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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Caravaggio masterpiece is unveiled in Siracusa

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Caravaggio was on the run
when he arrived in Sicily

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Travel tip

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

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

Travel tip

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

Also on this day:

1466: The death of sculptor Donatello

1521: The birth of Pope Sixtus V

1720: The birth of playwright Carlo Gozzi

1931: The death of juggler Enrico Rastelli

The Feast of Santa Lucia

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Paolo Uccello - painter

Pioneer of perspective also worked in mosaics

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Travel tip:

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

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

Travel tip:

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

Also on this day:

1813: The birth of composer Errico Petrella

1903: The birth of painter Giuseppe Dossena

1907: The birth of actor Amedeo Nazzari

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

1936: The death of playwright and novelist Luigi Pirandello

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Emilio Vedova - painter

Self-taught Venetian became influential figure in 20th century Italian art

Emilio Vedova was one of the 20th
century's most influential artists

The painter Emilio Vedova, regarded as one of the most influential Italian artists in the second half of the 20th century, was born in Venice on this day in 1919.

Vedova was known for his expressive abstract paintings, which often had a raw and violent character seemingly inspired by the tumultuous political climate of his time and the apprehension that clouded people’s lives.

A politically engaged figure, in 1942 he joined the Milanese anti-Fascist artists’ association known as Corrente, which included other painters such as Renato Guttuso and Renato Birolli, and fought in the Italian Resistance movement from 1943-45.

After World War Two, he was a co-signatory in 1946 with Corrente member Ennio Morlotti of the Oltre Guernica - Beyond Guernica - manifesto, which encouraged artists to use abstract notions rather than figures to reflect the reality of society.  A year later, he founded Fronte Nuovo delle Arti.  He described his paintings of this period as Geometrie nere (Black geometries).

Vedova is also associated with the Italian school of Arte Informale, a movement that emerged in various parts of Europe in the mid-1940s, which paralleled the Abstract Expressionism movement in the United States.  Both favoured an art based on spontaneous, expressive gestures and a rejection of traditional forms. In Italy, Vedova, Alberto Burri and Lucio Fontana were the most prominent painters in this movement.

Born in Venice into a working-class family, Vedova's father was a house painter. His own first employment - at the age of 11 - was in a factory, after which he was taken on as a photographer’s assistant before finding a position in a restoration workshop. 

Vedova's Image of Time/Barrier (1958) can be seen
at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice

At the same time, he developed a passionate interest in drawing and painting. He studied the works of Titian, Tintoretto and Guardi in his native city but also Rembrandt, Goya and Daumier.  Some of his own early work was inspired by Venetian Baroque architecture, in particular the churches, in which he admired the dynamism of their lines and the way they made use of light.

He went to Florence to attend a free school of nude painting, mixing with other artists and artisans in the San Frediano district. It was there he made his first contacts within anti-Fascist circles. 

Returning to Venice, he struggled to make ends meet but with the help of the Opera Bevilacqua La Masa, which supported poor artists, managed to obtain an attic-studio in Palazzo Carminati. His first paintings on public view - mainly nudes and still lifes - were exhibited at the Galleria Ongania in Venice in 1940.

Appalled at the direction in which Italy was travelling under Mussolini, his attraction to the Corrente group in Milan was that he saw it as a counterpoint to the Novecento and Italian Futurism schools, both of which were regarded as nationalistic and pro-Fascist.

As a young painter, Vedova was fortunate to be
provided with a studio by a charitable organisation

Given his own passionate opposition to Fascism, it was no surprise that he was drawn to the Resistance movement. He took part in activities in Rome and in the hills around Belluno in the Veneto, where he was wounded.

When peace returned, he began to create pastels in which he expressed his state of mind as it was shaped by the experience of war.  In 1948 he participated for the first time in the Venice Biennale. By 1952, his work was seen as important enough to have a room at the exhibition entirely dedicated to him. 

In 1951, Vedova exhibited his first solo show in the United States at the Catherine Viviano Gallery in New York, where he began to be noticed by high-profile collectors such as Peggy Guggenheim. He received a Guggenheim International award in 1956 and the Grand Prize for Painting at the 1960 Venice Biennale.

As appreciation for his work spread, he spent time abroad, including spells in Brazil, Japan, the United States, Mexico and Berlin.  Back in Italy, the student revolts of the late 1960s and the instability of the so-called Years of Lead in the 1970s and ‘80s, informed his work in the same way as his wartime experience earlier.

Vedova was a restlessly inventive artist throughout his career. He collaborated with the avant-garde composer Luigi Nono, designing sets and costumes for the opera Intolleranza in 1960, and a light setting for Nono's opera Prometeo at La Fenice in 1984. 

He designed large-scale glass engravings, as well as numerous plurimi - freestanding, multi-panelled painted sculptures made of wood and metal.  In 1993 the Accademia dei Lincei awarded him the Feltrinelli Prize for painting, and in 1997 he received the Golden Lion for his work at the Venice Biennale.

His work began to find a permanent place in gallery and museum exhibitions at the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna in Rome and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice among others.

He kept a permanent home in Venice for much of his life and between 1975 and 1986 taught the city’s Accademia di Belle Arti.  He died in Venice in 2006 at the age of 87. He is buried in the monumental cemetery of San Michele, on an island in the lagoon.

An example of the studio spaces on offer to
selected young artists at Palazzo Carminati

Travel tip:

The Palazzo Carminati, where Emilio Vedova had his first studio, is in the Santa Croce sestiere of Venice. Recently restored, in addition to offering a wonderful view of the city, the top floor of the historic building also houses seven studios for selected young artists under the auspices of the Bevilacqua La Masa foundation, and two guest houses reserved for residency programmes.  It can be accessed from the San Stae vaporetto stop by walking approximately 230m along Salizada San Stae and turning right into Ramo Carminati. 

The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is kept
at the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni in Venice

Travel tip:

Peggy Guggenheim died in 1979 but her legacy to Venice remains in the collection of modern art she accumulated, much of which is on display at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, a museum located in the 18th century Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, on the Grand Canal in the Dorsoduro district, where the American heiress lived for three decades. Open to the public from 10am to 6pm, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection is home to the works of many prominent painters.  Two works by Emilio Vedova acquired by her in the 1950s remain in the collection: Image of Time/Barrier (1958) and Hostage City (1954). More recently, Vedova's monotype Opposite Space IV (2006) was donated to the Collection by the Emilio and Annabianca Vedova Foundation.

Also on this day:

1173: Work begins on the campanile later famous as the Leaning Tower of Pisa

1939: The birth of politician Romano Prodi

1973: The birth of footballer and coach Filippo Inzaghi

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Lucrezia Maria Romola de’ Medici – noblewoman

Daughter of Lorenzo the Magnificent supported popes and poets

Lucrezia de' Medici

Lucrezia Maria Romola de’ Medici, who as a newborn baby inspired Sandro Botticelli’s depiction of baby Jesus in one of his paintings, was born on this day in 1470 in the Republic of Florence.

After her brother became Pope Leo X, Lucrezia helped him fund papal building projects in Florence and Rome. She also raised money to pay a ransom and secure the release of her husband when he was taken prisoner by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.

She had 11 children, many of whom were to play an important part in the history of Renaissance Europe.  

Lucrezia was the eldest daughter of Lorenzo de’ Medici and Clarice Orsini. After her birth, Botticelli painted Our Lady of the Magnificat, which is now in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, and used her image as a baby as the model for the figure of the newborn Christ in his masterpiece.

She grew up to be married to Florentine politician Jacopo Salviati in 1488 and brought a dowry of 2000 florins with her. But after her brothers were exiled from Florence, she was unable to help them because her husband was a supporter of the new rulers.

In 1497 she spent 3000 ducats to support a plot to bring her brother, Piero, to power in the city. The plot failed and all the men involved in it were executed, but Lucrezia was spared from harm because she was a woman.

Lucrezia is thought to have inspired
Botticelli's depiction of baby Jesus

Afterwards she worked to build more support for the Medici family and organised a marriage for her niece, Clarice de’ Medici, to Filippo Strozzi the Younger, even though it was against the wishes of the rulers of Florence at the time.

When her brother, Giuliano, returned to Florence in 1512, he asked for her advice on how to restructure the government of the city.

Another of Lucrezia’s brothers, Giovanni di Lorenzo de’ Medici, became Pope Leo X in 1513, and during the celebrations in Florence, Lucrezia and her family gave out money and gifts to the crowds who gathered outside their palace.

By 1514, Leo X had drained the Vatican treasuries and had to pawn the papal tiara, which was worth 44,000 ducats, to Lucrezia and her husband.

Lorenzo the Magnificent
was Lucrezia's father

After Leo X had appointed Lucrezia’s son, Giovanni, a cardinal, Lucrezia managed his household and office for him, especially when he was travelling as a papal legate, and she used her influence to promote Medici causes in Rome.

When the Medici were again exiled from Florence in 1527, Lucrezia’s husband, Jacopo, was taken prisoner by Charles V along with her cousin, who had become Pope Clement VII, and she worked to gather money for a ransom to get them released.

During her life, Lucrezia supported convents in Florence, funding new dormitories, cloisters, and workshops, and she also paid for the building of chapels in Rome, including a chapel that would be a resting place for members of the Medici family.

She corresponded with Niccolò Machiavelli about editing a biography of Alexander the Great and was a patron of the poet, Girolamo Benivieni.  With Benivieni, she petitioned her brother, Pope Leo X, to support their efforts to bring the body of the poet, Dante Alighieri, back to his home town of Florence.

After her husband, Jacopo, died in 1533, Lucrezia survived him by 20 years. She died at the age of 83. Of their children, Maria Salviati (1499–1543) was married to Lodovico de' Medici, uniting two branches of the Medici family, while Bernardo Salviati (1505/1508 - 1568) served Catherine de' Medici in France.

Lorenzo de' Medici was living at the family
villa in Careggi at the time of Lucrezia's birth

Travel tip:

Lorenzo de’ Medici, Lucrezia’s father, who is usually known as Lorenzo the Magnificent, lived at the Villa Medici at Careggi, originally a working farm acquired in 1417 by Cosimo de’ Medici’s father to help make his family self-sufficient. Cosimo employed the architect Michelozzo, who was considered one of the great pioneers of building design during the Renaissance, to remodel it around a central courtyard overlooked by loggias. Lorenzo - Cosimo’s grandson - extended the terraced garden and the shaded woodland area. After his death, in 1492, the villa was allowed to become somewhat run down until the early 17th century, when Cardinal Carlo de' Medici commissioned the remodelling of the interior, and updated the garden. Careggi, which is not far from Florence’s airport, is nowadays a suburb of the city, about 8km (5 miles) northwest of the centre.

The Piazzale degli Uffizi in Florence
offers access to the Uffizi Gallery

Travel tip:

The Uffizi Gallery evolved from a building project that began in around 1560, when the artist and architect Giorgio Vasari was engaged to build offices for the Florentine magistrates, hence the name uffizi (offices). Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, who commissioned the building, planned to display prime art works of the Medici collections in a part of the complex lit by a wall of windows .  Over the years, more sections of the palace were recruited to exhibit paintings and sculptures collected or commissioned by the Medici.  In 1765 it was officially opened to the public as an art gallery. Located in Piazzale degli Uffizi, it is close to Piazza della Signoria and the Palazzo Vecchio. Opening hours today are from 8.15 am until 6.50 pm from Tuesday to Sunday.

Also on this day:

1463: The birth of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici

1521: The birth of Pope Urban VII

1994: The death of politician Giovanni Spadolini

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Angelo Morbelli - painter

Artist known for socially conscious themes

Morbelli, pictured in this self-portrait,
highlighted social issues in his work

Angelo Morbelli, a painter who won acclaim for his socially conscious genre scenes, was born on this day in 1853 in the Piedmont city of Alessandria.

Initially a painter of landscapes and historical scenes, he switched quite early in his career to contemporary subjects, many of which reflected his own social concerns. He had a particular interest in the lives of the elderly and the fate of the women who laboured in the region’s rice fields.

He was a proponent of the Divisionist style of painting that was founded in the 1880s by the French post-Impressionist Georges Seurat. In Divisionism, rather than physically blending paints to produce variations in colour, the painter constructed a picture from separate dots of paint that by their proximity would produce an optical interaction. Divisionists believed this technique achieved greater luminosity of colour.

Morbelli developed his painting as a student at the prestigious Brera Academy in Milan but his original ambitions had been in the field of music.

The son of a wealthy vineyard owner from Casale Monferrato, about 35km (22 miles) north of Alessandria, Morbelli had shown a remarkable aptitude for the flute but was forced by illness into a change of direction. At the age of seven, he contracted mastoiditis, a serious ear infection that caused him to suffer permanent hearing loss.

His parents instead encouraged him instead to study drawing, which quickly revealed a different talent, which would in time win him a scholarship granted by the Municipality of Alessandria to move to Milan and enrol at the Brera, where he studied under Giuseppe Bertini, Raffaele Casnedi and Luigi Riccardi, three renowned professors.

Morbelli's Giorni...ultimi, painted at the Pio Albergo
Trivulzio retirement home, is one of his greatest works

His early works were primarily landscapes and historical scenes. His 1880 work, La morte di Goethe - the Death of Goethe - was among the first he exhibited to bring him public attention. 

Around 1883, Morbelli shifted his focus to contemporary subjects. Notably, he depicted elderly residents of the Pio Albergo Trivulzio, a retirement home and hospital in Milan that was founded in the 18th century following a bequest from Tolomeo Trivulzio, a Milanese aristocrat. 

Morbelli’s series of paintings from the home included Giorni…ultimi (Last Days), which earned him a Gold Medal at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1889. 

Early in the 1880s he married Maria Pagani, a woman with whom he would share the rest of his life. They had four children, inspiring him to paint several works on motherhood. He often painted Maria with the children at their house in Milan and in the garden of their summer residence, Villa Maria, at Colma di Rosignano Monferrato, in the hills above Casale Monferrato.

He began to experiment with Divisionism in around 1890, at first painting landscapes close to the Villa Maria.

Morbelli's Per ottanta centesimi highlighted the
exploitation of female labour in the rice fields

In the mid-90s, his interest drawn towards another social issue, he began to visit the farms in the rice fields around Vercelli, north of Casale Monferrato. A collapse in the price of rice led to the harsh exploitation of workers, mainly women, who were made to toil long hours for low wages.

His painting Per ottanta centesimi (For Eighty Cents), which depicted groups of women, standing ankle deep in water, engaged in the back-breaking work of picking the rice, was awarded the Gold Medal at the 1897 International Exhibition in Dresden.  He used photography to inform some of his work, which attracted criticism from some other painters.

The year that opened the millennium was important for Morbelli, who at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris received another Gold Medal - and the award of the Legion of Honor - for Giorno di festa (Day of Celebration), another painting set in the Pio Albergo Trivulzio.

Between 1902 and 1903, continuing to ponder old age and death, Morbelli set up a studio in the rooms of the hospice, where he created Il Natale dei resta (The Christmas of the Remainers), part of a cycle entitled Il poema della vecchiaia (The Poem of Old Age). The painting presented a stark image of five men sitting in a hall partly lit by the sun, among many rows of empty benches.

Morbelli’s work in the early part of the 20th century returned to painting landscapes, with work ranging from a view of Milan’s Duomo to a boat on Lake Garda. His 1913 painting Angolo di giardino (Corner of the Garden), which offered a glimpse of the family villa in Colma, was noted for the vibrant luminous depth he gave to the countryside beyond the villa’s garden.  Some of his last work was completed between 1914 and 1919 in the Usseglio valley, a mountainous area in the east of Piedmont, close to the border with France.

Between 1908 and 1903, Morbelli is said to have met Carlo Carrà and Umberto Boccioni, two important painters of the Italian Futurist movement. Divisionism was influential in the development of Futurism, whose proponents adopted some of its methods to help evoke the dynamism of the urban environment they sought to convey in their work

He was still active when, in 1919, he developed pneumonia, which led to his death in Milan on November 7, at the age of 66. 

The Cattedrale dei Santi Pietro e Marco was
consecrated in 1879, replacing an older church 

Travel tip:

The historic city of Alessandria, about 90km (56 miles) southeast of Turin, became part of French territory after the army of Napoleon defeated the Austrians at the Battle of Marengo in 1800 on fields to the east of the city. Alessandria has a Museum of the Battle of Marengo in Via della Barbotta in the district of Spinetta Marengo. The city was ruled by the Kingdom of Sardinia for many years and is notable for the Cittadella di Alessandria, a star-shaped fort and citadel built in the 18th century, which covers more than 180 acres on a site just across the Tanaro river and is one of the best preserved fortifications of its type.  It remained a military establishment until as recently as 2007 and now holds a permanent exhibition of about 1500 uniforms, weapons and memorabilia. The city's neoclassical Cattedrale dei Santi Pietro e Marco was built in between 1874 and 1879. Alessandria is also a rail hub for northern Italy. The railway station opened in 1850 to form part of the Turin to Genoa railway and now also has lines to many other towns and cities both in Piedmont and neighbouring Lombardy. 

Submerged fields in the rice-growing
area around the city of Vercelli

Travel tip:

Vercelli is best known as the centre of Italy’s rice production industry, with many of the surrounding fields in the vast Po plain submerged under water during the summer months. Rice has been cultivated in the area since the 15th century. One of Vercelli’s speciality dishes, panissa, is made from risotto rice and beans, with pork and red wine.  The city, which has around 46,500 inhabitants, is some 85km (53 miles) west of Milan and about 75km (46 miles) northeast of Turin. It is reckoned to be built on the site of one of the oldest settlements in Italy, dating back to 600BC, and was home to the world's first publicly-funded university, which was opened in 1228 but folded in 1372. Vercelli’s Basilica of Sant'Andrea is regarded as one of the most beautiful and best-preserved Romanesque buildings in Italy. The city also has an amphitheatre from the Roman period.

Also on this day:

1610: The death of Renaissance painter Caravaggio

1871: The birth of painter Giacamo Balla

1884: The birth of Cardinal Alberto di Jorio, Vatican banker

1914: The birth of cycling star and secret war hero Gino Bartali

1933: The birth of William Salice, inventor of the Kinder Egg

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Giambettino Cignaroli - painter

Artist celebrated in home city of Verona 

A self-portrait painted by Cignaroli in
1758 ( Kunsthistorisches, Vienna)

The painter and writer Giambettino Cignaroli was born on this day in 1706 in Verona, where he spent much of his career and became the city’s leading painter in the Rococo era. 

Primarily a painter of religious scenes, he became known also for spiritual images and celebratory historical painting.

His most famous works include Death of Cato and Death of Socrates, two canvases of Greco-Roman episodes which he painted for the Austrian governor of Lombardy, Count Karl von Firmian; his Virgin and Child With Saints Jerome and Alexander, for the Chiesa di San Giovanni XXIII in Bergamo; and the Death of Rachel for the Scuola Grande della Carità, now part of the Galleria dell 'Accademia in Venice.

He was thought to have painted a portrait of the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart when he visited Verona at the age of 13, although some experts attribute this work to Cignaroli’s nephew, Saverio Dalla Rosa. 

Although his workshop was in his home city, Cignaroli travelled around northern Italy in the 1730s and ‘40s, when he often worked in Venice, Chioggia, Bergamo and Brescia. He was also active in cities such as Milan, Parma, Turin, Bologna and Ferrara. 

Other notable works can be found in the Chiesa di San Lorenzo in Brescia, the basilica of San Giovanni Battista in Lonato del Garda, and the Chiesa di San Marco in Bergamo.

Cignaroli's Death of Socrates, which is now on
display in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest

Cignaroli was born into an artistic family. His half-brothers included a sculptor, Diomiro, and painters Gian Domenico and Giuseppe. Two of his father’s cousins, Pietro and Martino, were also painters, as was his uncle, Leonardo Seniore.

After studying rhetoric at a Jesuit school, he became interested in painting himself. He became a pupil of Sante Prunati before attending the painting school of Antonio Balestra. 

He then spent time in Venice, where he studied the works of masters such as Titian, Paolo Veronese and Palma il Vecchio before returning to Verona to set up his own workshop in 1728, which would become his permanent base. 

By mid-century, his fame had spread beyond Italy’s borders, and his works were sought after by monarchs and elites from Spain, Northern Europe, and Russia. Although he never left Italy, turning down invitations to work at the royal courts in Madrid and Vienna, his clients included the Elector of Saxony, the King of Poland and the Tsarina of Russia.

An altarpiece by Cignaroli in the
Church of San Lorenzo in Brescia

A  monumental altarpiece by Cignaroli in the Prado Museum in Madrid, depicting the Madonna and Child with Saints Lucia, Lorenzo, Anthony of Padua, Barbara and the guardian angel, was commissioned in 1759 by the Duke and Duchess of Parma on behalf of Elisabetta Farnese, who was Queen of Spain by marriage to King Philip V. 

Cignaroli helped establish Verona’s art academy - now known as the Accademia Cignaroli di Pittura e Scultura - in 1766.  

As a writer, Cignaroli wrote poetry and history, including a series of biographies of Veronese painters.

He died in December, 1770 and was buried in Verona in the church of Saints Siro and Libera, a short distance from the Accademia Cignaroli. He never married and there was no record of any children.

In November 2019, the portrait of the young Mozart some experts attribute to him was sold at auction at Christie's in Paris for more than €4 million. 

The courtyard of the Cignaroli Accademia di Belli
Arti di Verona, established during the painter's life

Travel tip:

The Cignaroli Academy is one of the oldest academies of fine arts in the world and one of the five historical Italian Academies.  Also known as the Accademia di Belle Arti di Verona, it was founded in 1764 by Giambettino Cignaroli and secured lasting recognition for the Verona school of painting. The institution faced challenges during periods of social and political upheaval but survived and prospered due to figures such as Saverio Dalla Rosa, Cignaroli’s nephew, who worked to preserve Verona’s artistic heritage and opened part of the academy as a public gallery. Today, the Accademia di Belle Arti di Verona maintains its prestigious standing, offering art courses as well as exhibitions open to the public. Situated in Via San Carlo, near Ponte Pietra, it is open on Monday to Friday from 9am until noon, and from 3-7pm.

The Church of Saints Siro and Libera was built
within the remains of Verona's Teatro Romano

Travel tip:

The Church of Saints Siro and Libera, where Cignaroli was buried, can be found in the Veronetta district of Verona, within the archaeological site which includes the ruins of the Teatro Romano, an open-air theatre built in the 1st century BC at the foot of Colle San Pietro, on the left bank of the Adige, which is one of the best preserved Roman theatres in northern Italy.  According to historical accounts, the church owes its unusual location, directly overlooking what would have been the theatre’s stage, to the first Christian mass in the city of Verona being celebrated in an archway of the theatre. It was above this archway that in 913 Giovanni, Bishop of Cremona, built the church. The church was modified and expanded in the early 17th century to include the gabled, west-facing façade, accessed via a staircase divided into two branches.

Also on this day:

1742: The death of mathematician Luigi Guido Grandi

1914: The birth of car designer Giuseppe ‘Nuccio’ Bertone

1927: The birth of actress Gina Lollobrigida

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Vecchietta – painter and sculptor

Early Renaissance craftsman left a rich legacy of work in Tuscany

The Vision of Santa Sorore, part of a fresco cycle by
Vecchietta at the Hospital of Santa Maria della Scala

The artist Lorenzo di Pietro di Giovanni, who later became known as Vecchietta, ‘the little old one,’ died on this day in 1480 in Siena.

Vecchietta was a renowned painter, sculptor, goldsmith, and architect of the Renaissance. He was born in Siena and baptised on 11 August, 1410 in the city. He is believed to have become the pupil of a Sienese artist and his name has been linked with those of Sassetta, Taddeo di Bartolo and Jacopo della Quercia.

Much of Vecchietta’s work has remained in Siena, some of it in the Hospital of Santa Maria della Scala, which caused him to be also known as pittor della spedale  - painter of the hospital. With branches in many other towns, the hospital was one of the largest and most famous of its kind in mediaeval Italy.

He painted a series of frescoes for the Pellegrinaio - Pilgrim Hall - at the hospital along with Domenico di Bartolo and Priamo della Quercia. These included The Founding of the Spedale and The Vision of Santa Sorore, which depicts a dream of the mother of the cobbler Sorore, the mythical founder of the hospital.

In about 1444, Vecchietta decorated the Cappella di Sacra Chiodo, the old sacristry, with his work. His frescoes were of Annunciation, Nativity, and Last Judgments scenes and an Allegory of The Ladder, depicting children climbing to heaven.

Vecchietta's Arliquiera, originally in the hospital's
old sacristy, is now in the Pinacoteca Nazionale

He created a bronze figure of the risen Christ, which was signed and dated 1476, for the high altar of the Church of the Santissima Annunziata, which was within the hospital complex. This is said to show the influence of the sculptor Donatello, who Vecchietta is believed to have met in Siena in the 1450s.

The Arliquiera, a painted wardrobe for holy relics, was decorated by Vecchietta for the old sacristry of Santa Maria della Scala in 1445. It is now in the collection of the Pinacoteca Nazionale - National Picture Gallery - of Siena.

Vecchietta and his pupils, who included Francesco di Giorgio and Neroccio de’ Landi, created a series of frescoes for the Baptistry of San Giovanni at Siena Cathedral between 1447 and 1450.

A large bronze ciborium, originally created by Vecchietta for the hospital in the 1460s, was moved to the Cathedral after his death. 

A bronze tomb statue of a jurist from Siena was created by Vecchietta for the church of San Domenico and this is now in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. He also sculpted life-size figures of St Peter and St Paul for the Loggia della Mercanzia and a sculpture of St Martin for the Palazzo Saracini. 

Vecchietta made a silver statue of St Catherine of Siena when she was canonised in 1461, but this work disappeared after the siege of Siena in 1565.

In Pienza, just outside Siena, there is a painting of the Assumption created by Vecchietta in 1461 for Pope Pius II. 

A panel depicting the Madonna, which was created by Vecchietta, is in the Uffizi in Florence and there is a painting of Saint Peter Martyr by Vecchietta at the Palazzo Cini gallery in Venice. The British Library in London has a manuscript of Dante’s Divine Comedy containing illuminations by Vecchietta.

Considered to have been among the outstanding Sienese artists of the 15th century,  Vecchietta died, aged nearly 70, on June 6, 1480 in Siena. He had previously designed a funerary chapel for himself and his wife in Santa Maria della Scala.

Siena's Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta
is considered an architectural masterpiece

Travel tip:

Siena in Tuscany is well known as the venue for the historic horse race, the Palio di Siena. The race starts from Piazza del Campo, a shell-shaped open area which is regarded as one of Europe’s finest mediaeval squares. It was established in the 13th century as an open marketplace on a sloping site between three communities that eventually merged to form the city of Siena. The piazza, built between 1287 and 1355, consists of nine sections of fan-like brick pavement said to symbolise the Madonna's cloak said to protect the city in dark times.  The Campo is dominated by the red Palazzo Pubblico and its tower, Torre del Mangia. The city’s cathedral, which houses works by Vecchietta, is considered a masterpiece of Italian Romanesque Gothic architecture.

Vasari's 'wall of windows' became the space
where the Medici displayed their art collection

Travel tip:

The Uffizi Gallery in Florence, which houses works by Vecchietta, was originally created as a suite of offices - uffici - for the administration of Cosimo I de’ Medici. The architect, Giorgio Vasari, created a wall of windows on the upper storey and from about 1580, the Medici began to use this well-lit space to display their art treasures, which was the start of one of the oldest and most famous art galleries in the world. The present day Uffizi Gallery, in Piazzale degli Uffizi, is open from 8.15 am to 6.50 pm from Tuesday to Sunday.

Also on this day:

1513: The Battle of Novara

1772: The birth of Maria Theresa, the last Holy Roman Empress

1861: The death of Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour

1896: The birth of Italo Balbo, Mussolini’s heir apparent 

1926: The birth of auto engineer Giotto Bizzarrini

1979: The birth of football coach Roberto De Zerbi

 

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