Piercing the Veil of Allegory in the Fire in the Borgo by Raphael

This project analyzes the frescoed painting, the Fire in the Borgo (c.1514-1517), by Raphael, and presents alternative themes for the painting. The themes emanate from an in-depth analysis of the history of Pope Leo IV who is depicted in the painting and his relationship to Pope Leo X who is the patron for the artwork. This analysis agrees with scholars who have asserted the painting is a visual treatise of exceptional complexity. Of further interest is Raphael’s references in the Fire in the Borgo to Virgil’s Aeneid and Dante’s Divine Comedy, as well as the complex web of ideas that can be understood by comparing this image to another painting in the same room, the Stanza dell’ Incendio di Borgo. This research ultimately asserts the importance of afterlife punishments as a dominant theme for the painting. On a literal level, the fresco recounts a historical fire that erupted in the English quarter of the Borgo during the papacy of Leo IV. On a conceptual level, the painting is a multi-layered artwork that requires the viewer to consider complex religious, historic, and poetic concepts by engaging in intellectual contrapposto. The image touches on concepts that were important to devout Christians in the period such as virtue, vice, and the religious nature of death thereby elucidating the allegorical, moral, and literary depths of the image.