14 October

Palma Giovane - painter

Mannerist took the mantle of Tintoretto 

The Venetian artist Jacopo Negretti, best known as Jacopo Palma il Giovane - Palma the Younger - or simply Palma Giovane, died in Venice on this day in 1628.  Essentially a painter of the Italian Mannerist school, Palma Giovane's style evolved over time and after the death of Tintoretto in 1594 he became the most revered artist in Venice.  He became in demand beyond Venice, too, particularly in Bergamo, the city in Lombardy that was a dominion of Venice, and in central Europe.  He received many commissions in Bergamo and was often employed in Prague by the Habsburg Emperor, Rudolph II, a noted art connoisseur.  Palma had been born into a family of painters. His great uncle, also called Jacopo, was the painter Palma Vecchio - Palma the Elder - while his father, Antonio Negretti, was a pupil of the elder Palma’s workshop manager, Bonifacio Veronese.  Read more…

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Learco Guerra - racing cyclist

“Human Locomotive” set record for most wins in one season

The racing cyclist Learco Guerra, who won the Giro d'Italia in 1934 and was world champion in 1931, was born on this day in 1902 in San Nicolò Po, a hamlet on the banks of the Po river in Lombardy, about 15km (9 miles) south of Mantua. He gained the nickname of "Human Locomotive" by the editor of Gazzetta dello Sport, organisers of the Giro d’Italia, for his ability to maintain high speeds over long periods.  Guerra’s single Giro d’Italia victory came in a year when he won 18 races, including 10 stages of the Giro d’Italia, the Giro di Lombardia and four rounds of the national championships. It was a record by an individual rider in a single season that would stand until the 1970s.  His fame was exploited by the Fascist government, which profited from his heroic status. Benito Mussolini praised his 'manly Italian virtues' of strength, stamina and determination.  Read more…

Alessandro Safina – singer

Tenor who has blended opera and rock

Alessandro Safina, a singer trained in opera who has expanded the so-called ‘crossover’ pop-opera genre to include rock influences, was born on this day in 1963 in Siena.  A household name in Italy, the tenor is less well known outside his own country but has recorded duets with international stars such as Sarah Brightman, South Korean soprano Sumi Jo, Rod Stewart, former Pretenders singer Chrissie Hynde, Scottish actor and singer Ewan McGregor and the superstar Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.  Safina’s biggest album to date is Insieme a Te, which has sold more than 700,000 copies.  It was written in collaboration with the Italian pianist and composer Romano Musumarra, who helped realise Safina’s ambition of creating soulful rock-inspired music for the tenor voice.  He first performed songs from the album at the Olympia theatre in Paris in 1999.  Read more…

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Alesso Baldovinetti - painter

One of first to paint realistic landscapes

The early Renaissance painter Alesso Baldovinetti, whose great fresco of the Annunciation in the cloister of the Basilica of the Santissima Annunziata in Florence is still intact, was born on this day in 1425 in Florence.  Baldovinetti was among a group described as scientific realists and naturalists in art which included Andrea del Castagno, Paolo Uccello and Domenico Veneziano. Influenced by Uccello’s use of visual perspective, he had a particular eye for detail and his views of the Arno river in his Nativity and Madonna and Child are regarded as among Europe’s earliest paintings of accurately reproduced landscapes.  Veneziano’s influence is reflected in the pervasive light of his earliest surviving works, and he was also greatly influenced by Fra' Angelico. Historians believe that in the 1460s Baldovinetti was the finest painter in Florence. Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Painted Male in the Italian Renaissance: Sixteenth-Century Masterpieces from the Leinuo Zhang Collection, by Carlo Falciani

During the 16th century, the male portrait acquired a central role in Italian painting, becoming a privileged tool for representing power and individual identity. Posture, clothing, gestures and gaze are not simple aesthetic details, but visual signs through which authority and social status are expressed: the male body is no longer depicted as a mere physical presence, but as the visible expression of virtue, moral strength and inner balance. The male portrait is therefore not limited to representing an individual, but proposes a social and cultural model of masculinity, an identity that combines rationality and authority, power and a conscious self-presentation.  The Painted Male in Italian Renaissance presents and explores, through the insights of experts, eleven masterpieces of Italian Renaissance painting from the collection of Leinuo Zhang, a young Chinese collector with a passion for art. The works are absolute masterpieces by the great masters of the Italian Renaissance: Veronese, Moroni, Paris Bordon, Vasari, Ghirlandaio, Palma il Giovane, Allori, Scarsellino, Leandro Bassano, Giulio and Vincenzo Campi.  Organised by geographical area and painting schools (Florentine, Lombard, Venetian and Emilian), the volume features an by the editor Carlo Falciani and an introductory text by Elena Lazzarini. This is followed by technical entries of the works, compiled by the most authoritative scholars of the Italian Renaissance (from Marco Tanzi to Daniele Benati, from Carlo Falciani to Simone Facchinetti and Fabrizio Magani), accompanied by colour illustrations that allow the reader to appreciate the quality and beauty of these masterpieces in detail.  This title will be released on January 28, 2027.

Carlo Falciani teaches Art history, iconography, and iconology at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence and is an independent curator. Elena Lazzarini is professor of modern and contemporary art history at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence.

Pre-order from Amazon

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