It is characteristic of an epoch during which the bold traditions of the fifteenth century still lingered, that the undraped statue of this Giulia (representing Vanity) was carved for the basement of Paul III.'s monument in the choir of S.
Peter's.

The old stock of the Farnesi, once planted in the soil of Papal corruption at its most licentious period, struck firm roots and flourished.

Alessandro was born in 1468, and received a humanistic education according to the methods of the earlier Renaissance.

He studied literature with Pomponius Laetus in the Roman Academy, and frequented the gardens of Lorenzo de'Medici at Florence.

His character and intellect were thus formed under the influences of the classical revival and of the Pontifical Curia, at a time when pagan morality and secular policy had obliterated the ideal of Catholic Christianity.