Guarino da Verona – Renaissance scholar

Humanist who lost Greek manuscripts went grey overnight

Guarino da Verona was a
humanist philosopher

Professor of ancient Greek, Guarino da Verona, who dedicated his life to learning the language and educating others to follow in his footsteps, died on this day in 1460 in Ferrara.

Da Verona studied ancient Greek in Constantinople for more than five years and returned to Italy with two cases full of rare Greek manuscripts that he had collected. It is said that when he lost one of the cases during  a shipwreck, he was so distraught that his hair turned grey in a single night.

Da Verona, who was also sometimes known as Guarino Veronese, was born in 1374 in Verona. He studied in Italy and established his first school in the 1390s before going to Constantinople.

After returning to Italy, he earned his living by teaching Greek in Verona, Venice and Florence.

Da Verona taught the philosophy of humanism to Leonello, Marquis of Este, who then became his patron and employed him to teach Greek in Ferrara. Da Verona’s method of teaching became renowned and he attracted students from all over Italy and Europe, even from as far away as England. He supported poor students using his own money and many of them became well known scholars themselves.

He was particularly influenced by the philosopher Georgiu Gemistus Pletho, one of the most famous Greek scholars during the late Byzantine era and a pioneer of reviving Greek scholarship in Western Europe.

Da Verona's Latin grammar
Regulae Grammaticales

Da Verona is remembered for his translations of works by the Greek historian, geographer and philosopher, Strabo, and the Greek biographer, essayist and historian, Plutarch.

He also compiled Regulae Grammaticales, the first Renaissance Latin grammar, which was used well into the 17th century.

The layout of Leonello d’Este’s Studiolo in the Palazzo Belfiore was believed to have been the work of Da Verona. He is also said to have corresponded with the writer and humanist Isotta Nogarola, the first female humanist, who was considered to be one of the most important humanists of the Italian Renaissance and who was also from Verona.

Da Verona died in Ferrara at the age of 86.

The Castello Estense
dominates Ferrara

Travel tip:

The city of Ferrara in Emilia-Romagna, about 50km (31 miles) northeast of Bologna, was ruled by the Este family between 1240 and 1598 and is dominated by the magnificent Castello Estense (Este Castle)  in the centre of the city began, originally built in 1385 and added to and improved by successive rulers of Ferrara until the Este line ended with the death of Alfonso II d’Este.  It was constructed originally as a defensive shield to protect the palace of the Marquis Niccolò II d'Este following a revolt of the Ferrarese population against high taxes at a time when catastrophic floods had left many local people destitute.

A private residence now stands on the site of
the former church of Santa Maria degli Angeli

Travel tip:

The Palazzo Belfiore in Ferrara, of which Leonello d'Este's Studiolo was a feature, was destroyed by a fire in 1683, having suffered extensive damage 200 years earlier at the hands of a Venetian army. It is known that it was situated near the Corso Ercole I d'Este, approximately 1km (0.62 miles) north of the Castello Estense. The palace was one of the so-called delizie of the Este dynasty, which were palaces where members of the family could find pleasurable diversions from daily life.  These included pursuits that were intellectually stimulating and the Studiolo was a study designed by Da Verona and lined with paintings of the so-called Muses of Greek religion and mythology, nine inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. The nearby church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, also destroyed, once was one of the main burial sites for the Este family. The site of the church is now occupied by a private residence.

Also on this day:

1784: The birth of Princess Maria Antonia of Naples and Sicily

1853: The birth of anarchist Errico Malatesta

1922: The birth of novelist and translator Luciano Bianciardi

1966: The birth of racing driver Fabrizio Giovanardi

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Girolamo Cardano - doctor and mathematician

Polymath was also a gambler and womaniser

Girolamo Cardano was the leading
mathematician of Renaissance Italy

The Renaissance polymath Girolamo Cardano, whose range of talents included mathematics and medicine but who also invented a number of mechanical devices still in use today, was born on this day in 1501 in Pavia, then part of the Duchy of Milan.

Cardano, also known as Gerolamo, Hieronymus Cardanus in Latin and Jerome Cardan in English, is notable for writing Ars Magna which was the first Latin treatise devoted solely to algebra.

Far from being a stuffy academic, however, Cardano led a controversial life, practising as a physician without a licence and becoming proficient at gambling to keep himself solvent, while as a university professor being regularly accused of sexual impropriety with students.

In his wide range of interests, he seemed to be inspired by Leonardo da Vinci, who was a close friend of his father. Like Da Vinci, he wanted to put his mathematical and scientific skills to practical use and is credited with inventing among other things the first combination locks, the gimbal that allows a supported compass or gyroscope to rotate freely, and a universal joint that allows the transmission of rotation between the components of a drive train even when out of alignment.

A version of the joint in use today to connect the gearbox of a rear-wheel drive car with the rear axle is called a Cardan Shaft.

Girolamo Cardano was the illegitimate child of Fazio Cardano, a Milanese lawyer and university professor, and Chiara Micheria, a widow 20 years Fazio’s junior. Despite his mother’s attempts to abort the pregnancy, Girolamo was born at the home of some wealthy friends of his father in Pavia, where his mother was sent to escape an outbreak of plague in Milan that claimed the lives of her three other children.

The cover page of Ars Magna, seen
as Cardano's magnum opus

Girolamo survived a sickly childhood and, fascinated with philosophy and science, enrolled to read medicine at the University of Pavia, against the wishes of his father, who wanted him to study law.  The Italian War of 1521-26 forced the University of Pavia to close but he was able to resume his studies at the University of Padua.

There, however, he gained a reputation for being awkward and confrontational and while he obtained a doctorate he was denied admission to the College of Physicians in Milan, partly because he was not well liked and partly because of his illegitimacy.  

Unable to practise medicine legally in Milan, he moved to Saccolongo, a village outside Padua where he set up a practice despite his lack of a licence. He married Lucia, the daughter of a local militia captain, with whom he had three children.  His practice was not particularly successful, however, and he increasingly turned to gambling to make money, a habit he had developed while studying, but slipped further into debt.

Desperate for a change of fortune, he moved the family back to Milan. They had so little money they were forced to live in a poorhouse but Girolamo eventually elicited help from contacts of his father in the Milanese nobility, who arranged for him to be given his father’s former post of lecturer in mathematics at the Piatti Foundation in Milan.

For all that he was a difficult character, his brilliant mind was never in doubt and when the College of Physicians changed their attitude to illegitimacy he was granted his licence.  His success in treating his patients, some of whom had wide influence in Milan society, soon made him the most sought-after doctor in the city.

Cardano's universal joint is still used in the
drive shafts of motor vehicles today 

The next few years were his most productive. In 1537, he published the first of some 130 printed works, the most famous of which was Ars Magna, published in 1545. It included the first comprehensive solution for finding roots of cubic equations, which at the time was a subject that was the focus of much attention. Even that was the subject of controversy as Nicolo Tartaglia, another mathematician of note, accused Cardano of publishing results shared with him in confidence. 

He also wrote Liber de ludo aleae - Book on Games of Chance - which contains the first systematic treatment of probability, the basic concepts of which he had learned through his gambling. He also shared some of his secrets on how to cheat successfully.

Cardano did much of his inventing during this period, and enhanced his reputation as one of the world’s finest physicians, becoming rector of the College of Physicians that for so long rejected him. 

He turned down most invitations to work outside Italy but made an exception when asked to travel to Scoland, where John Hamilton, Archbishop of St Andrews, was suffering increasingly severe asthma attacks that the physicians of both the French king and German emperor had been unable to keep in check.

Cardano was also known for his chaotic
and controversial personal life

Cardano was welcomed as a celebrity when he landed in Scotland, where he was promised a substantial payment if he could treat the Archbishop successfully. In the event, he quickly established that feather pillows were the cause of the Archbishop’s malady and the patient made a full recovery.

For all that he was ultimately hailed as a genius, Cardano's personal life was filled with tragedy.

Lucia died in 1546, his eldest son was executed for poisoning his wife and his daughter died of syphilis. He disowned his second son, who stole money from him to fund his own gambling addiction.

Cardano was appointed a professor of medicine at the University of Bologna but as the father of a convicted murderer he was shunned by many colleagues, while his arrogant manner made him many enemies.  A shameless womaniser, he was frequently accused of using his power to coerce female students into inappropriate relationships.

In 1570 he spent a short time in jail, having been accused of heresy after publishing a horoscope of Jesus Christ.  It cost him his position at the University of Bologna.

Nonetheless, on moving to Rome he received a lifetime annuity from Pope Gregory XIII and was accepted in the Royal College of Physicians. He continued to practise medicine and expanded his philosophical studies. 

He died in Rome in 1576 at the age of 74. 

The covered bridge linking Pavia with the
area known as Borgo Ticino

Travel tip:

Pavia is a city in Lombardy, about 46km (30 miles) south of Milan. Its university was founded in 1361 and was the sole university in the Duchy of Milan until the 19th century. As well as Girolamo Cardano, its alumni include explorer Christopher Columbus, physicist Alessandro Volta and the poet and revolutionary Ugo Foscolo. Pavia is also famous for its Certosa, a magnificent Renaissance monastery complex north of the city that dates back to 1396 and includes a number of important sculptures and frescoes. A pretty covered bridge over the River Ticino leads to Borgo Ticino, where the inhabitants claim to be the true people of Pavia.

Giotto's frescoes cover the inner
walls of the Scrovegni Chapel

Travel tip:

Padua in the Veneto is one of the most important centres for art in Italy and home to the country’s second oldest university. Padua has become acknowledged as the birthplace of modern art because of the Scrovegni Chapel, the inside of which is covered with frescoes by Giotto, an artistic genius who was the first to paint people with realistic facial expressions showing emotion. His scenes depicting the lives of Mary and Joseph, painted between 1303 and 1305, are considered his greatest achievement and one of the world’s most important works of art. At Palazzo Bo, where Padua’s university was founded in 1222, you can still see the original lectern used by Galileo and the world’s first anatomy theatre, where dissections were secretly carried out from 1594.

Also on this day:

1934: The birth of exiled Princess Maria Pia of Bourbon-Parma

1954: The birth of footballer Marco Tardelli

1955: The birth of businessman Riccardo Illy

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Luca della Robbia - sculptor

Renaissance ‘genius’ famed for glazed terracotta

Della Robbia's Resurrection over the door of
the northern sacristy in the Florence duomo

Luca della Robbia, whose work saw him spoken of in the same breath as Donatello and Lorenzo Ghiberti among the great sculptors of the Renaissance, died on this day in 1482 in Florence.

Della Robbia worked in marble and bronze initially but enjoyed considerable success after inventing a process for making statuary and reliefs in terracotta decorated with a colourful mineral glaze.

Thought to be around 82 or 83 years old, he had shared the full details of the process only with his family. On his death, his nephew Andrea della Robbia inherited his workshop and other members of the family, notably his great-nephews Giovanni della Robbia and Girolamo della Robbia, continued to employ his methods with success into the 16th century.

Terracotta literally means cooked earth and Della Robbia’s technique involved the application of colourful glazes made using lead, tin and other minerals to the fired clay. 

Sculpting in terracotta was not new, having been invented in the ancient world, but Della Robbia’s idea to coat the terracotta with a glaze that fused with the clay below gave the surface a brightness and shine and made the sculpture particularly durable. 

Della Robbia decorated the dome of Brunelleschi's
Pazzi Chapel in the Basilica of Santa Croce

It took him many years to perfect his technique. The clay itself came from riverbeds, where Della Robbia would look for a light-colored, chalky variety of clay that bound particularly well with his glazes, cleaning and sifting it before adding soft river sand to achieve optimal consistency.  The blend of minerals in the glaze itself was a closely guarded secret.

The first commissions for which Della Robbia used the technique were in the Duomo of Florence, where between 1442 and 1445 he sculpted a lunette of the Resurrection over the door of the northern sacristy and a relief of the Ascension over the southern sacristy door.

He went on to execute many more works in the medium, of which some of the most important are the roundels of the Apostles in Filippo Brunelleschi’s Pazzi Chapel in the Basilica di Santa Croce in Florence, the roof of Michelozzo’s Chapel of the Crucifix in the Basilica di San Miniato al Monte, Florence, and a lunette over the entrance of the Church of San Domenico at Urbino.

His final major work was an altarpiece in the Palazzo Vescovile at Pescia, a small town just over an hour from Florence, near Montecatini Terme.

Della Robbia's bust in the Pincio
Gardens in Rome

It was the Renaissance polymath Leon Battista Alberti who compared Della Robbia to fellow sculptors Donatello and Ghiberti, ranking him also alongside the architect Brunelleschi and the painter Masaccio in terms of their artistic genius. This assessment took into account more than just his work in glazed terracotta, although his use of bright colours gave his work in the medium a particular charm that was very popular.

In the early part of his career, Della Robbia, who may have trained as a goldsmith, worked with Ghiberti on the famous bronze doors of the Florence Baptistry - the so-called Gates of Paradise.

Brunelleschi often used him for sculpture on his buildings. His important commission was for the Cantoria - a singing gallery - in Florence's Duomo, for which he was probably chosen by the Medici family.  The project took seven years and his depictions in the 10 panels of children singing, dancing and making music, the figures lively and finely observed in the manner of Renaissance naturalism, established him as a major Florentine artist.

Della Robbia’s other important works in marble include a tabernacle carved for the Chapel of San Luca in the Santa Maria Nuova Hospital in Florence, and the tomb of Benozzo Federighi, bishop of nearby Fiesole.

Florence's magnificent Duomo towers above
the skyline of Della Robbia's city

Travel tip:

The Florence 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, towering above the city and the dominant feature of almost every cityscape. From groundbreaking to consecration, the project took 140 years to complete and involved a series of architects. Arnolfo di Cambio, who also designed the church of Santa Croce and the Palazzo Vecchio was the original architect engaged and it was to his template, essentially, 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.

Find a hotel in Florence with Booking.com

Piazzo Mino is the main square in the centre of
Fiesole, in the hills to the northeast of Florence

Travel tip:

Fiesole, a town of about 14,000 inhabitants situated in an elevated position about 8km (5 miles) northeast of Florence, has since the 14th century been a popular place to live for wealthy Florentines and even to this day remains the richest municipality in Florence.  Formerly an important Etruscan settlement, it was also a Roman town of note, of which the remains of a theatre and baths are still visible.  Fiesole's cathedral, built in the 11th century, is supposedly built over the site of the martyrdom of St. Romulus. In the middle ages, Fiesole was as powerful as Florence until it was conquered by the latter in 1125 after a series of wars.

Fiesole hotels by Booking.com

More reading:

Lorenzo Ghiberti and the 'Gates of Paradise'

Filippo Brunelleschi, the genius who designed the dome of the Florence duomo

Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the Florentine who made his mark in Rome

Also on this day:

1791: The birth of painter Francesco Hayez

1918: The death of Nobel Peace Prize winner Ernesto Teodoro Moneta

1941: The birth of author and politician Raffaele Lauro

1953: The founding of the giant oil and gas company ENI

1966: The birth of footballer Andrea Silenzi

(Picture credits: Resurrection by Sailko; Pazzi Chapel ceiling by Mattis; bust of della Robbia by Lalupa; via Wikimedia Commons)

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Luca Longhi – artist

‘Quiet’ painter trained his children to follow in his footsteps

Luca Longhi's Adoration by the Shepherds
can be seen at the Museo d’Arte della Città

Luca Longhi, a portrait painter also known for his beautiful religious paintings who was working during the late Renaissance and Mannerist periods, was born on this day in 1507 in Ravenna in Emilia-Romagna.

He was the father of the painters Francesco Longhi and Barbara Longhi, who were both trained by him and worked in his workshop.

Little is known about Luca Longhi’s own artistic training, but it is thought he probably attended the Ravenna workshops of local artists Francesco Zaganelli and his brother, Bernardino Zaganelli.

The painter and art historian Giorgio Vasari visited Ravenna in 1548 and wrote about "Master Luca de Longhi" in his book, The Lives of the Artists. He says: “Luca de Longhi is a man of good nature, quiet and (a) scholar (who) has done in his homeland Ravenna, and outside, many beautiful oil pictures and portraits. He has done and still works with patience and study.”

Longhi painted the portraits of many famous and important people of his time, including Giovanni Guidiccione, Bishop of Fossombrone, Giulio della Rovere, Cardinal of Urbino, Alessandro Sforza, Cardinal legate of Romagna and Cristoforo Boncompagni, Archbishop of Ravenna.

The Lady and the Unicorn is said
to depict Giulia Farnese

Among his well-known works are The Lady and the Unicorn, which is a portrait of Giulia Farnese, who was mistress to Pope Alexander VI and the sister of Pope Paul III, Adoration by the Shepherds and Virgin and Child with Saints Sebastian and Rocco.

He painted a Marriage at Canna for the Church of the Camaldolese in Ravenna with his son, Francesco. In the picture there are portraits of Francesco, his daughter, Barbara, and the Abbot of the church’s convent, Don Pietro Bagnolo da Bagnacavallo.

Longhi’s daughter, Barbara Longhi, was much admired as a portrait painter as well. She also assisted her father on large altarpieces and modelled for him. She was depicted by her father as Saint Barbara in his 1570 painting Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints.

Her self-portrait, in which she is dressed as Saint Catherine of Alexandria, bears a strong resemblance to her father’s depictions of her. The painting was intended originally for the monastery of Sant’Apollinare in Classe, but it was acquired by the Museo d’Arte della Città di Ravenna in the 19th century and restored in 1980.

Lucca Longhi died in his home town of Ravenna in 1580 after succumbing to what was described as a catarrhal illness that had spread throughout Italy after arriving from Paris.

The Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna is
a UNESCO world heritage site

Travel tip:

Ravenna in Emilia-Romagna, where Luca Longhi and his children lived and worked, was the capital city of the western Roman empire in the fifth century. It is known for its well-preserved late Roman and Byzantine architecture and mosaics and has eight UNESCO world heritage sites. The Basilica of San Vitale is one of the most important examples of early Christian Byzantine art and architecture in Europe.

The museum is housed in the cloister of the
Basilica di Santa Maria in Porto

Travel tip:

There are works by Luca Longhi and his children, Francesco and Barbara, on display in the Museo d’Arte della Città di Ravenna, which is in Via di Roma in the centre of the city, housed in the cloister of the abbey of the Basilica of Santa Maria in Porto. The museum is open from Tuesday to Sunday from 9am to 6pm. During the Covid 19 pandemic the museum is asking visitors to book appointments in advance.  Also on display are works by the Zaganellis and many Venetian artists.

Also on this day:

1451: The birth of Renaissance composer Franchino Gaffurio

1552: The birth of international lawyer Alberico Gentili

1883: The birth of fashion designer Nina Ricci

1919: The birth of seven-times prime minister Giulio Andreotti

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Giovanni Boccaccio – writer and scholar

Renaissance humanist who changed literature

Boccaccio's Decameron influenced
Chaucer and De Cervantes

One of the most important literary figures of the 14th century in Italy, Giovanni Boccaccio, died on this day in 1375 in Certaldo in Tuscany.

The greatest prose writer of his time in Europe, Boccaccio is still remembered as the writer of The Decameron, a collection of short stories and poetry, which influenced not only Italian literary development but that of the rest of Europe as well, including Geoffrey Chaucer in England and Miguel de Cervantes in Spain.

With the writers Dante Alighieri (Dante) and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch), Boccaccio is considered one of the three most important figures in the history of Italian literature and, along with Petrarch, he raised vernacular literature to the level and status of the classics of antiquity.

Boccaccio is thought to have been born in about 1313.  He was the son of a merchant in Florence, Boccaccino di Chellino, and an unknown woman. His father later married Margherita dei Mardoli who came from a well off family. Boccaccio received a good education and an early introduction to the works of Dante from a tutor.

His father was appointed head of a bank in 1326 and the family moved to live in Naples.

Boccaccio was appointed an apprentice at the bank but disliked the work and persuaded his father to let him study law at the University of Naples instead. Although he did not enjoy the study of law it gave him the opportunity to also study literature and science and to meet other scholars.

At that time, he is thought to have fallen in love with Maria, a married daughter of the King of Naples, Robert the Wise, and that he later portrayed her as Fiammetta in his prose romances.

Boccaccio's contemporary
and friend, Petrarch

While in Naples, he began writing poetry and produced Il Filostrato and Teseida, which Chaucer used as sources for his Troilus and Criseyde and The Knight’s Tale. He also wrote La caccia di Diana, a poem in terza rima, a rhyming verse form invented by Dante.

Boccaccio returned to Florence in 1341 where he wrote Comedia delle ninfe fiorentine, which was a mixture of prose and poetry. He then wrote a 50-canto poem, Amorosa visione and his novel, Fiammetta.

In 1348 Florence was hit by the Black Death, which killed three-quarters of the population. Boccaccio later featured the plague in The Decameron, although he may have been away in Ravenna at that time.

He began work on The Decameron in about 1349 and completed it in 1352. It was one of his last works written in Tuscan vernacular and it is regarded as his masterpiece.  He revised and rewrote it in 1370 and this manuscript has survived to the present day.

Afterwards he became more closely involved with the development of Italian humanism and started working for the government of Florence, visiting the Romagna, Brandenburg, Milan and Avignon.

In 1350 he was asked to greet Petrarch as he entered Florence and to have him as a guest at his home. The meeting was a great success and they became good friends, Boccaccio subsequently calling Petrarch his teacher.

An illustrated page from a 15th
century copy of The Decameron

Petrarch encouraged Boccaccio to study Greek and Latin literature and as a result Boccaccio wrote Genealogia deorum gentilium, which was considered to be an important reference work on classical mythology that would be consulted for the next 400 years.

Boccaccio and Petrarch believed that much could be learned from antiquity and as a result the revival of classical works became important during the Renaissance.

In 1365 Boccaccio travelled to Venice where he met up with Petrarch again at his residence in Palazzo Molina on the Riva degli Schiavoni, where the poet kept his extensive library.

Boccaccio gave a series of lectures on Dante in 1373 and wrote his final major work, Esposizioni sopra la Commedia di Dante.

When Petrarch died in 1374, Boccaccio wrote a commemorative poem to mark the occasion, which he included in his collection, the Rime.

He became ill himself in 1375 and died on 21 December in his hometown of Certaldo where he is buried in the Church of Saints Jacopo and Filippo.

His entire collection of books was given to the monastery of Santo Spirito in Florence, but after the suppression of the monasteries by the French in the 19th century, many valuable works were lost, including Boccaccio's.

In 1971, the director Pier Paolo Pasolini made a film based on Boccaccio’s Decameron.

The Via Boccaccio in the picturesque
town of Certaldo in Tuscany

Travel tip:

Certaldo, a town of Etruscan and Roman origins about 35km (22 miles) southwest of Florence, commemorates Boccaccio with a statue in the Piazza Boccaccio in Certaldo Basso, the lower part of a town of two halves, the other being Certaldo Alto, the elevated oldest part of the town in which Boccaccio lived, in what is now Via Boccaccio, at the end of which is the church of Saints Jacopo and Filippo, where he is buried.  Another feature of the picturesque upper town, which is accessed via a funicular railway from Certaldo Basso, is Palazzo Pretorio, also known as the Vicariale, the residence of the Florentine governors, which has been restored to its original condition with a facade adorned with ceramic coats of arms. 

Palazzo Molina on the Riva degli Schiavoni was
Petrarch's home in Venice

Travel tip:

Palazzo Molina, which has at different times been known as the Palazzo de Due Torri or Palazzo Navager, and locally as Casa di Petrarca, is a Gothic style palace that can be found a short distance from St Mark’s Square on Venice’s Riva degli Schiavoni, next to the Ponte del Sepolcro. Petrarch lived there with his daughter Francesca, her husband Francescuolo da Brossano and their family for about five years, having moved to Venice through his deep admiration for the city, where he had many friends. 

More reading:

Why Dante remains in exile from Florence

How Petrarch's work inspired the modern Italian language

Pier Paolo Pasolini - controversial director who met a violent death

Also on this day:

69: Vespasian becomes Emperor of Rome

1401: The birth of Renaissance artist Masaccio

1872: The birth of priest and composer Lorenzo Perosi

1931: The birth of circus owner and actress Moira Orfei

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Mario Minniti - painter

Sicilian influenced by long-time collaborator Caravaggio

Caravaggio's Boy with a Basket of
Fruit, thought to be a young Minniti

The painter Mario Minniti, who has acquired some historical notoriety over his long association with the brilliant but hot-tempered Renaissance great Caravaggio but went on to enjoy a successful career in his own right, was born on this day in 1577 in Syracuse, Sicily.

Minniti first encountered Caravaggio - born Michelangelo Merisi - when he arrived in Rome at the age of 15, seeking an apprenticeship following the death of his father.

Caravaggio was just a few years older than Minniti. They became friends and Minniti, who was blessed with boyish good looks, is thought to have been the model Caravaggio used in a series of works commissioned by Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte, one of the leading connoisseurs in Rome.

These included his paintings Boy with a Basket of Fruit, The Fortune Teller, The Musicians, Bacchus and The Lute Player.

As well as learning Caravaggio’s style and techniques, whose influence shone through in many of his own works, Minniti became close friends with his mentor, with some historians buying into the theory that they were lovers and that Caravaggio was obsessed with his young model’s beauty.

Others dispute this, however, not least because Minniti is known to have been married twice. They also point out that, in 16th century Italy, it was normal for men possessed with qualities associated with female beauty, such as pale, smooth skin and full lips, to be admired by other men, who saw such characteristics as signs of aristocratic breeding.

Caravaggio (above) took refuge with
Minniti at his home in Sicily

They argue that Minniti and Caravaggio, in fact, shared an appetite for flirting with other men’s wives and girlfriends on alcohol-fuelled nights out and that in many of the street brawls that marked Caravaggio’s time in the Eternal City, Minniti was at his side.

He may even have been present on the fateful May day in 1606 when Caravaggio is alleged to have killed murdered Ranuccio Tomassoni, reputedly a ‘wealthy scoundrel’, in the Campo Marzio district of central Rome, not far from the Piazza Monte D'Oro.

The incident led to Caravaggio being condemned to death by order of Pope Paul V, after which he fled the city, first to Naples and then Malta.  When he arrived in Sicily in 1608, forced to take flight again after another violent incident, he is said to have stayed with Minniti, who had by then returned home to Syracuse.  Minniti even found some work for his former employer, including a commission to paint the Burial of Saint Lucy for the church of Santa Lucia alla Badia in Syracuse. 

The influence on Minniti’s painting style led to him becoming known as “the Sicilian Caravaggio” and while his use of chiaroscuro - the dramatic contrast of light with dark shadows - was clearly inherited from Caravaggio, his style evolved into something that was more clearly his own, involving a the lively realism typical of the Baroque period.

The Miracle at Nain, which is on display in
Messina, is one of Minniti's best-known works

Like Caravaggio, Minniti benefited financially from the huge programme of church-building that took place in his lifetime, which meant that he was seldom short of commissions.

His readiness to embrace the Baroque style, characterized by exaggerated motion and clear detail used to evoke drama and exuberance, made him popular with the Catholic Church, who had determined that the arts should communicate religious themes and direct emotional involvement in response to the Protestant Reformation.

Minniti spent much of his time in Syracuse and Messina, as well as Palermo, and also took  commissions in Malta.  Among his surviving works are the Miracle at Nain, which can be seen at the regional art gallery in Messina, the Martyrdom of Saint Lucy and Miracle of Saint Clare, (both at the regional art gallery in Siracusa), Saint Benedict, Madonna with Child and Saints Cosimo and Damian (Church of Saint Mary, Modica), and Saint John the Baptist (Messina). 

Some critics claim that Minniti’s work too often lacked variety, and that he overdid certain motifs. Nonetheless, he is regarded in Sicily as one of the most distinguished painters of his era, one of the few Sicilian painters of the early 17th century whose work is preserved. 

Minniti died at Syracuse in 1640, at the age of 62.

The Sicilian Baroque cathedral in 
Syracuse, rebuilt by Andrea Palma

Travel tip:

The Syracuse of Minniti’s day was largely destroyed in the earthquake of 1693, but it was rebuilt, thanks to the largesse of the island’s Spanish rulers, in a way that makes it one of the most beautiful cities in southeast Sicily, with a wealth of buildings constructed in the architectural style that became known as Sicilian Baroque. There are several ancient ruins, however. The Parco Archeologico Neapolis, situated within the city, comprises the Roman Amphitheatre, the Teatro Greco and the Orecchio di Dionisio, a limestone cave shaped like a human ear. The Museo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi exhibits terracotta artifacts, Roman portraits and Old Testament scenes carved into white marble.  Syracuse as a city is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

The Piazza del Popolo is a feature of the
Campo Marzio district of central Rome

Travel tip:

The district of Campo Marzio is situated in the centre of Rome, comprising an area that includes Piazza di Spagna and the Scalinata di Trinità dei Monti - otherwise known as the Spanish Steps - and Piazza del Popolo, as well as the fashion district with the Via dei Condotti at its centre, overlooked by the Pincian Hill.  During the Middle Ages it was the most densely populated quarter of the city. It is bordered by the Tiber, the Quirinal hill in the north and the Capitoline Hill.

Also on this day:

The Feast of the Immaculate Conception

1685: The birth of perfumier Johann Maria Farina

1881: The birth of architect Marcello Piacentini

1925: The birth of former prime minister Arnaldo Forlani

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Jacopo della Quercia - sculptor

Innovative work said to have influenced Michelangelo

Jacopo della Quercia was a leading
influence on many artists

The sculptor Jacopo della Quercia, regarded as one of the most original artists in his field in the early 15th century and an influence on a number of leading figures in the Renaissance including Michelangelo, died on this day in 1438.

Della Quercia’s most notable works include the Fonte Gaia in Piazza del Campo in Siena, the sculptures around the Porta Magna of the church of San Petronio in Bologna, the tomb of Ilaria del Carretto in Lucca Cathedral, and Zacharias in the Temple, a bronze relief for the baptismal font in the church of San Giovanni in Siena.

His attention to proportion and perspective gave his creations a particularly lifelike quality and his innovative work put him at the forefront of his generation.  Art historians consider that his work marked a transition in Italian art from Gothic to Renaissance style that was taken forward by Michelangelo and contemporaries such as Francesco di Giorgio and Niccolò dell’Arca.

Born, it is thought, in 1374, he was baptised as Jacopo di Pietro d’Agnolo di Guarnieri.  He took his working name from his home village, Quercia Grossa - now Quercegrossa - situated a few kilometres outside Siena.  He came from a family of craftsmen; his father, Piero d’Angelo, was also a sculptor, and his brother Priamo was a painter.

The tomb of Ilaria del Carretto in Lucca cathedral
brought together Gothic and Classical styles

Jacopo’s early influences are likely to have been the paintings of Nicola Pisano and Arnolfi di Cambio in Siena’s duomo, and the ancient Roman statues and monuments exhibited in the cemetery at Lucca, where he moved with his family at the age of 12. 

His career began to gather pace in his early twenties. It is thought Della Quercia's earliest work appears in the Lucca cathedral, in which a statue of St John the Evangelist, an impressive Man of Sorrows at the Altar of the Sacrament, and a relief on the tomb of St Aniello. 

In 1401 he entered a competition to design the bronze doors for Florence's Baptistery, along with Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi, who would go on to design the cathedral’s famous dome.  Ghiberti won but the exposure enhanced Della Quercia’s standing further and in 1403 he sculpted the marble Virgin and Child for the Ferrara cathedral, winning considerable acclaim. 

Returning to Lucca in 1406, he received a commission from the city's ruler, Paolo Guinigi, to begin work at the tomb of his second wife Ilaria del Carretto in the Lucca cathedral. The end result, in which an elegantly dressed woman rests on top of a sarcophagus decorated with Roman-style winged cherubs, combines elements of Gothic and Classical styles, and is seen as signalling the imminent dawn of the golden age of Renaissance art.

The Porta Magna of the church of
San Petronio in Bologna

For all his brilliance, Della Quercia had a tendency to frustrate his clients by accepting too many commissions simultaneously, which led to him working on one at the expense of another.  For example, while the Fonte Gaia was completed in five years between 1414 and 1419, he may have been commissioned to do the work as early as 1406, certainly 1409.  At the same time, however, he was working on the statue of an apostle for the exterior of the cathedral at Lucca, the Trenta altar for the Church of San Frediano in Lucca, and tomb slabs for Lorenzo Trenta and his wife.

He may have started working in earnest on the Siena fountain later still had he not had to flee Lucca in haste in 1413, having been accused of crimes including robbery and rape for which one of his assistants spent three years in jail.

The original commission was to build a new fountain in Siena’s Piazza del Campo, to replace one that featured a statue of the pagan goddess Venus that had been blamed for an outbreak of plague in the city.  Della Quercia came up with a rectangular fountain built in white marble, dedicated to the Virgin, with statues carved into the three sides. It remains an attraction for tourists, although what they see now is a copy by Tito Sarrocchi, installed in the 19th century. The original is in the loggia of the town hall.

Similarly, Della Quercia was commissioned to create two gilt bronze reliefs for the baptismal font in San Giovanni in Siena but completed only one, the second being assigned to Donatello.

The design of the round-arched Porta Magna of the San Petronio church in Bologna, for which he accepted a commission in 1425, would keep him busy for much of the last 13 years of his life and it is considered by some to be his masterwork. 

The sculpture around the portal features 10 scenes from Genesis, including The Creation of Eve, five scenes from the early life of Christ, reliefs of the prophets and the statues of the Virgin and Child with Saints Petronius and Ambrose,  The sense of depth in the work, on which he was assisted by artists from his Bolognese workshop such as Cino di Bartolo, has been compared with the paintings of Masaccio.  Michelangelo, who visited Bologna in 1494, conceded that his Genesis on the Sistine Chapel ceiling was based on Della Quercia’s scenes. 

While working at the Porta Magna, he was asked to design the Loggia di San Paolo, close to the Piazza del Campo, but died before he could finish the commission.  In 1435 he was knighted by the government of Siena and appointed to a prestigious role overseeing Siena Cathedral.

Della Quercia’s biography is included in Giorgio Vasari’s seminal work, Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects. After his death, he was buried in the San Agostino church in Siena.

The Fonte Gaia is situated in the historic
Piazza del Campo in Siena

Travel tip:

Siena is perhaps best known as the venue for the historic horse race, the Palio di Siena. The race takes place in the Piazza del Campo, a shell-shaped open area which is regarded as one of Europe’s finest medieval squares. It was established in the 13th century as an open marketplace on a sloping site between the three communities that eventually merged to form the city of Siena.  The city's cathedral, with a pulpit designed by Nicola Pisani, is considered a masterpiece of Italian Romanesque-Gothic architecture.

The Basilica di San Petronio is the largest
brick built Gothic church in the world

Travel tip:

The Basilica di San Petronio is the main church of Bologna, located in Piazza Maggiore in the centre of the city. It is the largest brick-built Gothic church in the world. Building work began on the church in 1390 and it was dedicated to San Petronio, who had been the Bishop of Bologna in the fifth century. The facade was designed by Domenico da Varignana and started in 1538 by Giacomo Ranuzzi but was never finished. Despite being Bologna’s most important church, San Petronio is not the city’s cathedral. This is the Duomo di San Pietro, which stands nearby on Via Indipendenza. In the 16th century, the basilica staged the coronation of Charles V to Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Clement VII.

Also on this day:

1950: The birth of television presenter Mara Venier

1951: The birth of football manager Claudio Ranieri

1962: The birth of jazz musician Dado Moroni

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Fra’ Filippo Lippi - Renaissance painter

Mentor of Botticelli who led life of scandal

Filippo Lippi, a self-portrait within a
fresco in Spoleto's historic cathedral

The controversial 15th century painter Fra’ Filippo Lippi, who famously eloped with a nun who had agreed to pose for him at a Dominican monastery in Prato, died on or close to this day in 1469 in Spoleto, a city in Umbria then part of the Papal States.

He was aged 62 or 63. Because of the scandalous nature of his life, there was speculation after his death that he had been poisoned, possibly by relatives of Lucrezia Buti, the nun who fell for his charms and was the mother of two children by him.

Aside from his colourful private life, Lippi was an important figure in the development of painting.  Influenced himself by Masaccio and Fra’ Angelico, he developed a signature style of his own that was colourful and decorative and characterised by clarity of expression.  His own influence was seen in the works of his pupil Sandro Botticelli and his son, Filippino Lippi.

Born in Florence in 1406, the son of a butcher, Lippi was orphaned when he was two years old. Until he was eight, he lived with an aunt, who then placed him in a Carmelite convent. In 1420 he entered the community of friars at the Monastery of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence, where he took religious vows at the age of 16. It was there that he first came across Masaccio, who was working there on some frescoes in the Brancacci chapel that would become some of the most revered works of the Renaissance.

He did not take to studying, often occupying his time drawing pictures, and was allowed to leave the monastery to pursue his interest in painting, although he was not released from his vows.

A scene from Lippi's fresco series in the 
cathedral in the Tuscan city of Prato

He began travelling around Italy, visiting Padua, Ancona and Naples. The art historian Giorgio Vasari claimed that Fra’ Lippi was captured by Barbary pirates during a boat trip and kept as a slave for 18 months, supposedly securing his release only after he drew a picture of his slave master on the wall, using a piece of coal, that was such an accurate likeness that it was assumed he had some miraculous powers.

By the time he returned to Florence, in the 1430s, his reputation as a painter was growing and he was commissioned by a number of prominent families, including the Medicis. At the same time, however, his private life became increasingly turbulent, and when his employers were not dealing with complaints about his behaviour and settling lawsuits, they were paying off the debts he ran up.  The Medici became so exasperated with his unreliability they are said to have kept him locked up at night until he completed various commissions.

He produced his best work after moving to Prato, where he painted frescoes in the choir of the city’s cathedral depicting the stories of St. John the Baptist and St. Stephen. The scene showing the ceremonial mourning over Stephen's corpse is believed to contain a self-portrait of the painter. One of his scenes from his fresco series, Scenes of the Life of the Virgin, in the cathedral in Spoleto, is also said to include a self-portrait.

Lucrezia Buti is thought to be depicted
 in Lippi's 1455 Madonna and Child

It was in Prato that the major scandal of his life occurred. He had been appointed chaplain of the monastery of Santa Margherita and it is said that Lippi asked the mother superior for a nun who could pose for him for a picture he was painting, either of the Madonna or Santa Margherita.

He was sent Lucrezia Buti, the daughter of a Florentine family who, like him, has been sent to a convent as a child.  Lippi was taken with her beauty and seduced her. Soon afterwards, while Lucrezia was taking part in a procession, Lippi effectively kidnapped her. They moved into his house in Prato. Their son, Filippino, was born in 1457, followed a few years later by Alessandra, their daughter.

Given that Filippo and Lucrezia had both taken vows, they were living in sin, which at the time was considered highly scandalous. Eventually, Pope Pius II agreed to dissolve their vows, although they never married.  Lippi frequently depicted Lucrezia in his paintings, including a celebrated Madonna and Child painted in around 1455 that influenced Botticelli’s depictions of the Madonna. The painting hangs in the Uffizi in Florence.

In 1467, accompanied by Filippino and his friend and fellow painter, Fra’ Diamante, Lippi left for Spoleto, where he had been commissioned to decorate the choir of the Duomo. They worked together on the Nativity, the Annunciation, the Death of Mary, and the Coronation. He died in 1469 before the work was complete. He was buried in the cathedral, where a monument to him, commissioned by Lorenzo the Magnificent, was designed by his son.

The Palazzo Pretorio is one of a 
several important buildings in Prato

Travel tip:

The city of Prato is just half an hour from Florence yet is almost Tuscany's forgotten gem.  It has a commercial heritage founded on the textile industry and its growth in the 19th century earned it the nickname the "Manchester of Tuscany". Prato is the home of the Datini archives, a significant collection of late medieval documents concerning economic and trade history, produced between 1363 and 1410, yet also has many artistic treasures, including frescoes by Lippi, Paolo Uccello and Agnolo Gaddi inside its Duomo and the external pulpit by Michelozzo and Donatello. The Palazzo Pretorio is a building of great beauty, situated in the pretty Piazza del Comune, and there are the ruins of the castle built for the medieval emperor and King of Sicily Frederick II.

Spoleto's beautiful cathedral, where
Fra' Filippo Lippi is buried

Travel tip:

Spoleto is an historic and beautiful Umbrian hill town, where the 12th century cathedral is one of a number of interesting buildings including, standing on a hilltop overlooking the town, the imposing 14th century fortress, La Rocca Albornoziana.  There is a Roman amphitheatre, close to Piazza Garibaldi, which dates back to the middle of the first century BC and the early days of the Roman empire.  Two marble busts unearthed nearby, thought to be of Rome’s first emperor, Augustus and his adoptive father, Julius Caesar, may have been part of the decoration of the wall of the stage, which was destroyed in the Middle Ages during the construction of the adjoining Sant’Agata monastery and church, which now houses an archaeological museum.  The town is the home of the Festival dei Due Mondi music festival.

Also on this day:

1221: The death of historian Salimbene di Adam

1562: The death of anatomist Gabriele di Falloppio

1963: The Vajont Dam disaster

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Caterina Cornaro – Queen of Cyprus

Monarch lived out her last years in 'sweet idleness'

Titian's portrait of Caterina Cornaro,
painted in around 1452

The last ruler of the Kingdom of Cyprus, Caterina Cornaro, died on this day in 1510 in Venice.

She had been living out her life in a castle in Asolo, a pretty town in the Veneto, after the Venetian Government persuaded her to abdicate as Queen of Cyprus.

Her court at the castle became a centre of literary and artistic excellence as she spent her days in what has been described as ‘sweet idleness,’ a translation of the verb asolare, invented by the poet Pietro Bembo to describe her daily life in the town.

Caterina was born in 1406 into the noble Cornaro family, which had produced four Doges, and she grew up in the family palace on the Grand Canal. The family had a long trading and business association with Cyprus.

Caterina was married by proxy to King James II of Cyprus in 1468, securing commercial rights and privileges for Venice in Cyprus. In 1472 she set sail for Cyprus and married James in person at Famagusta.

James died soon after the wedding and Caterina, who was by then pregnant, became regent of the kingdom, as was specified in his will. She was imprisoned briefly, after Cyprus was seized by the Archbishop of Nicosia, but restored to continue ruling after a military intervention by Venice.

After her son, James II, died just before his first birthday, she became the actual monarch of the kingdom.

The castle at Asolo which was Caterina
Cornaro's home from 1489

She ruled Cyprus for 15 years, assisted by Venetian merchants, who effectively controlled the island and guaranteed her safety from other conspirators.

As a ruler she became an admired figure in contemporary European society and she was painted by great artists such as Durer, Titian, Gentile Bellini and Giorgione.

In 1489 she was persuaded to abdicate and to pass the control of Cyprus to the Republic of Venice.

Caterina was allowed to retain the title of Queen and was also made Lady of Asolo in return. The pageantry of the fleet carrying the exiled Queen home was captured in contemporary paintings and is now regarded as having been a brilliant piece of propaganda by the Venetian Republic.

Under Caterina, Asolo became a centre for late Renaissance art and learning. The painter Bellini and the poet Andrea Navagero spent time there. Bembo used Asolo as the setting for his dialogues on platonic love, Gli Asolani.

Caterina had more than 20 years of pleasurable life in Asolo before her death at the age of 55. Her grave is in the Church of San Salvador near the Rialto Bridge in Venice.

Piazza Giuseppe Garibaldi, the main square in
the town of Asolo in the Veneto

Travel tip:

Asolo is a town in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is known as ‘the pearl of the province of Treviso’ and also as ‘the city of a hundred horizons’ because of its beautiful views over the countryside and the mountains. The poet Robert Browning spent time in Asolo after he became a widower and he published Asolando, a volume of poetry written in the town, in 1889. The main road leading into the town is named Via Browning in his honour. One of the main sights is the Castle of Caterina Cornaro, which now houses the Eleonora Duse Theatre.

The facade of the Chiesa di San Salvador
in Venice, where Caterina was buried

Travel tip:

Caterina died in Venice, having fled Asolo when her castle was occupied by imperial troops. She was buried in the Chiesa di San Salvatore, known in Venetian as San Salvador, which is in the Campo San Salvador along the Merceria, the main shopping street of Venice, and is close to the Rialto Bridge. As well as Caterina, the church houses the tombs of three Doges. It is rich in art works. The monument to one of the Doges, Francesco Venier, was sculpted by Jacopo Sansovino, and there are paintings by Titian and Francesco Vecellio among others.

More reading:

Pietro Bembo, the influential poet who was Lucrezia Borgia's lover

How the Bellini family became the most important artists in Venice

Titian: the Old Master who set new standards

Also on this day:

138AD: The death of Hadrian

1954: The death of Mafia chieftain Calogero Vizzini


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