Art Patronage and Reputation
A lover of fine arts and especially sculpture, Cardinal Riario’s artistic choices foreshadow the arrival of High Renaissance in Rome. His gigantic residence, influenced by the Florentine architecture, is the first building of the new monumental style which prevailed in the Holy City under Julius II. Riario is also credited for noticing the talent of the young Michelangelo. In 1496, the Sleeping Cupid was treacherously sold to him as an ancient piece: the aesthetic prelate discovered the cheat, but was so impressed by the quality of the sculpture that he invited the artist to Rome, where Michelangelo worked for the rest of his life.
Raffaele Riario is generally considered a prelate typical of his era: indifferent in religious matters, rather a statesman than a priest, rather a Maecenas than a theologian..
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Famous quotes containing the words art, patronage and/or reputation:
“Through art we express our conception of what nature is not.”
—Pablo Picasso (1881–1973)
“She loved money, but could occasionally part with it, especially to men of learning, whose patronage she affected. She often conversed with them, and bewildered herself in their metaphysical disputes, which neither she nor they themselves understood.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“You know what the critics are. If you tell the truth they only say you’re cynical and it does an author no good to get a reputation for cynicism.”
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965)