Rodolfo Siviero - art historian and secret agent

Life’s work earned nickname ‘the 007 of art’

Rodolfo Siviero spent his entire career
hunting down plundered works of art

Rodolfo Siviero, an Italian intelligence officer who recovered hundreds of priceless works of art stolen from Italy by the Nazis in World War Two, was born on this day in 1911 in Guardistallo, a village just inland from the Tuscan coast about 50km (30 miles) south of Pisa.

Siviero spent the whole of his adult life working for Italian military intelligence, first under the Fascist regime and then in the permanent employ of postwar Italian governments until his death in 1983.

During that time, effectively his sole mission was to track down and repatriate works of art taken from Italy during World War Two, many of which had been destined for a museum of the German dictator Adolf Hitler planned to open in Linz, or to the private collection of his long-time ally and Luftwaffe chief, Hermann Göring.

He achieved remarkable success, not only in bringing looted works back to Italy, but also in establishing a country’s right to ask for the return even of works that were previously seen as having been acquired legitimately by the aggressor in a conflict.

In all, Siviero is thought to have recovered more than 3,000 works of art, including masterpieces by Fra Angelico, Titian, Tintoretto, Masaccio and Antonio del Pollaiuolo, as well as the so-called Lancellotti Discobulus, an Italian-owned copy by an unknown sculptor of the ancient Greek original by Myron that the Fascist Italian government had been effectively coerced into selling to the Nazis.

Siviero’s association with the world of the arts began after his father’s career as a Carabinieri officer led the family to move to Florence in 1924. With ambitions to become an art critic, Siviero enrolled at the University of Florence.

In the 1930s, convinced that only a totalitarian regime could solve Italy’s problems as a country, he became a Fascist and at the same time joined the Servizio Informazioni Militare, Italy's secret service. 

In 1937, even though by this time Italy and Germany were allies, Siviero was sent by the SIM to spy on the Nazi regime in Berlin. His cover was that he was studying the history of art on a scholarship from the University of Florence. His mission ended in 1938 when Germany expelled him as an ‘undesirable person’ for reasons that remain unexplained.

German soldiers in Rome posing with a painting by
Giovanni Paolo Panini stolen from a Naples museum

At the same time, Siviero’s views on Italy’s Fascists began to change. He was dismayed by Benito Mussolini’s apparent desire to align Italy’s policies with those of the Nazis, becoming particularly fearful for the future of Italy’s Jews after the introduction of Mussolini’s race laws in 1938.

When the armistice between Italy and the Allies was announced in 1943, he switched sides, becoming an undercover operative for the anti-Fascist front, supplying intelligence for the partisans and monitoring the activities of the Kunstschutz, the body originally set up to protect cultural heritage during the war years but was now suspected of co-ordinating the large-scale shipping of artworks from Italy to Germany under Nazi direction.

During this time, Siviero was based at the Jewish art historian Giorgio Castelfranco's house on the Lungarno Serristori in Florence, which today houses the Casa Siviero museum. At one point, he was imprisoned and tortured by Fascist militias but stood firm against their interrogation. Happily, he escaped with the help of Fascist officials working undercover for the Allies.

The Servizio Informazioni Militare was disbanded in 1944 but Siviero continued to work with the Allies and for the new Armed Forces Intelligence Service established in 1949. In the meantime, postwar prime minister Alcide De Gasperi in 1946 appointed him "minister plenipotentiary".

Tintoretto's Leda and the Swan, which Siviero 
repatriated despite it having been sold to Germany

It was in this role that he undertook a diplomatic mission to the Allied military government of Germany, in which role he successfully lobbied for Article 77 of the Peace Treaty signed by Italy and the Allies after the 1943 armistice to be revised. Siviero argued that artworks acquired by the Nazis, even through ‘legitimate’ purchase, from the point at which they became allies with Italy in 1937 should be returned to Italy, rather than simply those taken after the armistice.

This enabled him to repatriate the Lancellotti Discobolus - a statue of a discus-throwing athlete wanted by Hitler himself - along with the Leda and the Swan by Tintoretto, the Equestrian Portrait of Giovanni Carlo Doria by Rubens, and 36 other works, all ‘sold’ to Germany between 1937 to 1943 with the complicity of the Mussolini’s regime.  The sale of the Discobolus was agreed only after the direct intervention of Galeazzo Ciano, Mussolini’s son-in-law and his Foreign Minister.

Other major works saved or recovered by Siviero included Fra Angelico’s Annunciation of San Giovanni Valdarno, which with the help of two monks he hid in the convent of Piazza Savonarola in Florence, and the Danae by Titian, which was taken from the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples and hidden in the Abbey of Monte Cassino, where the Apollo from the ruins of Pompeii was also secreted. 

Siviero recovered more than 200 paintings taken from the Uffizi and other Florence museums and hidden in a castle in South Tyrol, and tracked down two paintings of The Labours of Hercules by Antonio del Pollaiuolo to an address in Los Angeles, where they had been smuggled by two German soldiers.

He also saved several modern paintings by Giorgio De Chirico, founder of the Scuola Metafisica, that had been taken from his villa in Fiesole, outside Florence, after he and his wife - a Russian Jew - had gone into hiding.

Siviero continued recovering missing paintings and sculptures for the remainder of his life, acquiring the ‘007 of art’ nickname in the 1960s, after the first James Bond films appeared on cinema screens. In the 1970s, he became president of the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno in Florence.

He died from cancer in the Tuscan capital in October 1983, his body laid to rest in the Chapel of Painters in the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata. In his will, he left his house and all its contents to the Regione Toscana, which turned it into a museum dedicated to him eight years after his death.

Guardistallo is full of pretty
narrow stone streets

Travel tip

Guardistallo, where Rodolfo Siviero was born, is a picturesque hilltop village in Tuscany known for its medieval origins, charming stone streets, and sweeping views over the nearby coastline. Originally built around a Lombard castle in the seventh century, it later became part of the Republic of Pisa and then Florence, flourishing after agrarian reforms in the 18th century created a new class of wealthy landowners. Pastel-painted houses and stone stairways line the narrow streets of Guardistallo, which retains a medieval layout. The village, which has a population of around 1,200, is home to the historic Teatro Marchionneschi, a beautiful 19th-century theatre built by the wealthy Marchionneschi family. Opened in 1883, it eventually fell into disuse, but was reopened in 1990 following extensive restoration and today hosts theatre performances, concerts, and special events. Siviero's birthplace in Via dell'Erbaio is marked with a plaque.

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The Basilica della Santissima Annunziata in
Florence, where Siviero was laid to rest

Travel tip:

The Basilica della Santissima Annunziata, where Rodolfo Siviero is buried, is in the Piazza della Santissima Annunziata in the San Marco district of Florence. Considered the mother church of the Servite Order, it is located at the northeastern side of the square. The facade of the church is by the architect Giovanni Battista Caccini, added in 1601 to imitate the Renaissance-style loggia of Filippo Brunelleschi's facade of the Foundling Hospital, which defines the eastern side of the piazza. The main part of the church, founded in 1250, was rebuilt by Michelozzo between 1444 and 1481. Art works in the church include frescoes by Volterrano and Andrea del Sarto. The Cappella della Madonna del Soccorso was designed by the sculptor Giambologna for his own tomb and includes a large, bronze Crucifix, showing the dead Christ with his head reclining and his eyes closed. Other notable Florentines buried in the basilica include painter Jacopo Carucci da Pontormo, the architect Caccini’s brother, Giulio, a composer, and the musician Bernardo Pisano, thought to have composed the first madrigal.  By tradition, newly-wed couples visit the church to present a bouquet of flowers to a painting of the Virgin by a 13th century monk, where they pray for a long and fruitful marriage.

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More reading:

Umberto Baldini, the art restorer who saved hundreds of works damaged by Arno floods

Why family ties could not save Galeazzo Ciano from Mussolini’s wrath

The armistice that ended Italy’s war with the Allies

Also on this day:

1639: The birth of composer Domenico Sarro

1836: The birth of canning pioneer Francesco Cirio

1897: The birth of supercentenarian war veteran Lazzaro Ponticelli

1930: The birth of electronics engineer Pier Giorgio Perotto

Vigilia di Natale - Christmas Eve

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Andrea Sacchi – artist

Painter preferred the classical style with an uncrowded canvas

The French engraver Guillaume
Vallet's portrait of Andrea Sacchi

Andrea Sacchi, one of the leading artists of his time in Italy, was born on this day - Saint Andrew’s Day - in 1599 in or near Rome.

Sacchi became the chief exponent of the style of art referred to as High Baroque Classicism, having been inspired by the work of Raphael when he was growing up.

His masterpiece is considered to be a fresco in Palazzo Barberini in Rome, Allegory of Divine Wisdom, which was an homage to Pope Urban VIII, who compared himself to King Solomon, who was assisted by divine wisdom. 

The work was also inspired by Raphael’s Parnassus, a painting that is now in the Vatican.

Sacchi’s father, Benedetto, was also a painter, but he found another master for his son, Andrea, when he realised that he was very talented. According to Giovanni Pietro Bellori, Sacchi’s friend and biographer, when Benedetto realised his son was becoming a better painter than himself, he ‘wisely found him a master who could provide him with better education.’

Benedetto enrolled his son with Giuseppe Cesari, also known as Il Giuseppino, who after being made a Knight of the Supreme Order of Christ by his patron, Pope Clement VIII, was subsequently referred to as Cavaliere d’Arpino.

One of Cesari’s earlier pupils had been Caravaggio, who had spent time painting flowers and fruit in the Cavaliere’s workshop.

Later, Sacchi entered the workshop of Francesco Albani, a Baroque painter who was born and worked in Bologna. Sacchi is now considered to be one of Albani’s most famous pupils and it was the influence of Albani that inspired Sacchi’s interest in Classicism and his taste for colour.

Sacchi’s early career in Rome was helped by the patronage of Cardinal Antonio Barberini, who commissioned work from him for his own church, Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini, and for Palazzo Barberini.

Between 1627 and 1629, Sacchi painted frescoes at Villa Sacchetti near Ostia Antica under the direction of the Baroque artist and architect, Pietro da Cortona.

Sacchi's masterpiece, the fresco Allegory of the
Divine Wisdom, can be seen in Palazzo Barberini

Five years later, Cortona was elected as director of the Academy of St Luke, the painter’s guild in Rome.

In 1636, the two artists became involved in a series of debates at the Academy, during which Sacchi criticised Cortona’s exuberant style of painting.

Sacchi put forward the theory that paintings should include only a few figures because if a picture is too crowded the figures are deprived of individuality and cloud the meaning of the piece.

Cortona, on the other hand, argued the case that large paintings with many figures were like an epic, and could develop multiple sub themes.

Among Sacchi’s supporters in the argument were his friends, the High Baroque sculptor Alessandro Algardi, and the Classical Baroque French painter, Nicolas Poussin. 

There was a big following for Sacchi’s style of painting by artists who came after him, and the style remained pre-eminent in Roman circles for many decades to follow.

Two of Sacchi’s major works, St Gregory and the Corporal, and Vision of St Romuald, are in the Pinacoteca Vaticana in Rome.

Other paintings by Sacchi can be seen in San Carlo ai Catinari, Palazzo Quirinale, and Palazzo Barberini in Rome. There are also paintings by the artist in Perugia, Foligno, and Camerino, in Italy, and in the Prado Museum in Madrid.

Sadly, Sacchi outlived his illegitimate son, Giuseppe, who had shown early promise as a painter, but died young. Sacchi himself died at the age of 61 in Rome in 1661. 

Some accounts of his life say he was both born and died in Nettuno, a coastal town about 60km (37 miles) south of the capital. The British historian Ann Sutherland Harris has established that, according to the artist’s will, which is kept in the State Archives, Sacchi died in Rome.

The Villa Sacchetti, later Castello
Chigi, has frescoes by Sacchi

Travel tip:

The Villa Sacchetti, where Andrea Sacchi worked on frescoes under the direction of Pietro da Cortona, is a 17th century villa at Castel Fusano near Ostia Antica in Lazio. It was built between 1624 and 1629 for the Sacchetti family, who were close associates of Pope Urban VIII, and it was the first architectural work by Pietro da Cortona. The villa has a fortified appearance and a belvedere terrace at the top because there were occasional raids by pirates along that coast at the time. On the third floor, there is a gallery spanning the length of the building with frescoes by both Pietro da Cortona and Andrea Sacchi. The villa is now known as Castello Chigi because it was bought by the Chigi family in the 18th century.

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The Palazzo Barberini in Rome, for which
Sacchi painted his Allegory of Divine Wisdom

Travel tip:

Palazzo Barberini, which houses the work considered to be Andrea Sacchi’s masterpiece, Allegory of Divine Wisdom, is just off Piazza Barberini in the centre of Rome. The palazzo was completed in 1633 as a home for Cardinal Francesco Barberini and was the work of three great architects, Carlo Maderno, Francesco Borromini, and Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The palazzo now houses part of the collection of Italy’s National Gallery of Ancient Art, with works by Caravaggio, Raphael, Tintoretto, Hans Holbein, Guido Reni, Bronzino, and Bernini. The palace, which stands in Via delle Quattro Fontane, facing Piazza Barberini, was designed by Maderno with most of the construction supervised by Bernini. Borromini made a number of notable contributions, notably the famous helical staircase. Pietro da Cortona’s Trionfo della Divina Provvidenza (Triumph of Divine Providence), which covers the ceiling of the palace’s grand salon, is one of the most celebrated Baroque frescoes in Rome.

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More reading:

Domenichino, the Baroque master whose talents rivalled Raphael

How Francesco Solimena became one of the Europe’s wealthiest painters

Francesco Barberini, the cardinal who built the Palazzo Barberini

Also on this day:

1466: The birth of military commander Andrea Doria

1485: The birth of writer and stateswoman Veronica Gambara

1831: The birth of writer and patriot Ippolito Nievo

1954: The birth of actress Simonetta Stefanelli

1957: The death of tenor Beniamino Gigli

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Francesco Primaticcio - painter, sculptor and architect

Italian who had major influence on French art 

A woodcut  portrait of Francesco
 Primaticcio from about 1648

The Mannerist painter, architect and sculptor Francesco Primaticcio, who played an important role in shaping the artistic landscape of France during the 16th century, was born on this day in 1504 in Bologna.

Primaticcio spent almost two thirds of his life in France, where he rose to be superintendent of works at the Château de Fontainebleau, the former medieval castle that was turned into an opulent Renaissance-style palace by François I of France.

Primaticcio trained as an artist in Bologna under Innocenzo da Imola before moving to Mantua to study with Giulio Romano, a former pupil of Raphael whose style helped define Mannerism.

He assisted Romano in his work on the decorations of the Palazzo del Te in Mantua, a project that refined his skills in fresco painting and architectural ornamentation.

Romano’s trust and belief in Primataccio’s talent was such that when François I invited Romano to assist in the redecoration of his expanded Fontainebleau palace in 1532, seeking to enrich the artistic grandeur of his court, Romano sent Primaticcio in his place.

Primaticcio soon became one of the leading artists at Fontainebleau, where he worked alongside Giovanni Battista di Jacopo, the Florentine painter also known as Rosso Fiorentino.

Following Fiorentino's death in 1540, Primaticcio took control of the artistic direction at Fontainebleau, overseeing the decoration of its grand halls and galleries.

His work at Fontainebleau was characterized by stucco reliefs, elaborate frescoes, and mythological themes, which became hallmarks of the French Mannerist style. Niccolò dell'Abbate, a Mannerist painter from Modena, was one of his team.

The Château de Fontainebleau, southeast of Paris,
where Primaticcio spent much of his working life

Primataccio’s compositions featured elongated figures, dynamic movement, and intricate detailing, influencing generations of French artists to follow.

He returned to Rome for a couple of years to purchase artworks for François I. He also took casts of the best Roman sculptures in the papal collections, some of which were recreated in bronze to decorate the parterres at Fontainebleau.

Primaticcio’s crowded compositions and graceful figures set a precedent for French painting. His masterpiece, the Salle d’Hercule, occupied him and his team for decades, showcasing his ability to blend classical mythology with courtly elegance.

Other notable works at Fontainebleau included scenes from the Life of Alexander the Great, for the bedchamber of the duchesse d’Étampes, and eight mythological scenes for the ceiling of the Galerie d’Ulysse. He is noted as one of the first artists in France to replace religious themes with those of classical mythology.

Primataccio’s design for the ceiling of the chapel of the Hotel de Guise in Paris, executed in 1557, was his last major work. For the last decade of his life, he worked with the sculptor Germain Pilon on the tomb of Henri II in the abbey church of Saint-Denis near Paris.  He designed the Valois Chapel at Saint-Denis, which was completed after his death. 

After the death of François I in 1547, Primaticcio remained a court painter under Henri II and François II, continuing to shape the artistic direction of France. His stylistic innovations influenced the development of French Mannerism, to which he introduced a quiet French elegance. 

Primaticcio died in 1570 in Paris. His contributions to the School of Fontainebleau cemented his reputation as a master of Mannerism. His ability to merge Italian Renaissance techniques with French artistic traditions ensured his place among the most influential artists of the 16th century.

Mantua's Palazzo del Te was considered
to be Giulio Romano's greatest work

Travel tip:

The Palazzo del Te in Mantua, where Primaticcio worked for part of his time in the city, was designed for Federico Gonzaga as a summer residence. It is a fine example of the Mannerist school of architecture and is considered to be Giulio Romano’s masterpiece. The name for the palace came about because the location chosen had been the site of the Gonzaga family stables at Isola del Te on the edge of the marshes just outside Mantua’s city walls. After the building was completed in about 1535, a team of plasterers, carvers and painters worked on the interior for ten years until all the rooms were decorated with beautiful frescoes.

The porticoed square adjoining the Basilica
di Santa Maria dei Servi in Bologna

Travel tip:

In his youth, Primaticcio trained in Bologna, his home city, in the workshop of Innocenzo di Pietro Francucci da Imola, a painter and draughtsman generally known as Innocenzo da Imola. Visitors to Bologna can see some of Innocenzo's work in the Basilica of Santa Maria dei Servi, a great example of Gothic architecture that stands on Strada Maggiore, a street in central Bologna that is part of the Roman Via Emilia. It runs, with its porticoes between medieval houses, buildings and churches, from Piazza di Porta Ravegnana to Porta Maggiore. The church also houses a Madonna enthroned with the Child and angels by Cimabue.

Also on this day:

1306: The birth of Andrea Dandolo, Doge of Venice

1885: The birth of composer Luigi Russolo

1888: The birth of architect Antonio Sant’Elia

The feast day of Pope Saint Pius V (d:1572)

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Palma Bucarelli - art historian and curator

Iconic figure who transformed major Rome gallery

Palma Bucarelli, who was the dynamic director of
Rome's major modern art gallery for more than 30 years

Palma Bucarelli, an art historian who for more than 30 years was director and superintendent of the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna (GNAM) in Rome, was born on this day in 1910 in the Italian capital.

Under Bucarelli’s dynamic leadership, GNAM was transformed into a major centre in Italy’s cultural life, staging groundbreaking exhibitions featuring some of the biggest names in modern and contemporary art, such as Pablo Picasso, Piet Mondrian, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko.   

A champion of abstract and avant-garde art, for which she was a powerful advocate, she also worked hard on behalf of Italian artists to showcase their work alongside their international counterparts.

Turning GNAM into an active space for public engagement and encouraging debate that challenged traditional perceptions of modern art, she helped position Italy as a significant player in the contemporary art scene during the mid-20th century.

As a powerful woman in a male-dominated world, who at the same time cut an elegantly stylish figure, Bucarelli also became something of an icon of female emancipation.

Bucarelli’s father, Giuseppe, was a high-ranking official in the Italian government who would eventually be appointed vice-prefect of Rome. It was from her mother, Ester Loteta Clori, that Palma and her sister, Anna, inherited a taste for culture, both becoming passionate about music, theatre, fashion and art.

Bucarelli, elegantly stylish, was regarded by some
as a trailblazer for female emancipation

Palma Bucarelli was educated at the Liceo Ennio Quirino Visconti, the oldest classical high school in Rome and one of the most prestigious in Italy. From there, she progressed to the Sapienza University of Rome, where she graduated in literature. 

Already keen to forge a career in the arts world, she successfully entered a competition run by the Ministry of National Education for the post of Inspector of Antiquities and Fine Arts, after which she was assigned to Rome’s Galleria Borghese art museum at the age of just 23.

After working briefly in Naples, where she became acquainted with the philosopher and historian Benedetto Croce, Bucarelli returned to Rome and took over the direction of the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna soon after turning 31. It was unusual, perhaps unprecedented, for a woman to be appointed to such a prestigious role.

By this time, Italy had entered World War Two and one of Bucarelli’s first major tasks was to move works of art away from the gallery to places of safety, a process that needed to be carried out amid secrecy. Some were concealed within hiding places in Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome, others taken to Palazzo Farnese in Caprarola, well away from the capital in northern Lazio.

After the liberation of Rome in 1944, the gallery was gradually reopened and Bucarelli, who had a clear vision of how she wanted it to evolve under her leadership, began to develop her plans.

A portrait of Bucarelli by Giulio
Turcato, an abstract impressionist

The proposed function of the gallery when it was opened in 1883 was to be a home and a historical archive for Italian and foreign art from the 19th century onwards. When Bucarelli became director, it proudly represented the history of the artistic trends in that time, from neoclassicism and impressionism to the avant-gardes of the early 20th century through futurism, surrealism, the Novecento movement and the Roman School that was at its height between the late 1920s and mid 1940s. 

Bucarelli’s ambition was to preserve that core purpose and to enhance it. She wanted the gallery to exist not just as a repository for important works of art but to be at the heart of Italian culture and, though she clashed at times with traditionalists in her desire to be at the cutting edge as artists explored new boundaries, her transformative work generally met with approval.

In her time, GNAM moved on from simply housing works of art, becoming a meeting and information point for artists, art critics and the public. She also equipped the gallery for the modern world, adding functions that would in time be seen as standard in a modern museum, such as educational services, a library, cafeteria and bookshop. She also took steps to increase footfall by offering book presentations, meetings with artists and important exhibitions, showing off the museum’s vast existing collections but also offering the public the opportunity to appreciate new artists.

The gallery hosted fashion shows, too, which in part reflected her own interest in stylish clothes. Bucarelli was a much-photographed woman. Alongside a personal collection of artworks, she preserved many elegant items from her wardrobe, some of which were donated to the Boncompagni Ludovisi Museum in Rome, which specialises in decorative arts, costume and Italian fashion.

Married in 1963 to the journalist Paolo Monelli, whom she had known for 30 years, she stepped down as GNAM’s director in 1975. She died in Rome in 1998 at the age of 88.  One of the approach roads to the gallery, linking Viale delle Belle Arti and Viale Antonio Gramsci, was renamed Via Palma Bucarelli in remembrance.

The Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna's current
headquarters was completed in 1915

Travel tip:

The Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, home to almost 20,000 paintings, drawings and sculptures, was founded in 1883 on the initiative of the Minister of Education in the young Italy’s government, Guido Beccali. The gallery’s main building on Via delle Belle Arti, within the Villa Borghese park just north of Rome’s city centre, was designed by Cesare Bazzani and built between 1911 and 1915.  Bazzani returned to double its size in 1934. Around 1100 items from its collection are on display at any one time. Artists whose work can be admired there include Italian greats Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni, Antonio Canova, Giorgio de Chirico, Amedeo Modigliani, Giacomo Manzù and Giorgio Morandi. The museum also holds some works by foreign artists, among them Cézanne, Degas, Duchamp, Mondrian, Monet, Jackson Pollock, Rodin, and Van Gogh.  The gallery is open everyday except Mondays from 9am to 7pm. Entry costs €15.00.

The Palazzo Farnese, with its hexagonal shape,
was built by the future Pope Paul III

Travel tip:

Caprarola is a small town in northern Lazio, situated about 20km (12 miles) southeast of Viterbo, not far from the picturesque Lago di Vico. The town is dominated by the imposing pentagonal Palazzo Farnese, built in the 16th century. With its well preserved frescoed interiors, a magnificent helicoidal staircase, the Sala del Mappamondo, the Sala degli Angeli and its splendid Italian garden, the palace is a unique architectural jewel well worth visiting. To enhance the view from the villa, architect Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola built the Via Dritta, today known as Via Filippo Nicolai, a long sloping street that stretches out from its main entrance almost for half a mile without deviating from the straight. The road divided the village neatly into two districts, named Corsica and Sardinia. The Villa Farnese, originally the home of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, the future Pope Paul III, is said to have been the inspiration for the design of the Pentagon, headquarters of the United States Defense Department in Washington. It has no occupant today but a smaller building, known as the Casino, within the villa’s extensive gardens, is one of the properties at the disposal of the President of the Italian Republic.

Also on this day:

37: The death of Roman emperor Tiberius

1820: The birth of tenor Enrico Tamberlik

1886: The birth of athlete Emilio Lunghi

1940: The birth of film director Bernardo Bertolucci

1978:  The kidnapping of ex-PM Aldo Moro

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Mantegna frescoes reduced to rubble

Precious works of art damaged by Allied bombing

A photograph taken soon after the raid
shows the scale of damage to the church

One of the heaviest losses to Italy’s cultural heritage during World War Two occurred on this day in 1944 in Padua in the Veneto region when 15th century frescoes painted by the artist Andrea Mantegna were blown into thousands of pieces by bombs.

A raid on the city was carried out by the Allies, hoping to hit Padua’s railway station and an adjoining marshalling yard, as well as a building where the occupying Germans had established their headquarters. But the bombs landed on Padua’s Chiesa degli Eremitani instead, causing devastating damage to frescoes created by the young Mantegna in one of the side chapels.

It was one of the worst blows inflicted on Italy’s art treasures during the war, as Mantegna’s frescoes, which had been painted directly on to the walls of the church, were considered a major work.

Andrea Mantegna, who was born near Vicenza in 1431, had been commissioned to paint a cycle of frescoes in the Ovetari Chapel, one of the side chapels in the Church of the Eremitani.

The commission marked the beginning of Mantegna’s artistic career when he started work at the age of 17 in 1448. The artist was in his mid-20s by the time he had finished the cycle in 1457, which showed scenes from the lives of Saint James and Saint Christopher. 

Some of the scenes from Mantegna's
frescoes have been partially restored

Because of the historical value of Mantegna's work, the Church of the Eremitani was on a list of buildings and monuments Allied bombers had been instructed to avoid. However, tragically, the German invading army had established their headquarters in Padua right next to the church.

When the bombs fell in 1944, targeting was not as precise as it is today and the Ovetari Chapel was severely damaged. Mantegna's wonderful frescoes were reduced to more than 88,000 separate pieces, which were later found mixed in with bits of plaster and bricks on the ground.

Fortunately, a detailed photographic survey of the work had been made previously and it was possible later to reconstruct the artist’s designs and recompose part of the cycle depicting the Martyrdom of Saint James. The photographic record was used to create panels in black and white where Mantegna's frescoes had been.

 Recovered fragments that could be identified were then fixed to the panels in their original positions, so that at least a partial reconstruction could be carried out. Colour has been applied to other parts of the panels to give visitors to the chapel a better idea of how the frescoes originally looked. 

Other frescoes by Mantegna, including the Assumption and the Martyrdom of St. Christopher, had been removed before the war to protect them from damp, and they remained undamaged and were eventually reinstated in the church.

In other chapels in the church, 14th century frescoes painted by Guarentio and Giusto de’ Menabuoi miraculously survived.

Padua was bombed 24 times by Allied aircraft between December 1943 and the end of the war. On  March 11, when the Church of Eremitani was hit, the city was attacked by 111 planes, which dropped 300 tons of bombs.

The previous month, during the Battle of Rome, the Abbey of Monte Cassino to the south east of the capital city, which was the oldest Benedictine monastery in the world, was destroyed by Allied bombers. This is now acknowledged as one of the biggest strategic errors of the Second World War on the Allied side.

Some of the remains of Padua's Roman
amphitheatre are still standing

Travel tip: 

Padua is believed to be one of the oldest cities in northern Italy. It was founded in about 1183 BC by the Trojan prince, Antenor. The Roman writer, Livy, records an attempted invasion of the city by the Spartans in 302 BC. Later attempts at invasions were made unsuccessfully by the Etruscans and Gauls. The city formed an alliance with Rome against their common enemies and it became a Roman municipium in about 49BC. By the end of the first century BC, Padua was the wealthiest city in Italy, apart from Rome. The Roman name for Padua was Patavium. You can still see the remains of the Roman Ampitheatre, or Arena as it was known, which is in Padua’s Giardino dell’Arena. The main entrance would have been near the present-day Piazza Eremitani, where the Church of the Eremitani is located. 

The Chiesa degli Eremitani in Padua dates
back to the mid-13th century 

Travel tip:

La Chiesa degli Eremitani - Church of the Eremitani or Church of the Hermits - is a former Augustinian Gothic-style church close to the Cappella Scrovegni in Piazza Eremitani in the centre of Padua. The church was built for Augustinian friars between 1260 and 1276 and dedicated to the Saints Philip and James. The friars remained in the church and adjoining monastery until 1806 when Padua was under Napoleonic rule and the order was suppressed. The church was reopened for services in 1808 and became a parish church in 1817. The church has a single nave with plain walls decorated with ochre and red bricks and it has a vaulted wooden ceiling. It houses the ornate tombs of two lords of Padua, Jacopo II da Carrara and Ubertino da Carrara, designed by Andriolo de Santi. The Musei Civici agli Eremitani (Civic Museum) of Padua is now housed in the former Augustinian monastery to the left of the church.  The Scrovegni Chapel is famed for its brilliant frescoes by Giotto, painted between 1303 and 1305.

Also on this day: 

1544: The birth of poet Torquato Tasso

1669: Mount Etna’s biggest eruption

1847: The birth of politician Sidney Sonnino

1851: Premiere of Verdi opera Rigoletto

1924: The birth of psychiatrist Franco Basaglia

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Caravaggio masterpiece is unveiled in Siracusa

Great work of art was created by a desperate painter wanted for murder 

Caravaggio's The Burial of Saint Lucy
can be viewed free of charge

A magnificent altarpiece by Caravaggio depicting The Burial of Saint Lucy, was displayed for the first time on this day in 1608 at the Santuario Santa Lucia al Sepolcro in Siracusa - Syracuse - in Sicily.

The largest known work by Caravaggio, The Burial of Saint Lucy was painted by the artist while he was on the run accused of murder and in fear of arrest and execution. He created this important work of art in a few precious weeks while he was afforded some protection from the church authorities who had commissioned it.

The altarpiece measures 408 by 300 centimetres and is his largest known canvas painted in oils. It depicts the fragile body of Santa Lucia - Saint Lucy - bearing the wounds she had suffered during her execution, about to be interred in the Roman catacombs on which the Sanctuary now stands.

After arriving in Sicily from Malta in October 1608, having escaped from prison there,  Caravaggio had taken a circuitous route to Siracusa to seek help from a former apprentice, Mario Minniti, who he knew had a thriving studio in the city.

At the time there was a programme of renovation taking place in churches in Siracusa and the city authorities were commissioning new altarpieces and trying to boost the cults of their local saints.

Minniti succeeded in convincing the church authorities to commission Caravaggio to paint the altarpiece at the Santuario Santa Lucia al Sepolcro, arguing that his former master was considered the best painter In Italy. 

The subject of the painting, Saint Lucy - Santa Lucia - was a young girl who had lived in 4th century Siracusa. She had converted to Christianity during the period of persecution of Christians by the Emperor Diocletian. She had taken a vow of chastity and decided not to marry. But the man lined up to be her future husband had suspected her of being unfaithful rather than devout and had exacted his revenge by denouncing her as a Christian to the authorities. 

Caravaggio was on the run
when he arrived in Sicily

Lucia had been condemned to a terrible death to take place in a brothel, but soldiers had been unable to move her from the spot where she had been arrested. They poured burning oil on her while she was seemingly immobile and set her alight, but she continued to pray even while burning. Therefore, they drove a sword into her throat, but she still did not die immediately. It was only after she had received the sacrament from a priest that she passed away.

A statue had been erected to Saint Lucy in Siracusa and it had been agreed to purchase a silver reliquary to house her remains, which the authorities were hoping to retrieve from Venice who had taken them. An altarpiece depicting her death in the catacombs on which the church was built was to be their next purchase.

Caravaggio’s picture is considered remarkable for the way he shows Santa Lucia’s frail body framed by two burly gravediggers, who tower over her, their veins bulging in their muscly arms. Watching the burial are a group of mourners, whose faces Caravaggio modelled on people he met while he was working on the painting at the church, one of which is believed to have been the sexton of the church. Among the faces in the background, it is also thought there may be a self-portrait of Caravaggio.

Experts think Caravaggio would have seen hasty burials in real life during an outbreak of the plague in Milan in 1576. The background for the painting was modelled on the actual catacombs in Siracusa where Santa Lucia had been put in the ground originally, which had been visited by Caravaggio during his stay in the city.

To complete the painting in time for the deadline of the Saint’s Feast Day on December 13, Caravaggio had to work at a fast pace, despite being distracted by his own problems and having to be armed with a dagger day and night for his own protection.

But he did not feel safe enough to stay in Siracusa for the unveiling of the painting and slipped away before the big day. Within 18 months, he had died himself in mysterious circumstances at Porto Ercole in Tuscany, where it is thought he was buried without ceremony in a mass grave.

The Santuario Santa Lucia al Sepolcro is
the home of Caravaggio's altarpiece

Travel tip

Caravaggio’s magnificent painting of The Burial of Saint Lucy still hangs proudly over the altar of the Santuario Santa Lucia al Sepolcro and can be seen free of charge by visitors to the church - one of just a small number of Caravaggio paintings on free public display in their original settings, rather than in a museum or gallery. Visitors to the Santuario can pay a small amount for a light to come on for a few minutes to illuminate the painting. The church staff and volunteers will explain the history of the painting to visitors and they have information booklets and Santa Lucia souvenirs available. The Santuario is in Piazza Santa Lucia in Siracusa in a part of the city known as Borga Santa Lucia.

The Duomo di Siracusa is one of the main 
attractions of the island of Ortigia

Travel tip

Siracusa is situated on the south east corner of Sicily next to the gulf of Siracusa and beside the Ionian Sea. It is famous for its Greek and Roman ruins and amphitheatres, and as the birthplace of the Greek mathematician and engineer Archimedes. It is now listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. The patron saint of Siracusa is Saint Lucy (Santa Lucia) who died there in about 304. She is also the patron saint of virgins. Her feast day is celebrated worldwide on December 13 each year. The historic centre of Siracusa - the Città Vecchia (Old City) - is the part of the city that occupies the island of Ortigia. The central attraction of Ortigia is the magnificent cathedral, built in the seventh century but rebuilt in High Sicilian Baroque style after the 1693 earthquake that destroyed much of Sicily’s southeastern corner.

Also on this day:

1466: The death of sculptor Donatello

1521: The birth of Pope Sixtus V

1720: The birth of playwright Carlo Gozzi

1931: The death of juggler Enrico Rastelli

The Feast of Santa Lucia

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Paolo Uccello - painter

Pioneer of perspective also worked in mosaics

The first panel of Uccello's fresco series, Battle of
San Romano, on display at the National Gallery

Paolo Uccello, who was one of the leading painters in Florence in the 15th century, died on this day in 1475 at the age of 78.

The son of a surgeon, Uccello served an apprenticeship in the workshop of the sculptor and goldsmith Lorenzo Ghiberti but made his own mark as a painter and also as a mosaicist, at one time employed to work on the facade of Basilica di San Marco in Venice.

Younger than Ghiberti, Filippo Brunelleschi and Donatello, three giants of the Early Renaissance period, Uccello belonged to a generation of artists eager to move away from the flat, decorative forms of traditional Gothic art. His work is more often characterised by clear colours, well-defined outlines and a dramatic narrative, although he retains the fairytale quality of Gothic.

He was noted for his interest in linear perspective, which helped create a sense of depth in many of his paintings. According to Giorgio Vasari, the 16th century painter and architect whose book, Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, led him to become known as the first art historian, Uccello was so fixated with perspective that he would stay up all night, seeking to apply his knowledge of mathematics to ensuring the angles in his pictures and the relative scale were exactly right.

Uccello's St George and the Dragon echoed the
typical themes of traditional Gothic art

Uccello’s most celebrated works include a 1456 cycle of paintings depicting the Battle of San Romano, in which a Florentine army defeated Sienese troops in 1432, originally commissioned to adorn the palace of a Florentine politician, Lionardo Bartolini Salimbeni.  The three panels that comprised the cycle are now shared between the National Gallery in London, the Louvre in Paris and the Uffizi in Florence.

His love of perspective, meanwhile, was no better illustrated than in The Flood and The Waters Receding, part of a 1447-48 fresco depicting Scenes from the Life of Noah, which he painted for the Chiostro Verde of the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella in Florence.

His St George and the Dragon (c1456), which is also kept by the National Gallery in London), and the Miracle of the Desecrated Host (c1467), housed in Urbino’s Galleria Nazionale, are other notable works.

Uccello was born Paolo di Dono or Paolo Doni. His father was from a wealthy Florentine family and his mother from the noble Del Beccuto family, who had three chapels in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, one of which Uccello would decorate himself. It is not known with certainty why he came to be known as Paolo Uccello, although he often used birds - uccelli - as well as small animals in his paintings as a device to help create perspective.

At the age of 10, Uccello became an apprentice in the workshop of Ghiberti. It was around the time that Ghiberti was creating the renowned bronze doors for the Florence cathedral's Baptistery, known as The Gates of Paradise.  

Uccello's fascination with perspective is evident
in this section of his Scenes from the life of Noah

Little remains of his work for Ghiberti. The earliest frescoes attributed to him, though now badly damaged, are in the Chiostro Verde of Santa Maria Novella and depict episodes from the Creation. 

From 1425 to 1431, Uccello worked as a master mosaicist in Venice. Documentary evidence has come to light suggesting that a mosaic of Saint Peter for the facade of the Basilica di San Marco, which was depicted in Gentile Bellini's 1496 painting, Processione in Piazza San Marco, was Uccello’s. Sadly, if there was such a piece, it no longer exists.  Some floor mosaics within the basilica are more confidently attributed to Uccello.

After returning to Florence, where he was to stay for most of the rest of his life, he executed works for various churches and patrons, most notably the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, the city’s Duomo.

This mosaic on the floor of Basilica San
Marco in Venice is attributed to Uccello

In 1436, Uccello completed a monochrome fresco of an equestrian monument to Sir John Hawkwood in the Duomo. This work exemplified his keen interest in perspective. The condottiero and his horse are presented as if the fresco was a sculpture seen from below. At the same time, a sense of controlled potential energy within the horse and rider were characteristic of the new style of the Renaissance that had blossomed during Uccello’s lifetime.

Later, he painted the four heads of the prophets that surround the clock on the Duomo’s interior west facade clock, and designed a number of stained glass windows.

The three paintings celebrating the Battle of San Romano are thought to have been executed between 1438 and 1440. The three panels were exhibited until 1784 in a room in the Medici Palace on Via Larga in Florence.

Married in 1453 to Tommasa Malifici, Uccello had a son, Donato, with whom he worked towards the end of his life, and a daughter, Antonia, who became a Carmelite nun. 

In poor health, Uccello stopped working in 1470. His last will and testament was dated November 11, 1475, about a month before he died. He was buried in his father's tomb in the church of Santo Spirito in Florence.

The magnificent Florence Duomo, topped by
Brunelleschi's colossal dome, towers over the city

Travel tip:

Florence’s Duomo - the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore - with its enormous dome by Filippo Brunelleschi and campanile by Giotto, is one of Italy's most recognisable and most photographed sights, the dominant feature of the city’s skyline. From groundbreaking to consecration, the project spanned 140 years and involved a series of architects. Arnolfo di Cambio, who also designed the Basilica of Santa Croce and the Palazzo Vecchio, was the original architect engaged and it was largely to his template that the others worked.  When he died in 1410, 14 years after the first stone was laid, he was succeeded by Giotto, who himself died in 1337, after which his assistant Andrea Pisano took up the project.  Pisano died in 1348, as the Black Death swept Europe, and a succession of architects followed, culminating in Brunelleschi, who won a competition - against Lorenzo Ghiberti - to build the dome, which remains the largest brick-built dome ever constructed.

The facade of the Basilica of Santa Maria
Novella, designed by Leon Battista Alberti

Travel tip:

The Gothic Basilica of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, for which Uccello created his Scenes from the Life of Noah fresco series, which included The Flood and The Waters Receding, was built in the 13th century by the Dominicans and can be described as the city’s first great basilica. This church was given the suffix ‘Novella’ - new - because it was built on the site of the 9th-century oratory of Santa Maria delle Vigne.  The new church was commissioned by wealthy Florentine wool merchant Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai and designed principally by Leon Battista Alberti. The church, recognisable for its white marble façade, was built between 1456 and 1470. A list of its notable artworks reads like a roll call of masters of Gothic and early Renaissance painting and sculpture, including Botticelli, Bronzino, Brunelleschi, Duccio, Ghiberti, Ghirlandaio, Lippi, Masaccio, Pisano, Uccello and Vasari. The city’s nearby main railway station takes its name from the basilica.

Also on this day:

1813: The birth of composer Errico Petrella

1903: The birth of painter Giuseppe Dossena

1907: The birth of actor Amedeo Nazzari

1921: The birth of football administrator Giuseppe 'Peppino' Prisco

1936: The death of playwright and novelist Luigi Pirandello

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Pietro Tacca - sculptor

Pupil of Giambologna became major figure in own right

Tacca's equestrian sculpture of Philip IV 
of Spain broke new ground in statuary

The sculptor Pietro Tacca, who succeeded his master, Giambologna, as court sculptor to the Medici Grand Dukes of Tuscany, was born on this day in 1577 in Carrara.

Tacca, who initially produced work in the Mannerist style, later made a significant contribution to the advance of Baroque and helped preserve Florence’s pre-eminence in bronze casting.

As well as his work for the Medici family, Tacca achieved something never before attempted with his marble equestrian statue of King Philip IV of Spain in Madrid’s Plaza de Oriente. 

The sculpture, considered to be a masterpiece, is notable for depicting the monarch on a rearing horse with its front legs off the ground and the entire weight of the statue supported by its hind legs and tail. 

Tacca began attending the Florence workshop of Giambologna in 1592 at the age of 15. Giambologna was the most important sculptor of his time in Florence, not only for his relationship with the Medici but also for his bronze statue of Neptune above the Fontana di Nettuno in Bologna.

When Giambologna’s first assistant, Pietro Francavilla, left for Paris in 1601, Tacca was chosen to fill his role. On the death of the master in 1608 at the age of 79, Tacca inherited both his studio and his house in Borgo Pinti. A year later, the Medici family appointed him as Giambologna’s successor as the grand-ducal sculptor.

Tacca's i Quattro Mori sculptures in Livorno
showed his embrace of the drama of Baroque

Among Tacca's earliest tasks in his prestigious new position were the completion of some of Giambologna’s unfinished works, including the equestrian statues of Ferdinando I de' Medici in Piazza Santissima Annunziata in Florence, of Henry IV of France, which was sent to Paris but later destroyed during the revolution in 1793, and of Philip III of Spain, which is still located in the Madrid’s Plaza Mayor.

The statue of Ferdinando I de’ Medici was cast with bronze melted from the cannons of captured Barbary and Ottoman galleys, taken by the Order of Saint Stephen, of which Ferdinando was Grand Master.

As his own career progressed, Tacca began to embrace the Baroque aesthetic. His work became characterised by a sense of the theatrical, conveying dramatic movement and exaggerated emotion. While his sculptures often depicted religious subjects, such as saints and biblical figures, he also created secular works, including fountains and allegorical figures.

Between 1623 and 1626 he executed what is considered his masterpiece, i Quattri Mori - the Four Moors - which shows four Saracen pirates chained at the base of Giovanni Bandini's monument to Ferdinando I de' Medici in Piazza della Darsena in Livorno. The pirates were supposedly taken prisoner by the Order of St. Stephen and imprisoned in Livorno. Tacca used some of them as models, posing them in accentuated twists and depicting grimaces of pain on their faces.

Tacca's Porcellino Fountain, a bronze of a wild
boar, is now in a museum in Florence

Two bronze fountains by Tacca originally destined for Livorno, notable for their intricate grotesque masks and shellwork textures, were set up instead in Piazza Santissima Annunziata in Florence.

In 1634, Tacco created his famous Fontana del Porcellino, a bronze fountain statue of a wild boar originally planned for the gardens - the Giardino di Boboli - behind Palazzo Pitti, the main Medici residence in Florence, but subsequently placed in the recently built Loggia del Mercato Nuovo, where a copy is currently on display. The original is in the Museo Stefano Bardini in Palazzo Mozzi.

The colossal equestrian bronze of Philip IV in Madrid was Tacca's last public commission.

Based on a design by Diego Velázquez, it was started in 1634 and shipped to Madrid in 1640, the year of Tacca’s death. The sculpture, set on top of a fountain composition, forms the centrepiece of the façade of the Royal Palace. 

Tacca consulted the scientist Galileo Galilei for advice on how he might make the statue stable, despite its entire weight being supported by the two hind legs and the tip of the tail, shown as brushing the ground as the horse rears. The feat had never been attempted successfully in a statue of such scale. 

Towards the end of his life, Pietro Tacca was assisted by his son, Ferdinando, who almost certainly completed some of his father’s unfinished projects. After the death of Ferdinando Tacca, the studio and foundry in Borgo Pinti were taken over by Giovanni Battista Foggini.

Foggini specialised in small bronze statuary. His reproductions of Tacca’s Moors figures in bronze and ceramic were still selling well on the connoisseur market in the early to mid-18th century.

The Giambologna coat of arms
identifies his former workshop

Travel tip:

Borgo Pinti is an historic street in the heart of Florence, which runs from Via Sant’Egidio to Piazzale Donatello. It has several notable landmarks along its path, including the Chiesa di Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi, a church dating back to around 1250 on a site that was previously occupied by the Monastery of the Women of Penance, a house of refuge for repentant women known as the Repentite, to which some ascribe the origin of the name Pinti, although others claim it was the name of an ancient family. The street, which forms a north-south axis of the historic centre, is lined with many notable palaces, as well as houses occupied by the painter Perugino and the sculptor Lorenzo Bartolini.  The house and workshops where Giambologna and Pietro Tacca created so much of their art were at numbers 24-26 in a building now called Palazzo Bellini delle Stelle, identifiable by the Giambologna coat of arms over the door.

The white of Carrara's marble makes the Apuan
Alps seemed snow-covered even in the summer

Travel tip:

Pietro Tacca’s town of birth, Carrara, famous for its blue and white marble, sits just inland from the Ligurian Sea coastline, in a valley that descends from the Alpi Apuane in Tuscany. The natural white of the peaks often convinces visitors they are covered with snow even in the summer. Marble has been quarried in the area for more than 2,000 years. Michelangelo was said to have been so taken with the purity of the stone that he spent eight months there choosing blocks for specific projects.  The Pantheon and Trajan's Column were both constructed using Carrara marble, which was also the material used for many Renaissance sculptures.  Carrara, nowadays a city of around 70,000 inhabitants, is home to many academies of sculpture and fine arts and a museum of statuary and antiquities.  The exterior of the city's own 12th century duomo is almost entirely marble.

Also on this day:

1797: The birth of revolutionary-turned-librarian Sir Anthony Panizzi

1841: The birth of politician Alessandro Fortis

1866: Sette e mezzo revolt breaks out in Palermo

1985: Terrorists attack Rome’s iconic Café de Paris

2005: Camorra boss Paolo Di Lauro captured in Naples

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