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Antonio da Sangallo the Younger - architect
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Talented Florentine was commissioned by the Popes
Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, who left his mark on Rome during the Renaissance, died on this day in 1546 in Terni in Umbria. Sangallo was the chief architect on St Peter’s Basilica from 1520 onwards and built many other beautiful churches and palaces in the city and throughout the Papal States. He was born Antonio Cordiani in Florence in 1484. His grandfather had been a woodworker and his uncles, Giuliano and Antonio da Sangallo, were architects. The young man followed his uncles to Rome to pursue a career in architecture and took the name Sangallo himself. He became an assistant to Donato Bramante, for whom he prepared sketches. Recognising his talent, Bramante gave Sangallo projects to complete with no more than an outline of the design and motifs. Sangallo’s first major commission was for the Church of Santa Maria di Loreto in 1507. Read more…
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Francesco Ferruccio - military leader
Florentine soldier celebrated in Italy’s national anthem
Francesco Ferruccio, the military leader whose heroic attempt to defend Florence against the powerful army of the Holy Roman Empire is recalled in Italy’s national anthem, died on the battlefield on this day in 1530. A Florentine by birth, Ferruccio had been charged with leading the army of the Republic of Florence as the city came under attack during the War of the League of Cognac, when the Pope Clement VII connived with the emperor Charles V to overthrow the republic and restore power in Florence to his own family, the Medici. Despite being outnumbered, Ferruccio’s soldiers engaged the Imperial forces at Gavinana, just outside Florence, killed their leader and drove them back, only for the enemy to be reinforced by the arrival of 2,000 German mercenaries under the leadership of the condottiero, Fabrizio Maramaldo. Read more...
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Omero Antonutti - actor and voice dubber
Narrator of Oscar-winning Life is Beautiful had long career
The actor Omero Antonutti, who acted in around 60 films and was the Italian voice of many international stars, was born on this day in 1935 in Basiliano, a village about 13km (eight miles) west of the city of Udine in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of northeast Italy. His most acclaimed performance came in Padre padrone, a 1977 film directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, a Palme d’Or winner at Cannes that was considered by many critics to be the co-directing brothers’ finest work. Antonutti worked with the Taviani brothers again on La notte di San Lorenzo (1982), which won the Grand Prix du Jury at Cannes, and Kaos (1984), in which he took the part of the playwright Luigi Pirandello in a film based on some of Pirandello’s own short stories. He was often asked to portray significant figures in dramatisations of real-life events. Read more…
La Scala - opera and ballet theatre
First night at the world’s most famous opera house
Milan’s Teatro alla Scala was officially inaugurated on this day in 1778. Known to Italians simply as La Scala, the theatre has become the leading opera house in the world and many famous artists have appeared there. A fire had destroyed the Teatro Regio Ducale, which had previously been the home of opera in Milan. A group of 90 wealthy patrons, the owners of private boxes in the theatre, wrote to Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Este asking that a new theatre be built. The new theatre was built on the site of the former Church of Santa Maria alla Scala, which is how the theatre got its name. The church was deconsecrated and demolished to make way for the theatre. With the cost of the project met by the 90 patrons, who paid in advance for boxes, the new theatre was designed by neoclassical architect Giuseppe Piermarini and officially opened on August 3, 1778. Read more…
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Imperia Cognati - courtesan
Prostitute who became a celebrity
Imperia Cognati, who acquired celebrity status in Rome in the early 16th century as a courtesan to a number of rich and powerful figures, was born on this day in 1486. Courtesans were originally the female companions of courtiers of the papal court, whose duties required them to be educated and familiar with etiquette, so that they could participate in the formalities of court life and in polite conversation. In time, however, in some cases their companionship became more intimate and they became the mistresses of their courtiers, who in the papal court were clerics not permitted to marry. Courtesans were often the companions of several clients. They were in effect a new class of prostitute, refined and educated enough to hold their own in polite society. Cognati was the companion of Agostino Chigi, a Sienese banker closely associated with Pope Alexander VI. Read more…
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Book of the Day: The Making of St. Peter's Basilica and The Transformation of Rome, by Francesco Bonavita
Francesco Bonavita, a native of Rome, is a distinguished scholar and educator with a deep background in the Italian Renaissance, particularly the Mannerist movement in art. He has written numerous works on Italian culture and second language pedagogy.
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