When Marcantonio Michiel announced on December 27th 1519 the completion of the lower floor, he added: “The one immediately above, completed not along, is kept closed and is meant solely for the pleasure of the pope”. By that, we understand that the pope would use the Loggia for a personal use, where he stored paintings of great value, or statues that could be found in niches. Originally then, the loggia was a gallery of antiquities with every window on the interior wall serving as the niche for a statue. However, the Loggia would not always have been private: it is known that the pope held audiences there as well: a proof of that is probably the fact that Raphael placed in each of the vaults these biblical scenes, surrounded by the papal emblems.
