Romano, Giulio (Giovanni Francesco Penni)

Giulio Romano (Giulio Pippi) worked with Raphael (1483-1520), first as a pupil and then as an assistant, and was involved in the decoration both of the Vatican Stanze, in particular that of the Stanze dell'Incendio (completed by 1517) and the Logge (completed 1519). Following Raphael's death in 1520, Giulio collaborated with Giovanni Francesco Penni (c. 1496-after 1528) on the decoration of the Sala di Costantino in the Vatican. He also designed the Villa Madama for Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, a commission that had originally been awarded to Raphael but left unfulfilled at his death. From October 1524, Giulio worked as court artist for Federico II Gonzaga at Mantua; his first sustained project here was the building and decoration of the Palazzo Te (c. 1526-1535), a triumph of Mannerist architecture and painting. He subsequently embellished, and reconstructed parts of, the Palazzo Ducale for around three years from 1536. Following a fire in 1545, Giulio also oversaw the reconstruction of Mantua cathedral. But Federico was reluctant to grant to Giulio leave of absence; thus, while he designed the decoration of the apse of Verona cathedral, its execution was left to local artists. During the early 1540s, Giulio designed his own house, the Casa Pippi, which seems to have been completed by the time Vasari (1511-1574) saw it in 1544 (Turner, N.: From Michelangelo to Annibale Carracci. A century of Italian drawings from the Prado, Art Services International-Museo Nacional del Prado, 2008, p. 66).