Agostino Chigi(1466 — 1520)
Agostino Chigi
8 min read
Agostino Chigi (1466–1520) was the greatest banker of the Italian Renaissance, financier to popes Julius II and Leo X. A lavish patron of the arts, he commissioned the construction and decoration of the Villa Farnesina in Rome, with frescoes by Raphael and his pupils.
Frequently asked questions
Key Facts
- 1466: born in Siena into a family of bankers
- c. 1487: moved to Rome and built a European banking empire
- 1506–1511: commissioned the Villa Farnesina, a masterpiece of the Renaissance
- Commissioned Raphael to paint the frescoes of the Farnesina, including the *Galatea* (1511)
- 1520: died in Rome, leaving one of the largest fortunes in Europe
Works & Achievements
An architectural masterpiece commissioned by Chigi from Baldassare Peruzzi, decorated with frescoes by Raphael and his pupils. The villa is today one of the major monuments of the Roman Renaissance and houses the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei.
Commissioned by Chigi from Raphael for a hall of the Villa Farnesina, this fresco depicting the nymph Galatea riding the waves is considered one of the absolute masterpieces of Renaissance painting.
A vast decorative program illustrating the love story of Psyche and Cupid, executed by Raphael and his workshop at the Villa Farnesina. This mythological cycle is one of the most ambitious pictorial undertakings of the Renaissance.
A funerary chapel designed by Raphael, blending architecture, mosaics, and sculpture. Left unfinished at the death of both men in 1520, it was completed in the seventeenth century by Bernini and stands as a major landmark in Roman funerary art.
Chigi built the largest banking empire of his time, with branches in Rome, Siena, Venice, Lyon, Antwerp, Lisbon, and Constantinople. He financed the Holy See, Italian states, and European monarchs, controlling a decisive share of the continent's financial flows.
By securing exclusive control over the extraction and trade of papal alum, Chigi amassed colossal revenues that allowed him to finance popes, armies, and artists. This monopoly was the initial foundation of all his economic power.
Anecdotes
At a lavish banquet held at the Villa Farnesina, Agostino Chigi had all the silver tableware thrown out the windows into the Tiber after each course, to dazzle his guests — cardinals, ambassadors, and princes. What his dining companions did not know was that nets strung beneath the windows quietly retrieved the precious pieces: the display of extravagance had been carefully staged.
Raphael, distracted by the charms of his mistress Margherita Luti, was falling badly behind on the frescoes for the Loggia of Psyche that Chigi had commissioned. Chigi found a radical solution: he had Margherita come and live at the Villa Farnesina, turning his residence into a studio-cum-alcove, allowing the painter to work without ever leaving the arms of his beloved.
On **6 April 1520**, Raphael died in Rome at the age of 37. Four days later, on **10 April**, Agostino Chigi also passed away. The near-simultaneous deaths of the two men struck their contemporaries deeply: together they had built one of the most beautiful monuments of the Roman Renaissance, and they seemed to have departed hand in hand.
Contemporaries report that Chigi's stables, fitted with marble columns and hung with precious tapestries, were so magnificent that Pope **Julius II** wished to visit them as an architectural curiosity. The banker is said to have remarked with a smile that if his horses lived in such splendor, it was because they had earned him millions of ducats.
Primary Sources
Raffaello aveva la sua donna a Sienne, e per questo non si risolveva a tornare a Roma. Agostino Chigi, conoscendo questo, fece venire la sua innamorata a stare in quella casa, dove stette tutto il tempo che durò quell'opera.
Account books of the Chigi bank held at the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, recording in double-entry the exchange operations, loans to Popes Julius II and Leo X, and revenues from the alum monopoly of Tolfa.
Augustinus Chigius convivium nobilissimum paravit in hortis suis trans Tiberim, ad quod Sanctitas Sua cum multis cardinalibus accessit ; mensa tam splendide ornata erat et tanta munificentia ut nemo ditior in tota Italia videretur.
Dilecto filio Augustino Chisio, mercatori Senensi — ob egregia servitia et magnam fidem erga Sedem Apostolicam, cuius opera in rebus gravissimis semper usi sumus, Nos eidem gratiam et favorem Nostrum impendimus.
Key Places
Agostino Chigi's birthplace, where his family had established themselves as merchant-bankers. He always maintained close ties with his home city and invested part of his fortune there.
An architectural masterpiece commissioned by Chigi from Baldassare Peruzzi beginning in 1506, later enriched with frescoes by Raphael. It was here that the banker hosted his lavish banquets and received the greatest figures of his age.
A funerary chapel commissioned by Chigi from Raphael in 1513, left unfinished at their simultaneous deaths in 1520. Completed in the seventeenth century by Bernini, it remains a masterpiece of papal Rome.
Mines for which Chigi secured the papal monopoly on extraction. Tolfa alum was essential to the entire European textile industry, and this monopoly became the primary source of the banker's colossal fortune.
The heart of papal power, which Chigi visited regularly to meet with Julius II and then Leo X. His closeness to the popes made him the most influential man in Rome after the Holy Father himself.
