CHIGI, AGOSTINO

(1465-1520)

   Sienese banker who made his fortune through shipping and real estate. Agostino Chigi was also the main financier of the papacy under popes Alexander VI, Julius II, and Leo X, and he held the monopoly of the alum mines of Tolfa. This made him the richest man in Rome. Agostino was infamous for his unrestrained behavior. He hosted a banquet in the loggia of his Villa Farnesina, built for him by Baldassare Peruzzi along the banks of the Tiber River and decorated by Peruzzi, Raphael, and Sebastiano del Piombo. Guests were served dinner on silver and gold plates that were tossed by servants into the river as they cleared them from the table. After the astounded guests left the banquet, the servants retrieved the plates that had fallen on strategically placed nets. Agostino, a cultured individual with great interest in humanism and antiquity, was also the patron of Pietro Aretino.