Giulio di Pietro di Filippo de Gianuzzi (circa 1499 - 1546), alternatively known as Giulio Romano or Giulio Pippi, was one of Raphael’s most talented students. Giulio Romano was so famous in the century after his death that he is the only “modern” artist mentioned by Shakespeare in a play. A Roman native, by about 1515 he was already working for Raphael in the Vatican, eventually becoming the master’s most trusted aide. At Raphael’s death in 1520, Giulio inherited direction of the master’s shop and completed many of his projects. In 1524, Giulio became court painter and architect for Federigo Gonzaga, spending the rest of his life in Mantua, where he directed virtually all artistic activity. Giulio’s most important work is the Palazzo del Tè, which he built and decorated from 1527 to 1534, breaking with the conventions of classical architecture in the same way that he had bent the rules of Italian Renaissance painting with his Mannerist canvases.