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| Raffaele Riario | |
|---|---|
| Name | Raffaele Riario |
| Birth date | 1461 |
| Birth place | Savona, Republic of Genoa |
| Death date | 9 July 1521 |
| Death place | Rome, Papal States |
| Occupation | Cardinal, papal diplomat, patron |
| Nationality | Italian |
Raffaele Riario
Raffaele Riario was an Italian cardinal of the late 15th and early 16th centuries who played a prominent role in the courts of Pope Sixtus IV, Pope Innocent VIII, Pope Alexander VI, and Pope Leo X, and became a central figure in Florentine and Roman politics during the Italian Wars era. Born into the influential Riario family connected to the House of Della Rovere and the papal curia, he combined ecclesiastical office, diplomatic activity, and artistic patronage, commissioning architecture and collecting antiquities that placed him among contemporaries such as Lorenzo de' Medici, Piero de' Medici, Girolamo Savonarola, and Pope Julius II. His involvement in the Pazzi Conspiracy against the Republic of Florence and subsequent imprisonment, recovery, and continued prominence illuminate tensions among the Kingdom of France, the Republic of Venice, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Papal States.
Riario was born in 1461 in Savona into a Genoese family linked by marriage and patronage to leading Italian dynasties including the Orsini family and the Della Rovere family, and he was a nephew of Pope Sixtus IV through collateral ties. His upbringing took place amid the chancelleries and courts of Rome and Florence, where figures such as Lorenzo de' Medici and Piero de' Medici dominated cultural life and where ecclesiastical careers were pathways to political power alongside families like the Medici, the Sforza, and the Borgia. Early contacts with cardinals such as Girolamo Basso della Rovere and diplomats from Naples and the Kingdom of Aragon shaped his formation as both cleric and courtier.
He was elevated to the cardinalate at a young age by Pope Sixtus IV in the consistory of 1477, joining the College of Cardinals that included prominent prelates such as Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere (later Pope Julius II) and Oliviero Carafa. As a cardinal-priest, he held titles including Sant'Anastasia and later Santa Cecilia, and he was involved in papal conclaves, curial congregations, and diplomatic negotiations involving France and the Kingdom of Naples. He participated in key ecclesiastical events of the period, interacting with prelates like Giovanni de' Medici (later Pope Leo X) and administrators from the Apostolic Camera, while navigating rivalries with families such as the Colonna and the Farnese.
Riario exercised secular influence as papal legate and protector to institutions including the University of Bologna and civic entities in Florence and Siena, aligning at times with the Republic of Florence under Lorenzo de' Medici and at other times with opponents such as the Pazzi family and the Kingdom of Naples. His circle embraced humanists and artists associated with the High Renaissance and the Quattrocento, commissioning works from craftsmen who worked for contemporaries like Michelangelo Buonarroti, Sandro Botticelli, Andrea del Verrocchio, and collectors such as Pope Julius II. As a patron he supported scholars from the schools of Pomponius Laetus and corresponded with antiquarians active in excavations patronized by Pope Alexander VI and Cesare Borgia.
Riario became implicated in the Pazzi Conspiracy of 1478, an assassination plot against Lorenzo de' Medici and Giuliano de' Medici orchestrated by the Pazzi family with backing from agents of the Archbishop of Pisa, and allegedly with ties to the papal circle including some supporters of Sixtus IV. After the murder of Giuliano during mass in the Duomo of Florence, Riario was arrested by Florentine authorities and held in the Palazzo Vecchio before being rescued through negotiations involving emissaries from Pope Sixtus IV, mediators from Milan under Francesco Sforza, and envoys of the Kingdom of Aragon. His detention and release fueled enmities with figures such as Girolamo Savonarola and influenced subsequent alliances during conflicts like the campaigns leading to the Italian Wars and interventions by Charles VIII of France.
Riario invested in architecture and collections that reflected Renaissance tastes, commissioning urban palaces and renovations influenced by architects and sculptors associated with projects for Pope Sixtus IV and Pope Julius II, and accumulating antiquities comparable to the collections of Pope Leo X and Agostino Chigi. He patronized builders and artists who worked on Roman churches and private palaces, participating in the same cultural milieu as Donato Bramante, Filippo Brunelleschi's followers, and sculptors in the circle of Luca della Robbia. His collections included classical statuary and inscriptions prized by humanists such as Erasmus of Rotterdam and Marsilio Ficino-aligned scholars, contributing to the antiquarian culture of Rome and Florence.
In later years Riario navigated changing papal politics under Pope Alexander VI and Pope Leo X, retaining influence as a prince of the Church while contending with emergent forces like the Protestant Reformation and the shifting diplomacy of France and the Holy Roman Empire under rulers such as Maximilian I. He died in Rome on 9 July 1521, leaving architectural commissions, art collections, and endowments that influenced cardinals and collectors including Pope Clement VII and patrons like Agostino Chigi. His life intersects with principal actors of the Renaissance—Lorenzo de' Medici, Girolamo Savonarola, Pope Julius II, Cesare Borgia, Michelangelo, Donato Bramante—and his story forms part of histories of the Papal States, the Republic of Florence, and the cultural transformations of the Italian Renaissance.
Category:16th-century Italian cardinals Category:People from Savona