The sack of Rome temporarily ends the …

Years: 1527 - 1527
December

The sack of Rome temporarily ends the city's role as a source of patronage and compels artists to travel to other centers in Italy, France, and Spain.

Il Rosso Fiorentino, whose Dead Christ with Angels typically combines the painter’s sculpturesque solidity with an expressive Mannerist aesthetic, flees for the north of Italy.

Parmigianino, whose major achievement during his stay in the city is Madonna and Child with Saints John the Baptist and Jerome, flees Rome for Bologna.

Florentine sculptor and architect Jacopo Sansovino moves to Venice.

This sack of Rome marks the end of the Roman Renaissance, damages the papacy's prestige and frees Charles V's hands to act against the Reformation in Germany and against the rebellious German princes allied with Luther.

The population of Rome has dropped from some fifty-five thousand before the attack, to a meager ten thousand.

An estimated six thousand to twelve thousand people have been murdered.

Many Imperial soldiers have also died in the past several months from diseases caused by the large number of unburied dead bodies in the city.

The pillage will only end when, after eight months, the food runs out, there is no one left to ransom and plague appears.

In commemoration of the Sack and the Guard's bravery, recruits to the Swiss Guard are sworn in on May 6 every year.

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