Baldassare Ferri – singer

Male soprano was admired by the crowned heads of Europe

A 19th century engraving depicting Ferri and
fellow castrato Caffariello (Gaetano Majorano)

Castrato singer Baldassare Ferri was born on this day in 1610 in Perugia in the region of Umbria.

He is said to have possessed a beautiful soprano voice that was praised by other musicians and by much of the aristocracy of Europe.

The Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, who was a great patron of music and himself a composer, is believed to have become so enchanted with Ferri that he had a portrait of the singer hung in his bedroom with the inscription, Baldassare Ferri, Re dei Musici (King of Musicians).

By the age of 11, Ferri was a chorister serving Cardinal Crescenzi in Orvieto. He then studied music in Naples and in Rome, where he was taught by Vincenzo Ugolini of Perugia, who was maestro of the Cappella Giulia.

Prince Wladislaus of Poland then secured Ferri’s services for the court of King Sigismund III at Warsaw, where the singer took part in dramas set to music. He continued to be employed at the court when the prince became King Wladislaus IV Vasa in 1632.

A few years later Ferri moved to Vienna, where he entered the services of the Emperor Ferdinand III and afterwards sang for the Emperor Leopold I.

The Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I was said
to be a big fan of Ferri's vocal qualities

His voice became famous throughout Europe and he received honours from the aristocrats and royal families of many countries.

He was made a Knight of St Mark of Venice, sonnets were written praising him, and he was once even summoned to Sweden to sing before Queen Christina, who was a great patron of music. Sweden was at war with Poland at the time but a brief armistice is said to have been arranged so that Ferri could pass safely through the battle lines.

The singer returned to live in Italy five years before he died, enjoying a comfortable retirement because of the wealth he had built up. He left 600,000 scudi to charity on his death in 1680.

Ferri was said to have been handsome with a tall figure. Musicians of the period praised the limpid quality of his voice and recorded that his intonation was perfect, his singing was expressive and his length of breath was ‘almost inexhaustible’.

The walled Etruscan city of Perugia enjoys a spectacular
setting in the hills of Umbria

Travel tip:

Perugia, the capital city of the region of Umbria, where Baldassare Ferri was born, is built on a hilltop, which makes it a stunning sight. One of the main Etruscan cities of Italy, it is also home to two universities, the ancient Universita degli Studi and the Universita per Stranieri, Foreigners University, for foreign students learning Italian and studying Italian culture. Perugia is the home of the Perugina chocolate company, famous for producing Baci, which literally means kisses, chocolates. The artist Pietro Vanucci, commonly known as Perugino because he lived close to the city, is a well known resident as he became the teacher of Raphael.

The Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta in Orvieto, with
its handsome facade of marble, gold and mosaics

Travel tip:

Orvieto, where Ferri was a chorister at the beginning of his career, is a small city in Umbria, about 77 km south west of Perugia/ It was built on the top of a cliff and is surrounded by defensive walls that were erected by the Etruscans. Orvieto is said to have one of the finest cathedrals in Italy, the Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta, where Baldassare Ferri sang as a young chorister. It has a beautiful Romanesque Gothic façade, which was built of black and white marble and inlaid with gold and mosaics.

Also on this day:

1544: The death of poet Teofilo Folengo

1920: The birth of politician Carlo Azeglio Ciampi

1920: The birth of Bruno Ruffo, Italy's first motorcycling world champion

1946: The birth - near Vicenza - of Indian politician Sonia Gandhi


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Francesco I d’Este – Duke of Modena

Military leader left legacy of fine architecture

Diego Valásquez's portrait of Francesco I

Francesco I, Duke of Modena, who was to be immortalised in a bust by the sculptor, Bernini, was born on this day in 1610 in Modena in Emilia-Romagna.

He is remembered as a skilful military commander, who enriched Modena with the building of the Ducal Palace.

Francesco was the eldest son of Alfonso III d’Este and Isabella of Savoy and became Duke of Modena in 1629 after the death of his mother had prompted his grieving father to abdicate in order to take religious vows and become a Capuchin Friar in Merano.

During the next two years about 70 per cent of the inhabitants of Modena were killed by the plague.

The Duke’s father, now known as Fra’ Giambattista da Modena, tried to help the dying and went about preaching during the outbreak of plague, before retiring to a convent built by Francesco for him in Castelnuovo in Garfagnana.

After the outbreak of the Thirty Years War, Francesco sided with Spain and invaded the Duchy of Parma, but when he went to Spain to claim his reward he was able to acquire only Correggio, for a payment of 230,000 florins.

Francesco then sided with Venice, Florence and Parma against Pope Urban VIII and tried unsuccessfully to conquer Ferrara.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini's 1651 bust of Francesco I d'Este

Francesco had married Maria Caterina Farnese, but after she died in 1646, he married her sister, Vittoria, who died in 1649.

Modena then became the ally of France, through the intercession of Cardinal Mazarin, but Francesco later made an agreement with Spain because they seemed to be on the winning side in the Thirty Years War.

He married off his son and heir, Alfonso, to Laura Martinozzi, Mazarin’s niece.

Francesco’s third and final marriage was to Lucrezia Barberini, the daughter of Taddeo Barberini, who his troops had at one stage fought against during the Thirty Years War. He had 11 children in total and two of them, Alfonso and Rinaldo, later became Dukes of Modena.

He fought alongside France and Savoy in 1656, conquering Alessandria and Valenza. In 1658 he conquered Mortara, but he became ill with malaria and died in Santhia in Vercelli in the Piedmont region.

Francesco I is remembered for his good character and religious ideals and for improving and enriching Modena.

Balsamic vinegar is big
business in Modena

Travel tip:

Modena is a city on the south side of the Po Valley in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. It is known for its car industry, as Ferrari, De Tomaso, Lamborghini, Pagani and Maserati have all been located there. The city is also well known for producing balsamic vinegar. Operatic tenor Luciano Pavarotti and soprano Mirella Freni were both born in Modena.

The Ducal Palace is a dominant feature of the Modena skyline

Travel tip:

One of the main sights in Modena is the huge, baroque Ducal Palace, which was begun by Francesco I on the site of a former castle in 1635. His architect, Luigi Bartolomeo Avanzini, created a home for him that few European princes could match at the time. The palace is now home to the Italian national military academy. In the Galleria Estense, on the upper floor of the Palazzo dei Musei in Modena, the one-metre high bust of Francesco I d’Este, Duke of Modena, by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, still seems to be commanding the city.

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Mysterious death of Caravaggio

Experts divided over how brilliant artist met his end

Ottavio Leoni's portrait of Caravaggio

The death of the brilliant Renaissance artist Caravaggio is said to have occurred on this day in 1610 but the circumstances and even the location are disputed even today.

Official records at the time concluded that the artist died in the Tuscan coastal town of Porto Ercole, having contracted a fever, thought to have been malaria.

However, there is no record of a funeral having taken place, nor of a burial, and several alternative theories have been put forward as to what happened to him.

One, which came to light in 2010 on the 400th anniversary of the painter's death, is that Caravaggio's death was caused by lead poisoning, the supposition being that lead contained in the paint he used entered his body either through being accidentally ingested or by coming into contact with an open wound.

This was supported by research led by Silvano Vincenti, a prominent art historian and broadcaster, who claimed to have found evidence that Caravaggio had been buried at a cemetery in Porto Ercole that was built over in the 1950s.

Some remains were transferred to the municipal cemetery in Porto Ercole and among nine potential sets one was identified through DNA testing as having a 50-60 per cent chance of being Caravaggio. The bones contained toxic levels of lead, enough at least to have sent him mad.

Another theory, put forward in 2012 by Vincenzo Pacelli, a professor at the University of Naples, is that the artist, notorious for a quick temper and violent behaviour, was assassinated by the ancient order of the Knights of Malta with the connivance of the Vatican.

Professor Pacelli says documents from the Vatican Secret Archives suggest that the artist was murdered as an act of vengeance, following injuries inflicting by Caravaggio on a member of the order during a brawl in Malta.  He already had a death sentence on his head, issued by the Pope, after killing a man in a fight in Rome in 1606.

Caravaggio's The Crucifixion of St Peter

The Pacelli theory is that Caravaggio's body was thrown into the sea off Civitavecchia, north of Rome and some 70km south of Porto Ercole.  The professor cites another document, supposedly written by Caravaggio's doctor to record his death, in which the place name Civitavecchia is rubbed out and replaced with Porto Ercole, as well as an account of his death written in 1630 by an archivist who referred to it as an "assassination".

Caravaggio was born Michelangelo Merisi or Amerighi in Milan in 1571. It is thought his family moved to the town of Caravaggio, just south of Bergamo, because of an outbreak of plague in Milan soon after his birth.  He adopted the name of the town as part of his signature when he began painting, eventually becoming known simply as Caravaggio.

He returned to Milan to train under Simone Peterzano who had himself trained under Titian.  He went on to work in Rome, Naples, Malta and Sicily, where he was in demand to produce paintings for the many new churches and palaces that were being built.

His work became famous for his realistic observation of the physical and emotional state of human beings and for his dramatic use of light and shade, known as chiaroscuro, which gave his paintings a three-dimensional quality. This was a formative influence for the baroque school of painting.

Some of his major works, such as The Calling of St Matthew, The Crucifixion of St Peter and Deposition, can be found in churches in Rome, but his work is also well represented in the Uffizi gallery in Florence.

Caravaggio's David with the Head of Goliath
features Caravaggio's own face on the head

It is said that at the time of his death he had left Naples by boat for Rome, where he anticipated that his death sentence for the Rome murder would be lifted.  In his painting of David with the Head of Goliath, completed shortly before his death, David is depicted with a strangely sorrowful expression as he gazes on the severed head of the giant, on which Caravaggio painted his own face.  It has been suggested that the painting represented his plea for clemency.

Travel tip:

In addition to its connection with the artist, the town of Caravaggio is well worth visiting to see the Sanctuary of the Madonna di Caravaggio, which was built in the 16th century on the spot where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to a local peasant woman.  The Sanctuary was later rebuilt and completed in the 18th century and is now a grand building visited by pilgrims from all over the world.

Travel tip:

Porto Ercole is one of two small, picturesque towns on Monte Argentario, a unusual peninsula connected to the mainland by three narrow strips of land, situated on part of the Tuscan coastline known as the Maremma.  It is known for its chic restaurants and bustling nightlife.

More reading:

Lisa del Giocondo - the Florentine wife and mother Da Vinci turned into a global icon

Raphael - the precocious genius of the Renaissance

Giotto - brilliant painter who was the pioneer of realism in art

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