1.
Asciano
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Asciano is a comune and hill town in the province of Siena in the Italian region Tuscany. It is located at the centre of the Crete senesi between the river Ombrone and the torrent Copra, some 30 kilometres southeast of the town of Siena by rail, asciano has origins as Etruscan, Roman and Lombard settlements. A 5th century BC Etruscan necropolis has been excavated nearby and remains of Roman baths, during the medieval period its location made it a site of contest between Siena and Florence, the Battle of Montaperti was fought in the nearby on 4 September 1260. The village was purchased by the Sienese in 1285 and surrounded by walls in 1351, asciano has the 11th century Romanesque basilica of SantAgata which was built of travertine. The church, with its aisleless nave topped by a roof, is adorned with decorative elements of the Lombard type. Outside is its 13th century campanile, the interior houses two 16th-century frescoes, one by Il Sodoma and a Pietà attributed to Bartolomeo Neroni. Adjoining the church is the Museo dArte Sacra where works by painters in the Sienese manner of the 14th and 15th centuries are exhibited, the Museo Archeologico contains finds from the excavation of chamber tombs from the cemetery of Poggio Pinci. 10 kilometers to the south is the large Benedictine monastery of Monte Oliveto Maggiore, mother-house of the Olivetans, the cloister is famous for the series of frescoes illustrating scenes from the legend of St. Benedict begun by Luca Signorelli and completed by il Sodoma in 1505. The latter masters work is perhaps nowhere better represented than here, the church contains fine inlaid choir stalls by Fra Giovanni da Verona. The buildings, which are mostly of red brick, are conspicuous against the grey clayey, the monastery is described by Pope Pius II in his Commentaria
2.
Province of Siena
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The Province of Siena is a province in the Tuscany region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Siena, to the west are the Colline Metallifere, whilst the Val di Chiana lies to east. Historically, the province corresponds to the former Republic of Siena, the chief occupations are agricultural and silk culture. The wine known as Chianti is produced here as well as in parts of Tuscany. Apart from the city of Siena the principal towns are Poggibonsi, Colle di Val dElsa, Montepulciano, Chiusi, there are 36 comuni in the province
3.
Painting
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Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface. The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, Painting is a mode of creative expression, and the forms are numerous. Drawing, gesture, composition, narration, or abstraction, among other aesthetic modes, may serve to manifest the expressive, Paintings can be naturalistic and representational, photographic, abstract, narrative, symbolistic, emotive, or political in nature. A portion of the history of painting in both Eastern and Western art is dominated by motifs and ideas. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action, the term painting is also used outside of art as a common trade among craftsmen and builders. What enables painting is the perception and representation of intensity, every point in space has different intensity, which can be represented in painting by black and white and all the gray shades between. In practice, painters can articulate shapes by juxtaposing surfaces of different intensity, thus, the basic means of painting are distinct from ideological means, such as geometrical figures, various points of view and organization, and symbols. In technical drawing, thickness of line is ideal, demarcating ideal outlines of an object within a perceptual frame different from the one used by painters. Color and tone are the essence of painting as pitch and rhythm are the essence of music, color is highly subjective, but has observable psychological effects, although these can differ from one culture to the next. Black is associated with mourning in the West, but in the East, some painters, theoreticians, writers and scientists, including Goethe, Kandinsky, and Newton, have written their own color theory. Moreover, the use of language is only an abstraction for a color equivalent, the word red, for example, can cover a wide range of variations from the pure red of the visible spectrum of light. There is not a register of different colors in the way that there is agreement on different notes in music. For a painter, color is not simply divided into basic, painters deal practically with pigments, so blue for a painter can be any of the blues, phthalocyanine blue, Prussian blue, indigo, cobalt, ultramarine, and so on. Psychological and symbolical meanings of color are not, strictly speaking, colors only add to the potential, derived context of meanings, and because of this, the perception of a painting is highly subjective. The analogy with music is quite clear—sound in music is analogous to light in painting, shades to dynamics and these elements do not necessarily form a melody of themselves, rather, they can add different contexts to it. Modern artists have extended the practice of painting considerably to include, as one example, collage, some modern painters incorporate different materials such as sand, cement, straw or wood for their texture. Examples of this are the works of Jean Dubuffet and Anselm Kiefer, there is a growing community of artists who use computers to paint color onto a digital canvas using programs such as Adobe Photoshop, Corel Painter, and many others. These images can be printed onto traditional canvas if required, rhythm is important in painting as it is in music
4.
Renaissance
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The Renaissance was a period in European history, from the 14th to the 17th century, regarded as the cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history. It started as a movement in Italy in the Late Medieval period and later spread to the rest of Europe. This new thinking became manifest in art, architecture, politics, science, Early examples were the development of perspective in oil painting and the recycled knowledge of how to make concrete. Although the invention of movable type sped the dissemination of ideas from the later 15th century. In politics, the Renaissance contributed to the development of the customs and conventions of diplomacy, the Renaissance began in Florence, in the 14th century. Other major centres were northern Italian city-states such as Venice, Genoa, Milan, Bologna, the word Renaissance, literally meaning Rebirth in French, first appeared in English in the 1830s. The word also occurs in Jules Michelets 1855 work, Histoire de France, the word Renaissance has also been extended to other historical and cultural movements, such as the Carolingian Renaissance and the Renaissance of the 12th century. The Renaissance was a movement that profoundly affected European intellectual life in the early modern period. Renaissance scholars employed the humanist method in study, and searched for realism, however, a subtle shift took place in the way that intellectuals approached religion that was reflected in many other areas of cultural life. In addition, many Greek Christian works, including the Greek New Testament, were back from Byzantium to Western Europe. Political philosophers, most famously Niccolò Machiavelli, sought to describe life as it really was. Others see more competition between artists and polymaths such as Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Donatello, and Masaccio for artistic commissions as sparking the creativity of the Renaissance. Yet it remains much debated why the Renaissance began in Italy, accordingly, several theories have been put forward to explain its origins. During the Renaissance, money and art went hand in hand, Artists depended entirely on patrons while the patrons needed money to foster artistic talent. Wealth was brought to Italy in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries by expanding trade into Asia, silver mining in Tyrol increased the flow of money. Luxuries from the Eastern world, brought home during the Crusades, increased the prosperity of Genoa, unlike with Latin texts, which had been preserved and studied in Western Europe since late antiquity, the study of ancient Greek texts was very limited in medieval Western Europe. One of the greatest achievements of Renaissance scholars was to bring this entire class of Greek cultural works back into Western Europe for the first time since late antiquity, Arab logicians had inherited Greek ideas after they had invaded and conquered Egypt and the Levant. Their translations and commentaries on these ideas worked their way through the Arab West into Spain and Sicily and this work of translation from Islamic culture, though largely unplanned and disorganized, constituted one of the greatest transmissions of ideas in history
5.
Giorgio Vasari
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Vasari was born in Arezzo, Tuscany. Recommended at an age by his cousin Luca Signorelli, he became a pupil of Guglielmo da Marsiglia. He was befriended by Michelangelo whose painting style would influence his own, in 1529, he visited Rome where he studied the works of Raphael and other artists of the Roman High Renaissance. Vasaris own Mannerist paintings were admired in his lifetime than afterwards. In 1547 he completed the hall of the chancery in Palazzo della Cancelleria in Rome with frescoes that received the name Sala dei Cento Giorni and he was consistently employed by members of the Medici family in Florence and Rome, and worked in Naples, Arezzo and other places. He also helped to organize the decoration of the Studiolo, now reassembled in the Palazzo Vecchio, aside from his career as a painter, Vasari was also successful as an architect. In Florence, Vasari also built the long passage, now called Vasari Corridor, the enclosed corridor passes alongside the River Arno on an arcade, crosses the Ponte Vecchio and winds around the exterior of several buildings. He also renovated the medieval churches of Santa Maria Novella and Santa Croce, at both he removed the original rood screen and loft, and remodelled the retro-choirs in the Mannerist taste of his time. In Santa Croce, he was responsible for the painting of The Adoration of the Magi which was commissioned by Pope Pius V in 1566 and it was recently restored, before being put on exhibition in 2011 in Rome and in Naples. Eventually it is planned to return it to the church of Santa Croce in Bosco Marengo, in 1562 Vasari built the octagonal dome on the Basilica of Our Lady of Humility in Pistoia, an important example of high Renaissance architecture. In Rome, Vasari worked with Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola and Bartolomeo Ammanati at Pope Julius IIIs Villa Giulia, the Lives also included a novel treatise on the technical methods employed in the arts. The book was rewritten and enlarged in 1568, with the addition of woodcut portraits of artists. The work has a consistent and notorious bias in favour of Florentines, and tends to attribute to them all the developments in Renaissance art – for example, Venetian art in particular, is systematically ignored in the first edition. Between the first and second editions, Vasari visited Venice and while the edition gave more attention to Venetian art. Vasaris biographies are interspersed with amusing gossip, with a few exceptions, however, Vasaris aesthetic judgement was acute and unbiased. He did not research archives for exact dates, as art historians do, and naturally his biographies are most dependable for the painters of his own generation. Modern criticism – with new materials opened up by research – has corrected many of his traditional dates and attributions. Vasari includes a sketch of his own biography at the end of the Lives, according to the historian Richard Goldthwaite, Vasari was one of the earliest authors to use the term competition in its economic sense
6.
Taddeo di Bartolo
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Taddeo di Bartolo, also known as Taddeo Bartoli, was an Italian painter of the Sienese School during the early Renaissance. He is among the artists profiled in Vasaris biographies of artists or Vite, vasari claims he is the uncle of Domenico di Bartolo. Taddeo di Bartolo was born in Siena, the exact year of Taddeo di Bartolos birth is unknown, but it’s been suspected to be between 1363-65. Around 1389 he entered the Sienese Guild of artists, where he mastered the art of painting among his Sienese colleagues, in 1389 Taddeo traveled to Collegarli, the San Miniato al Tedesco hills, and Pisa. The painting of The Virgin and Child Enthroned, signed and dated in 1390, in 1393, Taddeo traveled to San Gimignano, where he executed the altarpiece of the Virgin and Child and Saints for the Sardi and Campigli Chapel in San Francesco. The Virgin and Child With Saints showcases Taddeo’s earlier style, the thin, elegant figures, and flowing lines of the drapery patterns reflect influence from his Sienese predecessors, such as Simone Martini and Ambrogio Lorenzetti. From 1400-01, Taddeo worked at the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena where he created twelve small panels, of only nine exist today. These panels give reverence to Taddeo’s craftsmanship in smaller scale work, around 1401, Taddeo painted the celebrated altarpiece, Assumption of the Virgin and scenes from the Passion, in Montepulciano. The intention of this piece was for religious and devotional functions, Taddeo worked to accommodate the established conventions of altarpiece painting, while simultaneously stylizing the pieces to fit their respective site. In 1403, Taddeo was working in Perugia producing two works, now on display in their public gallery, the Virgin and Child with two Angels and St Bernard and Descent of the Holy Ghost. These two works showcase Taddeo’s superior talents, exhibiting delicate coloring and vast human expression, though, in 1406, Taddeo was commissioned to destroy all the paintings in the chapel of the Palazzo Pubblico, and repaint the inside. Many of these represent the Life of the Madonna, including the Death of the Virgin in which Jesus descends, takes her hand. In 1422 Taddeo di Bartolo died in Siena, much of his early work was in Pisa, where he was responsible for the frescoes of Paradise and Hell in the Cathedral there, and for paintings in the Palazzo Pubblico and the church of San Francesco. At the Collegiata di San Gimignano, Taddeo painted a fresco depicting The Last Judgment, the Museo Civico of San Gimignano, displays a painting by Taddeo depicting Saint Gimignano holding the town in his lap. A triptych of the Virgin and Child with St John the Baptist and St Andrew, a massive triptych, Assumption of the Virgin, painted in 1401, is displayed in the 16th-century Duomo of Santa Maria dellAssunta at Montepulciano. Taddeos Madonna with Child, Four Angels and Saint John the Baptist and Saint Andrew may be seen in the Oratory of the Company of Saint Catherine of the Night at Santa Maria della Scala, Siena. He also painted allegories and figures from Roman history, and the Funeral of the Virgin at the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena and his St Elizabeth of Hungry is on display in the Perkins Collection of the Basilica of St Francis in Assisi. A Madonna and Child, painted with tempera and oil on a panel, is located in the Wadsworth Atheneum
7.
Vecchietta
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Francesco di Giorgio e di Lorenzo, known as Vecchietta or Lorenzo di Pietro, was an Italian Sienese School painter, sculptor, goldsmith and architect of the Renaissance. He is among the artists profiled in Vasaris Le Vite delle più eccellenti pittori, scultori and it is believed Vecchietta was a pupil of Sassetta, Taddeo di Bartolo and Jacopo della Quercia. Later in his life he was the master of Francesco di Giorgio and Neroccio de’ Landi, Vecchietta was born in Castiglione dOrcia, and lived in Siena. Much of his work may be there, particularly at the Hospital of Santa Maria della Scala, lending him yet another name. Later, around 1444, he created the Cappella del Sacro Chiodo, also known as the Old Sacristy, the frescoes included Annunciation, Nativity, and Last Judgment scenes, and an Allegory of the Ladder depicting children climbing to heaven. For the high altar of the Church of the Santissima Annunziata, within the Hospital complex, he created a figure of the Risen Christ. An enormous bronze ciborium, created by Vecchietta for the Hospital of Santa Maria della Scala, was moved to the Cathedral of Siena in 1506. Between 1447 and 1450, a series of frescoes were completed for the Baptistry of San Giovanni at Siena Cathedral, executed by Vecchietta and they include depictions of the Evangelists, Prophets and Sibyls, the Four Articles of the Creed, and the Assumption. The frescoes were repainted at the end of the 19th century. Vecchietta also painted two scenes on the wall of the apse, Flagellation and Road to Calvary, at the Palazzo Saracini, he created a sculpture of St. Martin. A bronze tomb statue of Marianus Soccinus the Elder for the church of San Domenico is now shown at the Uffizi in Florence. For the Loggia della Mercanzia, Vecchietta sculpted life-size figures of St. Peter and St. Paul, Vecchietta also crafted a silver statue of St. Catherine of Siena at the time of the saints canonization in 1461. This work disappeared after the siege of Siena in 1555, outside Siena, Vecchiettas chief work is a painting of the Assumption at the church in Pienza, created for the Piccolimino Pope Pius II. The Uffizi in Florence, in addition to the statue of Marianus brought from Siena, has a panel depicting the Madonna created by Vecchietta. Sienese Painting The Art of a City-Republic, Vecchiettas Risen Christ, Santa Maria della Scala Hospital, Siena Vecchiettas Founding of the Spedale, Santa Maria della Scala Hospital, Siena Website of Santa Maria della Scala, Siena
8.
Santa Maria della Scala (Siena)
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Santa Maria della Scala is located in Siena, Italy. Now a museum, it was once an important civic hospital dedicated to caring for abandoned children, the poor, the sick, revenues were earned partially from bequests and donations from the citizens of Siena, particularly the wealthy. The head of the hospital was the rector who managed the lay brothers responsible for its operation, Santa Maria della Scala was one of Europes first hospitals and is one of the oldest hospitals still surviving in the world. It played a major role and is considered one of Sienas 3 main artistic hubs. The Hospital partially gets its name from its position, located across the Piazza del Duomo from Siena Cathedral, Santa Maria della Scala refers to its position across from the steps that lead into the Cathedral. The Hospital is made up of a complex of buildings, around the 13th and 14th centuries, the Hospital organized its land into large agricultural estates. This is said to have represented the largest concentration of land of the Sienese state and this agricultural land helped to financially support the Hospitals works. The Pellegrinaio is the hall where pilgrims were lodged. It also served as a location for public festivities and this hall, along with another specifically to house women was built around 1325. The church of the Santissima Annuziata, built during the 13th century, was enlarged during the part of the 15th century. Santa Maria della Scala was dedicated to its services, from at least as far back as 1193 up to the 18th century, the Hospital took on many philanthropic endeavors, Cast-off babies often found their way to the Hospital. Meticulous records were kept of the details relating to each child, the procedure for the childrens care was implemented according to age, As infants, they were given to wet nurses then later weaned and educated. At age 8, they were taught a trade and any profits made were kept for them. When they reached 18, the children had the option of leaving and those that chose to leave were given all their saved earnings, plus 100 soldi, a set of clothing, and furnishings for a house. Girls were given an additional 50 lire as a dowry, meals were served for the poor three times a week. The sick were also given free meals and treatment, the Hospitals treatment of the sick was unusual for the time, their policy was to have one bed for each sick patient, and the sheets were kept clean. Also, in what has been suggested as one of the earliest examples of such a therapeutic objective, the Hospital employed one normal doctor and one surgeon. In the 16th century, it added an additional surgeon, as the Hospital became a training ground for doctors, there was, for the 17th and 18th centuries, a unique emphasis on using a more hands-on learning approach
9.
Siena Cathedral
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Siena Cathedral is a medieval church in Siena, Italy, dedicated from its earliest days as a Roman Catholic Marian church, and now dedicated to the Assumption of Mary. Previously the episcopal seat of the Diocese of Siena, from the 15th century the Archdiocese of Siena, the cathedral itself was originally designed and completed between 1215 and 1263 on the site of an earlier structure. It has the form of a Latin cross with a slightly projecting transept, a dome, the dome rises from a hexagonal base with supporting columns. The lantern atop the dome was added by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the nave is separated from the two aisles by semicircular arches. The exterior and interior are constructed of white and greenish-black marble in alternating stripes, Black and white are the symbolic colors of Siena, etiologically linked to black and white horses of the legendary citys founders, Senius and Aschius. The origins of the first structure are obscure and shrouded in legend, there was a 9th-century church with bishops palace at the present location. In December 1058 a synod was held in this resulting in the election of pope Nicholas II. In 1196 the cathedral masons’ guild, the Opera di Santa Maria, was put in charge of the construction of a new cathedral. Works were started with the north - south transept and it was planned to add the main, larger body of the cathedral later, by 1215 there were already daily masses said in the new church. There are records from 1226 onwards of the transport of black and white marble, probably for the construction of the façade, the vaults and the transept were constructed in 1259-1260. In 1259 Manuello di Ranieri and his son Parri carved some wooden choir stalls, in 1264, Rosso Padellaio was paid for the copper sphere on top of the dome. A second massive addition of the body of the cathedral was planned in 1339. It would have more than doubled the size of the structure by means of a new nave. The construction was begun under the direction of Giovanni di Agostino, construction was halted by the Black Death in 1348. Basic errors in the construction were already evident by then, however, the outer walls, remains of this extension, can now be seen to the south of the Duomo. The floor of the nave now serves as a parking lot and museum, and, though unfinished, the remains are testament to Sienese power, ambition. Underneath the choir of the Duomo, a narthex containing important late 13th-century frescoes was found, the frescoes depict scenes from the Old Testament and the life of Christ. This was part of the entrance of an earlier church, but when the baptistry was built, this under-church was filled with rubble
10.
Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria
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The Galleria Nazionale dellUmbria is the Italian national paintings collection of Umbria, housed in the Palazzo dei Priori, Perugia, in central Italy. Its collection comprises the greatest representation of the Umbrian School of painting, ranging from the 13th to the 19th century, the collection is presented in 40 galleries in the Palazzo. The origins of the lie in the founding of the Perugian Accademia del Disegno in the mid-16th century. The Academy had its seat in the Convento degli Olivetani at Montemorcino. With the addition of acquisitions, donations and bequests, the became the Regia Galleria Vannucci in 1918
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Perugia
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Perugia is the capital city of both the region of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the river Tiber, and of the province of Perugia. The city is located about 164 kilometres north of Rome and 148 km south-east of Florence and it covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area. The region of Umbria is bordered by Tuscany, Lazio, the history of Perugia goes back to the Etruscan period, Perugia was one of the main Etruscan cities. Perugia is also a cultural and artistic centre of Italy. The famous painter Pietro Vannucci, nicknamed Perugino, was a native of Città della Pieve and he decorated the local Sala del Cambio with a beautiful series of frescoes, eight of his pictures can also be admired in the National Gallery of Umbria. Perugino was the teacher of Raphael, the great Renaissance artist who produced five paintings in Perugia, another famous painter, Pinturicchio, lived in Perugia. Galeazzo Alessi is the most famous architect from Perugia, the citys symbol is the griffin, which can be seen in the form of plaques and statues on buildings around the city. Perugia was an Umbrian settlement but first appears in history as Perusia, one of the 12 confederate cities of Etruria. Fabius Pictors account, utilized by Livy, of the carried out against the Etruscan League by Fabius Maximus Rullianus in 310 or 309 BC. At that time a thirty-year indutiae was agreed upon, however, in 295 Perusia took part in the Third Samnite War and was reduced, with Volsinii and Arretium, a number of lead bullets used by slingers have been found in and around the city. Negotiations with the besieging forces fell to the bishop, Herculanus. Totila is said to have ordered the bishop to be flayed and beheaded, st. Herculanus later became the citys patron saint. In the Lombard period Perugia is spoken of as one of the cities of Tuscia. Peter, acknowledged the validity of the statement and recognised the established civic practices as having the force of law. However this dominant tendency was rather an anti-Germanic and Italian political strategy, midway through the 14th century Bartholus of Sassoferrato, who was a renowned jurist, asserted that Perugia was dependent upon neither imperial nor papal support. Civic peace was constantly disturbed in the 14th century by struggles between the party representing the people and the nobles. A citadel known as the Rocca Paolina, after the name of Pope Paul III, was built, in 1797, the city was conquered by French troops. On 4 February 1798, the Tiberina Republic was formed, with Perugia as capital, in 1799, the Tiberina Republic merged to the Roman Republic
12.
Siena
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Siena is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena, the historic centre of Siena has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. It is one of the nations most visited tourist attractions, with over 163,000 international arrivals in 2008, Siena is famous for its cuisine, art, museums, medieval cityscape and the Palio, a horse race held twice a year. Siena, like other Tuscan hill towns, was first settled in the time of the Etruscans when it was inhabited by a called the Saina. A Roman town called Saena Julia was founded at the site in the time of the Emperor Augustus, the first document mentioning it dates from AD70. Some archaeologists assert that Siena was controlled for a period by a Gaulish tribe called the Senones, according to local legend, Siena was founded by Senius and Aschius, two sons of Remus and thus nephews of Romulus, after whom Rome was named. Supposedly after their fathers murder by Romulus, they fled Rome, taking them the statue of the she-wolf suckling the infants. Additionally they rode white and black horses, giving rise to the Balzana, some claim the name Siena derives from Senius. Other etymologies derive the name from the Etruscan family name Saina, Siena did not prosper under Roman rule. It was not sited near any major roads and lacked opportunities for trade and its insular status meant that Christianity did not penetrate until the 4th century AD, and it was not until the Lombards invaded Siena and the surrounding territory that it knew prosperity. Siena prospered as a trading post, and the constant streams of pilgrims passing to, the oldest aristocratic families in Siena date their line to the Lombards surrender in 774 to Charlemagne. This ultimately resulted in the creation of the Republic of Siena, the Republic existed for over four hundred years, from the late 11th century until the year 1555. During the golden age of Siena before the Black Death in 1348, in the Italian War of 1551–59, the republic was defeated by the rival Duchy of Florence in alliance with the Spanish crown. After 18 months of resistance, Siena surrendered to Spain on 17 April 1555, the new Spanish King Felipe II, owing huge sums to the Medici, ceded it to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, to which it belonged until the unification of Italy in the 19th century. A Republican government of 700 Sienese families in Montalcino resisted until 1559, the picturesque city remains an important cultural centre, especially for humanist disciplines. The city lies at 322 m above sea level, the Siena Cathedral, begun in the 12th century, is a masterpiece of Italian Romanesque-Gothic architecture. Its main façade was completed in 1380, the original plan called for an ambitiously massive basilica, the largest then in the world, with, as was customary, an east-west nave. However, the scarcity of funds, in due to war and plague, truncated the project
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Tuscany
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Tuscany is a region in central Italy with an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants. Tuscany is known for its landscapes, traditions, history, artistic legacy, Tuscany produces wines, including Chianti, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Morellino di Scansano and Brunello di Montalcino. Having a strong linguistic and cultural identity, it is considered a nation within a nation. Tuscany is traditionally a popular destination in Italy, and the main tourist destinations by number of tourist arrivals are Florence, Pisa, Montecatini Terme, Castiglione della Pescaia and Grosseto. The village of Castiglione della Pescaia is also the most visited destination in the region. Additionally, Siena, Lucca, the Chianti region, Versilia and Val dOrcia are also internationally renowned, Tuscany has over 120 protected nature reserves, making Tuscany and its capital Florence popular tourist destinations that attract millions of tourists every year. In 2012, the city of Florence was the worlds 89th most visited city, roughly triangular in shape, Tuscany borders the regions of Liguria to the northwest, Emilia-Romagna to the north and east, Umbria to the east and Lazio to the southeast. The comune of Badia Tedalda, in the Tuscan Province of Arezzo, has an exclave named Ca Raffaello within Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany has a western coastline on the Tyrrhenian Sea, containing the Tuscan Archipelago, of which the largest island is Elba. Tuscany has an area of approximately 22,993 square kilometres, surrounded and crossed by major mountain chains, and with few plains, the region has a relief that is dominated by hilly country used for agriculture. Hills make up nearly two-thirds of the total area, covering 15,292 square kilometres, and mountains. Plains occupy 8. 4% of the total area—1,930 square kilometres —mostly around the valley of the River Arno, many of Tuscanys largest cities lie on the banks of the Arno, including the capital Florence, Empoli and Pisa. The pre-Etruscan history of the area in the late Bronze and Iron Ages parallels that of the early Greeks, following this, the Villanovan culture saw Tuscany, and the rest of Etruria, taken over by chiefdoms. City-states developed in the late Villanovan before Orientalization occurred and the Etruscan civilization rose, the Etruscans created the first major civilization in this region, large enough to establish a transport infrastructure, to implement agriculture and mining and to produce vibrant art. The Etruscans lived in Etruria well into prehistory, throughout their existence, they lost territory to Magna Graecia, Carthage and Celts. Despite being seen as distinct in its manners and customs by contemporary Greeks, the cultures of Greece, one reason for its eventual demise was this increasing absorption by surrounding cultures, including the adoption of the Etruscan upper class by the Romans. Soon after absorbing Etruria, Rome established the cities of Lucca, Pisa, Siena, and Florence, endowed the area with new technologies and development, and ensured peace. These developments included extensions of existing roads, introduction of aqueducts and sewers, however, many of these structures have been destroyed by erosion due to weather. The Roman civilization in the West collapsed in the 5th century AD, in the years following 572, the Longobards arrived and designated Lucca the capital of their Duchy of Tuscia
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Baptismal font
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A baptismal font is an article of church furniture used for baptism. The fonts of many Christian denominations are for baptisms using an immersion method, the simplest of these fonts has a pedestal with a holder for a basin of water. The materials vary greatly consisting of carved and sculpted marble, wood, many are eight-sided as a reminder of the new creation and as a connection to the practice of circumcision, which traditionally occurs on the eighth day. Some are three-sided as a reminder of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, in many churches of the Middle Ages and Renaissance there was a special chapel or even a separate building for housing the baptismal fonts, called a baptistery. Both fonts and baptisterys were often octagonal, saint Ambrose wrote that fonts and baptistries were octagonal because on the eighth day, by rising, Christ loosens the bondage of death and receives the dead from their graves. Saint Augustine similarly described the day as everlasting. Hallowed by the resurrection of Christ, the quantity of water is usually small. There are some fonts where water pumps, a natural spring and this visual and audible image communicates a living waters aspect of baptism. Some church bodies use special holy water while others use water straight out of the tap to fill the font. A special silver vessel called a ewer can be used to fill the font, the mode of a baptism at a font is usually one of sprinkling, pouring, washing, or dipping in keeping with the Koine Greek verb βαπτιζω. Βαπτιζω can also mean immerse, but most fonts are too small for that application, some fonts are large enough to allow the immersion of infants, however. The earliest baptismal fonts were designed for full immersion, and were often cross-shaped with steps leading down into them, often such baptismal pools were located in a separate building, called a baptistery, near the entrance of the church. As infant baptism became common, fonts became smaller. Full-immersion baptisms may take place in a tank or pool. The entire body is immersed, dunked, submerged or otherwise placed completely under the water. This practice symbolizes the death of the old nature, as found in Romans 6, in the Eastern Orthodox Church, baptism is always by full triple immersion, even in the case of infant baptism. For this reason, Eastern baptismal fonts tend to be larger than Western, and are shaped like a large chalice. During the baptismal service, three candles will be lit on or around the font, in honor of the Holy Trinity
15.
Lorenzo Ghiberti
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Trained as a goldsmith and sculptor, he established an important workshop for sculpture in metal. His book of Commentari contains important writing on art, as well as what may be the earliest surviving autobiography by any artist, Ghiberti was born in Pelago,20 km from Florence. His father was Bartoluccio Ghiberti, an artist and goldsmith, who trained his son in goldsmithing and he then went to work in the Florence workshop of Bartoluccio di Michele, where Antonio del Pollaiolo also received his training. When the bubonic plague struck Florence in 1400, Ghiberti emigrated to Rimini, Ghibertis career was dominated by his two successive commissions for pairs of bronze doors to the Florence Baptistery. They are recognized as a masterpiece of the Early Renaissance. Ghiberti first became famous when as a 23-year-old he won the 1401 competition for the first set of bronze doors, the original plan was for the doors to depict scenes from the Old Testament, but the plan was changed to depict scenes from the New Testament instead. However, the piece made was of the sacrifice of Isaac. To carry out this commission, he set up a workshop in which many artists trained, including Donatello, Masolino, Michelozzo, Uccello. Instead of twenty-eight scenes, he produced ten rectangular scenes in a different style. These were more naturalistic, with perspective and a greater idealization of the subject, dubbed The Gates of Paradise by Michelangelo, this second set remains a major monument of the age of Renaissance humanism. As recommended by Giotto, Andrea Pisano was awarded the commission to design the first set of doors at the Florence Baptistery in 1329, the south doors were originally installed on the east side facing the Duomo, and were transferred to their present location in 1452. These proto-Renaissance doors consist of 28 quatrefoil panels, with the twenty top panels depicting scenes from the life of St. John the Baptist, the eight lower panels depict the eight virtues of hope, faith, charity, humility, fortitude, temperance, justice and prudence. Pisano took six years to them, finishing in 1336. In 1453, Ghiberti and his son Vittorio were commissioned to add a door case to Pisanos existing panels, Ghiberti died in 1455, eight years before the frame was finished leaving a majority of the work to Vitorrio and other members of his workshop. There is a Latin inscription on top of the door, Andreas Ugolini Nini de Pisis me fecit A. D. MCCCXXX, the South Doors were undergoing restoration during September,2016. In 1401, the Arte di Calimala announced a competition to design doors which would eventually be placed on the side of the baptistry. These new doors would serve as an offering to celebrate Florence being spared from relatively recent scourges such as the Black Death in 1348. Many artists competed for this commission and a jury selected seven semifinalists which included Ghiberti, Filippo Brunelleschi, Donatello, at the time of judging, only Ghiberti and Brunelleschi were finalists, and when the judges could not decide, they were assigned to work together on them
16.
Donatello
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Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi, better known as Donatello, was an early Renaissance sculptor from Florence. He worked with stone, bronze, wood, clay, stucco and wax, and had several assistants, with four perhaps being a typical number. Though his best-known works were mostly statues in the round, he developed a new, very shallow, type of bas-relief for small works, and a good deal of his output was larger architectural reliefs. Donatello was the son of Niccolò di Betto Bardi, who was a member of the Florentine Arte della Lana, Donatello was educated in the house of the Martelli family. He apparently received his artistic training in a goldsmiths workshop. While undertaking study and excavations with Filippo Brunelleschi in Rome, work that gained the two men the reputation of treasure seekers, Donatello made a living by working at goldsmiths shops. In 1409–1411 he executed the colossal seated figure of Saint John the Evangelist, which until 1588 occupied a niche of the old cathedral façade and this work marks a decisive step forward from late Gothic Mannerism in the search for naturalism and the rendering of human feelings. The face, the shoulders and the bust are still idealized, while the hands, in 1411–13, Donatello worked on a statue of St. Mark for the guild church of Orsanmichele. In 1417 he completed the Saint George for the Confraternity of the Cuirass-makers, the elegant St. George and the Dragon relief on the statues base, executed in schiacciato is one of the first examples of central-point perspective in sculpture. From 1423 is the Saint Louis of Toulouse for the Orsanmichele, Donatello had also sculpted the classical frame for this work, which remains, while the statue was moved in 1460 and replaced by Incredulity of Saint Thomas by Verrocchio. Between 1415 and 1426, Donatello created five statues for the campanile of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, also known as the Duomo. These works are the Beardless Prophet, Bearded Prophet, the Sacrifice of Isaac, Habbakuk, and Jeremiah, from the late teens is the Pazzi Madonna relief in Berlin. In 1425, he executed the notable Crucifix for Santa Croce, this work portrays Christ in a moment of the agony, eyes and mouth partially opened, the body contracted in an ungraceful posture. From 1425 to 1427, Donatello collaborated with Michelozzo on the monument of the Antipope John XXIII for the Battistero in Florence. Donatello made the recumbent bronze figure of the deceased, under a shell, in 1427, he completed in Pisa a marble relief for the funerary monument of Cardinal Rainaldo Brancacci at the church of SantAngelo a Nilo in Naples. In the same period, he executed the relief of the Feast of Herod, the relief is mostly in stiacciato, with the foreground figures are done in bas-relief. Around 1430, Cosimo de Medici, the foremost art patron of his era and this is now Donatellos most famous work, and the first known free-standing nude statue produced since antiquity. Also from this period is the disquietingly small Love-Atys, housed in the Bargello, some have perceived the David as having homo-erotic qualities, and have argued that this reflected the artists own orientation
17.
Jacopo della Quercia
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Jacopo della Quercia was an Italian sculptor of the Italian Renaissance, a contemporary of Brunelleschi, Ghiberti and Donatello. He is considered a precursor of Michelangelo, Jacopo della Quercia takes his name from Quercia Grossa, a place near Siena, where he was born in 1374. He received his training from his father, Piero dAngelo. Jacopo della Quercia, a Sienese, must have seen the works of Nicola Pisano and Arnolfo di Cambio on the pulpit in the cathedral of Siena and his first work may have been at the age of sixteen, an equestrian wooden statue for the funeral of Azzo Ubaldini. He left with his father to Lucca, owing to party strife, in Pisa, della Quercia likely studied the huge collection of Roman sculptures and sarcophagi in the Camposanto. These and later made him a transitional figure in the history of European art. As in the case of Ghiberti, this development probably results from exposure to his contemporary, Della Quercias earliest work appears in the Lucca cathedral, Man of Sorrows and a relief on the tomb of St. Aniello. In 1401 he entered a competition to design the bronze doors for Florences Baptistery, the unsuccessful entrys whereabouts are unknown. In 1403 he sculpted the marble Virgin and Child for the Ferrara cathedral, another work from his period in Ferrara is the statuette of St. Maurelius. Back again in Lucca in 1406, he received the commission from the ruler, Paolo Guinigi. The richly dressed woman rests on top of the sarcophagus, delicately portrayed in a Gothic fashion, with her dog, symbol of conjugate fidelity, but his use of several nude putti at the flanks of the tomb clearly shows the classical influence of the Roman sarcophagi at Camposanto. This is a first, a harbinger of the incipient Renaissance, in 1406 he was asked to build a new fountain in the Piazza del Campo in Siena. It had to replace the original fountain with a statue of the goddess Venus and this pagan statue was blamed for an outbreak of the Black Plague. The statue was destroyed and buried outside the city walls to avert its evil influence and this prestigious commission shows that he was already being recognized as Sienas most prominent sculptor. The rectangular fountain, built in marble, was dedicated to the Virgin. Because he accepted also other commissions at the time, progress was slow. He started in 1414 and the fountain was finished in 1419. He carved the panels in the workshop for sculptors, next to the cathedral and this workshop is now converted into the Cathedral Museum
18.
Stefano di Giovanni
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While working within the Sienese tradition, he innovated the style by introducing elements derived from the decorative Gothic style and the realism of contemporary Florentine innovators as Masaccio. The name Sassetta has been associated with him, mistakenly, only since the 18th century but is now used for this artist. The date and birthplace of Sassetta are not known, some say he was born in Siena although there is also an hypothesis that he was born in Cortona. His father, Giovanni, is called da Cartona which possibly means that Cortona was the artists birthplace, the meaning of his nickname Sassetta is obscure and is not cited in documents of his time but appears in sources from the eighteenth century. Sassetta was probably trained alongside artists like Benedetto di Bindo and Gregorio di Cecco and he achieved a high level of technical refinement and was aware of artistic innovations of talented painters in Florence such as Gentile da Fabriano and Masolino. His work differs from the late Gothic style of many of his Sienese contemporaries and his first certain work, which originally had his signature is the Arte della Lana altarpiece, fragments of which are now divided among various private and public collections. The Madonna of the Snow altarpiece for the Siena Cathedral was a commission for Sassetta. Not only does he excel at infusing his figures with a light that convincingly molds their shape, he also has an amazing handle on spatial relationships. From this point on, under Gothic influence, Sassetta’s style increases its decorative nature, the polyptych done by Sassetta in San Domenico at Cortona shows scenes from the legend of St. Anthony the Abbot. He shows great skill in narration through his painting as well as combining a sophisticated color palette, Francesco di Giorgio e di Lorenzo, better known as Vecchietta, is said to have been his apprentice. He died by pneumonia contracted while decorating the Assumption fresco in the Porta Romana of Siena, the work was finished by his pupil Sano di Pietro. Many consider Sassettas fusing of traditional and contemporary elements as integral to the move from the Gothic to the Renaissance style of painting in Siena, Sassetta was a fiercely pious man. The painting is about the marriage of righteousness and violence and the consequences of sinfulness, the perils of feigning faith, the figure in black in the painting is an unbeliever, who has been found out in the process of receiving Communion. The officiating priest offers him the host on a plate, which is pictured miraculously spurting blood, the unbeliever has been struck dead instantly, and the creature above his face is a tiny black devil which has swooped down to snatch away his soul to the depths of Hell. The other men pictured are Carmelite monks, caught in expressions of shock, amazement, the painting is a carefully staged, meticulously created illusion which commemorates the Miracle of Bolsena which is said to have taken place in 1263. Sassettas Altarpiece of the Eucharist was later divided between three museums, the Vatican, and a private collection, the altarpiece was originally painted in Siena, and transported to Sansepolcro for placement in the church of San Francesco. In October 1900 the Berenson family purchased three panels created by Stefano di Giovanni and it is generally accepted by the art historical community that Sassetta’s San Francesco altarpiece was one of the largest and most expensive of the Quattrocento. The fact that it was produced by a Sienese artist in Siena, bernard Berenson bequeathed many of Sassettas painting from his Florence Villa to Harvard University, in what became the Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence
19.
Giovanni di Paolo
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Giovanni di Paolo di Grazia was an Italian painter, working primarily in Siena. He may have apprenticed with Taddeo di Bartolo, becoming a painter and illustrator of manuscripts. He was one of the most important painters of the 15th century Sienese School and his early works show the influence of earlier Sienese masters, but his later style was more individual, characterized by cold, harsh colours and elongated forms. His style also took on the influence of International Gothic artists such as Gentile da Fabriano, many of his works have an unusual dreamlike atmosphere, such as the surrealistic Miracle of St. Giovannis reputation declined after his death but was revived in the 20th century. Giovanni di Paolo was first documented in 1417 working for the Sienese Dominican Order as a miniaturist, most of Giovannis commissions came from local monastic communities which is apparent because so many of his early works are altarpieces for such churches. Giovanni di Paolo was influenced by great artists in Trecento and Quattrocento. It is believed that he may have owned a book of other artists’ work he could flip through. A few of these include the following, Gentile da Fabrianos two Florentine altarpieces, Ambrogio Lorenzettis Presentation in the Temple, and the Baptistery reliefs by Donatello and he would then be able to alter, modify, and combine these artists’ works into his own renderings. Giovanni di Paolo was influenced by artists during his time. Giovannis Raising of Lazarus is based on the scene of Duccios Maestà. But where Duccios figures are sober and restrained, Giovanni di Paolos are voluble, Giovanni was open to solutions other than the Sienese tradition which. made him receptive to sources farther afield as well. One of these is the occasion where he painted a picture he had drawn from a mural in Assisi and his work and style show the transition from the Sienese and Gothic style into the Renaissance. His style also took on the influence of International Gothic artists such as Gentile da Fabriano and he was an artist of great consequence who had been invited by Pope Martin V to Rome. On his way to Rome, Gentile stopped in Siena, where Giovanni quickly assimilated Gentiles techniques, one technique he kept was Gentiles fascination with nature. Instead of using standing saints, as was customary, in his painting Giovanni used sprigs of flowering plants, where Gentile was capable of darkness and mystery, Giovanni. saw nature as untarnished and ever-benign. These works of art that Giovanni integrated into his own were. waiting to be imbued with personal meaning a creation Giovanni was able to do well. Later in his life Giovanni became greatly skilled at painting illuminated manuscripts, the illuminations that he created for Dantes poem are some of his most famous and best preserved works. His illuminations are one area viewers can see how Giovanni di Paolo differentiates himself from other Sienese artists and he may have been in contact with Franco-Flemish illuminators, who had been in Siena during Giovannis early years
20.
Masaccio
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Masaccio, born Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone, was the first great Italian painter of the Quattrocento period of the Italian Renaissance. Masaccio died at twenty-six and little is known about the circumstances of his death. The name Masaccio is a version of Maso, meaning clumsy or messy Tom. The name may have created to distinguish him from his principal collaborator, also called Maso. Despite his brief career, he had a influence on other artists. He was one of the first to use linear perspective in his painting, employing techniques such as vanishing point in art for the first time, Masaccio was born to Giovanni di Simone Cassai and Jacopa di Martinozzo in Castel San Giovanni di Altura, now San Giovanni Valdarno. His father was a notary and his mother the daughter of an innkeeper of Barberino di Mugello and his family name, Cassai, comes from the trade of his paternal grandfather Simone and granduncle Lorenzo, who were carpenters/cabinet makers. Masaccios father died in 1406, when he was five, later that same year a brother was born. He also was to become a painter, with the nickname of lo Scheggia meaning the splinter, there is no evidence for Masaccios artistic education, however Renaissance painters traditionally began an apprenticeship with an established master around the age of 12. Johannis Simonis pictor populi S. Nicholae de Florentia, the first works attributed to Masaccio are the San Giovenale Triptych, now in the Museum of Cascia di Reggello near Florence, and the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne at the Uffizi. The San Giovenale altarpiece was discovered in 1961 in the church of San Giovenale at Cascia di Reggello and it depicts the Virgin and Child with angels in the central panel, Sts. Bartholomew and Blaise on the panel, and Sts. Juvenal and Anthony Abbot in the right panel, the painting has lost much of its original framing, and its surface is badly abraded. The second work was perhaps Masaccios first collaboration with the older and already-renowned artist, Masolino is believed to have painted the figure of St. Anne and the angels that hold the cloth of honor behind her, while Masaccio painted the more important Virgin and Child on their throne. Masolinos figures are delicate, graceful and somewhat flat, while Masaccios are solid, in Florence, Masaccio could study the works of Giotto and become friends with Brunelleschi and Donatello. It was destroyed when the cloister was rebuilt at the end of the 16th century. With the two artists probably working simultaneously, the painting began around 1425, but for reasons the chapel was left unfinished. As a whole the frescoes represent human sin and its redemption through the actions of Peter, the style of Masaccios scenes shows the influence of Giotto especially
21.
Florence
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Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the Metropolitan City of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants, Florence was a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time. It is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has called the Athens of the Middle Ages. A turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family, from 1865 to 1871 the city was the capital of the recently established Kingdom of Italy. The Historic Centre of Florence attracts 13 million tourists each year and it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982. The city is noted for its culture, Renaissance art and architecture, the city also contains numerous museums and art galleries, such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Palazzo Pitti, and still exerts an influence in the fields of art, culture and politics. Due to Florences artistic and architectural heritage, it has been ranked by Forbes as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, in 2008, the city had the 17th highest average income in Italy. Florence originated as a Roman city, and later, after a period as a flourishing trading and banking medieval commune. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, it was politically, economically, and culturally one of the most important cities in Europe, the language spoken in the city during the 14th century was, and still is, accepted as the Italian language. Starting from the late Middle Ages, Florentine money—in the form of the gold florin—financed the development of all over Europe, from Britain to Bruges, to Lyon. Florentine bankers financed the English kings during the Hundred Years War and they similarly financed the papacy, including the construction of their provisional capital of Avignon and, after their return to Rome, the reconstruction and Renaissance embellishment of Rome. Florence was home to the Medici, one of European historys most important noble families, Lorenzo de Medici was considered a political and cultural mastermind of Italy in the late 15th century. Two members of the family were popes in the early 16th century, Leo X, catherine de Medici married king Henry II of France and, after his death in 1559, reigned as regent in France. Marie de Medici married Henry IV of France and gave birth to the future king Louis XIII, the Medici reigned as Grand Dukes of Tuscany, starting with Cosimo I de Medici in 1569 and ending with the death of Gian Gastone de Medici in 1737. The Etruscans initially formed in 200 BC the small settlement of Fiesole and it was built in the style of an army camp with the main streets, the cardo and the decumanus, intersecting at the present Piazza della Repubblica. Situated along the Via Cassia, the route between Rome and the north, and within the fertile valley of the Arno, the settlement quickly became an important commercial centre. Peace returned under Lombard rule in the 6th century, Florence was conquered by Charlemagne in 774 and became part of the Duchy of Tuscany, with Lucca as capital. The population began to again and commerce prospered
22.
Paolo di Giovanni Fei
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Paolo di Giovanni Fei was a painter of the Sienese school. He came to Siena from San Quirico, Castelvecchio, held positions in Siena from 1369 and was first mentioned in the Sienese register of painters in 1389. His earliest signed and dated work is of 1381 and he appears among the documents of the Duomo di Siena, 1395–1410, and is assumed to have died shortly thereafter. Paolo di Giovanni was influenced by the brothers Pietro Lorenzetti and Ambrogio Lorenzetti and by the Sienese masters Bartolo di Fredi and his paintings are characterized by their bright clear palette often against a gilded and punched ground, and his wealth of naturalistic and ornamental detail. His artistic personality was first elucidated by Bernard Berenson, madonna and Christ on the Throne, National Museum of Serbia, Belgrade Birth of the Virgin, Siena Presentation of the Virgin, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C. The Robert Lehman Collection I, Italian Paintings, new York, Princeton, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Princeton University Press. CS1 maint, Multiple names, authors list Paolo di Giovanni Fei on-line
23.
John Pope-Hennessy
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Sir John Wyndham Pope-Hennessy CBE FBA FSA, was a British art historian and Director of the British Museum. He was a scholar of Italian Renaissance art, many of his writings, including the tripartite Introduction to Italian Sculpture and his magnum opus, Donatello, Sculptor, are regarded as classics in the field. He was the elder of two sons, his younger brother James Pope-Hennessy was a writer of note, at Oxford, he was introduced by Logan Pearsall Smith to Kenneth Clark, who became a mentor to the young Pope-Hennessy. Upon graduation, Pope-Hennessy embarked on what he referred to as his Wanderjahre, travelling in continental Europe and becoming acquainted with its art collections. Between 1955 and 1963, Pope-Hennessys Introduction to Italian Sculpture was published in three volumes, covering Gothic, Renaissance and High Renaissance and Baroque sculpture and it has been said of these that few books have dominated their field of study so thoroughly, or for so long. Pope-Hennessy served as the director of the Victoria and Albert Museum between 1967 and 1973, and then as the director of the British Museum from 1974 until 1976 and his nickname to staff was the Pope. Traumatised by the murder of his brother James in January 1974, initially he withdrew to Tuscany, but was enticed by an offer from the Metropolitan Museum of Art to head its department of European painting, and moved to New York. He combined this curatorial post with a professorship at New York Universitys Institute of Fine Arts and his apartment was known to be lavishly furnished and he is said to have owned a large porphyry table. Pope-Hennessy retired at 75 and moved permanently to Florence, at Palazzo Canigiani and he is buried in the Cimitero Evangelico degli Allori in the southern suburb of Florence, Galluzzo, Italy. A Lecture on Nicholas Hilliard, London,1949 Introduction to Italian Sculpture, London,1993 Essays on Italian Sculpture. London,1968 Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Victoria and Albert Museum, finding aid for the John Pope-Hennessy papers at the Getty Research Institute
24.
Gentile da Fabriano
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Gentile da Fabriano was an Italian painter known for his participation in the International Gothic painter style. He worked in places in central Italy, mostly in Tuscany. His best-known works are his Adoration of the Magi from the Strozzi Altarpiece, Gentile was born in or near Fabriano, in the Marche. His mother died some time before 1380, and his father, Niccolò di Giovanni Massi, retired to a monastery in the same year, where he died in 1385. Little is known of his formation, one of his first known works, by around 1405, Gentile da Fabriano was working in Venice. He painted a panel for the church of Santa Sofia, now lost, between 1408 and 1409, he painted a fresco in the Doges Palace depicting the naval battle between the Venetians and Otto III. In Venice he knew Pisanello and perhaps Michelino da Besozzo, from 1410–1412 is one of his first masterworks, the Valle Romita Polyptych. In 1410–1411 he was at Foligno, where he frescoed the Palazzo Trinci, in 1414 he moved to Brescia, at the service of Pandolfo III Malatesta, and painted the Broletto Chapel, a work now mostly lost. In the Spring 1420 he was again in Fabriano and his other works in Florence include the Quaratesi Polyptych. In June–August 1425 he was in Siena, where he painted a Madonna with Child, now lost, until October he was in Orvieto, where he painted his fresco of the Madonna and Child in the Cathedral. In 1427 he arrived in Rome, commissioned by Pope Martin V the decoration of the nave of the Basilica of St. John in Lateran, Gentile is known to have died before 14 October 1427. He is commonly said to have buried in the church now called S. Francesca Romana in Florence, but his tomb vanished, there is evidence, however, that he may be buried in the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere, in Rome, the place of his death. He left no works in the Marche, except possibly a Madonna and Child in the Duomo at SantAngelo in Vado and he also left one painting in Venice. Fabio Marcelli, Gentile da Fabriano, Silvana,2005, andrea De Marchi, Gentile da Fabriano. Un viaggio nella pittura italiana alla fine del gotico, Federico Motta,2006, Gentile da Fabriano biography-paintings-curiosity-publications Italian Paintings, Sienese and Central Italian Schools, a collection catalog containing information about Fabriano and his works. 5 paintings of Gentile da Fabriano
25.
Andrea di Bartolo
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Andrea di Bartolo or Andrea di Bartolo Cini was an Italian painter, stained glass designer and illuminator of the Sienese School mainly known for his religious subjects. He was active between 1389–1428 in the area in and around Siena, Andrea di Bartolo was the son and pupil of Bartolo di Fredi, a very prominent painter in Siena. His youth was spent working in his fathers workshop which received many prestigious orders and he collaborated with his father and Luca di Tommè on an altarpiece for the altar of the shoemakers guild in the cathedral of Siena in 1389. This is his first documented work, however, it is believed that his hand can be discerned in works of his father painted between 1380 and 1389, such as in the Massacre of the Innocents. Andrea likely set up his own workshop around 1390 and he was extremely successful in Siena and obtained numerous commissions even from as far as Veneto. His patrons were drawn from the same circles as his father such as the Franciscans of Montalcino. From his studio he produced a number of works, some of which have survived and are found in various museums around the world. Like Simone Martini he travelled far to work for patrons, including the Marches, Veneto. It is possible Andrea was the father of the painter Giorgio di Andrea di Bartolo, most of Bartolos works are religious works of art. Throughout his career Andrea imitated his fathers paintings, while he worked on projects jointly with his father, he developed an independent style. Other collaborations were with Luca di Tommè, Andrea di Bartolos creativity is a continuation of the work of his father, who in turn drew on the tradition of Siena, begun by Duccio and Simone Martini. Still Andreas own style can also be recognised early on, Andrea had a more summary drawing style and a softer modeling technique than his father and paid less attention to naturalistic detail and expressionism. Generally speaking Andreas style remained solidly rooted in the Sienese traditions, however, if required he could absorb foreign influences, in particular in his commissions from the Venetian region. For instance, his Coronation of the Virgin shows in its iconography and his later work shows the influence of Taddeo di Bartolo, Martino di Bartolomeo and Spinello Aretino. This is also evident in his manuscript illuminations, in which he showed himself more independent from the style of his father, media related to Andrea di Bartolo at Wikimedia Commons
26.
Filippo Lippi
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Fra Filippo Lippi, O. Carm. also called Lippo Lippi, was an Italian painter of the Quattrocento. Lippi was born in Florence in1406 to Tommaso, a butcher, when he was still a small child, both his parents died. He was sent to live with his aunt Mona Lapaccia, however because she was too poor to rear him and he was 8 years old when he left for the convent and started his education there. In 1420 he was admitted to the community of Carmelite friars of the Priory of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Florence, taking vows in the Order the following year. He was ordained as a priest in approximately 1425, and remained in residence of that priory until 1432, georgio Vasari, the first art historian of the renaissance, writes that Lippi was inspired to become a painter by watching Masaccio at work in the Carmine church. Lippis early work, notably the Tarquinia Madonna show that influence from Masaccio, in his Lives of the Artists, Vasari says, Instead of studying, he spent all his time scrawling pictures on his own books and those of others. Due to his interest, the decided to give him the opportunity to learn painting. Lippi then went on to visit to Ancona and Naples, where he was captured by Barbary pirates and his skill in portrait-sketching helped to eventually release him. Louis Gillet, writing for the Catholic Encyclopedia, considers this account assuredly nothing, with his return to Florence in 1432 is paintings had became popular, warranting the support of the Medici family, who commissioned of The Annunciation and the Seven Saints. Cosimo de Medici had to him up in order to compel him to work. His escapades threw him into financial difficulties from which he did not hesitate to extricate himself by forgery and his life included many similar tales of lawsuits, complaints, broken promises and scandal. In 1441 Lippi painted an altarpiece for the nuns of S. Ambrogio which is now a prominent attraction in the Academy of Florence and it represents the coronation of the Virgin among angels and saints, including many Bernardine monks. In 1452 he was appointed chaplain to the nuns at the Monastery of St. Mary Magdalene in Florence, in June 1456 Fra Filippo is recorded as living in Prato to paint frescoes in the choir of the cathedral. Lippi asked that she might be permitted to sit for the figure of the Madonna, under that pretext, Lippi engaged in sexual relations with her, abducted her to his own house, and kept her there despite the nuns efforts to reclaim her. This relationship resulted in their son, Filippino Lippi, who became a famous painter following his father, Vasari accounts for this relationship in his publication of The Lives, which was published soon after. In 1457 he was appointed commendatory Rector of S. Quirico in Legania, despite these profits, Lippi struggled to escape poverty throughout his life. The close of Lippis life was spent at Spoleto, where he had commissioned to paint scenes from the life of the Virgin for the apse of the cathedral. In the semidome of the apse is the Christ Crowning the Madonna, with angels, sibyls and this series, which is not wholly equal to the one at Prato, was completed by one of his assistants, his fellow Carmelite, Fra Diamante, after Lippis death
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Bernardino of Siena
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Bernardino of Siena, was an Italian priest and Franciscan missionary. He was a systematizer of Scholastic economics and his popular preaching made him famous during his own lifetime, although it was frequently directed against sorcery, gambling, infanticide, witchcraft, sodomy and usury. Bernardino was later canonised by the Catholic Church as a saint - where is referred to as “the Apostle of Italy” for his efforts to revive the countrys Catholic faith during the 15th century. Two hagiographical lives of Bernardino of Siena were written by two of his friends, the one the same year in which he died, by Barnaby of Sienna, the other by Maffei Veggio, soon after his death. Bernardino was born in 1380 to the noble Albizeschi family in Massa Marittima, left orphaned at six, he was raised by a pious aunt. In 1397, after a course of civil and canon law, three years later, when the plague visited Siena, he ministered to the plague-stricken, and, assisted by ten companions, took upon himself for four months entire charge of this hospital. He escaped the plague but was so exhausted that a fever confined him for several months, in 1403 he joined the Observant branch of the Order of Friars Minor, with a strict observance of St. Francis Rule. Bernardino was ordained a priest in 1404 and was commissioned as a preacher the next year, before Bernardino, most preachers either read a prepared speech or recited a rhetorical oration. Instead of remaining cloistered and preaching only during the liturgy, Bernardino preached directly to the public, for more than 30 years, he preached all over Italy and played a great part in the religious revival of the early fifteenth century. Although he had a weak and hoarse voice, he is said to have one of the greatest preachers of his time. His style was simple, familiar, and abounding in imagery. Cynthia Polecritti, in her biography of Bernardino, notes that the texts of his sermons “are acknowledged masterpieces of colloquial Italian. ”He was an elegant and captivating preacher, and his use of popular imagery and creative language drew large crowds to hear his reflections. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Bernardino chose his themes not from the daily liturgy and he selected biblical themes to focus on the immediate interests of his audience. This proved effective in drawing their attention, Polecritti notes, the subject matter of his sermons reveals much about the contemporary context of 15th-century Italy. He traveled from place to place, remaining more than a few weeks. These journeys were all made on foot, in the towns, the crowds assembled to hear him were at times so great that it became necessary to erect a pulpit on the market-place. Like Vincent Ferrer, he preached at dawn. His hearers, so as to ensure themselves standing room, would arrive beforehand, the sermons often lasted three or four hours
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Trecento
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The Trecento refers to the 14th century in Italian cultural history. Commonly the Trecento is considered to be the beginning of the Renaissance in art history, important sculptors included two pupils of Giovanni Pisano, Arnolfo di Cambio and Tino di Camaino, and Bonino da Campione. The Trecento was also famous as a time of heightened literary activity, dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio were the leading writers of the age. Dante produced his famous La divina commedia, a summation of the medieval worldview, in music, the Trecento was a time of vigorous activity in Italy, as it was in France, with which there was a frequent interchange of musicians and influences. Antiquity and the Middle Ages, From Ancient Greece to the 15th Century, media related to 14th-century in Italy at Wikimedia Commons
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Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor
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Sigismund von Luxembourg was the leader of the last West European Crusade - the Crusade of Nicopolis of 1396. Afterwards he founded the Dragon Order to fight the Turks and he was regarded as highly educated, spoke several languages and was an outgoing person who also took pleasure in the tournament. He was named after Saint Sigismund of Burgundy, the saint of Sigismunds father. From Sigismunds childhood he was nicknamed the fox in the Crown of Bohemia. King Louis named him as his heir and appointed him his successor as King of Hungary, King Wenceslaus also gave him Neumark to facilitate communication between Brandenburg and Poland. Instead, the landlords of Lesser Poland gave it to Marys younger sister Jadwiga I of Poland, on the death of her father in 1382, his betrothed, Mary, became queen of Hungary and Sigismund married her in 1385 in Zólyom. The next year, he was accepted as Marys future co-ruler by the Treaty of Győr, Sigismunds mother-in-law was strangled, while Mary was liberated. Having secured the support of the nobility, Sigismund was crowned King of Hungary at Székesfehérvár on 31 March 1387. Having raised money by pledging Brandenburg to his cousin Jobst, margrave of Moravia, the central power was finally weakened to such an extent that only Sigismunds alliance with the powerful Czillei-Garai League could ensure his position on the throne. The restoration of the authority of the administration took decades of work. Not until 1395 did Nicholas II Garay succeed in suppressing them, Mary died heavily pregnant in 1395. To ease the pressure from Hungarian nobles, Sigismud tried to employ foreign advisors, which was not popular, however, this was not applied to Stibor of Stiboricz, who was Sigismunds closest friend and advisor. On a number of occasions, Sigismund was imprisoned by nobles, in 1396 Sigismund led the combined armies of Christendom against the Turks, who had taken advantage of the temporary helplessness of Hungary to extend their dominion to the banks of the Danube. This crusade, preached by Pope Boniface IX, was popular in Hungary. Sigismund set out with 90,000 men and a flotilla of 70 galleys, after capturing Vidin, he camped with his Hungarian armies before the fortress of Nicopolis. Sultan Bayezid I raised the siege of Constantinople and, at the head of 140,000 men, the disaster in Nicopolis angered several Hungarian lords, leading to instability in the kingdom. However, he was unable to support Wenceslaus when he was deposed in 1400, on his return to Hungary in 1401, Sigismund was imprisoned once and deposed twice. In 1401 Sigismund helped an uprising against Wenceslaus, during the course of which the Bohemian king was taken prisoner, and Sigismund ruled Bohemia for nineteen months
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Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence
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Santa Maria del Carmine is a church of the Carmelite Order, in the Oltrarno district of Florence, in Tuscany, Italy. It is famous as the location of the Brancacci Chapel housing outstanding Renaissance frescoes by Masaccio and Masolino da Panicale, the church, dedicated to the Beatæ Virginis Mariæ de monte Carmelo, was built from 1268 as part of Carmelite convent, which is still existing today. Of the original edifice only some Romanesque-Gothic remains can be seen on the sides, the complex was enlarged a first time in 1328 and again in 1464, when the capitular hall and the refectory added, though the church maintained the Latin Cross, one nave plan. Renovated in the Baroque style in the 16th–17th centuries, it was damaged by a fire in 1771, the façade, like in many Florentine churches, remained unfinished. The fire did not touch the sacristy, therefore have survived the Stories of St. Cecilia attributed to Lippo dAndrea, the vault of the nave has a trompe-loeil, quadratura fresco by Domenico Stagi. Also the Brancacci Chapel survived the fire, and was saved by the subsequent restoration by the intervention of a Florentine noblewoman who was opposed to the covering of the frescoes. The Chapel is home to the frescoes by Masaccio and Masolino. Masaccios master Masolino, commissioned by a merchant, Felice Brancacci, began work on the chapel in 1425 and was soon joined in the project by his pupil. The scenes by Masolino are St Peter Healing a Lame Man and Raising Tabitha from the Dead, St Peter Preaching, and Adam and Eve. Those by mostly Masaccio are The Tribute Money, St Peter Healing with his Shadow, The Crucifixion of St Peter, The Baptism of the Neophytes and their treatment of figures in believable space made the frescoes among the most important to have come out of the Early Renaissance. The cycle was finished by Filippino Lippi, the elaborated Italian Rococo ceiling is from one of the most important 18th century artists in the city, Giovanni Domenico Ferretti. The architect Pier Francesco Silvani choose for it the Baroque style then popular in Rome, the altar has a marble bas-relief depicting the Glory of St Andrea Corsini, sculpted by Foggini, and above a God the Father sculpted by Carlo Marcellini. The small dome was frescoed by Giordano in 1682, the frescoes suffered in the great church fire, and were restored by Stefano Fabbrini. The convent suffered in its history from numerous disasters, from the 1771 fire to the 1966 River Arno flood, the second refectory is decorated with the Supper in Simon the Pharisees house by Giovanni Battista Vanni, it also houses fragments of frescoes by Lippo dAndrea. Neri Corsini Holy Places in Tuscany Media related to Santa Maria del Carmine at Wikimedia Commons
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Ambrogio Lorenzetti
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Ambrogio Lorenzetti was an Italian painter of the Sienese school. He was active from approximately 1317 to 1348 and he painted The Allegory of Good and Bad Government in the Sala dei Nove in the Palazzo Pubblico of Siena. His elder brother was the painter Pietro Lorenzetti, Lorenzetti was highly influenced by both Byzantine art and classical art forms, and used these to create a unique and individualistic style of painting. Individuality at this time was due to the influence of patronage on art. Because paintings were commissioned, individualism in art was infrequently seen. His body of work shows the innovativeness that subsequent artists chose to emulate. His work, although more naturalistic, shows the influence of Simone Martini, the earliest dated work of the Sienese painter is a Madonna and Child. His presence was documented in Florence up until 1321 and he would return there after spending a number of years in Siena. Later he painted The Allegory of Good and Bad Government, the frescoes on the walls of the Room of the Nine or Room of Peace in the Palazzo Pubblico of Siena are one of the masterworks of early Renaissance secular painting. The nine was the assembly of guild and monetary interests that governed the republic. Three walls are painted with frescoes consisting of an assembly of allegorical figures of virtues in the Allegory of Good Government. In the other two facing panels, Ambrogio weaves panoramic visions of Effects of Good Government on Town and Country, the better preserved well-governed town and country is an unrivaled pictorial encyclopedia of incidents in a peaceful medieval borgo and countryside. The first evidence of the existence of the hourglass can be found in the fresco, Allegory of Bad Government and Its Effects on Town, like his brother, he is believed to have died of bubonic plague in 1348. Giorgio Vasari includes a biography of Lorenzetti in his Lives, annunciation,1344 Lorenzettis final piece, telling the story of the Virgin Mary receiving the news from the Angel about the coming of baby Jesus, contains the first use of clear linear perspective. Though it is not perfect, and the background that is traditional for the time renders a flat feeling. Madonna and Child,1319 In Madonna and Child, there is a debt to Byzantine art. The image of the Madonna is noted for its frontality, which is a characteristic of Byzantine art. The Madonna faces the viewer, as the Child gazes up at her, though not as emotionally intense as subsequent Madonnas, in Lorenzetti’s Madonna and Child, the Virgin Mary belies a subtle level of emotion as she confronts the viewer
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Santa Maria della Scala
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Santa Maria della Scala is a titular church in Rome, Italy, located in the Trastevere rione. Cardinal Ernest Simoni will take possession of the church on February 11,2017. The church was built between 1593 and 1610 to honor a miraculous icon of the Madonna, tradition holds that the icon, when placed on the landing of a staircase of a neighboring house of a mother who prayed before it, had cured her deformed child. Consecrated to Mary, mother of Jesus, it enshrines that icon in the north transept and it was sited adjacent to a monastery famous for containing the Papal courts 17th century pharmacy. In 1650, nearly fifty years after the completion, Carlo Rainaldi designed for the church a tempietto-shaped baldachino with 16 slender jasper Corinthian columns. The church also contains The Beheading of St. John the Baptist by the Dutch painter Gerrit van Honthorst, the latter replaces Caravaggios earlier, and more controversial version. Rumors held Caravaggio had used a prostitute as a model for the dead virgin, san Giuseppe Hall houses a collection by Tito Sarrocchi. Biblioteca Communale Media related to Santa Maria della Scala at Wikimedia Commons
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Pietro Lorenzetti
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Pietro Lorenzetti was an Italian painter, active between c.1306 and 1345. Together with his younger brother Ambrogio, he introduced naturalism into Sienese art, in their artistry and experiments with three-dimensional and spatial arrangements, the brothers foreshadowed the art of the Renaissance. That the men were brothers was unknown to Vasari because he misread Pietros surname on a painting in Pistoias church of San Francesco as Laurati, thus the kinship between the artists was missed. Pietro worked in Assisi, Florence, Pistoia, Cortona, and Siena and his work suggests the influence of Duccio, Giotto, and Giovanni Pisano. According to Vasari, it was Pietros frescoes that adorned the facade of Sienas Ospedale della Scala that first bought him to the attention of his contemporaries. Unfortunately, the frescoes – now believed to be the work of both Lorenzetti brothers – were destroyed in 1720 and subsequently whitewashed over, many of his religious works may still be seen in churches and museums in the Tuscan towns of Arezzo, Assisi, and Siena. Although Lorenzettis integration of frame and painted architecture in the Nativity of the Virgin is usually thought to be unique, it is evident in the frescoes of Assisi some decades earlier. One probable conclusion can be made that he did not read Latin as there was documentation of a translator being paid in association with his work on The Birth of the Virgin. The narrative influence of Giottos frescoes in the Bardi and Peruzzi Chapels in Santa Croce, Sienese iconography, generally more mystical and fantastic than that of the more naturalistic Florentines, sometimes resembles a modern surrealist landscape. The gilded three-story altarpiece, the Arezzo Polyptych, was commissioned in 1320 by bishop Guido Tarlati for the Santa Maria della Pieve in Arezzo. At its centre is the Madonna and child, flanked by John the Evangelist, John the Baptist, Saint Matthew, the rich colours, graceful lines, decorative detail, and supple figures, endow the piece with a vivacity rare in contemporary Sienese art. The polyptych is Lorenzettis first dated work and one of four with verifiable documentation including the Carmelite Altarpiece, the Uffizi Madonna. “The dating has allowed scholars to identify with precision a specific stage of the painters activity, perhaps Lorenzettis most ambitious work is the Passion fresco cycle in the left transept of the Lower Church of San Francesco in Assisi. The conditions for the execution of the frescoes would have been difficult as very little natural light would be available and the lower church would be near darkness. The exact time line of the frescoes is in question, some believed the cycle was painted in sections over several years as the style had some similarities to Lorenzettis Carmelite Altarpiece. The reasons are varied, from painting only in the dry season to the skirmishes in the area at the time. The more recent technical and stylistic evidence presented by Maginnis poses strong arguments that Lorenzettis Passion Cycle was completed in one campaign between the years 1316 or 1317 and 1319. Believed to be one of his earliest works is the Madonna and Child with Saint Francis and John the Baptist, according to Maginnis the “finest and most complete realization of the ambition to conjoin real and painted space was left to Pietro Lorenzetti, working in the left transept
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Bartolomeo Bulgarini
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Bartolomeo Bulgarini, also known as Bulgarino or Bologhini, was an Italian painter of the Trecento period in Siena both before and after the Black Death. Born into a family with several members being elected into the Commune, Siena’s central governing body. He is firmly in the Sienese school of painting using a byzantine-esque figuration, with his contemporaries, Simone Martini, Pietro Lorenzetti and Ambrogio Lorenzetti and others he is part of the generations following Duccio. He was the painter of his generation to be mentioned by Giorgio Vasari. The paintings were grouped on a similar visual fluency, style and it wasn’t until Millard Meiss made the argument that the works attributed to both The master of the Ovile Madonna and Ugolino Lorenzetti might actually be by the same artist, Bulgarini. Much of the difficulty in constructing his oeuvre is due to the lack of documentation needed to establish the Painters authorship, the only known autographed work by Bulgarini is the St. Victor altarpiece in Siena Cathedral. It was not until later when several documents were found. This altarpiece, found in the Siena Cathedral, was one of four commissioned by the Commune. However, none of these sources were consistent in mentioning the St Victor Altarpiece and it wasn’t until the late 16th century that previously lost inventories, made by Guigurta Tommasi, named Bulgarini as the painter of the St Victor altarpiece. In 1341 and 1342 he was commissioned for two covers for consecutive seasons. His career, starting roughly in the 1330s, lasted into the 1370s and his last documented work supposedly signed and dated 1373, which is now lost was a panel painting for the hospital of Santa Maria Della Scala in Siena. Though he was active up until his death in 1378, the Assumption of the Virgin with Doubting Thomas is a large panel painted by Bulgarini. The importance of the relics is reflected in the composition of the panel painted by Bulgarini, the Alana Collection, Italian Paintings from the 13th to 15th century. The Art Bulletin, Vol.13, No, “Bulgarini’s Assumption with Doubting Thomas, Art, Trade, and Faith in Post-Plague Siena”. A Faithful Sea, The Religious Cultures of The Mediterranean, 1200-1700, ISBN 978-1851684960 Pope-Hennessy, John & Kanter, Laurence B. The Robert Lehman Collection I, Italian Paintings, new York, Princeton, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Princeton University Press. Sienese painting after the Black Death, artistic pluralism, politics, and the new art market
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Quattrocento
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Quattrocento encompasses the artistic styles of the late Middle Ages and the early Renaissance. After the decline of the Western Roman Empire in 476, economic disorder and this was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages, which lasted roughly until the 11th century, when trade picked up, population began to expand and the papacy regained its authority. In Italy, urban centers arose that were populated by merchant and trade classes, money replaced land as the medium of exchange, and increasing numbers of serfs became freedmen. The changes in Medieval Italy and the decline of feudalism paved the way for social, cultural, the Quattrocento is viewed as the transition from the Medieval period to the age of the Renaissance, principally in the cities of Rome, Florence, Milan, Venice and Naples. Instead, Quattrocento artists and sculptors incorporated the more classic forms developed by Roman, since the Quattrocento overlaps with part of the Renaissance movement, it would be inaccurate to say that a particular artist was Quattrocento or Renaissance. Artists of the time probably would not have identified themselves as members of a movement, also see the list of 27 prominent 15th century painters made contemporaneously by Giovanni Santi, Raphael Sanzios father as part of a poem for the Duke of Urbino. The Robert Lehman Collection I, Italian Paintings, new York, Princeton, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Princeton University Press. CS1 maint, Multiple names, authors list
36.
Masolino da Panicale
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Masolino da Panicale was an Italian painter. His best known works are probably his collaborations with Masaccio, Madonna with Child and St. Anne, Masolino was born in Panicale He may have been an assistant to Ghiberti in Florence between 1403 and 1407. In 1423, he joined the Florentine guild Arte dei Medici e Speziali and he may have been the first artist to create of oil paintings in the 1420s, rather than Jan van Eyck in the 1430s, as was previously supposed. He spent many years traveling, including a trip to Hungary from September 1425 to July 1427 under the patronage of Pipo of Ozora and he painted a cycle of 300 famous historical figures in the Orsini Palace in Rome about 1433-4 and also worked in Todi. He spent his years, after 1435, working for Cardinal Branda Castiglione in Castiglione Olona. Section includes external links to works of art, complete works In Florence, Cappella Brancacci, cycle of frescoes in collaboration with Masaccio,1424. Madonna and Child, Saint Anne and the Angels, collaboration with Masaccio, tempera on wood,1424, Uffizi, Madonna dellUmiltà, tempera on wood, 1430–35, Uffizi. In Empoli, Cristo in Pietà, detached fresco,1424, Empoli, Saint Ivo and the Pupils, fresco,1424, Empoli, Church of Saint Steven. Virgin and Child, fresco,1424, Empoli, Church of Saint Steven, in Rome, Fresco of the Life of St Catherine of Alexandria commissioned by Branda da Castiglione in the Basilica di San Clemente, Chapel of Sacrament,1428. Fresco of the Annunciation in the Basilica di San Clemente, Chapel of Sacrament,1428, Fresco of St Christopher in the Basilica di San Clemente, Chapel of Sacrament,1428. Death of the Virgin and Crucifixion, fresco, Pinacoteca Vaticana, in Castiglione Olona, where his patron was Branda da Castiglione, Hungarian Landscape in the Palazzo Branda Castiglione. Story of the Virgin in the Collegiata, frescoes depicting the Life of St. John the Baptist in the Baptistery of Castiglione Olona. In Naples, Miracle of the Snow, ca,1423, triptych, National Museum and Gallery of Capodimonte. In France, Scenes from the Legend of Saint Julian the Hospitaller, tempera on wood,21 x 39 cm, in Germany, Madonna and Child, tempera on wood, Alte Pinakothek. Madonna and Child, tempera on panel in Kunsthalle Bremen, in the United States, The Annunciation oil and tempera on wood 148 x 115 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C. The Archangel Gabriel and The Virgin Annunciate, both ca,1430, tempera on panel, National Gallery of Art. Dispersed pieces of works Lateral panels of an altarpiece with The Ascension at the center, from Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome, Masolino da Panicale at Panopticon Virtual Art Gallery Masolino da Panicale on Artcyclopedia Herbermann, Charles, ed. Masolino da Panicale
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Integrated Authority File
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The Integrated Authority File or GND is an international authority file for the organisation of personal names, subject headings and corporate bodies from catalogues. It is used mainly for documentation in libraries and increasingly also by archives, the GND is managed by the German National Library in cooperation with various regional library networks in German-speaking Europe and other partners. The GND falls under the Creative Commons Zero license, the GND specification provides a hierarchy of high-level entities and sub-classes, useful in library classification, and an approach to unambiguous identification of single elements. It also comprises an ontology intended for knowledge representation in the semantic web, available in the RDF format
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Netherlands Institute for Art History
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The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center in the world. The center specializes in documentation, archives, and books on Western art from the late Middle Ages until modern times, all of this is open to the public, and much of it has been digitized and is available on their website. The main goal of the bureau is to collect, categorize, via the available databases, the visitor can gain insight into archival evidence on the lives of many artists of past centuries. The library owns approximately 450,000 titles, of which ca.150,000 are auction catalogs, there are ca.3,000 magazines, of which 600 are currently running subscriptions. Though most of the text is in Dutch, the record format includes a link to library entries and images of known works. The RKD also manages the Dutch version of the Art and Architecture Thesaurus, the original version is an initiative of the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, California. Their bequest formed the basis for both the art collection and the library, which is now housed in the Koninklijke Bibliotheek. Though not all of the holdings have been digitised, much of its metadata is accessible online. The website itself is available in both a Dutch and an English user interface, in the artist database RKDartists, each artist is assigned a record number. To reference an artist page directly, use the code listed at the bottom of the record, usually of the form, https, for example, the artist record number for Salvador Dalí is 19752, so his RKD artist page can be referenced. In the images database RKDimages, each artwork is assigned a record number, to reference an artwork page directly, use the code listed at the bottom of the record, usually of the form, https, //rkd. nl/en/explore/images/ followed by the artworks record number. For example, the record number for The Night Watch is 3063. The Art and Architecture Thesaurus also assigns a record for each term, rather, they are used in the databases and the databases can be searched for terms. For example, the painting called The Night Watch is a militia painting, the thesaurus is a set of general terms, but the RKD also contains a database for an alternate form of describing artworks, that today is mostly filled with biblical references. To see all images that depict Miriams dance, the associated iconclass code 71E1232 can be used as a search term. Official website Direct link to the databases The Dutch version of the Art and Architecture Thesaurus
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Virtual International Authority File
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The Virtual International Authority File is an international authority file. It is a joint project of national libraries and operated by the Online Computer Library Center. The project was initiated by the US Library of Congress, the German National Library, the National Library of France joined the project on October 5,2007. The project transitions to a service of the OCLC on April 4,2012, the aim is to link the national authority files to a single virtual authority file. In this file, identical records from the different data sets are linked together, a VIAF record receives a standard data number, contains the primary see and see also records from the original records, and refers to the original authority records. The data are available online and are available for research and data exchange. Reciprocal updating uses the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting protocol, the file numbers are also being added to Wikipedia biographical articles and are incorporated into Wikidata. VIAFs clustering algorithm is run every month, as more data are added from participating libraries, clusters of authority records may coalesce or split, leading to some fluctuation in the VIAF identifier of certain authority records
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