Giovanni Battista Moroni – artist

Portrait painter left visual record of a changing society

Moroni's portrait of Bernardo
Spini, a nobleman from his
home town of Albino

Giovanni Battista Moroni, who was considered one of the greatest portrait painters of the 16th century, died on this day in 1578 while working on a painting at a church just outside Bergamo in the northern region of Lombardy.

His wonderful legacy of portraits provides an illuminating insight into life in Italy in the 16th century, as he received commissions from merchants trying to climb the social ladder as well as from rich noblemen.

Moroni was born at Albino near Bergamo somewhere between 1510 and 1522 and went on to train under a religious painter from Brescia, Alessandro Bonvicino.

Although Moroni painted many acclaimed religious works, he became known much more for the vitality and realism of his portraits, for which he was once praised by Titian.

Some of Moroni’s work is in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and the National Gallery in London but there are fine examples of Moroni’s work in the collection of the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, such as The Old Man Sitting Down and the Portrait of Bernardo Spini.

One of Moroni’s finest religious works, the Coronation of the Virgin, can be seen in the church of Sant'Alessandro della Croce in Via Pignolo in Bergamo’s lower town.

Moroni’s unfinished painting of the Last Judgment can be seen in the church at Gorlago, just outside Bergamo, where he was working until just before his death on February 5, 1578.

Travel tip:

Bergamo is a fascinating historic city with two distinct centres. From the lower town you can see the beautiful upper town, the Città Alta, silhouetted against the sky. The upper town still has medieval buildings and towers, but the Venetians later built the impressive city walls and elegant palaces and fountains. At the heart of the upper town is Piazza Vecchia, said to be the most beautiful square in Italy, with the Colleoni Chapel, a stunning Renaissance building, nearby. There are plenty of interesting shops  and many excellent restaurants.

The magnificent facade of Bergamo's Accademia
Carrara, which houses a number of Moroni portraits

Travel tip:

You can see portraits by Moroni in Bergamo’s prestigious art gallery, Accademia Carrara. The magnificent palace just outside the Città Alta was built in the 18th century to house one of the richest private collections in Italy. It is the only Italian museum to be entirely stocked with donations and bequests from private collectors. 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. Accademia Carrara, in Piazza Giacomo Carrara, is open Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 10 am to 7 pm ; Friday from 10 am to 12 pm and Saturday and Sunday from 10 am to 8 pm . For more details visit www.lacarrara.it.

More reading:

Why Titian was a giant of Renaissance art

Cosimo I de' Medici and the origins of the Uffizi

How Bergamo painter Antonio Cifrondi captured images of 17th century life

Also on this day:

The Festival of Saint Agatha of Sicily

1964: The birth of footballer and coach Carolina Morace

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Giacomo Facco – composer

The forgotten talent of the musician from Padua

Giacomo Facco's music was
rediscovered in 1962

Giacomo Facco, a Baroque composer, was born on this day in 1676 in Marsango, a small town just north of Padova (Padua).

Highly regarded during his own lifetime, he was completely forgotten about until 1962 when his work was rediscovered by Uberto Zanolli, a musicologist.

Facco is believed to have worked as a violinist and a conductor and he is known to have been given a job in 1705 by the Viceroy of Sicily as a choirmaster, teacher and violinist in Palermo.

In 1708 he moved with the Viceroy to Messina where he composed The Fight between Mercy and Incredulity. In 1710 he presented a work dedicated to King Philip V of Spain, The Augury of Victories, in Messina Cathedral.

By 1720 it is known Facco was working in the Spanish court because his pay is mentioned in a report dating from that year. He is later named as clavichord master to the Spanish princes.

At the height of his success he was commissioned to compose an opera to celebrate the marriage of one of the princes in 1721.

He then seems to have fallen out of favour and was just employed as a violinist in the orchestra of the Royal Chapel until his death in Madrid in 1753.

The composer had earlier written 12 violin concertos under the title Pensieri Adriarmonici. Bright and buoyant, they are reminiscent of the music composed by his contemporary, Vivaldi. These concertos were discovered in a library in Mexico City by Uberto Zanolli in 1962 along with Facco’s birth certificate.  Since his remarkable discovery, Zanolli has put together a biography of Facco and a list of his known works.

Some of Facco’s solo cantatas, written using his own poetry, were presented at a concert in Mexico City in 1962, conducted by Zanolli.

But it is thought other music Facco wrote while working in Spain may have been destroyed in a fire in Madrid in 1734.

The gate into Castelfranco Veneto at
Via Francesco Maria Preti

Travel tip:

Facco was born and spent his early years in the hamlet of Marsango in the commune of Campo San Martino about 15 kilometres north of Padua in the beautiful countryside of the Veneto. Marsango lies between the cities of Treviso and Vicenza, with the walled city of Castelfranco Veneto just to the north.

Travel tip:

Messina, where Facco was employed by the Viceroy of Sicily, is in the north east corner of the island and has close ties with Reggio Calabria on the mainland. The cathedral where Facco’s music was presented in 1710 dates back to the 12th century but has had to be rebuilt twice because of suffering earthquake and fire damage.

Also on this day:

1667: The birth of painter Alessandro Magnasco

1875: The birth of patriotic campaigner Cesare Battisti

1892: The birth of playwright Ugo Betti

2014: The death of novelist Eugenio Corti

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Giuseppe Forlenza – eye surgeon

Napoleon recognised brilliance of eye specialist

This portrait of Giuseppe Forlenza
by Jacques-Antoine Vallin is
housed in London's National Gallery

Giuseppe Forlenza, an important 18th century ophthalmologist and surgeon, was born on this day in 1757 in Picerno in the province of Potenza.

He became famous for performing successful cataract surgery and for his treatment of eye diseases.

Forlenza was born in the region of Basilicata, which at that time was part of the Kingdom of Naples. His father and two uncles were all surgeons.

He went to Naples and then on to France to study surgery. He spent two years gaining experience at St George’s Hospital in London and then returned to France where he concentrated on treating eye diseases.

Forlenza carried out eye surgery at a retirement home in Paris and performed many remarkable operations on soldiers returning from fighting in Egypt who were suffering from eye problems.

He was recognised as a leading eye surgeon by Napoleon, who in a royal decree assigned him to treat eye disease throughout France.

Forlenza eventually returned to Italy where he performed many free operations in Turin and Rome and he wrote what was considered at the time to be a forward thinking medical work about the treatment of eye disease.

Forlenza died in 1833 in Paris at the age of 76.

A surviving tower from an ancient
castle is an attraction in Potenza

Travel tip:

Potenza is the capital of the Basilicata region in southern Italy, built on high ground overlooking a valley in the Apennine mountains of Lucania. A tower from an old castle and three gates from the former city walls still remain and there are the ruins of a Roman villa to see.

Travel tip:

The University of Naples was founded in 1224 by the Emperor Frederick II. One of its most famous students was the theologian and philosopher Thomas Aquinas who went on to lecture there in the 13th century. A former college built in the 16th century in Via Paladino, in the area of Spaccanapoli, has been the main university building since 1777.


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Antonio Maria Valsalva – anatomist

Work by brilliant professor benefits astronauts today

A line engraving of Antonio Maria Valsalva
by Romuald Ceracchi

Antonio Maria Valsalva, a much respected anatomist, died on this day in 1723 in Bologna.

Valsalva’s research focused on the anatomy of the ear and his discoveries were so important that a piece of equipment used by astronauts today is named after him.

The Valsalva device in spacesuits allows astronauts to equalise the pressure in their ears by performing the Valsalva manoeuvre inside the suit without using their hands to block their nose. It has also been used for other purposes, such as to remove moisture from the face.

Valsalva was born in Imola in 1666. He received an education in humanities, mathematics and natural sciences before going on to study medicine and philosophy at Bologna University. He later became Professor of Anatomy at Bologna University.

His main interest was the middle and inner ear and it was Valsalva who coined the term Eustachian tube for a part within the ear. It was named after the 16th century anatomist Bartolomeo Eustachi who had described the tube in his written work.

The Valsalva manoeuvre, the forcible exhalation against a closed airway, often practised by people to equalise pressure between the ears when on an aeroplane, is still used by doctors today to help them with diagnosis in certain situations.

Valsalva’s most substantial contribution to the field of medicine was his detailed, illustrated work about the anatomy, physiology and pathology of the ear, published in 1704.

Valsalva died after a stroke in 1723 and was buried in the church of San Giovanni in Monte in Bologna.

Imola's well-preserved Rocca Sforzesca dates back to the 14th
century, when control was disputed by powerful families

Travel tip:

Imola, where Antonio Valsalva was born, is a City in the province of Bologna in Emilia-Romagna. It dates back to Roman times and there are many fascinating historic buildings to see in the centre. The castle, the Rocca Sforzesca, is well preserved, and is nowadays the home of an internationally respected piano academy and the Cinema d’Este, which shows films in July and August. Imola is also home to the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari, a famous automobile racing circuit. 

Bologna's historic university, founded in 1088, is the
oldest in the world

Travel tip:

Bologna University was founded in 1088 and is the oldest in the world. There is a portrait of Valsalva in the university’s oldest surviving building, the Archiginnasio, which is now a library. It is open Monday to Friday from 9am to 7pm, and on Saturdays from 9am to 2pm and is just a short walk from Piazza Maggiore and the Basilica di San Petronio in the centre of the city.



More reading:

The founding father of Italian psychiatry, Andrea Verga

The professor who turned pathology into a science

Samantha Cristoforetti, Italy's firsy female astronaut

Also on this day:

1891: The birth of Sardinia's first prime minister of Italy, Antonio Segni

1925: The birth of Olympic showjumper Raimondo D’Inzeo 

(Picture credits: Sforza Castle at Imola by Ruben Alexander via Creative Commons)

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