The Bloody Wedding
In June 1500 the wedding between Astorre Baglioni and Lavinia Orsini Colonna was celebrated in Perugia. This was conceived as the crucial seal between Rome and Perugia to consolidate the power of the descendants of the first Lord of Perugia: BRACCIO I Baglioni. The wedding festivity, which lasted for days and days, had a sudden and tragic end. the inward discord of the ruling family blew out in a conspiracy organized by another member of the Baglioni family, Carl Oddo, together with Varano, Della Staffa, Della Cornia , Filippo Baglioni. He even dragged with him Grifonetto Baglioni, the grandson of Braccio I, pumping up stories of an imaginary intrigue of Grifonetto’s wife Zenobia with Gian Paolo Baglioni. The plotters furious blows killed Astorre and Lavinia, Sigismund, the old Guido, who was the patriarch of the family, and the young Simonetto Baglioni.
After that, their bodies were thrown out of the windows and dragged along to stain with blood the city roads. However not all the Lords of Perugia have been killed. The brave Gian Paolo Baglioni succeeded to escape the slaughter and came back with his braves. When Grifonetto fell into his hands near the famous Church of Sant’ Ercolano, Gian Paolo handed him over for execution to his followers; and in a moment, almost without loss, Gian Paolo became the new Lord of the city. The massacre impressed the people of Perugia.Atalanta Baglioni, Grifonetto’s mother, in memory of her son’s tragic death, commissioned Raphael to paint a Deposition where the characters of that terrible event were to be depicted. In the worldwide famous “Entombment” by Raphael painted in 1507 she is portrayed as the heartbroken Madonna. Grifonetto is the one bearing the dead Christ and Zenobia, Grifonetto’s wife, is represented as Magdalena.
