A visit to Castello Bufalini, from
massive fortress to a pleasant urban residence
In the centre of
San Giustino a
green space opens to reveal the presence of a strengthened fortress, the
Castello
Bufalini, initially a defensive building, and luxurious residence then. Its
construction goes back to 1480, to the epoch in which
Città di Castello,
besieged by the enemies, decided to set a bank planning a defensive structure
that protected the surrounding territory. The ambitious project revealed being
more arduous to be realised than the expectation, since wars and famines dried
up the boxes of the treasure, depriving of money for the building of the
Castle. So in 1487 the project was given from Città di Castello to the rich
owner
Nicolò Manno di Bufalini to finish the construction of the castle,
with the bond to strengthen its defensive feature. The work was completed under
the direction of
Giovanni and
Camillo Vitelli. But the times
change and the wind blows in another direction. The
Renaissance is near.
The family Bufalini, of fact feudal of the place, prospers, and during 1500
transforms the fortress strengthened in a residential villa worthy of the best
European courts. Than rise refined gardens, rooms richly frescoed,
first-quality furniture and so on. A capable painter was called to decorate the
inside rooms, the
Doceno, at that time
Cristofano Gherardi, very
admired also by the
Vasari. This way the transformation of Castello
Bufalini begins, the most Renaissance style among all the fortitudes.
''. a sixteen years old boy,
called Cristofano. ''
''. and for nickname
Doceno,
Guido's
Gherardi son, man of honourable family in that city, attending with natural
inclination and a lot of profit to the painting, he drew and painted so well
and with so much grace that was amazing. ''
In this way
Giorgio Vasari describes the talent of
Cristofano Gherardi, the
Doceno, born in
1508 and dead in 1556. Always from Vasari we learn that the
Doceno moved
his first footsteps at
Borgo San Sepolcro, when
Raffaellino dal Colle,
noticing the cleverness of the young painter, he wanted him in his shop. As
every original personality that respects, he had troubled and stormy stories,
but is known that the art doesn't flourish in the ease and in the luxury. In
1530, also to satisfy his artistic curiosity, he decides to join the army. Here
he meets for the second time the Vasari, after having known him in 1528 at San
Sepolcro, who appreciates him and wants him as stable and personal help. Vasari
convinces the Doceno to follow him at
Città di Castello, where he was
directing some works of restructuring, together with
Battista della Bilia.
In this phase Gherardi gets notable abilities in the pictorial art:
'' They did all so well and with so much
grace, and maximally Cristofano, that even a practical and consumed art teacher
not would have done so well; and that experimenting himself more in that work,
it became practical and capable in drawing and painting. ''
But in 1537 he is suspected to be involved
in a plot against the
Medici and is banished from
Florence. He's
forced to accept servile and humiliating jobs at
Alessandro Vitelli's to
not be reported. On the edge of the crash, physical and financial, in 1538 he
abandons the Vitelli's to go to
Castello Bufalini, where he painted room
after room, for 16 years almost without interruption.
'' It was in this time at
San Giustino in Città di Castello a so called painter Cristofano Gherardi from Borgo to San
Sepolcro, who, endowed by the nature of a marvellous talent to do grotesque and
figures, came to
Rome to visit it; (.) rather returned to San Giustino,
he has painted various rooms here in Bufalini's building, all very beautiful.
''
They are the years in which Castello
Bufalini, probably really thanks to the intervention of Vasari, suffers light
but meaningful changes. An ample open gallery and a beautiful portal on the
façade appeared, a grandiose stairway and the battlement were turned into a
pleasant communication trench. Fortitude gradually lost its strongest sour
characters to become more refined and to open to the society.
The inside appear the marvellous frescos
of the Doceno, visible at the ground floor in the
Sala degli Dei Pagani,
where are drawn myths and pagan divinity in scenes from the
Metamorphosis of
Ovidio. The
Sala di Prometeo, represents the titan caught by
Gherardi in the action to steal a red hot spark from the wagon of the sun. To
the upper floor we find two vain of small dimensions, on whose vaults the
painter has painted scenes that represent
Jupiter with his loves and the
rape of
Ganimede. Painted the room in the tower, the abbot Bufalini
liked it so much to make it paint again:
'' The painted room, because the abbot
liked it so much, it made him do another similar; to which desiring to make
some ornaments of plaster and not having marble dust to mix it, he used to this
purpose some white veined stones of the river, its dust was good and hard
taking: in which ornaments of plasters Cristofano made then some histories of Romans
facts, so well done that was marvellous. ''
These few sentences are a brief summary of
the activity of the Doceno, Cristofalo Gherardi at Castello Bufalini, narrated
by the alive voice of an exception witness, the Vasari, that with his
Vite (lifes),
he has handed down to the posters precious details, criticisms and judgements
that constitute the base of the whole history of the western art.
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