Here we have two examples of a "grottesca" which, if you notice, you will find almost everywhere in the palaces, museums or churches of Rome! The reason is simple, because since the XVI century there was a real mania, which involved popes, cardinals, artists, noblemen and common people, for this extraordinary decorative typology that does not have much response in the world. It became the favourite pictorial style of the renaissance age, used by artists whenever it was possibile. And reasons are many, as a local tour guide like me can tell you.

First of all, where does the term "grottesca" (which has nothing to do with something awkward or ugly) come from? The history begins from the splendid and never forgotten Domus Aurea, the spectacular and immense palace built at the behest of Nero, at the height of his megalomania (I century a.D.), which was built at the Oppio Hill of Rome. Hectares of gardens, nymphaeums and rooms decorated with mosaic or painting, often using this pictorial expedient: white background, slender architectural elements such as columns, semi-human or animal figurines, in different poses. Something light and sober, but at the same time rich, which gives a sense of stillness and peace. Nero evidently loved very this style, as grotesques have been found in many rooms of the Domus Aurea. Now, let's think about how, over the centuries, the famous Nero's palace partly collapsed, it was partly and deliberately destroyed or, again, it was hidden by other structures and buildings, incorporated into them or reused.

After all, already two thousand years ago Nero was condemned by the Senate with the damnatio memoriae, which inflicted on the emperor the total loss of his own memory (destruction of statues or anything that could represent him). And here, after many centuries of almost oblivion, in the 16th century the Domus Aurea was reborn for the second time. Partly by chance, as often happened at the time, partly because one really had the hope of finding something ancient, the first, dark and gloomy rooms of the Domus Aurea were found on the slopes of Oppio Hill. We have several chronicles left by men (treasure hunters, artists like Raphael, or just curious) who went into what, at the time as today, is nothing more than a series of underground rooms and tunnels. Those first men, behaving like new explorers, in the light of torches and candles alone, began to admire what was left of the interior decorations of the Neronian building, discovering numerous walls completely covered with this particular paint. From here, from those underground tunnels, the "grottesca" took its name.

A pictorial composition which, already for the men and intellectuals of the renaissance, seemed to be delighted by the Romans who used them almost everywhere. For example Pirro Ligorio, a famous sixteenth-century architect and artist (who signed one of the most curious fountains at the baroque gardens at the Villa d'Este in Tivoli, as you can read here), wrote in one of his letters: “They [the Romans] used to paint similar paintings in all parts of the house. In the halls, in the dormitory cubicles, in the underground areas and in the lodges (…)”. Places in Rome where, today, you can admire grotesque paintings? Villa della Farnesina, Chapel of the Pinturicchio Nativity Scene (Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo), Sala d'Apollo in Castel Sant'Angelo…