Agostino Chigi

Agostino Chigi (* November 29, 1466 in Siena, † April 11, 1520 in Rome, called il Magnifico ( the Magnificent ) ), was an entrepreneur, patron and papal banker in the Renaissance. He belonged to the family Chigi (now Chigi - Albani ), from which Pope Alexander VII ( Fabio Chigi bourgeois ) came.

Business

Together with his father, he moved from Tuscany in 1487 to Rome, where they became independent. From 1509 he was head of the banking house of Spanocchi. He was one of the foremost bankers of his time and wrong in the highest social circles. Chigi maintained trade relations with the whole of Western Europe, and sometimes had 20,000 employees.

Chigi was also a dealer who entertained trading houses in Lyon, London, Konstantin Opel, Amsterdam and Babylon, as well as owner of about one hundred cargo ships. He had, inter alia, in connection with his work for the Curia leased the papal Alaunminen at Tolfa. Important additional source of alum in Europe was still Venice, about the Alaunimport was settled mainly from Asia Minor. By granting an interest-free loan to the Republic of Venice, as these much needed funds in the fight against the League of Cambrai, he could leave to assure a monopoly in Alaunhandel contract on the Venetian market. In addition, he received an honorary title "Son of San Marco" was awarded.

Patronage

He also became a patron of the arts and literature as a rich man. He promoted major Renaissance artists such as Perugino, Sebastiano del Piombo, Giovanni da Udine, Giulio Romano, Sodoma and Raphael. From 1506 to 1510 he lived in the Villa Farnesina in Rome - Trastevere, in which mythological frescoes by Raphael are. Raphael painted the fresco of Galatea for Chigi commissioned work.

1507 Pope Julius II allowed in a bull rededicate his banker Chigi, the Capella Chigi inside the church of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome as a grave chapel for himself and his dependents. With the construction Chigi commissioned in 1513 his friend Raphael. In the present still grave and his brother Antonio Chigi is buried. The tomb is one of the scenes of action in Dan Brown's novel Angels & Demons.