Giordano Orsini (died 1438) - Patron of The Arts

Patron of The Arts

Orsini's status put him in a position to be a major patron of the arts, and during the pontificate of Martin V (1417-31), the Cardinal of Santa Sabina, as he was called, became the center of an early circle of humanist culture that included Leonardo Bruni, Poggio Bracciolini, Leonardo Dati and Lorenzo Valla, who recalled how the scholars would gather, dressed in antique robes, to discuss topics of human conduct in Classical and Christian terms. This patron of artists and scholars assembled a library that comprised 244 manuscripts, which passed at his death intact to the Vatican Library. His seat was the fortress-palazzo crowning "Monte Giordano", a small rise south-east of the Ponte Sant'Angelo, which had been built in the twelfth century by the Roncioni, and had been converted and extended into a palatial complex by the Orsini.

Around 1430, Orsini built in the palazzo a sala teatri for his humanistic gatherings; it was the first permanent indoor theatre built in the Renaissance. Its walls were painted with an audience of illustrious personages of history, painted full-length in a cavalcade, row upon row, three hundred figures by the time the frescoes were completed, winding their way down the walls. Such a grand scheme was beyond the powers of Roman painters, whose skills and workshops had diminished during the Avignon Papacy, when the sources of patronage were removed from Rome. The Cardinal turned to the Florentine Masolino da Panicale, currently at work in Rome. The young Paolo Uccello also played a part in the enterprise.

The humanist circle disbanded when Giordano Orsini followed Pope Eugenius IV into voluntary exile from Rome in 1434. He spent the remainder of his life in Florence and northern Italy and never returned.