Barbara Longhi – painter

Artist created small portraits in soft colours with strong feeling

Longhi's painting of Saint Catherine of
Alexandria is a supposed self-portrait 

The talented portrait painter Barbara Longhi was born into a family of artists on this day in 1552 in Ravenna. Her work was much admired by her contemporaries but, sadly, only a small part of it has survived.

Daughter of the painter Luca Longhi, Barbara painted a portrait of herself as Saint Catherine of Alexandria and thankfully this can still be seen in Ravenna’s Museo dell’ Arte della Città. She also modelled for her father and his representations of her in his paintings confirm that the portrait of Saint Catherine was a good likeness of herself at that time.

Barbara and her older brother, Francesco, were both taught to paint by their father and as they grew up they would help in his workshop with major projects such as altarpieces. Barbara was depicted by her father as Saint Barbara in his 1570 painting Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints. 

She had completed her training by the time she was 18, but always stayed close to her father’s workshop in Ravenna.

Many of the surviving works that have been definitely attributed to Barbara Longhi depict the Virgin Mary and the infant Christ. Her picture of the Madonna and Child, which shows the Virgin Mary breast feeding, painted between 1575 and 1580, was acquired by the Art Gallery of Ontario in 2021.

Barbara Longhi did not sign all her paintings but on one, she wrote "B.L.F.", which means "Barbara Longhi fecit" (made by Barbara Longhi). On another, she wrote "B.L.P.", meaning "Barbara Longhi pinxit (painted by Barbara Longhi). Since most of her work was not signed, it is not known exactly how many pictures she painted, and only 15 works have been definitely attributed to her up to now.

One of her best-known paintings, Portrait of a Camaldolese Monk, is the only one of her known works to show an adult man. It is also one of the few paintings that has a date on it, though it is hard to read and could be either 1570 or 1573.

It is thought that Barbara probably posed for her father Luca Longhi’s painting of Nuptials of Cana for the Church of the Camaldolese in Ravenna. In the picture with her are her brother, Francesco, and the Abbot of the church’s convent, Don Pietro Bagnolo da Bagnacavallo. 

Longhi's Portrait of a Camaldolese
Monk, a rare depiction by her of a man

Barbara Longhi’s portrait of herself as Saint Catherine was painted when she was still a young woman and it shows her to be poised and elegantly dressed. It was painted for a monastery, but was acquired by the Museo dell' Arte della Città di Ravenna in 1829 and was cleaned in 1980.

One of her few paintings that does not show the Madonna is her 1570s work, Judith with the Head of Holofernes. It differs from other pictorial versions of the same story because it does not depict the violence of the act, but shows Judith looking up to heaven as if asking for forgiveness, reflecting the ideas being put forward by the Counter Reformation at the time.

Barbara Longhi’s paintings were typically small and composed with just a few people in them, rather than recreating huge scenes from the Bible. 

Experts have praised her use of soft colours and her ability to capture the feelings of her subjects. It has been claimed that her own father, Luca, once said he was astonished by her ability to portray a subject, after only a short glance at them, with more skill than other artists could achieve with the sitter posed in front of them for a longer period.

Barbara Longhi died at the age of 86 in her home town of Ravenna. A few of her paintings have since found their way to art galleries in France, Romania, the US, and Canada, as well as throughout Italy.

The Lombard Loggetta in the former monastery that
houses the Museo dell’ Arte della Città di Ravenna

Travel tip:

There are seven paintings by Barbara Longhi, as well as works by her brother, Francesco, and father, Luca, on display in the Museo dell’ Arte della Città di Ravenna, which is in the centre of the city. The museum is housed in the former monastery of Santa Maria in Porto, which has a 16th century cloister and a loggia overlooking its gardens, known as the Lombard Loggetta. Today the museum preserves works of art ranging from the 14th century, right up to examples of contemporary art. It also houses a contemporary mosaics collection. The museum is open from Tuesday to Saturday from 09.00 to 18.00 and on Sundays and during holidays from 15.00 to 19.00. It is situated in Via di Roma, at number 13.

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Magnificent mosaics adorn the
Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna

Travel tip:

Ravenna, in Emilia-Romagna, was the capital city of the western Roman empire in the fifth century. It is known for its well-preserved late Roman and Byzantine architecture and has eight UNESCO world heritage sites within the city. The Basilica di San Vitale, with its magnificent mosaics, is one of the most important examples of early Christian Byzantine art and architecture in Europe. Ravenna also houses the tomb of the great Italian poet Dante Alighieri, who lived and died in the city after he was exiled from Florence. The English poet Lord Byron also lived in Ravenna in the 19th century and was said to have found Dante’s tomb in the centre of the city inspirational. He would regularly visit the tomb and sit writing his poetry close by it during his time in the city. Florence has repeatedly asked for Dante’s remains to be sent back to them, but Ravenna has always refused to relinquish them.

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More reading:

Luca Longhi, the ‘quiet scholar’ who trained his children to follow in his footsteps

When Lord Byron became a Ravenna revolutionary

The mother of 11 who was Italy’s first female professional painter

Also on this day:

1559: The birth of painter Lodovico Cardi, known as Cigoli

1744: The birth of architect Giacomo Quarenghi

1960: The birth of conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan

1998: The death of actress Clara Calamai

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Alessandro Allori – painter

Artist was Bronzino’s favourite pupil

Alessandro Allori's 1570 painting, The Pearl
Fishers, is considered to be his masterpiece

Prolific painter Alessandro Allori, whose style of painting was to influence many other famous artists in the late 16th century, was born on this day in 1535 in Florence.

His father, who was a sword maker, died when he was five. The painter Agnolo Bronzino became guardian of the Allori family and little Alessandro spent a lot of his time in the artist’s workshop while he was growing up.

Bronzino was the court painter for Cosimo I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. He painted mainly portraits, but also some religious and allegorical subjects. It is said that Allori was his favourite pupil.

Allori was so close to him that he incorporated Bronzino’s name into his own, as can be seen on the inscription on one of his paintings that was dated 1552  – Alessandro Allori, foster son of Agnolo Bronzino. He even sometimes signed himself Alessandro Bronzino or Alessandro Bronzino-Allori.

It was also Allori who completed Bronzino’s last fresco, The Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence, in Basilica di San Lorenzo in Florence, which Bronzino was unable to finish before his death in 1572.

Allori spent six years studying in Rome, where he was highly influenced by Michelangelo’s work. On his return to Florence, he also became one of the leading painters for the members of the Medici family who ruled Florence at the time.

Much of his work displays the complicated, twisting poses typical of Florentine Mannerist painting. To help him paint realistic figures he conducted anatomical research, which included the dissection of human corpses supplied by the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova in Florence.

He painted altarpieces, frescoes and portraits and also designed tapestry, having been made director of the Florentine tapestry factory in the 1570s.

In 1570, Allori painted The Pearl Fishers, a landscape showing figures diving for pearls, for the Studiolo of Francesco I de’ Medici in Palazzo Vecchio and this is generally considered to be his masterpiece. Working under the guidance of Giorgio Vasari, Allori’s painting shows the influence of Michelangelo, with its figures in complex poses as they dived, which became emblematic of late Florentine Mannerism.

A self-portrait that Allori is thought
to have painted in about 1555

Allori was the father of the painter Cristofano Allori, who was born in 1577 and was taught to paint by his father. Alessandro Allori had many other pupils, including Giovanni Bizzelli.

Suffering from gout, Allori died in Florence in 1607. He is buried with many other famous artists from the period in the Cappella di San Luca (Chapel of the Painters) at the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata in Florence. 

After his death, Allori’s style of painting was to influence artistic developments in Tuscany for another 50 years. 

It is estimated that anywhere between 100 and 200 of Allori’s works have survived. The largest single collection is held by the Uffizi Gallery in Florence; others are in galleries around the world or in private collections.

One work, a 16th century portrait of Eleonora of Toledo, the first wife of Cosimo I de’ Medici, was returned to the Gemaeldegalerie in Berlin in 2006 after spending more than half a century in the possession of British broadcaster Charles Wheeler.

Wheeler, who worked as a foreign correspondent for the BBC for 61 years until his death in 2008, was given the painting, which measures only 16cm by 12cm, as a gift by a contributor to a programme he was making while working at the BBC’s Berlin Bureau in 1952. 

He assumed it was a copy but liked it enough to take it with him on various assignments around the world before it found a more permanent home on a bookshelf in his office.

It was not until 54 years later, while making a programme about missing art, that he decided to look into the history of the painting.

His enquiries revealed that it was not a copy but a priceless original, one of an estimated 400 paintings at the Gemaeldegalerie that had been looted or destroyed during World War Two.

The Palazzo Vecchio in Florence's Piazza
della Signoria is a familiar landmark

Travel tip:

Palazzo Vecchio, which Allori helped to decorate with his painting, is the town hall of Florence. It overlooks the Piazza della Signoria as well as the gallery of statues in the Loggia dei Lanzi. The palace was originally called the Palazzo della Signoria, after the Signoria of Florence, the ruling body of the Republic of Florence.  The building acquired its current name when the Medici Duke's residence was moved across the Arno to the Palazzo Pitti. The cubical palazzo is made of solid rusticated stonework topped by a simple tower with a clock, known as the Torre d’Arnolfo after its designer, Arnolfo di Cambio. The Palazzo Vecchio acquired renewed importance as the seat of united Italy's provisional government from 1865 to 1871, at a moment when Florence had become the temporary capital of the Kingdom of Italy.  Although most of the building is now given over to a museum, since 1872 it has housed the office of the mayor of Florence, and it is the seat of the City Council.

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The Basilica della Santissima Annunziata, with
its facade by Giovanni Battista Caccini

Travel tip:

Alessandro Allori is buried in the Chapel of San Luca in the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata in Piazza della Santissima Annunziata. The chapel has belonged to the artists’ confraternity since 1565. Many artists are buried in its vault, including Benvenuto Cellini, and Pontormo. Inside there are murals by Alessandro Allori and works by other famous painters from his period. The Basilica, in the San Marco district of Florence, was founded by the Servite order in 1250 and later rebuilt by Michelozzo between 1444 and 1481. The facade of the church is by the architect Giovanni Battista Caccini. It was 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. 

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More reading:

Bronzino, the Medici court painter who became the master of Mannerism

Giorgio Vasari, the painter and architect credited with being the first art historian

Cosimo I de’ Medici, the first Grand Duke of Tuscany

Also on this day:

1594: The death of painter Tintoretto

1914: The death of coffee machine pioneer Angelo Moriondo

1921: The birth of royal jeweller Andrew Grima

1970: The birth of film director Paolo Sorrentino

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Anton Giulio Bragaglia - theatre director and photographer

Intellectual whose work sparked argument among Futurists

Photography was only part of Anton
Giulio Bragaglia's artistic life

Anton Giulio Bragaglia, a film and theatre director and writer whose early work with photography made him an important if controversial figure in the Italian Futurist movement, was born on this day in 1890 in Piglio, an historic hilltop town about 55km (33 miles) east of Rome, in Lazio.

Bragaglia began his working life in Italy’s nascent movie industry - his father, Francesco, was employed at a studio in Rome - and went on to influence Italy’s cultural life in many more ways as a theatre director, cinematographer and the founder or editor of a number of arts magazines, in addition to his work with photography.

He also founded in 1922 the Teatro Sperimentale degli Independenti, an alternative theatre built by adapting the ancient Roman baths of Septimius Severus in Via degli Avignonesi, a street that runs parallel with the top end of Via del Tritone, near Piazza Barberini.

Francesco Bragaglia, an engineer, was the first technical director of the Cines film studio, which opened in 1906 near Porta San Giovanni in the Italian capital.

Anton Giulio joined the studio as an assistant director in the same year, gaining considerable experience working alongside directors Mario Caserini and Enrico Guazzoni.

When he was 19, however, still to become established as the director, set designer, and cinematographer he would be remembered as, Bragaglia became excited by the fledgling Italian Futurist movement and their enthusiasm for speed, dynamism and technology.

He and his older brothers, Arturo and Carlo Ludovico, both of whom worked, like Anton Giulio, in the film business, wanted to become active participants in the movement, which rejected traditional art and would influence painting, literature, sculpture and architecture in Italy in the early part of the 20th century.

Through their experimental work with cameras, they found ways to capture movement, energy, and continuity in photographs, using long exposures to create blurred forms and the impression of movement. 

Anton Giulio set out their methods and vision in his 1911 manifesto, entitled Fotodinamismo futurista.  His photodynamic works, such as Waving and The Typist, were widely admired for demonstrating motion as the essence of modern life and through these he hoped to establish photography as a central medium of Futurist experimentation and a tool for expressing the rhythms of modernity. 

Bragaglia's The Typist, in which his open shutter
technique was able to capture a sense of movement

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, the founder of the Futurist movement, was supportive of their contribution and was happy to help them fund exhibitions of their work - although ultimately the movement expelled them in 1913 due to fundamental disagreements over whether photography could be considered as an art form.

This was mainly down to the influence of Umberto Boccioni, the painter and sculptor, who argued that photography was a mechanical medium that merely copied reality, not true creative art, and could undermine the high-art status of Futurist painting. 

Boccioni and others felt that Anton Giulio Bragaglia had been presumptuous in publishing his Fotodinamismo futurista manifesto, accusing him of trying to act as a spokesman for the movement without having the permission to do so. 

Despite their expulsion in 1913, Anton Giulio Bragaglia continued to contribute to the avant-garde movement, later founding the Casa d'arte Bragaglia in 1918, welcoming Futurist artists and giving them space to exhibit their work.

He continued to experiment with photography, his work being exhibited in Italy and abroad, including the Venice Biennale in 1924 and 1926.

By then Bragaglia had made a broader impression in the arts world. Having become editor-in-chief of the artistic and theatrical periodical L’Artista in 1911, he founded the magazine La Ruoto and the periodical Cronache di Attualità, attracting impressive lists of contributors to both that included Gabriele D'Annunzio, Grazia Deledda, Rudyard Kipling, Luigi Pirandello, Corrado Alvaro, the poet Trilussa and artists Giorgio De Chirico and Fortunato Depero. 

A section of the interior of 
Bragaglia's Teatro Sperimentale

He made a number of films, largely with a Futurist imprint, in no small part due to the avant-garde scenography of Enrico Prampolini. 

In 1918 he founded and directed the Casa d'Arte Bragaglia, which he inaugurated with a personal exhibition by the Futurist painter Giacomo Balla. The following year he directed his first play at the Teatro Argentina in Rome. 

In 1922 he opened the Teatro Sperimentale degli Indipendenti, which he directed until 1936, having entrusted the architect and artist Virgilio Marchi with the adaptation of the ancient Roman baths. He engaged Balla, Depero and Prampolini to take care of furnishings and decoration, again with a heavy accent on Futurist styles. 

The Teatro Sperimentale degli Indipendenti became a point of reference for the Italian avant-garde, although Bragaglia did not close the door on traditional theatrical forms. Although he embraced the innovations of international theatre, he was also keen to promote young Italian playwrights.

An intellectual with a considerable range of interests, he wrote extensively as a critic on cinema, theatre, dance, scenography and stagecraft, often travelling across Europe and to America to host exhibition and conference tours, while still working actively in the theatre, in which he eventually directed more than 50 productions.

He directed for the last time at the Rome Opera House in 1960, staging Pietro Mascagni's Le maschere, an opera written as an homage to Italian comic opera - opera buffa - and the traditions of commedia dell'arte.

Bragaglia died in July 1960 at the age of 70. His funeral and burial took place at the Verano monumental cemetery in Rome, not far from the Sapienza University.

Piglio occupies an elevated position with 
sweeping views across the Sacco Valley

Travel tip:

Built on a spur of Monte Scalambra, a somewhat isolated mountain located on the border between the Metropolitan City of Rome and the Province of Frosinone, Bragaglia’s birthplace, Piglio, overlooks the Sacco Valley.  At the highest point of the small town stands the castle built by the Colonna family just over 1,000 years ago. The Colonnas lost control of the town but regained it in the 14th century and retained control until the early 19th century. With a history that goes back to ancient Roman times, the town’s strategic position has not always been to its advantage. A fierce battle between the Romans and Hannibal’s army in the valley during the Second Punic War, Napoleon’s armies largely burnt it down in the late 18th century and it was bombed by Allied planes in World War Two. Happily, it has been quieter in recent times and Pope John Paul II used to go there for moments of relaxation, a habit which is commemorated in a path laid out in the town, in which significant quotations attributed to him are engraved. Today, Piglio is known as part of the Cesanese DOCG red wine production area, staging a wine festival in October each year. 

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The Palazzo Barberini, built in the 17th century,
now houses one of Rome's major art museums

Travel tip:

Bragaglia opened his Teatro Sperimentale degli Independenti within some ancient Roman baths in the district of Rome known as Rione II - Trevi, an area right at the heart of one of Rome’s most visited areas. Naturally, it features the iconic Trevi Fountain, now more than 250 years old, which remains one of the city’s most popular attractions, so much so that the city now charges tourists a €2 euro fee for the privilege of seeing the fountain close up at peak times. Other major sights within the Trevi rione are the Palazzo Barberini, the Baroque palace built for the Barberini family in the 17th century that stands directly off the piazza and houses one of Rome’s major art museums; the Fontana del Tritone, Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s 1643 masterpiece which is the centrepiece of Piazza Barberini; and the Fontana delle Api, another Bernini fountain located just off the piazza.The Via Veneto, one of the city’s most famous boulevards thanks to its association with the Dolce Vita era, begins at Piazza Barberini, while the Quirinal Hill area, which includes several historic churches and the Palazzo Quirinale, the official residence of the Italian President, is also nearby. 

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More reading:

Umberto Boccioni, the leading Futurist artist who died tragically young

How Giacomo Balla’s paintings captured movement and speed

Giorgio De Chirico, founder of the scuola metafisica of Italian art

Also on this day:

1791: The birth of architect Louis Visconti

1881: The birth of Futurist painter Carlo Carrà

1917: The birth of film director Giuseppe De Santis

1929: Lateran Treaty gives independence to Vatican

1948: The birth of footballer Carlo Sartori

1995: The birth of singer Gianluca Ginoble

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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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