cardinals, and beyond.

The power of the Church within the landscape is shown in ornamental styles.

It emphasizes beauty and grandeur, bringing heaven to earth, God to men.

Alexander’s personal garden can be seen nearby, filled with fruit trees from his Valencian home. This Church remains close to St. Peter’s and the Sistine Chapel, ever near the glory of God and the splendor of the Catholic Church.

Cesare Borgia, Duke of Valentinois

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The Power of War

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Dates: • 1498 — resignation from the College of Cardinals; made duke of Valentinois • 1499 — first impresa (Imola, Forlì, Umbira) • 1500 — second impresa (Faenza, Pesaro, Rimini) • 1500 — third impresa (Urbino, Camerino, Cesena, Senigallia) • 1507 — killed in battle, having fled from captivity in Spain Description: • strong, athletic, restlessly energetic, strikingly good-looking • winning personality, steely will, a degree of self-possession, utterly ruthless • full reddish-brown hair, scarred face from syphilis • the actor on the stage The power of war is simply that force which is greater and mightier than one’s opponent. For Cesare Borgia, war was the tool he could wield well, and with war, he conquered much of the Romagna and papal states. The power of war is martial control, subjugation of people to a single will, and assimilation of elements into a singularity.

The power of war within the landscape is shown in the long avenues near the Pinacotheca. These avenues simulate a march, with cypress trees lining the avenues like soldiers in rank-and-file. The plots are large, emphasizing dominance. Two give rise to war machines (a ballistae and a trebuchet), clearly emphasizing war in the landscape.

Lucrezia Borgia, Duchess of Ferrara

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The Power of Family

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Dates: • 1493 — married to Giovanni Sforza, which is later annulled • 1498 — married to Alfonso of Aragon, duke of Bisceglie, who is later murdered • 1501 — married to Alfonso d’Este • 1505 — becomes duchess of Ferrara upon death of her father-in-law, Duke Ercole d’Este • 1519 — death Description: • well-bred, intelligent, beguilingly good-natured beauty • a tool for the Pope and her brother, Cesare • rumored to be sexually devious and a poisoner, but those again, are lies • loved for her kindness, her piety, and her skillful diplomacy The power of family is the strongest bond in society. In Renaissance Italy, the family was everything. Dynasties were established and bred like horses in order to preserve the family. The name meant more than gold. For Lucrezia Borgia, her family was the tool that used her, and it was the force that would change her.

The power of family within the landscape retreated from the other plots.

Located near St. Peter’s, the garden breaks away from the regimen of Renaissance forms and adopts an abstract, whimsical style. It is filled with colorful foliage, indicating the beauty and vivacity of Lucrezia. Trees stand proudly, numbering as her children, born and stillborn. It is a place of beauty, of melancholy, of seclusion, and of brilliance.

Niccolo Machiavelli, Ambassador of Florence

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Dates: • 1498 — confirmed by the Great Council as second chancellor of the Florentine Republic • 1500 — sent on a six-month mission to King Louis XII of France • 1502 — meets Cesare Borgia at Urbino; follows him on his second impresa • 1512 — Spanish troops invade Florentine territory and reinstate the House of Medici • 1513 — tried for conspiracy, tortured, and imprisoned; drafts The Prince

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The Power of Power

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Description: • wry observations, cool detachment, fathomless cynicism • believes Cesare has the boldness, vision, and strength of character to rescue Italy • wrote The Prince as an explanation of how humans actually behave; political science • the man who wrote the script The power of power is that understanding which a few great men — and women — in history have grasped. Power is fickle, power is fleeting, and power must be maintained at all costs by exercising it. In order for a leader to be effective, the ends must justify the means to achieve said end. Power is to be feared, power is to be respected, and the appearance of power is only as strong as the belief it generates.

The power of power within the landscape imitates the architecture it is surrounded by. Power is simple and square, a courtyard of monochromatic, evergreen color. The landscape is ordered. It resides in the shadows of the library (power of knowledge) and the Borgia Tower (power of the prince).

Leonardo da Vinci

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The Power of Man

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Dates: • 1499 — Louis XII of France invades Milan; da Vinci flees to Florence • 1502 — enters the service of Cesare Borgia as military architect and engineer • 1503 — leaves the service of Borgia and returns to Florence; paints the Mona Lisa • 1516 — resides in the Belvedere of the Vatican; enters the service of Francis I of France • 1519 — death Description: • a Renaissance man in excelsis • his works have survived and transformed history, but his personal life is a mystery • worked to cut off key cities from water supplies, devising engineering works for such • the man who designed the scene, the props, the costume, the drama

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The power of man is the inherent destiny that lies inside one’s soul. It is the pursuit of meaning, of purpose in this fleeting life. For Da Vinci, man became the mark for which he worked, a unit of measurement to scale his art. Man became more than flesh. It became the verbiage that would change the language surrounding the natural world.

The power of man within the landscape can be seen in measurements. Based of the Vitruvian Man, the ideal of human proportion and unit measures, the garden features congruent color, pathways designed for spatial orientation, and a wall to provide human height and restrict human sight. This is man’s imposition, his control of the natural world through a manifestation of himself.

Pope Julius II + the Vatican Gardens The original Vatican gardens were commissioned by Pope Julius II, Giuliano della Rovere, in 1506. Della Rovere was the principal rival of Alexander VI, and it is through Julius’ reign that the Borgia name is blackened.

Donato Bramante was the chief architect behind the construction of the new St. Peter’s Basilica. The old basilica was torn down (thus, the maps do not feature the iconic dome or colonnade). Bramante also began constriction of the Belvedere Casino, the Library, the Pinacotheca, and several defensive walls. The architect brought Michelangelo and Raphael into his design circle, and the Sistine Chapel ceiling was completed at this time.

Julius sought to undo the Renaissance authority Alexander had held.

The Borgia commissions were largely edited or striped away. Julius would be known in history as “the Warrior Pope” while Alexander would forever immortalize papal excess, demonism, and nepotism.

Belvedere Casino

The Borgias’ Vatican

The Power of Power Belvedere Courtyard

Pinacotheca

The Power of War

Papal Guards’ Barracks

Soldier’s Row

Belvedere Palace

The Power of War Cesare’s War Garden

Apostolic Library

Library Courtyard

The Power of Man The Vitruvian Garden

The Power of Power Library Courtyard

Tomb of Juan Borgia

Vatican Treasury Papal Residence Borgia Tower

Sistine Chapel

The Power of the Church Alexander’s Fruit Grove

The Power of the Church Reflection Garden

St. Peter’s Basilica

Sacristy

The Power of Family Lucrezia’s Gardens

Power was exercised through art, warfare, theology, and academics during the Renaissance. This master plan examines landscape architecture as an exercise of power over the natural world through the Borgia papacy. The Vatican gardens become an exploratory device into this period, its impact on European history, and individuals’ philosophies on power.

History gave us five powerful individuals, three of whom collaborated on conquering Italy. Cesare, da Vinci, and Machiavelli forever live on in history, and to think that these three worked together is incredible. Their gardens are connected, entwined in ways that history cannot tell us. An artist, a philosopher, and a prince.

Nolli Maps Giambattista Nolli was an Italian architect and surveyor. He is best known for his iconographic plan of Rome, the Pianta Grande di Roma. His maps are used by designers across the world, replicated using a figure-ground representation of built space with blocks and building shaded in a dark pochĂŠ. These allow designers to easily see the relationships between the public and private realms, between hardscape and landscape, and patterns of movement within an environment.