Francesco Zucco – artist

Versatile painter decorated churches and produced acclaimed portraits

Zucco's San Diego e la Vergine in the 
Bergamo church of Santa Maria delle Grazie

Francesco Zucco, who was a prolific painter in the Baroque style in the late 16th and early 17th centuries in northern Italy, died on this day in 1627 in Bergamo in Lombardy.

Zucco painted both secular and religious subjects after he had trained as an artist and learnt about technique from other Bergamo painters, such as Giovanni Paolo Cavagna and Enea Salmeggia. Art critics have compared the quality and style of his portrait painting to that of Veronese and Giovan Battista Moroni. 

The artist was born at some time between 1570 and 1575 in Bergamo. He is known to have studied art at the workshop of the Campi brothers in Cremona and afterwards returned to live in his native city, where he associated with other painters working in Bergamo at the time.

Even if he was never a pupil of the Bergamo portrait painter Giovan Battista Moroni, art experts believe Zucco must have studied the artist’s works closely. He also formed strong personal links with Cavagna and Salmeggia. They all lived close to each other in Borgo San Leonardo, the artists’ quarter in Bergamo’s Città Bassa.

As he matured, Zucco began to dominate the artistic scene in Bergamo and painted many religious works of art. His success began in 1592 with his painting, la Circoncisione di Gesù - the Circumcision of Jesus - for a church in Stezzano in the province of Bergamo. It was a work that revealed signs of the training he had received from the Campi brothers at their workshop in Cremona.

The following year, Zucco painted Vergine con bambino e santi (Virgin with Baby and Saints), and L’adorazione dei Magi (the Adoration of the Magi) for the Church of Santi Pietro e Paolo, in Levate in the province of Bergamo. The painting of the Magi was signed Franciscus Zucchis 1593, indicating that he had already achieved artistic fame, with a style similar to that of Moroni, while maintaining the strength of design reminiscent of the Campi brothers.

Ritratto di gentildonna gravida can be
seen in the Accademia Carrara

Zucco then received numerous commissions that gave him the chance to perfect his own style. Among the many works he executed towards the end of the 16th century is a Vergine con bambino (Virgin with Child) for the church at Orio al Serio, a Bergamo suburb that is well known because of its airport.

In the years that followed, there were many paintings for other churches in the province but in Bergamo itself, Zucco painted for the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore and the Monastero di Astino.

For his own local church, Sant’Alessandro in Colonna in Via Sant’Alessandro, named after Bergamo’s patron saint, which was near where he lived in Bergamo, Zucco painted a Cycle of the life of Sant’Alessandro and his last known painting, Sant’Alessandro si presenta ad un Vescovo (Saint Alexander is Presented to a Bishop) which was dated 1627. 

Zucco married Aurelia Chiesa and they had three children, Bartolomeo Carlo, born in 1617, and Margherita and Giovanni Battista, who were born in 1623. Sadly, Zucco did not live long enough to see his children grow up. He died on May 3, 1627 at his home in Bergamo.

Examples of his religious paintings can still be seen in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in the Città Alta in Bergamo and in many other churches throughout the province of Bergamo. The Accademia Carrara in Bergamo have some of his portraits on display, such as the acclaimed Ritratto di gentildonna gravida (Portrait of an Expectant Gentlewoman).

The art treasures of the Accademia Carrara are
a major attraction for visitors to Bergamo

Travel tip:

The Accademia Carrara, a palace filled with art treasures, is a major attraction in Bergamo. The art gallery, just outside the Città Alta in Piazza Giacomo Cararra, was built in the 18th century to house one of the richest private collections of art in Italy and now houses some of the portraits painted by Francesco Zucco. It is the only Italian museum to be entirely stocked with donations and bequests from private collectors. Visitors can view a broad-ranging collection of works by the masters of the Venetian, Lombard, and Tuscan Renaissances as well as great artists who came later, such as Lotto, Titian, Moroni, Rubens, Tiepolo, Guardi, and Canaletto. The Accademia Carrara was established in Bergamo in 1794 as a combined Pinacoteca (art gallery) and School of Painting on the initiative of Bergamo aristocrat Count Giacomo Carrara. In addition to his collection of paintings he left his entire estate to the Accademia to secure its future. From being a museum dedicated to Renaissance painting, the Accademia grew into an art gallery that also provided a broad representation of pictorial genres from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Among the highlights are a Madonna and Child by Andrea Mantegna; Portrait of Leonello d’Este by Pisanello; Madonna and Child by Giovanni Bellini; Portrait of an Elderly Man Seated by Giovan Battista Moroni and The Grand Canal from Palazzo Balbi by Canaletto.

The church of Sant'Alessandro
in Colonna in Bergamo

Travel tip:

A Roman column in front of Chiesa di Sant’Alessandro in Colonna is believed to mark the exact spot where Bergamo’s patron saint was martyred by the Romans for refusing to renounce his Christian faith. The column in Via Sant’Alessandro in Bergamo’s lower town was constructed in the 17th century from Roman fragments. Every year on August 26, Bergamo remembers their patron saint’s decapitation there in 303. The church of Sant’Alessandro in Colonna was rebuilt in the 18th century on the site of an earlier church. Its ornate campanile (bell tower) was completed at the beginning of the 20th century. The church houses some works by Francesco Zucco, as well as a work depicting the Martyrdom of Sant’Alessandro by Enea Salmeggia and one showing the transporting of Sant’Alessandro’s corpse by Gian Paolo Cavagna. It also contains paintings by Lorenzo Lotto and Romanino. 

Also on this day:

1461: The birth of Cardinal Raffaele Riario

1469: The birth of writer and diplomat Niccolò Machiavelli

1764: The death of writer and art collector Francesco Algarotti

1815: The Battle of Tolentino

1901: The birth of actor Gino Cervi

Home

Parmigianino - Mannerist painter

Artist from Parma left outstanding legacy

Parmigianino's Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror, with
which he announced himself in Rome in 1524 

The artist Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola – better known as Parmigianino – died on this day in 1540 in Casalmaggiore, a town on the Po river south-east of Cremona in Lombardy.

Sometimes known as Francesco Mazzola, he was was only 37 years old when he passed away but had nonetheless made sufficient impact with his work to be regarded as an important influence on the period that followed the High Renaissance era of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael.

Known for the refined sensuality of his paintings, Parmigianino – literally ‘the little one from Parma’ – was one of the first generation of Mannerist painters, whose figures exuded elegance and sophistication by the subtle exaggeration of qualities associated with ideal beauty.

Parmigianino is also thought to have been one of the first to develop printmaking using the technique known as etching and through this medium his work was copied, and circulated to many artistic schools in Italy and other countries in northern Europe, where it could be studied and admired.

The church of San Giovanni Evangelista in
Parma, where Parmigianino did early work

Parmigianino’s figures would often have noticeably long and slender limbs and strike elegant poses. He is most famously associated with the Madonna dal collo lungo – Madonna with the Long Neck – which portrays a tall Virgin Mary with long, slender fingers, long, narrow feet and a swan-like neck, cradling a particularly large baby Jesus watched over by a group of lithe and graceful angels.

He is also remembered for The Mystic Marriage of St Catherine, for his fresco series Legend of Diana and Actaeon, executed while he was living in Parma, for his Vision of St Jerome, which he painted in Rome, and for the Madonna with St Margaret and Other Saints that he worked on in Bologna after leaving Rome to escape the sacking of the city by German troops loyal to the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V.

Parmigianino was born, as the name suggests, in Parma, in 1503, into a large family. His father died when he was two and he was brought up by two uncles, Michele and Pier Ilario, who were both established artists.

His uncles saw his talent at a young age and he would help them on local commissions.  His early influence was said to be Antonio Allegri – otherwise known as Correggio, the foremost painter of the Parma school during the Renaissance, with whom he likely worked at the church of San Giovanni Evangelista, in Parma, where there are frescoes attributed to Parmigianino.

Parmigianino's Madonna with the Long
Neck highlights his exaggerated style

In common with many young artists of his era and earlier, he moved to Rome in 1524, seeking fame and inspiration by working in the city of so many great masters, where he could study the works of Raphael and Michelangelo among others. He took with him his brilliantly imaginative Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror, which he presented to the Papal court, after which Giorgio Vasari, who is recognised as art’s first historian, noted that he was hailed as 'Raphael reborn'.

Parmigianino and Pier Ilario, along with Maria Bufalina from Città di Castello, collaborated on a project at the church of San Salvatore in Lauro that included an altarpiece of the Vision of Saint Jerome, now on show at the National Gallery in London.

His time in Rome was cut short when the city was destroyed by Charles V’s imperial army in 1527.

Initially, he went to Bologna, where he stayed for almost three years. His works during that time included the Madonna and Child with Saints, which is kept now by the Pinacoteca in Bologna and the Madonna with Saint Zachariah, which is in the Uffizi in Florence.

By 1530 he was back in Parma, where he was paid an advance to produce two altarpieces, depicting Saint Joseph and Saint John the Baptist, for the unfinished church of Santa Maria della Steccata.

He painted the Madonna with the Long Neck after being commissioned by the noblewoman Elena Baiardi to decorate her family chapel in the church of Santa Maria dei Servi in Parma.

For all he was celebrated at his peak, however, Parmigianino was to end his life somewhat in disgrace.

Distracted, it is thought, by his obsession with etching and printmaking techniques, he neglected his commission with the church of Santa Maria della Staccata and was eventually imprisoned for two months for breach of contract and replaced with Giulio Romano.

The monument to Parmigianino in Parma

Released on bail, he took refuge in Casalmaggiore, where he died of a fever. Increasingly eccentric, he was said to have been buried in the church of the Servite Friars naked and with a cross made in cypress wood placed on his chest.

Many Venetian artists, including Jacopo Bassano and Paolo Veronese, are said to have been strongly influenced by the emotional and dramatic qualities in Parmigianino’s work. 

Travel tip:

Despite the unhappy end to his relationship with what is now the Basilica of Santa Maria della Steccata, Parmigianino’s status as one of Parma’s most famous sons is celebrated with a monument immediately in front of the church, in Piazza della Steccata, executed by the sculptor Giovanni Chierici and inaugurated in 1879. The monument consists of a fountain and a statue.

Piazza Garibaldi in Casalmaggiore, looking
towards Palazzo Comunale 

Travel tip:

Casalmaggiore sits alongside the Po river about 42km (26 miles) south-east from Cremona. It is an attractive town with a lively central square, the Piazza Garibaldi, where there is a weekly market every Saturday and regular outdoor events. Most of the town’s main sights are in the vicinity of the square, including the imposing castellated Palazzo Comunale – the Town Hall – built in 1788, and the Estense tower. Look out also for the Diotti or Bijou Museum, in the basement of the former Collegio Santa Croce, which displays jewellery, ornaments and accessories made in local factories in the late 19^th century.

Home

Palma Giovane - painter

Mannerist took the mantle of Tintoretto 

Jacopo Negretti, the Venetian artist better
known as Palma Giovane

The Venetian artist Jacopo Negretti, best known as Jacopo Palma il Giovane - Palma the Younger - or simply Palma Giovane, died in Venice on this day in 1628.

Essentially a painter of the Italian Mannerist school, Palma Giovane's style evolved over time and after the death of Tintoretto in 1594 he became the most revered artist in Venice.

He became in demand beyond Venice, too, particularly in Bergamo, the city in Lombardy that was a dominion of Venice, and in central Europe.  He received many commissions in Bergamo and was often employed in Prague by the Habsburg Emperor, Rudolph II, who was a noted art connoisseur.

Palma had been born into a family of painters. His great uncle, also called Jacopo, was the painter Palma Vecchio - Palma the Elder - while his father, Antonio Negretti, was a pupil of the elder Palma’s workshop manager, Bonifacio Veronese, whose shop and clientele he inherited after the latter’s death.

The younger Palma is said to have developed his skills making copies in the style of Titian, although the claim in some biographies that he worked in Titian's workshop in Venice is now thought to be incorrect. What is not disputed is that when Titian died, in 1576, Palma was entrusted with finishing his last work, the Pietà, in the Accademia in Venice.

In 1567, Guidobaldo II della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, had recognised Palma’s talents and sponsored him to further his education in Rome, where he remained until about 1572.

Palma Giovane's 1620 Lamentation of Christ,
at the National Gallery of Art in Washington

On his return to Venice, Palma received his first major public commission, to paint three scenes in the Sala del Maggior Consiglio of the Doge’s Palace following a fire there in 1577.

Mannerism, from the Italian word maniera, meaning style, is characterised by frequently complex figures with elongated features, often given exaggerated, unusual poses.  It is seen as a reaction to High Renaissance art, which emphasised proportion, balance and idealistic beauty.

By the mid-1580s Palma was incorporating Tintoretto’s versatile figure postures and echoes of Titian’s loose brushstrokes and emphasis on light.

Palma worked alongside Veronese and Tintoretto on the decorations in the Doge’s Palace, where he embraced the Venetian tradition. Some of his finest works were the cycles of large canvases he painted for schools or religious brotherhoods and for sacred buildings such as the sacristies of San Giacomo dall’Orio and the Gesuiti, the Scuola di San Giovanni Evangelista, and the Ospedaletto dei Crociferi.

His official commissions at the Doge's Palace included a magnificent portrait of Saint Pope Pius V, commissioned by the Bellanti Counts, an influential family in Tuscany.  The painting left Italy after being bought by Major-General Sir Robert Dick, the British soldier and collector, before being returned by Roberto Gagliardi, an Italian art dealer based in London, who purchased it at Bonham's for display at the Museum of Art he established at Chianciano, not far from Siena.

After his death at the age of 80, Palma was interred in the Basilica dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo, a traditional burial place of the doges.

The Basilica dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo in
Venice, where Palma Giovane is buried

Travel tip:

The huge Gothic Basilica dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo, where Palma Giovane is buried, is in the Castello district of Venice.  It is one of the largest churches in Venice and after the 15th century the funerals of all Doges took place there.  In all, it houses the tombs of 25 Doges.  There are many works by Veronese in the Chapel of the Rosary, as well as paintings elsewhere by Lorenzo Lotto and sculptures by Pietro Lombardo.  Outside is a statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni, the Bergamo condottiero (mercenary) and a former captain-general of the Republic of Venice, by Andrea del Verrocchio.

Travel tip:

Several of Palma Giovane's works commissioned in Bergamo are on display at the Accademia Carrara, a magnificent palace just outside Bergamo's Città Alta that was built in the 18th century to house one of the richest private collections in Italy. Visitors can view works by the masters of the Venetian, Lombard and Tuscan Renaissances as well as great artists who came later, such as Lotto, Titian, Moroni, Rubens, Tiepolo, Guardi and Canaletto.  The gallery, in Piazza Giacomo Carrara, is open Monday, Wednesday and Thursday (10am to 7pm); Friday (10am to 12 noon) and Saturday and Sunday (10am to 8pm).

More reading:

Titian - giant of Renaissance art

Tintoretto - dyer's won whose work still adorns Venice

How Guardi captured the final glory years of the Venetian Republic

Home