The Painted Palazzo and its frescoes

How to make an affresco just like Michelangelo

When we purchased a large section of an historic palazzo in Vetralla, in the summer of 1993, an artist friend, Valerio Cugia di Sant’Orsola said, “ Keep a wall for me - I want to try Michelangelo’s fresco technique”.

The two different levels of the property had been joined with a staircase and the lower level, once the storage area for olive oil, hazelnuts and wine, was to become the library/studio. After nine months of intense restoration work, the workers departed and Valerio arrived with his art supplies and impalcatura and for several months the former magazzino became his atelier.

Here is the artist’s explanation of the fresco cycle:

“Regarding the fresco, the main central part shows the “Terme di Saturnia” while the left wall depicts the “Four elements” and on the right a“Nocturne of plants and animals”. The central part was inspired by the pools of warm water at Saturnia with bathers in them. My idea was to symbolize humankind’s evolution from bottom to top by painting the lower figures in greenish-blue colors, thus more linked to the natural world and on top a more modern humanity. There is a couple in the lower middle section: one figure is pulling up the other, the light on their bodies is divided between the colder and warmer colors.

There is also a lady of color in the upper left part so as not to make an all white people representation. But also pictorially a perfect “controluce”, thus making the fresco more varied and dynamic.

I was inspired by Luca Signorelli’s fresco in the Duomo di Orvieto, Cappella di San Brizio, both for the figures coming out of the ground and by the devils having skin a formidable blue-greenish color. This gave me the idea of the evolution of humankind with changing colors. I had done two months of military service in Orvieto and those frescoes fascinated me”

see the artist’s website http://www.valeriocugia.com

The Four Elements

“The lateral pictures are inspired by the classic four elements - on the left there is the beautiful natural arch which I admired in 1991 at Arches National Park in the U.S. The upper sky was inspired by Umberto Boccioni’s divisionist painting “La Citta’ che sale”. The right side is a homage to the painter Henri Rousseau, the “Douanier Rousseau”. I wanted to represent the natural world of plants and animals, so I thought of making a nocturne after the famous French naif painter’s jungle night scenes. The problem then arose that the chalk of the fresco, when it dried, made everything lighter than I had anticipated. So, its not as nocturne as I had wanted it to be.”

Jungle Nocturne seen from the upper level of the library

When asked if he used the “spolvero” method to create “cartoni”, as Raphael and Michelangelo had done, Valerio sent me a photo of the plastic sheet he used for preparing the wall spaces for the fresco process..

preparing the base for the day’s painting

“I did use the spolvero method. I transferred the drawing onto a plastic surface where I then made little holes on the silhouettes of the figures. If I remember well I made the holes with a round pointed kitchen instrument used in making tortellini. I placed this “curtain” vertically through a steel string, and it acted precisely as a curtain. Then each day I could slide it in front of the fresh chalk applied to the wall. With a cloth pouch filled with red earth powder I would slightly tap against the curtain sending powder through the holes. Then I would draw between the dots to make a more precise drawing. Just like in the old days, only instead of a big “cartone” I had a plastic curtain. “

the library fresco and 13th century town walls on the left

The palazzo’s first frescoes were done as the different sections of the 85 room palazzo were completed between 1848 and1860 - a brick on the library floor has the date 1848. Part of the town’s 13th century walls can be admired where plaster was not applied. Most of the houses in the centro storico have similar exposed tufa stone walls for it was cheaper to build medieval houses against these already existing strong walls.

The imposing main entrance of the palazzo with its gigantic wooden doors was built to impress. The Piatti family motto LABOR is inscribed in a shield between two symmetrical doors - on the left leading down to the garden level, on the right up a broad stairway to the piano nobile. The pastel colors of the entrance ceiling are decorated with flowers, shells, scrolls and putti. These were probably done by Francesco Gai who was responsible for similar decoration in other buildings owned by the Piatti family in central Italy and in Palazzo Brancaccio in Rome.

There are several naif paintings on the walls of my apartment almost certainly done by Olga Matteini Canonica Piatti, a glamorous opera singer who was “adopted” by Pietro Canonica, the most famous sculptor of his time.

Here are a few of the small frescoes by Olga who learned painting techniques from Canonica. Some of her later works are found today in the Museo Canonica, a castle-like structure located in Rome’s Villa Borghese and at the Museo di Roma, in Palazzo Braschi near Piazza Navona.

Olga married the Piatti family heir, Flaminio, and spent her first years as his bride in the Painted Palazzo while awaiting the construction of a modern villa by the fashionable architect of the moment, Marcello Piacentini. The majestic classical villa surrounded by a park (now the Villa Comunale of Vetralla) was completed in 1925 but by 1928 Canonica bought it to help pay for the couple’s huge gambling debts.

Interested in more stories about this area of central Italy? You can find them in the many books I have written over 6 decades.

Read more about the Palazzo and its history here :

https://opextravaganza.blogspot.com/2020/11/palazzo-piatti-story-characters-and.html

For reviews of my books (English, Italian and bilingual ) and ebooks see www.elegantetruria.com and this review by colleague Judith Harris

https://judithharrisrome.com/2021/01/25/must-read-mary-jane-cryan-la-tuscia/