Showing posts with label Mantua. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mantua. Show all posts

29 February 2024

Alessandro Striggio - composer and diplomat

Medici musician who invented the madrigal comedy

The score of Striggio's best known work was missing for 281 years
The score of Striggio's best known
work was missing for 281 years
The Renaissance composer Alessandro Striggio, famous as the inventor of the madrigal comedy, once thought to be the forerunner of opera, died on this day in 1592 in Mantua (Mantova), the town of his birth.

Although there is no accurate record of his age, it is thought he was born in 1536 or 1537, which would have put him in his mid-50s at the time of his death. 

Striggio spent much of his career in the employment of the Medici family in Florence, for whom he also served as a diplomat, undertaking visits to Munich, Vienna and London among other places on their behalf. 

He produced his best work while working for the Medici, composing madrigals, dramatic music, and intermedi - musical interludes - to be played between acts in theatrical performances.

Striggio’s best known composition is his Il cicalamento delle donne al bucato e la caccia (The gossip of the women at the laundry),  an innovative piece that combined music and words to tell a story, without acting. This was an example of what became known as the madrigal comedy, comprising a series of 15 humorous madrigals that together tell a story in words and music.

Perhaps his greatest achievements, though, were his choral works, including his motet Ecce beatam lucem, a feat of polyphony that included 40 independent voices, and his still more impressive Mass, Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno, which also featured 40 different voice parts and a final movement for 60 voices, which is thought to be the only piece of 60-part counterpoint in the history of Western Music.

Cosimo I de' Medici sent Striggio on a diplomatic mission to Vienna
Cosimo I de' Medici sent Striggio on
a diplomatic mission to Vienna
Although Striggio was born into an aristocratic family in Mantua, there is only sparse knowledge of his early life there. He possibly moved to Florence in his late teens or early 20s. He started work for Cosimo I de' Medici, Duke of Florence, on 1 March 1559 as a musician, eventually to replace Francesco Corteccia as the principal musician to the Medici court.

In the 1560s, he visited Venice and produced two books of madrigals influenced by the musical styles he encountered there.

Music was central to the Medici’s use of Striggio in a diplomatic role. Cosimo I craved the title of Archduke or Grand Duke, which within the hierarchy of the Holy Roman Empire was a rank below Emperor but a notch above Duke and equivalent to a King.

He ordered Striggio to travel to Vienna in the winter of 1566-67, sending his principal musician on a perilous journey through the Brenner Pass in order to meet Emperor Maximilian II and present Cosimo’s case for the Medici to be granted a royal title.

Striggio’s grand opus, Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno, was to be part of the presentation, underlining Cosimo’s commitment to the Catholic faith. Striggio was also charged with convincing Maximilian II that the Medici could support him both financially and militarily.

Unfortunately, Striggio reached Vienna only to find he needed to journey a further 140km (87 miles) north to Brno, where Maximilian had removed himself for the winter months. He presented the Emperor with a copy of the Mass, although he had too few musicians or singers with him in Brno for the piece to be performed.

The English composer Thomas Tallis is said to have been inspired by Striggio
The English composer Thomas Tallis is
said to have been inspired by Striggio
Instead, as Striggio continued his travels, it was performed in full before the courts of Munich and Paris, to great acclaim, before Vienna.  The Medici were granted the right to be headed by a Grand Duke two years later but it took almost 10 years for it to be given approval by the Emperor, although Cosimo I went by the title from 1569 until his death in 1574.

Striggio went on to visit England, having much respect for the work of musicians in the royal court there. He is said to have met Queen Elizabeth I and the composer Thomas Tallis, who had served in the courts of four monarchs - Henry VIII, Edward VI and Mary I, as well as Elizabeth I - and is considered one of England’s greatest composers, particularly of choral music. His own 40-voice motet, Spem in alium, is thought to have been inspired by his meeting with Striggio.

Striggio returned to Florence, where he became friends with Vincenzo Galilei, the lutenist and composer whose son was the astronomer and scientist, Galileo Galilei.

During the 1580s, Striggio began an association with the Este court in Ferrara, which at the time was at the forefront of musical composition in Italy. In 1586, he moved back to his home city, Mantua, although he would continue to compose music for the Medici at least until 1589.

Although the idea of Striggio’s madrigal comedy being the forerunner of opera is no longer widely held, the composer has a connection with the roots of opera in that his son, also called Alessandro, wrote the libretto of Claudio Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, one of the earliest works to fit the conventional definition of an opera.

As a footnote, the score of Striggio’s Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno was declared lost in 1726 but was rediscovered in 2007 by a musicologist from the University of California, Berkeley in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, where it had resided for most of the intervening years, unnoticed because it had reportedly been recorded in an inventory of manuscripts as being a four-part Mass by a composer called Strusco.

The Ducal Palace is one of many highlights of the atmospheric city of Striggio's home city
The Ducal Palace is one of many highlights of
the atmospheric city of Striggio's home city
Travel tip:

Mantua is an atmospheric old city in Lombardy, to the southeast of Milan, famous for its Renaissance Palazzo Ducale, the seat of the Gonzaga family between 1328 and 1707. In the Renaissance heart of Mantua is Piazza Mantegna, where the 15th century Basilica of Sant’Andrea houses the tomb of the artist, Andrea Mantegna. The church was originally built to accommodate the large number of pilgrims who came to Mantua to see a precious relic, an ampoule containing what were believed to be drops of Christ’s blood mixed with earth. This was claimed to have been collected at the site of his crucifixion by a Roman soldier.  In nearby Piazze delle Erbe is the Chiesa di San Lorenzo, another masterpiece of Renaissance architecture. Its elegant facade and interior are adorned with beautiful artwork and sculptures.  In the same square, the Torre dell’Orologio Astronomico - the Astronomical Clock Tower - displays lunar cycles as well as the time. Installed in 1473, the clock has failed twice but was restored in 1989.

Hotels in Mantua by Booking.com

Palazzo Vecchio was at one time Cosimo I's home
Palazzo Vecchio was at
one time Cosimo I's home
Travel tip:

Florence’s imposing Palazzo Vecchio, formerly Palazzo della Signoria, a cubical building of four storeys made of solid rusticated stonework, crowned with projecting crenellated battlements and a clock tower rising to 94m (308ft), became home of Duke Cosimo I de' Medici moved his official seat from the Medici palazzo in via Larga in May 1540. When Cosimo later removed to Palazzo Pitti, he officially renamed his former palace the Palazzo Vecchio, the "Old Palace", although the adjacent town square, the Piazza della Signoria, still bears the original name. Cosimo commissioned the painter and architect Giorgio Vasari to build an above-ground walkway, the Vasari corridor, from the Palazzo Vecchio, through the Uffizi, over the Ponte Vecchio to the Palazzo Pitti. Cosimo I also moved the seat of government to the Uffizi, which translated literally, simply means ‘offices’. Today, of course, the Uffizi, is known the world over for its collection of art treasures.

Book your stay in Florence with Booking.com

More reading:

Gonzaga court violinist Salomone Rossi, the leading Jewish musician of the Renaissance

Cosimo II de' Medici, patron of Galileo

Claudio Monteverdi, the Baroque composer who wrote the first real opera

Also on this day

1792: The birth of composer Gioachino Rossini

(Picture credit: Palazzo Vecchio by Geobia via Wikimedia Commons)

(Paintings: Portrait of Cosimo I de' Medici, Bronzino, Art Gallery of New South Wales)



Home



2 February 2023

Vittorino da Feltre – humanist and educator

Teacher to the nobility provided free education for poor children

Vittorino da Feltre treated his  pupils as equal, wealthy or poor
Vittorino da Feltre treated his 
pupils as equal, wealthy or poor
A scholar considered to have been the greatest humanist schoolmaster of the Renaissance, Vittorino da Feltre, died on this day in 1446 in Mantua in the Lombardy region.

Da Feltre, who was originally named Vittore dei Ramboldini when he was born in Feltre in the republic of Venice in 1378, is thought to have established the first boarding school in Europe, a place of learning where the pupils enjoyed their lessons so much that it became known as La Casa Gioiosa - The House of Joy.

After studying and then teaching at the University of Padua, Da Feltre chose to settle in Padua and became a successful teacher, welcoming pupils into his own home, varying his fee according to the financial situation of the pupil’s family. He himself had come from a noble family that had become impoverished and his own early education had been difficult, but this had contributed to making him a strong and decisive character. He had also benefited from free tuition at the University of Padua.

In 1423, he was asked to become tutor to the children of the powerful Gonzaga family, who ruled over Mantua. He agreed to do this providing he could set up his own school away from the Gonzaga court and its political influence.

He also enrolled other children to be taught at the school along with the Gonzaga children, both noble and poor children, who were selected because of their ability. The poor children did not have to pay for their education and were taught on an equal footing with the children from wealthy families. He also educated girls and did not consider the female pupils to be inferior to the male pupils.

Palazzo Bo, the main building of the University of Padua
Palazzo Bo, the main building
of the University of Padua
Latin and Greek language and literature were at the centre of the curriculum of the school. The children were also taught arithmetic, geometry and music and did games and physical exercise, following the Greek ideal of development of the body as well as of the mind. The school was close to a lake and surrounded by beautiful countryside, which also contributed to the wellbeing of the pupils.

Da Feltre saw education as a pathway to living a Christian life and made his pupils feel loved and cared for in terms of their health and characters. He adapted his teaching methods to their individual abilities and needs and never used corporal punishment. Among his students were Federico da Montefeltro, who became Duke of Urbino, and Gregorio Correr, who became Patriarch of Venice.

One of the first modern educators to develop during the Renaissance, Da Feltre’s teaching methods were therefore innovative and many other schools in Europe were to adopt his educational model.

During his career, Da Feltre not only educated future Italian rulers and professional men but also taught Latin and Greek scholars who came to him from the east. This paved the way for the translation of the Greek manuscripts that were to inspire the Renaissance in Europe.

After Da Feltre’s death at the age of 68 in Mantua, Iacopo da San Cassiano, a humanist and mathematician who had been one of his pupils, took over the running of the school and inherited his library. Da Feltre was laid to rest in the Chiesa di Santo Spirito in Mantua.

Feltre School in Chicago, a private non-profit school, educates adults in English grammar, composition, public speaking, philosophy and the humanities. The name and philosophy of the school, which was founded in 1992, was inspired by the work of Vittorino da Feltre.

The town of Feltre, where Da Feltre was born, sits on a hill 20km from Belluno
The town of Feltre, where Da Feltre was
born, sits on a hill 20km from Belluno
Travel tip:

Feltre, where Vittorino da Feltre was born and from which he took his name, is a town in the province of Belluno in the Veneto. It is located 20 kilometres (12 miles) southwest of Belluno and there is a view of the Dolomites from the north of the town. The Cathedral, which was rebuilt during the Renaissance, has retained its 14th century campanile. It is flanked by a 15th century baptistery, which houses a precious, medieval baptismal font. There is an excavated archaeological area under the Cathedral revealing part of the Roman layout of the city. There is a statue of Vittorino in the main square, Piazza Maggiore.

The Palazzo Ducale was the seat of the Gonzaga family, rulers of Mantua
The Palazzo Ducale was the seat of the
Gonzaga family, rulers of Mantua
Travel tip:

Mantua, where Da Feltre worked, died and is buried, is an atmospheric ancient city in Lombardy, to the south east of Milan. It is famous for its Renaissance Palazzo Ducale, the seat of Da Feltre’s employers, the Gonzaga family, between 1328 and 1707. The palace is famous for its Camera degli Sposi, which is decorated with frescoes by Andrea Mantegna, depicting the life of Ludovico Gonzaga and his family. The beautiful backgrounds of imaginary cities and ruins are a reflection of Mantegna’s love of classical architecture.




Also on this day: 






19 May 2022

Pompeo Coppini - sculptor

Italian emigrant famous for Texas monument

Pompeo Coppini spent much of his career working in Texas
Pompeo Coppini spent much of his
career working in Texas
The sculptor Pompeo Coppini, best known for the Alamo Cenotaph in San Antonio, Texas, was born on this day in 1870 in Moglia, a village in Lombardy a few kilometres south of the city of Mantua.

Coppini emigrated to the United States at the age of 26 and after initially working in New York moved to Texas, where the majority of his work can be found.

The Alamo Cenotaph, also known as The Spirit of Sacrifice, consists of a 60ft high sloping shaft of grey Georgia marble resting on a base of pink Texas granite. Carved into the sides of the monument, erected near the scene of the siege of the Alamo Mission during the Texas Revolution in 1836, are images of the Alamo defenders including William B Travis, Jim Bowie, David Crockett and James Bonham, while the names of those who died at the Alamo were etched along the base.

It was commissioned to commemorate the centenary of the siege and took two years to complete. It is now the centrepiece of a square known as the Alamo Plaza.

The son of a musician, Pompeo moved with his family from Moglia to Florence in 1880 at the age of 10. His craft skills began to earn him an income at an early age through work with ceramics and miniature models of famous monuments.

Coppini's most famous work is the Alamo Cenotaph in San Antonio
Coppini's most famous work is the
Alamo Cenotaph in San Antonio 
At 16, he enrolled at the Accademia dell'Arte del Disegno in Florence, furthering his knowledge and technical skills under the Genovese sculptor Augusto Rivalta.

Upon graduating, he opened a small studio and continued to make items he could sell, including busts of local celebrities and cemetery monuments. 

Business was slow, however, and in 1896, Coppini followed the example set by others of his generation in deciding to move to the United States, specifically New York.

He arrived there, reportedly with nothing but a trunk full of clothes and $40 in cash, and found work sculpting figures for a wax museum before being commissioned to create a memorial to Francis Scott Key, best known for writing the lyrics for the American national anthem The Star-Spangled Banner.

A model hired to pose for Coppini’s memorial to Key, Elizabeth di Barbieri, ultimately became his wife.

His progress in New York was steady if not spectacular. Craving a base which would give him more chance to stand out, in 1901 he moved to Texas to work alongside the German-born sculptor Frank Teich. A year later he became an American citizen.

Apart from his most famous work, sculpted with the help of a $100,000 donation from the state of Texas, Coppini’s other creations in Texas include the Confederate Monument in Paris, Terry's Texas Rangers Monument and Hood's Texas Brigade Monument in Austin, the Littlefield Memorial Fountain, also in Austin, with which he worked with the French-born architect Paul Cret, and several statues at the Texas State Fair Hall of State in Dallas.

Coppini's Littlefield Memorial Fountain at the University of Texas in Austin
Coppini's Littlefield Memorial Fountain
at the University of Texas in Austin
Coppini sculpted three statues of George Washington, the founding father of the United States. The first, to commemorate the 1910 centennial of Mexican Independence, was installed in 1912 in the Plaza Dinamarca since renamed Plaza Washington, in Mexico City; the second, in Portland, Oregon, was created to commemorate the 1926 sesquicentennial of the Declaration of Independence; the third, commissioned by the Texas Society, Daughters of the American Revolution to commemorate the 1932 bicentennial of Washington's birth, stands on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin, although because of fund-raising problems it was not installed until February, 1955.

Coppini died in San Antonio in 1957, his body laid to rest in the city’s Sunset Memorial Park in a tomb he sculpted himself.

Travel tip:

Moglia, the village where Coppini was born, is situated a little over 30km (19 miles) south of Mantua in Lombardy. With a population of more than 5,000 today, it has grown to about five times its size in the last 150 years. A feature is a marble monument by Coppini to the Martyrs of War, finished in 1951 and sited in front of the village’s primary school. Moglia was hit badly in the 2012 earthquake that hit the area, with the Town Hall, the parish church and several other buildings in the historic centre suffering severe damage, along with many private residences.

The Palazzo Ducale in Mantua was the home for   four centuries of the Gonzaga family
The Palazzo Ducale in Mantua was the home for  
four centuries of the Gonzaga family 
Travel tip:

Mantua is an atmospheric old city in Lombardy, to the southeast of Milan. In the Renaissance heart of the city is Piazza Mantegna, where the 15th century Basilica of Sant’Andrea houses the tomb of the artist, Andrea Mantegna. The church was originally built to accommodate the large number of pilgrims who came to Mantua to see a precious relic, an ampoule containing what were believed to be drops of Christ’s blood mixed with earth. This was claimed to have been collected at the site of his crucifixion by a Roman soldier.  Mantua is famous for its Renaissance Palazzo Ducale, the seat of the Gonzaga family between 1328 and 1707, in which the Camera degli Sposi is decorated with frescoes by Mantegna, depicting the life of Eleonora’s ancestor, Ludovico Gonzaga and his family in the 15th century. 

Also on this day:

1860: The birth of politician Vittorio Orlando

1946: The birth of actor and director Michele Placido

1979: The birth of footballer Andrea Pirlo


Home


5 November 2019

Attilio Ariosti – composer

Musical friar was once a rival of Handel


Anthoni Schoonjans's portrait of Ariosti hangs in Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin
Anthoni Schoonjans's portrait of Ariosti
hangs in Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin
Baroque composer Attilio Malachia Ariosti, who in later life became a rival of Handel in London musical circles, was born on this day in 1666 in Bologna.

He became a Servite Friar, known as Frate Ottavio, when he was 22, but he quickly obtained permission to leave the order and become a composer at the court of the Duke of Mantua and Monferrato.

During his life, Ariosti composed more than 30 operas and oratorios as well as many cantatas and instrumental works.

Ariosti became a Deacon in 1692 and then obtained the post of organist at the Church of Santa Maria dei Servi in Bologna.

His first opera, Tirsi, was performed in Venice in 1697 and that same year he was invited to travel to Berlin by Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, the Queen of Prussia. She was a great-granddaughter of James I of England and the daughter of the Electress Sophia of Hanover, a committed patron of the arts with a keen interest in music.

The Electress Sophia had been heir presumptive to the throne of the Kingdom of Great Britain and was waiting for the death of her first cousin once removed, Queen Anne, before travelling to Britain to claim her title.

Ariosti shared the directorship of the Royal Academy of Music in London with his rival Handel (above)
Ariosti shared the directorship of the Royal Academy
of Music in London with his rival Handel (above)
But she died herself less than two month before she would have succeeded to the British throne and her eldest son, George Louis, Elector of Hanover, became King on the death of Queen Anne, ascending to the throne as George I on 1 August 1714.

While enjoying the hospitality of Queen Sophia Charlotte, Ariosti wrote the music for a number of stage works performed for the court in Berlin. He was court composer there for six years and a portrait of him by Anthoni Schoonjans still hangs in the Charlottenburg Palace.

When Ariosti was returning to his religious order, he stopped off in Vienna along the way, where he became a protégé of the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I, who made the composer his General Agent in Italy.

Ariosti later went on to enjoy success in Paris and London. While in London he shared the directorship of the Royal Academy of Music with George Frideric Handel and Giovanni Bononcini. He was a great success when he played his favourite instrument, the viola d’amore, in a performance of Handel’s Amadigi di Gaula.

The viola d’amore is an alto instrument of the old viol family with special strings under the fingerboard and it has a delicate, mysterious sound. It was developed around the middle of the 17th century and was particularly popular in England.

Ariosti was a versatile musician and could  also sing and write drama
Ariosti was a versatile musician and could
also sing and write drama
Ariosti became a virtuoso on this instrument and in 1724 he published A Collection of Cantatas and Lessons for the Viola d’Amour, which he sold by subscription. This publication is thought to have been the most successful sale of music by subscription during the 18th century.

Ariosti could also sing, write drama and play the violoncello and the harpsichord. But his preferred instrument was always the viola d’amore, for which he wrote 21 solo sonatas. These are usually known as the Stockholm Sonatas because the sole surviving sources for most of them are in the Statens Musikbibliotek in Stockholm in Sweden.

Experts say the Sonatas display Ariosti’s penchant for surprising harmonies, his inventive use of silence and his wit.

Ariosti’s last opera, Teuzzone, was performed in London in 1727.

There was a time when Ariosti was in competition with Handel to be the most successful composer, but his popularity did not last as long as the German’s and he eventually disappeared from the musical scene. It is not known with any certainty whether he was still in London when he died in around 1729.

A view of the Mantegna frescoes in the Camera degli Sposi in the Palazzo Ducale in Mantua
A view of the Mantegna frescoes in the Camera degli
Sposi in the Palazzo Ducale in Mantua
Travel tip:

Ariosti served as court composer to Ferdinando Carlo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua and Monferrato.  A lover of music, Ferdinando Carlo was the last Gonzaga to rule the Duchy. Mantua is an atmospheric old city, to the southeast of Milan, famous for its Renaissance Palazzo Ducale, where Ariosti would have lived. The Palazzo in Piazza Sordello has a famous room, the Camera degli Sposi, which is decorated with frescoes by Andrea Mantegna.  Musical performances took place in the Galleria degli Specchi, which has the dimensions to accommodate a stage and orchestra and has space for a small audience.

The portico and facade of the Basilica di Santa Maria dei Servi on Strada Maggiore in Bologna
The portico and facade of the Basilica di Santa Maria
dei Servi on Strada Maggiore in Bologna
Travel tip:

The Basilica di Santa Maria dei Servi, where Ariosti was once the organist, is in Strada Maggiore, one of the most important streets in Bologna. The church was founded in 1346 for the Servite Community of the Blessed Virgin Mary and was designed by Andrea da Faenza, a head friar who was also an architect. It is considered a fine example of Italian Gothic architecture.

Also on this day:

1702: The birth of painter Pietro Longhi

1754: The birth of explorer Alessandro Malaspina

1777: The birth of dancer and choreographer Filippo Taglioni

1898: The birth of Francesco Chiarello, survivor of two world wars



Home

9 September 2019

Francesco Carrozzini - director and photographer

Famous for portraits of wealthy and famous


Francesco Carrozzini has photographed many celebrities from the world of movies, music and the arts
Francesco Carrozzini has photographed many celebrities
from the world of movies, music and the arts
The American-based director and photographer Francesco Carrozzini was born on this day in 1982 in Monza, Italy.

The son of the late former editor-in-chief of the Italian edition of Vogue magazine, Franca Sozzani, Carrozzini has directed many music videos and documentary films and a small number of feature-length movies, including one about the life of his mother.

In photography, he has become best known for his portraits of the rich and famous, including actors such as Robert De Niro and Cate Blanchett, models including Naomi Campbell and Linda Evangelista, musicians such as Lana Del Ray and Kanye West, and artists including Jeff Koons and Andres Serrano.

Carrozzini has also photographed a number of political leaders, including the former British prime minister Tony Blair, ex-Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg and former United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

He is a founder of the Franca Sozzani Fund for Preventive Genomics, which he helped create following the death of his mother at the age of 66 from a rare form of cancer.

Carrozzini's mother was the fashion magazine editor Franca Sozzani
Carrozzini's mother was the fashion
magazine editor Franca Sozzani
Franca Sozzani’s prominence in the fashion and magazine industry meant that Carrozzini grew up in a house he described as being filled with creative energy. Sozzani gave her photographers a level of creative freedom that at the time was almost unique to Vogue Italia and, influenced by their work, Carrozzini began taking pictures and making short films in his early teens.

In 1999, he moved to the United States to study film at the University of California in Los Angeles before returning to Italy to study philosophy at the University of Milan. 

He embarked on his first commercial assignment, directing a 30-second video promoting Italian MTV, at the age of 19.

Indeed, film became his preoccupation from his early 20s, when his work ranged from a promotional film for the Venice Biennale and a documentary about a Polish theatre group to a short thriller set in New York’s reputedly haunted Chelsea Hotel on West 23rd Street.

Soon, he became sought after by commercial clients such as Apple Music, Fiat, Tommy Hilfiger and Ray Ban, and musicians such as Beyoncé, Jay-Z, and Lenny Kravitz, for whom he directed music videos.  He has been based in New York since 2004.

Carrozzini began working on his film about his mother in 2010. The project was a documentary focusing on her life and legacy, highlighting the accomplishments of Sozzani's career while also exploring his relationship with her.

Carrozzini's portrait of the actor Robert De Niro
Carrozzini's portrait of the actor Robert De Niro
The film, entitled Franca: Chaos and Creation, took him around six years to finish. It premiered at the Venice International Film Festival in September 2016, just three months before she died, following a long period undergoing treatment for her cancer.

In March 2017, the film was honored with a Nastro d'Argento presented by the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists.

After his mother’s death, from a form of cancer that might have been prevented with earlier medical surveillance, Corrazzini joined Harvard geneticist Robert C Green and private investors in launching the Franca Sozzani Fund for Preventive Genomics in the hope of improving the reach of preventive genomics, which uses genetic sequencing to predict disease.

Carrozzini is married to Bee Shaffer, the daughter of Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour and child psychiatrist David Shaffer.

The grand Villa Reale in Monza, built in the late 18th  century for Archduke Ferdinand of Austria
The grand Villa Reale in Monza, built in the late 18th
century for Archduke Ferdinand of Austria
Travel tip:

Monza, a city of just under 125,000 inhabitants about 20km (12 miles) northeast of Milan, is best known for its international motor racing circuit, the home of the Formula One Italian Grand Prix. Yet the city itself is well worth visiting in its own right, one of the highlights being the 13th century Basilica of San Giovanni Battista, often known as Monza Cathedral, which contains the famous Corona Ferrea or Iron Crown, bearing precious stones.  According to tradition, the crown was found on Jesus's Cross.  Note also the Villa Reale, built in the neoclassical style by Giuseppe Piermarini at the end of the 18th Century, which has a sumptuous interior and a court theatre.

Part of the ceiling of the Camera degli Sposa in Mantua's Palazzo Ducale, decorated by Andrea Mantegna
Part of the ceiling of the Camera degli Sposa in Mantua's
Palazzo Ducale, decorated by Andrea Mantegna
Travel tip:

Carrozzini’s mother, Franca Sozzani, came from Mantua, an atmospheric old city in Lombardy, about 180km (112 miles) to the southeast of Milan, surrounded on three sides by a broad stretch of the Mincio river, which has always limited its growth, making it an easy place for tourists to look round. At the Renaissance heart of the city is Piazza Mantegna, where the 15th century Basilica of Sant’Andrea houses the tomb of the artist, Andrea Mantegna.  Mantua’s Palazzo Ducale, the seat of the Gonzaga family between 1328 and 1707, contains some of the finest examples of Mantegna’s frescoes in the Camera degli Sposi.

More reading:

How Franca Sozzani changed the world of fashion publishing

Mimmo Jodice: Photography meets metaphysical art

The girl who inherited the Versace fashion empire

Also on this day:

1908: The birth of writer and translator Cesare Pavese

1918: The birth of Italy's ninth president, Oscar Luigi Scalfaro

1943: Allied troops land at Salerno on the Italian mainland


Home

22 July 2019

Gorni Kramer - jazz musician

Multi-talented composer of more than 1,000 songs


Gorni Kramer was a popular performer for many decades
Gorni Kramer was a popular performer
for many decades
The songwriter, musician and band leader Gorni Kramer was born on this day in 1913 in the village of Rivarolo Mantovano, near Mantua.

An accomplished accordion and double bass player, Kramer later became a record producer, arranger and television writer.  His embrace of the jazz and swing genres developed in spite of them banned from being played on Italian state radio during the Fascist era.

He was a prolific composer thought to have written more than 1,000 songs during a career that spanned 60 years.

Kramer’s non-Italian sounding name led to a popular misconception that he was born in another country, yet it was his real name - reversed.

He was born Francesco Kramer Gorni, so named because his father was a fan of the American cycling world champion Frank Kramer.

It was from his father that Gorni inherited his passion for music, having played the accordion in his father’s band.

Gorni studied double bass at the Conservatory in Parma and obtained his diploma in 1930. He began to work as a musician for dance bands, then in 1933, aged 20, formed his own jazz group.

Kramer (centre) with the comedy duo Garinei &
Giovanni, with whom they worked for many years
Despite the American genre being forbidden to be played on state radio by the Fascist party, Gorni developed a knowledge through mixing with musicians who worked on the liners connecting Europe and North America.

In the mid-1930s, by which time he was using Kramer as his professional name, his career as a songwriter took off. He composed the music for Alberto Rabagliati’s 1936 hit Crapa pelada, and in 1939 he wrote Pippo non lo sa, one of Trio Lescano's most famous songs.

During World War II, he wrote  he worked with Natalino Otto, a singer also banned by the state radio station EIAR because of swing. Gorni wrote Ho un sassolino nella scarpa, one of Otto's greatest hits.

It was around the same time that he began a collaboration with Franco Cerri and the Quartetto Cetra.

In 1949 he met humorist duo Garinei e Giovanni and began to compose for their worldwide stage performances.  This was his main activity for the next ten years.

Gorni made his television debut in 1957 on Il Musichiere, a music show hosted by Mario Riva. He composed the show's theme song Domenica è sempre domenica. Other shows followed, such as Buone vacanze, Giardino d'inverno, L'amico del giaguaro and Leggerissimo.

By the mid-60s, he had gradually reduced his public performances, but he continued to work as a music publisher and a TV author.  He died of a heart attack, in Milan in 1995. He was survived by his daughters Teresa and Laura.

One of the three gateways into the  historic village of Rivarolo Mantovano
One of the three gateways into the
historic village of Rivarolo Mantovano
Travel tip:

Rivarolo Mantovano, Gorni Kramer’s birthplace, is an historic  village in Lombardy in the province of Mantua, the city of Mantua being some 30km (19 miles) to the northwest. It was known as Rivarolo di Fuori until 1907.  The village with a squared plan and perpendicular roads as established by duke Vespasiano I Gonzaga in the late 16th century.  The perimeter walls, interrupted by three gates, enclose the entire village in a rectangular shape. Along the village streets it is rare to find buildings that stand out from the others, with the exception of the main square, once called Piazza Grande (now Piazza Finzi), around which most of the important buildings are clustered.

The Conservatory of Parma was named after Arrigo Boito, who was the author of several libretti for Verdi operas
The Conservatory of Parma was named after Arrigo Boito,
who was the author of several libretti for Verdi operas
Travel tip:

Parma, where Gorni Kramer attended the Conservatory, is an historic city in the Emilia-Romagna region, famous for its Prosciutto di Parma ham and Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, the true ‘parmesan’. In 1545 the city was given as a duchy to the illegitimate son of Pope Paul III, whose descendants ruled Parma till 1731. The composer, Verdi, was born near Parma at Bussetto and the city has a prestigious opera house, the Teatro Regio. The Conservatory, named in honour of Arrigo Boito, who wrote the libretti for many of Verdi’s operas, is on Strada Conservatorio.

More reading:

Pippo Barzizza, pioneer of Italian jazz and swing

The short life of 50s jazz club sensation Fred Buscaglione

Renato Carosone, writer of classic Italian songs

Also on this day:

1559: The birth of St Lawrence of Brindisi

1943: Palermo falls to the Allies

2001: The death of the great 20th century journalist Indro Montanelli


Home

1 July 2019

Clara Gonzaga – noblewoman

Countess from Mantua founded European dynasties


Clara Gonzaga's marriage began a dynasty of European royalty
Clara Gonzaga's marriage began a dynasty
of European royalty
Clara (Chiara) Gonzaga, the eldest daughter of Federico I Gonzaga and Margaret of Bavaria, was born on this day in 1464 in Mantua.

One of her six children became Charles III, Duke of Bourbon and led the imperial army sent by Emperor Charles V against Pope Clement VII in what was to become the Sack of Rome in 1527.

Clara was also to feature as one of the characters in The Heptameron, a collection of 72 short stories written in French by the sister of King Francis I of France, Marguerite of Angouleme, who had been inspired by Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron.

Clara had five siblings, including Francesco II Gonzaga, who married Isabella d’Este.

She was married at the age of 17 to Gilbert of Bourbon Montpensier. Four years later he succeeded his father as Count of Montpensier and Dauphin of Auvergne.

Clara and Gilbert had six children, but when she was just 32, Gilbert, who had also become Viceroy of Naples and the Duke of Sessa, died of a fever while in Pozzuoli near Naples, leaving her a widow.

Cesare Borgia was a  threat to Mantua
Cesare Borgia was a
threat to Mantua
Three years later, Clara acted as a mediator on behalf of her brother Francesco, who was trying to form an alliance with King Louis XII of France in order to protect Mantua, which was being threatened by both Cesare Borgia and the Doge of Venice.

Clara died in 1503, just before her 39th birthday and was buried at the Chapelle Saint Louis in the Church of Aigueperse in Auvergne.

Among her many descendants are King Louis XIV of France, Queen Marie Antoinette of France and Franz Josef I of Austria, the longest reigning Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary. Through the Houses of Hanover, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Windsor, Clara is also an ancestor of Queen Elizabeth II of England.

Mantua is an atmospheric city with a lakeside setting
Mantua is an atmospheric city with a lakeside setting
Travel tip:

Mantua is an atmospheric old city in Lombardy, 155km (96 miles) to the southeast of Milan, famous for its Renaissance Palazzo Ducale, the seat of the Gonzaga family between 1328 and 1707. The Camera degli Sposi is decorated with frescoes by Andrea Mantegna, depicting the life of Ludovico III Gonzaga, Clara’s grandfather, and members of his family. The beautiful backgrounds of imaginary cities and ruins reflect Mantegna’s love of classical architecture.

Sulphuric smoke rises from the ground at Solfatara
Sulphuric smoke rises from
the ground at Solfatara
Travel tip:

Pozzuoli, where Clara’s husband Gilbert died in 1496, a year after becoming Viceroy of Naples, is a municipality in the Metropolitan City of Naples in the region of Campania, lying in the centre of an area of volcanic activity known as the Campi Flegrei (Phlegraean Fields). Plumes of pungent sulphuric smoke can be seen emerging from the ground at nearby Solfatara. In the 1980s the city experienced hundreds of tremors and the sea bottom was raised by almost two metres, making the Bay of Pozzuoli too shallow for small craft. The volcanic sand found in the area provided the basis for the first example of concrete in construction.

More reading:

Isabella d'Este, 'first lady of the world'

Cesare Borgia: From Cardinal to military leader

Why the election of Pope Clement VII caused a split in the Catholic Church

Also on this day:

1586: The birth of composer Claudio Saracini

1878: The birth of romanticised career burglar Gino Meneghetti

1888: The birth of abstract painter Alberto Magnelli


Home

13 February 2019

Isabella d’Este – Marchioness of Mantua

‘The First Lady of the world’


Titian's portrait of Isabella d'Este, housed at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Titian's portrait of Isabella d'Este, housed
at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Isabella d’Este, who was a leading cultural and political figure during the Renaissance, died on this day in 1539 in Mantua.

She had been a patron of the arts, a leader of fashion, a politically astute ruler and a diplomat. Such was her influence that she was once described as ‘the First Lady of the world’.

Her life is documented by her correspondence, which is still archived in Mantua. She received about 28,000 letters and wrote about 12,000. More than 2000 of her letters have survived.

Isabella grew up in a cultured family in the city of Ferrara. Her father was Ercole I d’Este, Duke of Ferrara, and her mother was Eleanor of Naples.

She received a classical education and had opportunities to meet famous scholars and artists. She was reputed to have frequently discussed the classics and affairs of state with ambassadors who came to the court.

When Isabella was just six years old she was betrothed to Francesco, the heir to the Marquess of Mantua.

At the age of 15 she married him by proxy. He had succeeded his father and become Francesco II and she became his Marchioness.

A charcoal sketch of Isabella by Leonardo for a portrait that was never completed
A charcoal sketch of Isabella by Leonardo for
a portrait that was never completed
In 1493 Isabella gave birth to a daughter, Eleonora, the first of her eight children.

About 12 years into her marriage, Lucrezia Borgia, who had married Isabella’s brother, Alfonso, became the mistress of Isabella’s husband, Francesco, yet Isabella continued to bear Francesco’s children throughout their long affair.

After Francesco was captured during battle in 1509 and held hostage in Venice, Isabella took control of Mantua’s forces and held off the invaders until his release in 1512.

She was hostess at the Congress of Mantua, held to settle questions concerning Florence and Milan. Francesco was said to have been humiliated by his wife’s superior political ability and their marriage broke down.

After Francesco's death, Isabella ruled Mantua as regent for her son, Federico II. She played a part in getting Mantua promoted to a Duchy, had another son, Ercole, made a Cardinal and negotiated skilfully with Cesare Borgia.

Many of the famous artists of the time worked for her, most notably Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, Leonardo da Vinci, Andrea Mantegna, Raphael, Titian and Michelangelo.

She was in contact with many writers, including Ludovico Ariosto, Pietro Bembo and Baldassare Castiglione. She sponsored musicians and employed woman as professional singers at her court.

As a ruler, Isabella followed the principles of Machiavelli
As a ruler, Isabella followed the
principles of Machiavelli
Isabella’s style of dressing, wearing caps and displaying plunging décolletage, was imitated throughout Italy and at the French court.

She worked hard as a devoted head of state following the principles in Niccolò Machiavelli’s book, The Prince, and was respected by the people of Mantua.

In retirement, she made Mantua a centre for culture, started a school for girls and turned her apartments into a museum containing the finest art treasures.

When she was in her mid-sixties she returned to political life and ruled Solarolo in the Romagna until her death at the age of 64.

She was buried with her husband, Francesco II, in the Gonzaga Pantheon in the Church of Santa Paola in Mantua.

Pietro Bembo once described Isabella as ‘one of the wisest and most fortunate of women,’ while diplomat Niccolò da Correggio called her ‘The First Lady of the World.’

The home of the State Archives of Mantua, where Isabella's surviving letters are preserved in digital format
The home of the State Archives of Mantua, where Isabella's
surviving letters are preserved in digital format
Travel tip:

It is possible to view Isabella d’Este’s letters, which are preserved in digital format, at the Archivio di Stato di Mantova in Via Robertó Ardigo, Mantua. The building, previously a Jesuit convent, also houses the Gonzaga archive, which is one of the most complete archives belonging to a family that has governed in the modern age, and the Castiglioni archive acquired by the descendants of Baldassare Castiglione, including parchments, maps, drawings and documentation of the noble Mantuan family from the 13th to the 20th century. For more information on the Isabella d’Este Archive visit www.archiviodistatomantova.beniculturali.it.

Stay in Mantua with Booking.com

The Church of Santa Paola in Mantua. where Isabella and Francesco are buried in the Gonzaga Pantheon
The Church of Santa Paola in Mantua. where Isabella and
Francesco are buried in the Gonzaga Pantheon
Travel tip:

The 14th century Church of Santa Paola in Mantua, where Isabella d’Este was buried is in Piazza Quazza Romolo. The church and adjoining monastery were built according to the wishes of Paola Malatesta, wife of Gianfresco Gonzaga, to accommodate a group of Poor Clares. Isabella and Francesco’s daughter, Livia, who became prioress there, commissioned frescoes for the interior after her mother’s burial. Giulio Romano later painted scenes for the funeral of Isabella’s son, Federico II, of which some traces remain.

More reading:

Machiavelli's premise that 'the ends justify the means'

Lucrezia Borgia - the notorious beauty who inspired poets and painters

Titian, the giant of Renaissance art

Also on this day:

1571: The death of the sculptor and goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini

1816: Fire destroys the Teatro di San Carlo opera house in Naples

1912: The birth of poet Antonia Pozzi

1960: The birth of football referee Pierluigi Collina

(Picture credits: State Archives building and Church of Santa Paolo by FranzK via Wikimedia Commons)

(Paintings: Da Vinci's sketch of Isabella is in The Louvre in Paris; Santi di Tito's portrait of Machiavelli, Palazzo Vecchio collection, Florence)

9 December 2018

Teofilo Folengo – poet

Style of writer’s verses took its name from the dumpling


A portrait of Teofilo Folengo by Girolamo Romanino, owned by the Uffizi museum in Florence
A portrait of Teofilo Folengo by Girolamo Romanino,
owned by the Uffizi museum in Florence
Teofilo Folengo, who is remembered as one of the principal Italian ‘macaronic’ poets, died on this day in 1544 in the monastery of Santa Croce in Campese, a district of Bassano del Grappa in the Veneto.

Folengo published, under the pseudonym Merlin Cocaio, a macaronic narrative poem entitled Baldo, which was a humorous send up of ancient epic and Renaissance chivalric romance.

Writing in verse that mixed vernacular language with Latin became known as macaronic verse, the word deriving from the Latin macaronicus and the Italian maccarone, which meant dumpling, fare mixed crudely from different ingredients that at the time was regarded as a coarse, peasant food. It is presumed to be the origin of the modern Italian word maccheroni.

Folengo was a runaway Benedictine monk who satirised the monastic life using an invented, comic language that blended Latin with various Italian dialects.

Born Girolamo Folengo in 1491 in Cipada, a village near Mantua, he entered the Benedictine order as a young man taking the name Teofilo. He lived in monasteries in Brescia, Mantua and Padua, where he produced Latin verse written in the Virgilian style.

The cover of a book of macaronic verse by Folengo under his pseudonym
The cover of a book of macaronic verse
by Folengo under his pseudonym 
But he left the order to travel around the country with a young woman, Girolama Dieda. They often experienced great poverty as Folengo had no money apart from what he earned through writing.

For a few years he lived as a hermit near Sorrento, but he was readmitted to the Benedictine order in 1534 and remained in it, continuing to write, until his death.

Out of all his poetry, Baldo is considered to be his masterpiece and it has been republished five times. Full of satire and humour it describes the adventures of Baldo, who is supposed to be a descendant of the cousin of the medieval epic hero Roland. Baldo suffers imprisonment, battles with authority, pirates, witches and demons, and goes on a journey to the underworld.

The poem blended Latin with various Italian dialects in hexameter verse. The first English version, translated by Ann Mullaney, was published in 2007.

The term macaronic is still used to describe literature where the mixing of languages has a humorous or satirical effect. It is believed to have originated in Padua in the late 15th century, after the comic poem, Macaronea, by Tifi Odasi was published in about 1488, satirising the broken Latin used by doctors and officials to communicate with ordinary people.

Folengo once described his own verses as ‘a gross, rude and rustic mixture of flour, cheese and butter.’

Many modern Italian authors, including Umberto Eco and Dario Fo, have continued to use macaronic text.

The Palazzo Ducale in Mantua was the seat of the Gonzagas
The Palazzo Ducale in Mantua was the seat of the Gonzagas
Travel tip:

Cipada near Mantua, where Teofilo Folengo was born, was a village on the banks of a lake, but it no longer exists, having become part of the industrial area of Mantua. A main street, Strada Cipata, is the only reference to it that remains. On the other side of the lake is the historic area of Mantua, where the Palazzo Ducale, the seat of the Gonzaga family between 1328 and 1707, can be found.



The former monastery of Santa Croce in Campese, where Folengo died
The former monastery of Santa Croce
in Campese, where Folengo died
Travel tip:

The monastery of Santa Croce, where Teofilo Folengo died, is in Via IV Novembre in Campese, a district of Bassano del Grappa on the banks of the Brenta Canal. The monastery dates back to 1124 and for centuries was the most important religious centre in the area around the Brenta. There is a monument to Teofilo Folengo in the monastery, which is now used as a church. Close by is a square named after the poet, Piazza Teofilo Folengo.


More reading:

Giosuè Carducci - the poet who became the first Italian to win a Nobel Prize in literature

Why Torquato Tasso is known as Italy's greatest Renaissance poet

How Dario Fo's work denounced crime, corruption and racism

Also on this day:

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


Home