Cabinet (room) - Studiolo

Studiolo

With its origins in requirements engendered by the humanist avocation of many of the Italian noble and mercantile elite in the Quattrocento, for increased privacy for reading and meditation, the studiolo provided a retreat often reachable only through the comparatively public bedroom. This was true for the elaborate Studiolo of Francesco I Medici located in Palazzo Vecchio, Florence,

The standard fittings of the late medieval and early modern study can be inventoried among the conventional trappings in portrayals of Saint Jerome in illuminated manuscripts, in paintings, or in engravings like that of Albrecht Dürer (illustration): a chair, perhaps a footstool to lift the feet from the draughty floor, and a table bearing a book-rest, perhaps with a weighted ribbon to hold a book open at a place,and a portable desk with a slanted surface for writing; a candlestick also on the table supplements the light from the window, which is often shuttered but also often with a window seat in the depth of the wall. In Domenico Ghirlandaio's Saint Jerome in his Study shelving runs around the room at the level of the frieze: on it are curious objects, containers of various types, large volumes lying on their sides.

Studioli entirely inlaid in intarsia for the ducal palaces of Urbino (in situ) and Gubbio (remounted at the Metropolitan Museum of Art) with simulated shelves and built-in cabinets filled with books, scientific instruments and examples of geometric solids, all rendered in striking trompe-l'oeil evoke the character of the pursuits of the cabinet. For Ferdinando Gonzaga's studiolo at Mantua, in about 1619, Domenico Fetti painted a series of New Testament parables, suitable for private contemplation; they proved very popular, and Fetti and his studio, and Fetti's imitators, repeated them for other similar retreats. Isabella d'Este called her room with paintings commissioned from Andrea Mantegna, Perugino and others a studiolo.

A studiolo would often have a Latin motto painted or inlaid round the frieze. Heraldry and personal devices and emblems would remind the occupant of his station in life. Series of portraits of exemplary figures were popular, whether the Nine Worthies or the classical philosophers, in imaginary ideal portrait heads.

Perhaps the grandest studiolo was the "Camerino" ("little room") of Alfonso d'Este in Ferrara, for which the greatest painters of the day were commissioned from about 1512-1525 to paint mythological canvases, very large by the standards of the time. Fra Bartolommeo died before starting work, and Raphael got no further than a drawing, but Giovanni Bellini completed The Feast of the Gods (NGA, Washington) in 1514. Titian was then brought in and added three of his finest works: Bacchus and Ariadne (National Gallery, London), The Andrians and The Worship of Venus (both Prado, Madrid), as well as repainting the background of the Bellini to match his own works better. Dosso Dossi, Alphonso's court painter, completed the room with a large painting (now lost) and ten small oblong subjects to go as a frieze above the others.