GIULIO ROMANO or GIULIO PIPPI the head of the Roman school of painting in succession to Raphael. This prolific painter, modeller, architect and engineer receives his common appellation from the place of his birth—Rome. His name in full was Giulio di Pietro di Filippo de' Giannuzzi.
Giulio was quite youthful when he first became the pupil of Raphael, who loved him as a son, and employed him in some leading works, especially in the Loggie of the Vatican, in the saloon of the "Incendio del Borgo" and probably also in the Villa Farnesina. It would appear that in subjects of this kind Raphael simply furnished the design, and committed the execution of it to some assistant, such as Giulio—taking heed, however, to bring it up, by final retouching, to his own standard of style and type. Amid the multitude of Raphael's pupils, Giulio showed universal aptitude; he did, among other things, a large amount of archi tectural planning for his chief. Raphael died when Giulio was 21 years old and bequeathed to him, and to his fellow-pupil Gian francesco Penni, his implements and works of art ; and upon them it devolved to bring to completion the vast fresco-work of the "Hall of Constantine" in the Vatican—consisting, along with much minor matter, of the four large subjects, the "Battle of Con stantine," the "Apparition of the Cross," the "Baptism of Con stantine" and the "Donation of Rome to the Pope." The whole of this onerous undertaking was completed within a period of only three years. By this time Giulio was regarded as one of the first artists in Rome. Among his architectural works is the Villa Madama, with a fresco of Polyphemus, and boys and satyrs ; the Ionic façade of this building may have been sketched out by Raphael ; and the Villa Lante, where he painted frescoes which are now in the Palazzo Buccari.
Towards the end of 1524 his friend the celebrated writer Baldassar Castiglione seconded with success the urgent request of the duke of Mantua, Federigo Gonzaga, that Giulio should migrate to that city, and enter the duke's service for the purpose of carrying out his projects in architecture and pictorial dec oration. The duke treated his painter munificently. In Giulio's multifarious work in Mantua three principal undertakings should be noted. (I) In the Castello he painted the "History of Troy," along with other subjects. (2) In the suburban ducal residence named the Palazzo del Te he rapidly carried out a rebuilding on a vastly enlarged scale in the Doric order—the materials being brick and terra-cotta, as there is no local stone—and decorated the rooms with his most celebrated works in oil and fresco paint ing—the story of Psyche, Icarus, the fall of the Titans, and the portraits of the ducal horses and hounds. The foreground figures of Titans are from 12 to I 4f t. high; the room, even in its struc tural details, is made to subserve the general artistic purpose. The whole of the work on the Palazzo del Te occupied about five years. (3) Giulio recast and almost rebuilt Mantua cathedral; erected his own mansion, reconstructed the street architecture to a considerable extent, and made the city, sapped as it is by the shallows of the Mincio, comparatively healthy; and at Marmirolo, some 5m. distant from Mantua, he worked out other important buildings and paintings. He was in fact, for nearly a quarter of a century, a sort of Demiurgus of the arts of design in the Mantuan territory. Giulio's activity was interrupted but not terminated by the death of Duke Federigo. The duke's brother, a cardinal who became regent, retained him in full employment. He was after wards invited to succeed Antonio Sangallo as architect of St. Peter's in Rome—a splendid appointment, which he had almost resolved to accept, when a fever overtook him and caused his death on Nov. I, 1546. He was buried in the church of St. Barnaba in Mantua.
Wide and solid knowledge of design, combined with a prompti tude of composition that was never at fault, formed the chief motive power and merit of Giulio Romano's art. It would be difficult to name any other artist who, working as an architect, and as the plastic and pictorial embellisher of his architecture. pro duced a total of work so fully and homogeneously his own ; hence he has been named "the prince of decorators." He had great knowledge of the human frame, and represented it with force and truth; he was also learned in other matters, especially in medals, and in the plans of ancient buildings. As a general rule, his draw ings are finer and freer than his paintings ; his colouring is marked by an excess of blackish and heavy tints. Giulio Romano estab lished at Mantua a school of art. Very many engravings were made contemporaneously from his works, not only in Italy, but in France and Flanders as well. Like Raphael he entrusted princi pally to assistants the pictorial execution of his cartoons. Prima ticcio was one of the leading coadjutors. Among the oil pictures of Giulio Romano are the "Martyrdom of Stephen," in the church of that saint in Genoa, a "Holy Family" in the Dresden Gallery and a "St. Margaret" in the Vienna gallery.
Vasari gives a pleasing impression of the character of Giulio. He was very loving to his friends, genial, affable, liking fine apparel and a handsome scale of living. His portrait, painted by himself, is in the Uffizi, Florence.
Besides Vasari, Lanzi and other historians of art, the following works may be consulted: C. D. Arco, Vita di G. Pippi ; G. C. von Murr, Notice sur les estampes gravees apres dessins de Jules Romain (i865) ; J. P. Richter, La collezione Heviz e gli aifreschi di Giulio Romano al palazzo Zuciari (1928).