The Wedding Hall

Named after the main fresco, which covers the entire north wall, the room was originally Agostino Chigi’s bedroom, which would have welcomed the newlyweds.

In 1519, the banker entrusted its decoration to the Sienese painter Giovanni Antonio Bazzi, known as Sodoma, a painter born in Vercelli but long active in Siena and Rome.

Based on an “initial idea” by Raphael, in 1519 he created a cycle on the walls of the room centred on the wedding of Alexander the Great and Roxane, as depicted in a famous ancient painting described by Lucian.o.

The centrepiece of the narrative, on the north wall, is the wedding scene itself, with the Macedonian leader offering the crown to his bride, who, surrounded by cherubs, awaits him on the edge of a sumptuous four-poster bed.

The other scenes show Alexander’s magnanimity towards King Darius’ mother, wife and daughters, the taming of the horse Bucephalus (not without interventions by other hands) and the climax of a battle. The scene with Alexander and Bucephalus, on the side of the door, was frescoed later, as originally, most probably, the bed was placed against this wall.

The 16th-century coffered ceiling is decorated with grotesques and mythological subjects.