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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Francesco Berni - poet

The short turbulent life of a witty satirist   

Francesco Berni depicted in a
18th century drawing 

Tuscan writer Francesco Berni, whose satirical verses poked fun at two Popes and one of his contemporary Italian poets, died on this day in 1535 in Florence.

Berni became known for his distinctive style of burlesque writing, which imitated serious literary forms in a humorous way. This technique became known as ‘bernesco’ and was a device later used by many other poets.

Some people believed his death, when he was in his thirties, was due to having been poisoned in revenge for refusing to take part in a plot to kill either Ippolito de’ Medici or an Italian Cardinal named Giovanni Salviati, but this is not certain.

Berni was born in either 1497 or 1498 in Lamporecchio in Tuscany. His father, Niccoló, who was a doctor, came from an established Florentine family, but he was poor. Berni spent his early years living in Florence and, when he was about 20, he entered the service of Cardinal Bernardo Bibbiena and his nephew, Angelo Dovizi, and moved to Rome with them.

At the time of the election of Pope Adrian VI, Berni circulated some witty verses that may have caused offence and he then found himself having to leave the capital city for a while and moved to live in Abruzzo. He returned in 1523 and accepted a post as a clerk, or a secretary, to Gian Matteo Giberti, who had an important role as datary to Pope Clement VII, which was a powerful post, responsible for processing official documents, granting dispensations and conferring benefices.

However, Berni found his duties working for Giberti irritating but, in the meantime, earned himself some celebrity because of his inventive satirical poetry. In about 1530, he was able to relinquish his post to concentrate on his writing, having obtained a canonry in Florence Cathedral, an office that relieved his precarious financial situation.

The writer’s Tuscan translation of Orlando Innamorato, a work that had been composed by the Renaissance author Matteo Maria Boiardo, went on to eclipse the original version, as it was preferred by many readers. The original had been written in the less popular Ferrarese dialect, making it more difficult for a lot of people to read. 

Pope Clement VII was one of Berni's
targets for his satirical verse

Berni’s play La Catrina, which was described as a lively, rustic farce, was also highly regarded at the time, but Berni was to become more well-known for his burlesque poetry.

Some of his output is regarded as savagely satirical, such as his verses attacking his fellow Tuscan poet, Pietro Aretino, and those aimed at the Popes, Adrian VI and Clement VII. 

However, some of his most popular work, which was written in the style of Petrarchan verse, was inspired by relatively unimportant, everyday subjects, such as a poem he wrote mocking his friend’s shorn beard.

Sadly, Berni died, at the age of about 38. After his death, a story circulated that he had been poisoned by Duke Alessandro de’ Medici for having refused to poison the Duke’s cousin, Ippolito de’ Medici, but this has never been proved one way or the other. It was also claimed in a letter written at the time that Berni died from ingesting the poison that he had refused to administer to Cardinal Giovanni Salviati, a Florentine diplomat.

Whether either story is true or not, it is thought more likely that Berni’s mysterious death occurred as a result of being caught up in the political intrigues going on at the time among the Medici, rather than because he had seriously offended any of the targets of his satirical verses. 

Berni’s acclaimed translation and revision of Boiardo’s Orlando Innamorato has also provided scholars with a clue about his own opinions about religion. In one of his poetic introductions to a canto, he revealed that he was favourably disposed toward the new Reformation principles being introduced in Italy at the time, which may explain the bitterness of some of his remarks in the satirical verses that he had written about the Church.

Several streets in Italian cities have been named after the poet. You can find a Via Francesco Berni in Florence, Empoli, Pietrasanta, Varese, and Verona.

Packets of brigidini, Lamporecchio's speciality
wafer biscuits, on sale at a market

Travel tip:

Lamporecchio, where Francesco Berni was born, is a comune - municipality - in the province of Pistoia in Tuscany. It is about 13km (eight miles) south of Pistoia. The town is known for the invention of brigidini, which are thin, anise-flavoured wafers, and the berlingozzo, a cake typically eaten during the Carnival. The noble Rospigliosi family, of which Pope Clement IX was a member, has its roots in Lamporecchio. With a population of around 7,500,  Lamporecchio is located in the Valdinievole, a valley that extends between Pistoia and Lucca, in an area halfway between the Fucecchio Marsh and the hills of Montalbano, which are planted with vineyards and olive trees. Halfway along the valley - and a good base for visiting the area - is the town of Montecatini Terme, famous for its thermal baths that can be enjoyed in the town’s Liberty-style spa resorts.

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Brunelleschi's colossal dome of the Cattedrale di
Santa Maria del Fiore dominates the skyline

Travel tip:

Berni achieved financial security and was able to concentrate on his poetry after 1530 when he obtained a canonry at Florence Cathedral. Otherwise known as Santa Maria del Fiore, or the Duomo of Florence, the cathedral dominates the city skyline with its immense, brick-built dome designed by the Florentine Renaissance architect Filippo Brunelleschi. It was built without scaffolding and given an inner shell to provide a platform for the timbers that support the outer shell. The architect died in 1446 before it was completed, but a statue of Brunelleschi was erected in Piazza del Duomo. The dome was his greatest achievement, and would forever define the city of Florence. It remains, to this day, the largest masonry dome in the world.

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More reading:

How satirist Giuseppe Parini mocked the aristocracy of 18th century Milan

Why Pietro Aretino was both admired and feared by the nobility

Ludovico Ariosto, Renaissance author of the epic poem, Orlando Furioso

Also on this day:

1805: Napoleon Bonaparte was declared King of Italy

1955: The death of racing driver Alberto Ascari

1977: The birth of footballer Luca Toni

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Pietro Nardini – violinist

Brilliant musician inspired the young Mozart

Violinist Pietro Nardini was praised for
the beauty and emotion of his playing

Pietro Nardini, who was one of the most celebrated violinists of the 18th century and was also a talented composer of violin music, died on this day in 1793 in Florence.

Nardini’s playing was praised by his contemporaries for its beauty and emotional power and his violin and flute compositions are still valued for their melodious qualities and technical skill.

He was a friend of Johann Georg Leopold Mozart, the father and teacher of the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. When the young composer first visited Italy with his father, he performed alongside Nardini in Tuscany.

Pietro Nardini was born in Livorno in 1722. At the age of 12 he became a pupil of the violinist and composer Giuseppe Tartini. 

By the time he was 14, he was already playing the violin at festivals in Lucca, but he continued working with Tartini until 1740, when he became head instrumentalist in Lucca.

In 1762, Nardini moved to Stuttgart, where he joined the court of Charles Eugene, Duke of Wurtemberg as a violinist. He was later appointed orchestra conductor, succeeding Niccolo Jomelli in the post.

After moving back to Italy to support the ailing Tartini, Nardini was appointed as maestro di cappella in Florence and he remained at the court of Leopold II Grand Duke of Tuscany for the rest of his life, although he also sometimes performed in Pisa, Rome and Naples.

Nardini also had many successful pupils, including Thomas Linley Junior, who was a highly talented violinist and is sometimes referred to as ’the English Mozart.’

The young Mozart performed with Nardini
at the Villa Medicea di Poggio Imperiale

When the teenage Mozart visited Tuscany with his father in 1770, he performed alongside Nardini at the Grand Duke Leopold’s summer palace, the Villa Medicea di Poggio Imperiale.

The Mozart family had first met Nardini in Augsburg in 1763. Pietro Nardini was intrigued to meet the young Mozart again, because his student,  Thomas Linley, was almost exactly the same age. 

The next days the boys met for the first time at the home of the Medici court’s official poetess, who was known as Corilla Olimpica, and was herself a pupil of Nardini on the violin and often held musical evenings.

In 1768, Thomas Linley, at the age of 12, had been sent to Florence to study with Nardini. The Tommasino, as he was known, and the little Mozart, were both talked of in Italy as the most promising musicians of the age. 

That evening in Tuscany, they performed one after another,  constantly embracing each other between pieces of music

The boys spent the next day together as well and the following evening performed together at the home of the court finance minister. The Mozart family party were to leave Tuscany the next day and plans were discussed for a reunion, but sadly, Linley and Mozart were never to see each other again. 

The Mozart family were unable to go back to Florence, and Linley, who also became a promising composer, returned to England. He died eight years later at the age of 22 in a boating accident in Lincolnshire.

Manuscripts of Nardini’s compositions are preserved in many Italian cities and abroad. Much of his work has been recorded in the 20th and 21st centuries and is available on disc. 

Probably the best known among Nardini’s highly regarded compositions are his Sonata in D Major and Concerto in E Minor.

The canal district in the Quartiere Venezia is
one of Livorno's attractions
(Image by danielmanastireanu from Pixabay)

Travel tip:

Livorno, where Pietro Nardini was born, is a lively Tuscan port city dating back to the Renaissance, which features Medici fortresses and canal districts among its attractions. Planned by the Medici as an ideal Renaissance port, its cosmopolitan past as a free port created a tolerant, multicultural atmosphere that remains part of its identity.  The city’s most elegant promenade is the Terrazza Mascagni, a sweeping checkerboard terrace overlooking the Ligurian Sea.  The Livorno Aquarium sits at one end, while historic bathing establishments line the shore.  At the heart of the older part of the town lies Quartiere Venezia, a 17th‑century canal district of bridges, warehouses, and pastel façades. Nearby stands the city’s emblem, the Monumento dei Quattro Mori, a dramatic 1620s sculpture of four chained bronze figures supporting the statue of Grand Duke Ferdinando I.  Livorno has two major fortresses. The Fortezza Vecchia, guarding the Medici port, preserves medieval towers and later Renaissance additions.  Inland, the Fortezza Nuova rises above a green moat and park, offering peaceful walks amid red‑brick ramparts.  For a taste of daily life, the Mercato Centrale is one of Italy’s largest indoor markets, with stalls selling fish, bread and pastries, and many local specialties. 

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The Villa Medicea di Poggio Imperiale, where Mozart
and Nardini performed, now houses a girls' school
(Picture by Sailko via Wikimedia Commons)

Travel tip:

The Villa Medicea di Poggio Imperiale, where Pietro Nardini performed with the young Mozart, is a grand, predominantly neoclassical Medici residence in Arcetri, in the hills just south of Florence.  The villa was originally the Baroncelli family’s country house and passed to the Pandolfini and Salviati families before being seized in 1565 by Cosimo I de’ Medici, who gave it to his daughter Isabella de’ Medici. Isabella transformed it into a refined retreat, hosting an intellectual court and enriching the interiors with art. In 1622, it was bought by Grand Duchess Maria Maddalena of Austria, who commissioned architect Giulio Parigi to double its size, create the monumental façade, and link the villa to Florence via a long, tree‑lined avenue. It was she who gave it the name Poggio Imperiale, reflecting her imperial Habsburg lineage. After further expansions followed under Vittoria Della Rovere, in the 18th century, Grand Duke Leopold II adopted the villa as a principal residence.  The villa’s present neoclassical appearance is largely down to Maria Luisa of Spain, Elisa Baciocchi (Napoleon’s sister), and Ferdinando III, who refined the façade and interiors into the elegant, symmetrical form seen today.  Today the building houses a prestigious girls’ boarding school, but guided tours can be booked.

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More reading:

Giuseppe Tartini, 18th century composer who changed technique of violin playing

Why Italian composer Antonio Salieri was dogged by Mozart murder rumours 

Opera composer Pietro Mascagni, another of Livorno’s famous musical sons

Also on this day: 

1917: The birth of cardinal and composer Domenico Bartolucci

1922: The birth of actor and TV host Raimondo Vianello

1976: The birth of rugby star Andrea Lo Cicero

1983: The birth of Olympic champion archer Marco Galiazzo

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Verdi’s Macbeth premieres in Florence

Shakespeare adaptation marked change in composer’s style

The poster advertising the first
performance of the opera

Giuseppe Verdi’s operatic interpretation of the Shakespeare play Macbeth was performed for the first time on this day in 1847.

The premiere took place at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence, where the composer, already gaining fame at 33 years old but with his most successful years still to come, was under contract to the impresario Alessandro Lanari.

After his success with Nabucco, his third opera, which featured the great chorus, Va, pensiero, in 1842, Verdi rapidly found himself in demand. Macbeth would be his tenth opera, his eighth in just five years. Lanari, confident that anything bearing the up-and-coming maestro’s name would sell tickets, was happy to leave the choice of work to Verdi himself, and so did not give him a particular brief.

The theatre was known for its refined acoustics and had a reputation for supporting innovative work and Verdi, who already felt his artistic freedom was being compromised by a need to produce commercially viable output, saw an opportunity to shake off at least some constraints.

Having revered the English dramatist William Shakespeare from an early age, Verdi chose Macbeth for a number of reasons. First, he felt the nature of the play would allow him to focus on the drama of the story, rather than adhering strictly to bel canto convention, which demanded a structure built around vocal highlights, sometimes at the expense of realism and depth.

The play had been in Verdi’s mind for some time. What convinced him that the moment to work with it had arrived was the availability of Felice Varesi, a baritone renowned for his dramatic intensity, to cast in the title role.

He faced some challenges in bringing the project to fruition in the way he intended. There were disagreements with his librettist, Francesco Maria Piave, over how to convey the tone Verdi desired. A number of times, the composer asked his friend, Andrea Maffei, another librettist, to provide input as well, even rewriting parts of Piave's libretto.

His leading lady, the soprano Marianna Barbieri-Nini, who had worked with him on his sixth opera, I due Foscari, had to be coached not to infuse her performance with the vocal polish usually required. Keen to emphasise character. Verdi demanded that her Lady Macbeth be “ugly and evil.”

When Verdi’s Macbeth was unveiled, audiences were sceptical about the lack of a central romance and some critics were unsettled by its darkness. Structured in four acts, with the emphasis on Lady Macbeth’s ruthless ambition, Macbeth’s psychological unravelling and the three witches - represented in Verdi’s interpretation by three choral groups - as a driving force of fate, it was nonetheless deemed a success, if not the crowd-pleasing blockbuster Lanari might have been hoping for.

Felice Varesi, the first to
sing the title role

The Florentine audience, who were seen as traditionally more restrained, say, than those in Milan, respected it as a considered, serious and innovative work, if a little unusual. It toured Italy, reportedly being performed at 21 venues around the country, before making its United States debut in New York in 1850, and its United Kingdom debut in Manchester in 1860, although it was never seen as a runaway hit.

The composer himself was said to regard it as his greatest achievement to that point. Later he would talk about it in terms of marking the start of his move away from what he spoke of as his “galley years” as a composer, when he likened himself to a “galley slave”, endlessly under pressure in terms of workload, deadlines, and artistic constraints, as if chained to an oar.

Indeed, Macbeth is now seen as a landmark moment in Verdi’s career, signalling a transition towards the artistic depth that would set him apart as the greatest composer of Italy’s operatic history, placing him above even Giacomo Puccini and Gioachino Rossini as titans of the genre.

By the time he produced the substantially revised version of Macbeth he presented in Paris in 1865, the version generally performed today, he had written Rigoletto, Il trovatore, La traviata, Simon Boccanegra, Un ballo in maschera and La forza del destino, transforming his reputation from that of rising star to a creator of genuine masterpieces.

Verdi’s reverence towards Shakespeare never diminished, even though he would not return to the English playwright until the end of his career, signing off with Otello in 1887 and Falstaff, adapted from The Merry Wives of Windsor, in 1893.

It is thought this was down to a number of factors, among them the conventions of Italian opera in the 19th century, with star singers expecting showcase roles and impresarios wanting traditional theatre-filling melodrama. 

Verdi also had to feel artistically confident that he was able to do a Shakespeare play full justice and be supported by a librettist who could do likewise. Until his collaboration with Arrigo Boito, who worked with him on Otello and Falstaff, such a librettist never appeared.

The Teatro della Pergola, the historic
theatre in the centre of Florence

Travel tip:

Florence’s Teatro della Pergola, where Verdi’s Macbeth was performed before an audience for the first time, was inaugurated in December 1656. It is one of Italy’s oldest and most historically significant theatres, celebrated as the first substantial example of what came to be known as an Italian‑style theatre, with tiers of private boxes, a shift away from the traditional design based on a semi-circle of decreasing steps. It is said to have taken its name from the grape pergola that used to stand nearby. Built under the patronage of Cardinal Giancarlo de’ Medici, it was designed by the architect Ferdinando Tacca, quickly becoming a centre of Florentine cultural life. It was officially opened during the carnival of 1657, with the world premiere of the comic opera Il podestà di Colognole by Jacopo Melani. The genre of melodrama, which became the fundamental currency of opera in Italy, is said to have been born at the Teatro della Pergola, which hosted the premieres of two operas by Gaetano Donizetti,  Parisina d'Este and Rosmonda d’Inghilterra, in 1833 and 1834.  The Pergola also appears as a footnote in another famous story, it being the theatre at which Antonio Meucci, the Italian said to have been the real inventor of the telephone, was working as a stage technician when he constructed a prototype acoustic telephone to communicate between the stage and the theatre’s control room.  Located on Via della Pergola, the theatre is a short walk from Piazza del Duomo, and close to landmarks such as the Palazzo Bargello and the Basilica di Santa Croce. 

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The Baratta Salsamenteria Storica in Busseto, which
celebrates the career of a reputed former customer

Travel tip:

Giuseppe Verdi came from Busseto, a town in Emilia-Romagna about 45km (27 miles) from Parma, 35km (21 miles) from Piacenza and 25km (15 miles) from Cremona. The area has plenty to offer Verdi fans, who can visit the house where he was born, in 1813, in the village of Le Roncole, and the churches of Santa Maria degli Angeli and San Michele Arcangelo, where he played the organ. Visitors can also admire the Palazzo Orlandi, a beautiful house on Via Roma that Verdi bought in 1845, which he shared with his future wife, the soprano Giuseppina Strepponi, from 1849 to 1851. Verdi is said to have composed Luisa Miller, Stiffelio, Rigoletto and Il trovatore while living there. Look out also for the Rocca dei Marchesi Pallavicino, on Piazza Giuseppe Verdi, which houses the Teatro Giuseppe Verdi. In 1913, Arturo Toscanini conducted a performance of Falstaff there in celebration of the centenary of Verdi's birth and to raise funds for what is now a large monument of the seated composer located in the piazza. Visitors to the small town, which has a population of around 6,700 residents, are often drawn to the Baratta Salsamenteria Storica, a tavern and salumeria on Via Roma where Verdi was once reputed to be a regular customer. The tavern specialises in charcuterie boards loaded with local hams, salami and cheeses, which customers eat with chunks of country bread, washed down with red lambrusco wine, traditionally drunk from a bowl rather than a glass.

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More reading:

Giuseppina Strepponi, the soprano who inspired Verdi and Donizetti

How the premiere of Otello, Verdi’s penultimate opera, prompted 20 curtain calls

The Verdi chorus that, for many Italians, became the country’s national anthem

Also on this day:

1655: The birth of painter Giuseppe Maria Crespi

1835: The birth of astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli

1820: The birth of Victor Emmanuel II, first king of the unified Italy

1844: The birth of Umberto I, second king of the unified Italy

1972: The shocking death of publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli

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Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici - banker

Medici dynasty was built on his fortune

Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici; this portrait by
Alessandro Allori hangs in the Uffizi in Florence

Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici, who created the wealth upon which the Medici dynasty of Renaissance Italy was built, died on this day in 1429 in Florence.

Although Cosimo de’ Medici, his son, is regarded as the founder of the dynasty as the first Medici to rule Florence, it was the fortune that Cosimo inherited from his father that enabled him to command power and influence in the city. The Medici family would rule Florence, barring a few interruptions, for the next 300 years.

Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici founded the Medici Bank in 1397 and at the time of his death was one of the wealthiest men in Europe. Although he had another son who survived to be an adult, Lorenzo, the bulk of his fortune passed to Cosimo.

Born in Florence, it is thought in 1360, he was the son of Averardo de’ Medici and Jacopa Spini. Bicci was Averardo’s nickname.

Averardo, a wool merchant, died comfortably off, but not wealthy. His estate was divided between his five sons and Giovanni’s share was relatively small, compelling him to build his fortune through skill and opportunity rather than inheritance. 

Giovanni's uncle, Vieri, on the other hand, was rich. From another branch of the Medici family, he owned one of the 70-plus banks thought to have existed in Florence in the second half of the 14th century and was good at his business, much of which involved loans and investments.

Vieri took the young De’ Medici on and supervised his rise through the ranks, being sufficiently impressed with the speed at which he learned that he made him a junior partner of the bank’s branch in Rome. In 1385, thanks to a dowry of 1500 florins that his wife, a noblewoman called Piccarda Bueri, brought to their marriage, he was able to take control of the Rome branch. The branch grew and when Vieri retired, in 1393, he decided to place De’ Medici in charge of the entire business.

In 1397, De’ Medici moved from Rome to Florence and opened the Medici Bank, establishing a headquarters at the crossroads between Via Porta Rossa and Via Calimala in an area of the city called Orsanmichele, a short distance from Piazza della Signoria.

Giovanni's son, Cosimo, built the
Medici powerbase on the bank's success

Giovanni De’ Medici was a shrewd businessman and the Medici Bank prospered in part thanks to his careful investment in the cloth trade. By the early 15th century, it had already become one of the most respected financial institutions in Europe, with branches in Venice, Rome and Naples as well as Florence. 

Under his leadership, the structure of the bank was revised in a way that meant that it functioned as a collection of partnerships, rather than having a central structure. This meant that if one branch suffered a loss, the impact on the bank as a whole would be less. In this way, the Medici Bank enjoyed financial resilience that other institutions lacked.

Giovanni was not an overtly political operator but had a knack for forming advantageous friendships, the most successful of all being the relationship he forged with the Catholic Church during his time in Rome. 

His decision to align himself with Baldassarre Cossa, a cardinal who would become the Antipope John XXIII during the Western Schism. In return for support from the Medici Bank, Cossa appointed them as managers of the papal treasury, a lucrative privilege that earned the bank a substantial amount in commissions.

Although Cossa was deposed after five years, Giovanni had by then foreseen the return of the papacy to Rome and found favour with Oddone Colonna, who as Pope Martin V maintained the Medici as papal bankers.

At the same time, he honoured Baldassare Cossa’s trust in him by paying a 38,000 ducat ransom to secure his release from prison in Germany. When Cossa died in 1419, Giovanni sponsored the construction of a magnificent tomb for him in the Florence Baptistery.

The Old Sacristy, a Brunelleschi masterpiece,
where Giovanni de' Medici is buried

Subsequent popes also retained the services of the Medici banks, setting the family on the path to becoming one of the richest dynasties in Europe. 

Through all this, Giovanni De’ Medici diligently protected the image he liked to portray as a humble businessman rather than a political figure. He insisted that he and his sons rejected the finery they could easily have afforded in favour of dressing like ordinary Florentines. He always believed that keeping on the side of the people would serve the family well. 

As an example, when Florence was hit by a serious outbreak of plague in 1417, Giovanni made substantial funds available to help the sick. He also used his considerable influence within the Signoria, Florence’s ruling council, to replace the city’s inequitable and oppressive poll tax with a new property tax he had designed himself that shifted the burden of tax to the wealthy, even at considerable cost to himself.

The Medici’s long tradition of patronage of the arts can also be attributed to a large degree to the example set by Giovanni, who made large donations to the work of artists such as Filippo Brunelleschi and Jacopo della Quercia.

Most notably, he commissioned the great Florentine architect Brunelleschi, famous for the colossal dome of Florence’s duomo, to renovate the ancient Basilica of San Lorenzo, destined to become the church of the Medici family. 

The Old Sacristy in the basilica is regarded as among Brunelleschi’s masterpieces - and of early Renaissance architecture in general. Donatello also contributed significant sculptural work to the project. 

The structure was completed in 1428, a year before Giovanni died. As per his wishes, Giovanni De’ Medici was buried in the Old Sacristy. His wife was buried with him after her death four years later.

De’ Medici was thought to be 69 at the time of his death. Though less flamboyant than some of his descendants, his achievements were foundational. By establishing the Medici Bank and securing the family’s early fortunes, he set in motion a dynasty that would shape European history for centuries. 

The Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence became
the family church of the Medici dynasty

Travel tip:

The Basilica di San Lorenzo, the burial place of the principal members of the Medici family, is one of the largest churches in Florence, situated in the middle of the market district in Piazza di San Lorenzo. Filippo Brunelleschi was commissioned to design a new building in 1419 to replace the original 11th century Romanesque church on the site but the new church was not completed until after his death. It is considered one of the greatest examples of Renaissance architecture.  Numerous architects worked at the church, including Michelangelo. Brunelleschi designed the central nave, with the two collateral naves on either side, and the Old Sacristy. The sacristy chapel is a cube with a lateral length of about 11 metres (36 feet), covered with a hemispheric dome, that is without any decoration beside its twelve ribs that converge in an oculus. The interior became a standard in Renaissance architecture, as did Brunelleschi’s use of white walls. 

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The beautiful Florence Baptistery, featuring 
Ghiberti's 'Gates of Paradise' is a city landmark

Travel tip:

The Florence Baptistery, where Giovanni De’ Medici commissioned a tomb for Baldassare Costa, is also known as the Baptistery of Saint John, dedicated to the patron saint of the city, John the Baptist. The octagonal baptistery stands where Piazza del Duomo meets Piazza San GThe architecture of the Baptistery takes inspiration from the Pantheon, an ancient Roman temple, yet it is also a highly original artistic achievement, although the identity of the architects who worked on its construction in the 11th and 12th century is undocumented. What is known is that the North Doors and the famous East Doors - dubbed the Gates of Paradise and widely regarded as a masterpiece of Renaissance art - were constructed in the 15th century by the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti. The project was awarded to Ghiberti after he entered a competition for designs in which the judges were unable to decide between his submission and that of Filippo Brunelleschi, with whom he might have shared the commission had the latter not refused.

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More reading:

The colourful life of Baldassare Cossa

Why Cosimo di Giovanni de’ Medici is seen as the founder of the Medici dynasty

The architectural genius of Filippo Brunelleschi

Also on this day:

1339: The Battle of Parabiago

1549: The birth of Francesco Maria II della Rovere

1778: The death of scientist Laura Bassi

1816: Rossini’s Barber of Seville premieres 

1950: The birth of journalist Pino Aprile

1993: The death of car maker Ferruccio Lamborghini

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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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Bernardo Pisano – musician and priest

First composer to have collection of his music printed

A page from an early printed collection
of music by Bernardo Pisano

Bernardo Pisano, who is believed to have been the first composer of the Italian madrigal, was born on this day in 1490 in Florence.

Pisano - sometimes known as Pagoli - was so important in musical circles during his lifetime that he is also thought to have been the first composer anywhere in the world to have a printed collection of secular music devoted entirely to himself.

Although he was born in Florence, it is supposed that, because he used the name Pisano, he must have also spent some time living in Pisa. 

As a young man, he sang and studied music at the Church of the Santissima Annunziata in Florence. In 1512, he became maestro di cappella there in addition to supervising the choristers and singing in the chapels himself. 

As a favourite of the Medici family, he was appointed to sing in the papal chapel in Rome in 1514 after Cardinal Giovanni de’ Medici became Pope Leo X. While there, he also taught Francesco Corteccia, an organist and composer for Cosimo I de’ Medici.

Pisano stayed in Rome for the rest of his life, singing in the papal chapel choir, and he acquired ecclesiastical benefices from the Medici at the cathedrals of Seville and Lerida in Spain.

However, he made the mistake of returning to Florence in 1529 during the three-year period of republican government of the city. He was seized and imprisoned because he was known to have close connections to the Medici family. While he was being kept prisoner, he was accused of being a papal spy and tortured.

After the siege of Florence in 1529, the city was recaptured by papal troops and the Medici were returned to power there. Pisano was released and was able to go back to live in Rome.

Raphael's portrait of Pope Leo X, who
was Pisano's friend and patron

Pisano had written sacred music during his time as maestro di cappella at the Church of the Annunziata. But he was later to be more influential as a composer of secular music and he was believed to be history's first madrigalist.

Madrigals were sung during the 15th and 16th centuries by groups of between two and eight voices. In 1520, a Venetian printer published ‘Musica di Messer Bernardo Pisano sopra del canzone del Petrarca’. While the pieces in the collection were not actually called madrigals, they contained features that have been recognised in retrospect as being distinctive of the madrigal genre. 

The collection was made up of verses by the poet Petrarch set to music by Pisano. He was influenced by the literary theories of the poet and scholar Pietro Bembo, who was a secretary to Pope Leo X and later became a Cardinal appointed by Pope Paul III.

This publication was also the first known collection of secular music by a single composer to be printed. 

Later composers who became masters of the madrigal genre are known to have been aware of this work by Pisano and to have copied some of his stylistic traits from it.

In 1546, Pope Paul III appointed Pisano as maestro di cappella of his private chapel. Among the singers in his group was a Franco/Flemish musician, Jacques Arcadelt, who was later to become famous as a madrigal composer. 

Bernardo Pisano died in 1548 in Rome. He is buried in the Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva next to the two Medici popes who had been his friends and patrons.

 Giovanni Battista Caccini's Renaissance-style
facade of the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata

Travel tip:

The Basilica della Santissima Annunziata, where Bernardo Pisano was maestro di cappella, is a minor Catholic basilica near the centre of Florence. The church was founded in 1250 by the seven original members of the Servite order and is located in Piazza Santissima Annunziata. In 1252 a friar was commissioned to produce a painting of the Annunciation for the church. He was said to have despaired about being able to do justice to the face of the Virgin and eventually fell asleep while working on it, but when he woke again the painting had been miraculously completed. He attributed this to the work of an angel. The painting has since attracted many pilgrims to visit it, including Pope Alexander VI, who gave a silver effigy to the church. It has since become the tradition for brides in Florence to visit the church to leave their bouquets there.

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The Gothic interior of the Basilica di Santa Maria
sopra Minerva in Rome, where Pisano is buried

Travel tip:

The Basilica di Santa Maria sopra Minerva, where Bernardo Pisano is buried, is in Piazza della Minerva in Rome. The name of the church is derived from the fact that the original structure was built directly over the ruins of a temple dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Isis, that had been wrongly ascribed to the Greek/Roman goddess Minerva. It is located to the east of the Pantheon in the Pigna rione of Rome in the ancient district known as Campus Martius. Dominican friars began building the present Gothic church structure in 1280, modelling it on Santa Maria Novella in Florence. In 1431 the church and adjacent convent was the site of a papal conclave, when 14 Cardinals sitting in the sacristy elected Pope Eugenius IV. After his death, a second conclave was held there in 1447 when 18 Cardinals elected Pope Nicholas V. The church houses a marble sculpture by Michelangelo, Cristo della Minerva, representing the figure of Christ carrying the cross, which is located to the left of the main altar.

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More reading:

How the madrigal genre influenced the composer Monteverdi 

The madrigal writer also known for a brutal murder

The Medici musician who invented the madrigal comedy

Also on this day:

1492: The death of Renaissance painter Piero della Francesca

1812: The death of Ascanio Sobrero, the chemist who discovered nitroglycerine

1935: The birth of tenor Luciano Pavarotti

2006: The death of film director Gillo Pontecorvo

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