Raphael's Rooms
Hall of Constantine
Vatican City
Rome Italy
2016


Raphael's Rooms
The four rooms known as the Stanze of Raphael formed part of the apartment situated on the second floor of the Pontifical Palace that was chosen by Julius II della Rovere (pontiff from 1503 to 1513) as his own residence and used also by his successors. The pictorial decoration was executed by Raphael and his school between 1508 and 1524.


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Hall of Constantine
The Hall, that was designed to be used for receptions and official ceremonies, was decorated by the school of Raphael on the basis of drawings by the artist, who died prematurely before completion of the work (1520). It takes its name from Constantine (306-337 A.D.), the first Christian emperor to officially recognize the Christian faith, granting freedom of worship. On the walls are painted four episodes of his life which testify to the defeat of paganism and the triumph of the Christian religion: the Vision of the Cross, the Battle of the Pons Milvius, the Baptism of Constantine and the Donation of Rome. The decoration of the Hall is completed by figures of great Popes flanked by allegorical figures of Virtue. The original wooden roof which Leo X (pontiff from 1513 to 1521) had built was replaced under Gregory XIII (pontiff from 1572 to 1585) by the modern ceiling, the decoration of which was entrusted by order of the Pope to Tommaso Laureti who portrayed the Triumph of the Christian religion in the central panel. The work was completed at the end of 1585 under Pope Sixtus V (pontiff from 1585 to 1590).
Recently conducted restoration work on the walls of the Hall has confirmed Raphael's authorship of the figures of Comitas and Iustitia, painted in oil on the wall using an experimental technique, to the right of the Vision and the Battle respectively.

Triumph of Christian religion
The wooden ceiling that Leo X (pontiff from 1513 to 1521) had built was replaced in the time of Gregory XIII with a ceiling that was decorated with frescoes. The task was entrusted to the Sicilian painter Tommaso Laureti who began the work in 1582, completing it in 1585 under Pope Sixtus V (pontiff from 1585 to 1590). In the corners of the ceiling the undertakings of Gregory XIII are depicted while in the frieze above the four episodes of the life of Constantine, we see the heraldic elements of Sixtus V. In the central panel Laureti illustrated the Triumph of Christian religion that refers to the destruction of the pagan idols and their replacement with the image of Christ, ordered by Constantine throughout the empire. Around the central panel the artist painted eight regions of Italy, two in each of the four pendentives, and three continents: Europe, Asia and Africa.