Room of the Liberal Arts

The women seated on thrones represent the seven Liberal Arts, the subjects at the foundation of medieval learning. Their names identify Grammar, Dialectic and Rhetoric, together with Geometry, Arithmetic, Music and Astronomy. People associated with each discipline gather around them. This was probably the study of Alexander VI, the pope who gave the Borgia Apartment its name. Pinturicchio and his workshop decorated the apartment during his papacy, from 1492 to 1503. The word Penturichio on the base of Rhetoric’s throne is the only signature in the painted cycle, though much of this room’s work is attributed to his assistants. Family emblems recur among the gilded ceiling decoration. The ox belongs to the Borgia arms. Paired crowns also helped Alexander present his royal lineage. A room devoted to knowledge surrounded its papal occupant with reminders of the family whose name it still carries.