1.
Urbino
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The town, nestled on a high sloping hillside, retains much of its picturesque medieval aspect, an illusion only slightly broken by the large car parks below the town. It hosts the University of Urbino, founded in 1506, and is the seat of the Archbishop of Urbino and its best-known architectural piece is the Palazzo Ducale, rebuilt by Luciano Laurana. The city is located in a hilly area, at the foothills of the Northern Apennines. The city is in the area of Montefeltro, an area classified as medium-high seismic risk. In the database of earthquakes developed by the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology and they include 24 April 1741, when the shocks were stronger than VIII on the Mercalli intensity scale, with an epicenter in Fabriano. Though Pepin the Short presented Urbino to the Papacy in 754–56, independent traditions were expressed in its commune, until, around 1200, eventually, though, the Montefeltro noblemen took control once more, and held it until 1508. The most famous member of the Montefeltro family, Federico da Montefeltro, federicos brilliant court, according to the descriptions in Baldassare Castigliones Il Cortegiano, set standards of what would characterize a modern European gentleman for centuries to come. Cesare Borgia dispossessed Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, and Elisabetta Gonzaga in 1502, with the complicity of his father, Pope Alexander VI. They moved in 1523 the court in the city of Pesaro, the state was ruled since then by a papal legate, generally belonging to high ecclesiastical hierarchy. These works went on to form the core of the future Uffizi Gallery, among the works that went to Florence is the diptych of the Dukes of Urbino by Piero della Francesca. Other works of the Ducal Palace were brought to Rome, such as the Barberini Ex Tables of Fra Carnevale, the eighteenth century opened with the election to the papacy of Cardinal Giovan Francesco Albani Urbino, under the name of Clement XI. This was a windfall for the city and was its last great era, especially in terms of arts and culture, thanks to funding by Pope Albani and his family. In addition, due to the patronage of the Pope and of his family and this new age of splendor for the city ended with the death of Clement XI in 1721, placing the city in a long decline that has continued to the present day. After the Popes death, the Albani family remained the patron of the most significant works until the first half of the nineteenth century. In 1789, the collapse of the Cathedral dome following an earthquake led to the total renovation of the church. Between 1797 and 1800 the city was occupied by French troops, like much of northern and this event was a further cause of the impoverished local artistic heritage, already tried by the loss of the works following the devolution of the duchy in the seventeenth century. Sergius, now occupied by the Hotel Raffaello. This resulted in a new layout with the large spit of land below the Doges Palace incorporated into the city
2.
Duchy of Urbino
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The Duchy of Urbino was a sovereign state in central-northern Italy. The first lords of Urbino were the House of Montefeltro, who obtained the title of counts from Emperor Frederick II in 1213, the first Duke was Oddantonio, who received the title from Pope Eugene IV in 1443. In 1523 the capital was moved to Pesaro, History of Urbino Pesaro List of historic states of Italy Holy Roman Empire James Dennistoun. Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino, Illustrating the Arms, Arts, Volume One, Volume Two, Volume Three History of the popes, their church and state by Leopold von Ranke Franceschini, G. Storia dei conti e duchi dUrbino, ugolini, Filippo, Storia dei conti e duchi dUrbino - volume 2
3.
Rome
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Rome is a special comune and the capital of Italy. Rome also serves as the capital of the Lazio region, with 2,873,598 residents in 1,285 km2, it is also the countrys largest and most populated comune and fourth-most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. It is the center of the Metropolitan City of Rome, which has a population of 4.3 million residents, the city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio, along the shores of the Tiber. Romes history spans more than 2,500 years, while Roman mythology dates the founding of Rome at only around 753 BC, the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it one of the oldest continuously occupied sites in Europe. The citys early population originated from a mix of Latins, Etruscans and it was first called The Eternal City by the Roman poet Tibullus in the 1st century BC, and the expression was also taken up by Ovid, Virgil, and Livy. Rome is also called the Caput Mundi, due to that, Rome became first one of the major centres of the Italian Renaissance, and then the birthplace of both the Baroque style and Neoclassicism. Famous artists, painters, sculptors and architects made Rome the centre of their activity, in 1871 Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, and in 1946 that of the Italian Republic. Rome has the status of a global city, Rome ranked in 2014 as the 14th-most-visited city in the world, 3rd most visited in the European Union, and the most popular tourist attraction in Italy. Its historic centre is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, monuments and museums such as the Vatican Museums and the Colosseum are among the worlds most visited tourist destinations with both locations receiving millions of tourists a year. Rome hosted the 1960 Summer Olympics and is the seat of United Nations Food, however, it is a possibility that the name Romulus was actually derived from Rome itself. As early as the 4th century, there have been alternate theories proposed on the origin of the name Roma. There is archaeological evidence of occupation of the Rome area from approximately 14,000 years ago. Evidence of stone tools, pottery and stone weapons attest to about 10,000 years of human presence, several excavations support the view that Rome grew from pastoral settlements on the Palatine Hill built above the area of the future Roman Forum. Between the end of the age and the beginning of the Iron age. However, none of them had yet an urban quality, nowadays, there is a wide consensus that the city was gradually born through the aggregation of several villages around the largest one, placed above the Palatine. All these happenings, which according to the excavations took place more or less around the mid of the 8th century BC. Despite recent excavations at the Palatine hill, the view that Rome has been indeed founded with an act of will as the legend suggests in the middle of the 8th century BC remains a fringe hypothesis. Traditional stories handed down by the ancient Romans themselves explain the earliest history of their city in terms of legend and myth
4.
Papal States
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The Papal States, officially the State of the Church, were territories in the Italian Peninsula under the sovereign direct rule of the pope, from the 8th century until 1870. They were among the states of Italy from roughly the 8th century until the Italian Peninsula was unified in 1861 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. At their zenith, they covered most of the modern Italian regions of Lazio, Marche, Umbria and Romagna and these holdings were considered to be a manifestation of the temporal power of the pope, as opposed to his ecclesiastical primacy. By 1861, much of the Papal States territory had been conquered by the Kingdom of Italy, only Lazio, including Rome, remained under the Popes temporal control. In 1870, the pope lost Lazio and Rome and had no physical territory at all, Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini ended the crisis between unified Italy and the Vatican by signing the Lateran Treaty, granting the Vatican City State sovereignty. The Papal States were also known as the Papal State, the territories were also referred to variously as the State of the Church, the Pontifical States, the Ecclesiastical States, or the Roman States. For its first 300 years the Catholic Church was persecuted and unrecognized and this system began to change during the reign of the emperor Constantine I, who made Christianity legal within the Roman Empire, and restoring to it any properties that had been confiscated. The Lateran Palace was the first significant new donation to the Church, other donations followed, primarily in mainland Italy but also in the provinces of the Roman Empire. But the Church held all of these lands as a private landowner, the seeds of the Papal States as a sovereign political entity were planted in the 6th century. Beginning In 535, the Byzantine Empire, under emperor Justinian I, launched a reconquest of Italy that took decades and devastated Italys political, just as these wars wound down, the Lombards entered the peninsula from the north and conquered much of the countryside. While the popes remained Byzantine subjects, in practice the Duchy of Rome, nevertheless, the pope and the exarch still worked together to control the rising power of the Lombards in Italy. As Byzantine power weakened, though, the took a ever larger role in defending Rome from the Lombards. In practice, the papal efforts served to focus Lombard aggrandizement on the exarch, a climactic moment in the founding of the Papal States was the agreement over boundaries embodied in the Lombard king Liutprands Donation of Sutri to Pope Gregory II. When the Exarchate of Ravenna finally fell to the Lombards in 751, the popes renewed earlier attempts to secure the support of the Franks. In 751, Pope Zachary had Pepin the Younger crowned king in place of the powerless Merovingian figurehead king Childeric III, zacharys successor, Pope Stephen II, later granted Pepin the title Patrician of the Romans. Pepin led a Frankish army into Italy in 754 and 756, Pepin defeated the Lombards – taking control of northern Italy – and made a gift of the properties formerly constituting the Exarchate of Ravenna to the pope. The cooperation between the papacy and the Carolingian dynasty climaxed in 800, when Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Emperor, the precise nature of the relationship between the popes and emperors – and between the Papal States and the Empire – is disputed. Events in the 9th century postponed the conflict, the Holy Roman Empire in its Frankish form collapsed as it was subdivided among Charlemagnes grandchildren
5.
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
6.
Architecture
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Architecture is both the process and the product of planning, designing, and constructing buildings and other physical structures. Architectural works, in the form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural symbols. Historical civilizations are often identified with their surviving architectural achievements, Architecture can mean, A general term to describe buildings and other physical structures. The art and science of designing buildings and nonbuilding structures, the style of design and method of construction of buildings and other physical structures. A unifying or coherent form or structure Knowledge of art, science, technology, the design activity of the architect, from the macro-level to the micro-level. The practice of the architect, where architecture means offering or rendering services in connection with the design and construction of buildings. The earliest surviving work on the subject of architecture is De architectura. According to Vitruvius, a building should satisfy the three principles of firmitas, utilitas, venustas, commonly known by the original translation – firmness, commodity. An equivalent in modern English would be, Durability – a building should stand up robustly, utility – it should be suitable for the purposes for which it is used. Beauty – it should be aesthetically pleasing, according to Vitruvius, the architect should strive to fulfill each of these three attributes as well as possible. Leon Battista Alberti, who elaborates on the ideas of Vitruvius in his treatise, De Re Aedificatoria, saw beauty primarily as a matter of proportion, for Alberti, the rules of proportion were those that governed the idealised human figure, the Golden mean. The most important aspect of beauty was, therefore, an inherent part of an object, rather than something applied superficially, Gothic architecture, Pugin believed, was the only true Christian form of architecture. The 19th-century English art critic, John Ruskin, in his Seven Lamps of Architecture, Architecture was the art which so disposes and adorns the edifices raised by men. That the sight of them contributes to his health, power. For Ruskin, the aesthetic was of overriding significance and his work goes on to state that a building is not truly a work of architecture unless it is in some way adorned. For Ruskin, a well-constructed, well-proportioned, functional building needed string courses or rustication, but suddenly you touch my heart, you do me good. I am happy and I say, This is beautiful, le Corbusiers contemporary Ludwig Mies van der Rohe said Architecture starts when you carefully put two bricks together. The notable 19th-century architect of skyscrapers, Louis Sullivan, promoted an overriding precept to architectural design, function came to be seen as encompassing all criteria of the use, perception and enjoyment of a building, not only practical but also aesthetic, psychological and cultural
7.
High Renaissance
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In art history, High Renaissance is the period denoting the apogee of the visual arts in the Italian Renaissance. This term was first used in German in the nineteenth century. High Renaissance style in architecture conventionally begins with Donato Bramante, whose Tempietto at S. Pietro in Montorio at Rome was begun in 1510, the Tempietto, signifies a full-scale revival of ancient Roman commemorative architecture. David Watkin writes that the Tempietto, like Raphaels works in the Vatican, is an attempt at reconciling Christian, the High Renaissance was traditionally viewed as a great explosion of creative genius, following a model of art history first proposed by the Florentine Giorgio Vasari. Even relatively minor painters of the period, such as Fra Bartolomeo and Mariotto Albertinelli, produced works that are still lauded for the harmony of their design, the serene mood and luminous colours of paintings by Giorgione and early Titian exemplify High Renaissance style as practiced in Venice. Other recognizable pieces of this period include Leonardo da Vincis Mona Lisa, Raphaels fresco, set beneath an arch, is a virtuoso work of perspective, composition and disegno. High Renaissance sculpture, as exemplified by Michelangelos Pietà and the iconic David, is characterized by a balance between stillness and movement. High Renaissance sculpture was commissioned by the public and the state. Sculpture was often used to decorate or embellish architecture, normally within courtyards where others were able to study, wealthy individuals like cardinals, rulers and bankers were the more likely private patrons along with very wealthy families, Pope Julius II also patronized many artists. During the High Renaissance there was the development of small scale statuettes for private patrons, the subject matter related to sculpture was mostly religious but also with a significant strand of classical individuals in the form of tomb sculpture and paintings as well as ceilings of cathedrals. Toward The High Renaissance at Smarthistory
8.
Architect
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An architect is someone who plans, designs, and reviews the construction of buildings. Etymologically, architect derives from the Latin architectus, which derives from the Greek, practical, technical, and academic requirements for becoming an architect vary by jurisdiction. The terms architect and architecture are used in the disciplines of landscape architecture, naval architecture. In most jurisdictions, the professional and commercial uses of the terms architect, throughout ancient and medieval history, most architectural design and construction was carried out by artisans—such as stone masons and carpenters, rising to the role of master builder. Until modern times, there was no distinction between architect and engineer. In Europe, the architect and engineer were primarily geographical variations that referred to the same person. It is suggested that various developments in technology and mathematics allowed the development of the gentleman architect. Paper was not used in Europe for drawing until the 15th century, pencils were used more often for drawing by 1600. The availability of both allowed pre-construction drawings to be made by professionals, until the 18th-century, buildings continued to be designed and set out by craftsmen with the exception of high-status projects. In most developed countries, only qualified people with appropriate license, certification, or registration with a relevant body, such licensure usually requires an accredited university degree, successful completion of exams, and a training period. To practice architecture implies the ability to independently of supervision. In many places, independent, non-licensed individuals may perform design services outside the professional restrictions, such design houses, in the architectural profession, technical and environmental knowledge, design and construction management, and an understanding of business are as important as design. However, design is the force throughout the project and beyond. An architect accepts a commission from a client, the commission might involve preparing feasibility reports, building audits, the design of a building or of several buildings, structures, and the spaces among them. The architect participates in developing the requirements the client wants in the building, throughout the project, the architect co-ordinates a design team. Structural, mechanical, and electrical engineers and other specialists, are hired by the client or the architect, the architect hired by a client is responsible for creating a design concept that meets the requirements of that client and provides a facility suitable to the required use. In that, the architect must meet with and question the client to ascertain all the requirements, often the full brief is not entirely clear at the beginning, entailing a degree of risk in the design undertaking. The architect may make proposals to the client which may rework the terms of the brief
9.
Michelangelo
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Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art. Considered to be the greatest living artist during his lifetime, he has since described as one of the greatest artists of all time. A number of Michelangelos works of painting, sculpture, and architecture rank among the most famous in existence and he sculpted two of his best-known works, the Pietà and David, before the age of thirty. As an architect, Michelangelo pioneered the Mannerist style at the Laurentian Library, at the age of 74, he succeeded Antonio da Sangallo the Younger as the architect of St. Peters Basilica. Michelangelo transformed the plan so that the end was finished to his design, as was the dome, with some modification. Michelangelo was unique as the first Western artist whose biography was published while he was alive, in his lifetime he was often called Il Divino. One of the qualities most admired by his contemporaries was his terribilità, the attempts by subsequent artists to imitate Michelangelos impassioned and highly personal style resulted in Mannerism, the next major movement in Western art after the High Renaissance. Michelangelo was born on 6 March 1475 in Caprese near Arezzo, at the time of Michelangelos birth, his father was the Judicial administrator of the small town of Caprese and local administrator of Chiusi. Michelangelos mother was Francesca di Neri del Miniato di Siena, the Buonarrotis claimed to descend from the Countess Mathilde of Canossa, this claim remains unproven, but Michelangelo himself believed it. Several months after Michelangelos birth, the returned to Florence. There Michelangelo gained his love for marble, as Giorgio Vasari quotes him, If there is good in me. Along with the milk of my nurse I received the knack of handling chisel and hammer, as a young boy, Michelangelo was sent to Florence to study grammar under the Humanist Francesco da Urbino. The young artist, however, showed no interest in his schooling, preferring to copy paintings from churches, the city of Florence was at that time the greatest centre of the arts and learning in Italy. Art was sponsored by the Signoria, by the merchant guilds and by patrons such as the Medici. The Renaissance, a renewal of Classical scholarship and the arts, had its first flowering in Florence, the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti had laboured for fifty years to create the bronze doors of the Baptistry, which Michelangelo was to describe as The Gates of Paradise. The exterior niches of the Church of Orsanmichele contained a gallery of works by the most acclaimed sculptors of Florence – Donatello, Ghiberti, Andrea del Verrocchio, and Nanni di Banco. The interiors of the churches were covered with frescos, begun by Giotto. During Michelangelos childhood, a team of painters had been called from Florence to the Vatican, among them was Domenico Ghirlandaio, a master in fresco painting, perspective, figure drawing, and portraiture who had the largest workshop in Florence at that period
10.
Leonardo da Vinci
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He has been variously called the father of palaeontology, ichnology, and architecture, and is widely considered one of the greatest painters of all time. Sometimes credited with the inventions of the parachute, helicopter and tank, many historians and scholars regard Leonardo as the prime exemplar of the Universal Genius or Renaissance Man, an individual of unquenchable curiosity and feverishly inventive imagination. Much of his working life was spent in the service of Ludovico il Moro in Milan. He later worked in Rome, Bologna and Venice, and he spent his last years in France at the home awarded to him by Francis I of France, Leonardo was, and is, renowned primarily as a painter. Among his works, the Mona Lisa is the most famous and most parodied portrait, Leonardos drawing of the Vitruvian Man is also regarded as a cultural icon, being reproduced on items as varied as the euro coin, textbooks, and T-shirts. Perhaps fifteen of his paintings have survived, Leonardo is revered for his technological ingenuity. He conceptualised flying machines, a type of armoured fighting vehicle, concentrated power, an adding machine. Some of his inventions, however, such as an automated bobbin winder. A number of Leonardos most practical inventions are nowadays displayed as working models at the Museum of Vinci. He made substantial discoveries in anatomy, civil engineering, geology, optics, and hydrodynamics, today, Leonardo is widely considered one of the most diversely talented individuals ever to have lived. Leonardo was born on 15 April 1452 at the hour of the night in the Tuscan hill town of Vinci. He was the son of the wealthy Messer Piero Fruosino di Antonio da Vinci, a Florentine legal notary, and Caterina. Leonardo had no surname in the modern sense – da Vinci simply meaning of Vinci, his birth name was Lionardo di ser Piero da Vinci, meaning Leonardo. The inclusion of the title ser indicated that Leonardos father was a gentleman, little is known about Leonardos early life. He spent his first five years in the hamlet of Anchiano in the home of his mother and his father had married a sixteen-year-old girl named Albiera Amadori, who loved Leonardo but died young in 1465 without children. When Leonardo was sixteen, his father married again to twenty-year-old Francesca Lanfredini, pieros legitimate heirs were born from his third wife Margherita di Guglielmo and his fourth and final wife, Lucrezia Cortigiani. Leonardo received an education in Latin, geometry and mathematics. In later life, Leonardo recorded only two childhood incidents, one, which he regarded as an omen, was when a kite dropped from the sky and hovered over his cradle, its tail feathers brushing his face
11.
Apostolic Palace
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The Apostolic Palace is the official residence of the Pope, which is located in Vatican City. It is also known as the Papal Palace, Palace of the Vatican and Vatican Palace, the Vatican itself refers to the building as the Palace of Sixtus V in honor of Pope Sixtus V. The modern tourist can see these last and other parts of the palace, the Scala Regia can be seen into from one end but not entered. In the fifth century, Pope Symmachus built a palace close to the Old St. Peters Basilica which served an alternative residence to the Lateran Palace. The construction of a fortified palace was sponsored by Pope Eugene III. The Vatican Palace had fallen into disrepair from lack of upkeep, in 1447, Pope Nicholas V razed the ancient fortified palace of Eugene III to erect a new building, the current Apostolic Palace. In the 15th century, the Palace was placed under the authority of a prefect and this position of Apostolic Prefect lasted from the 15th century till the 1800s, when the Papal States fell into economic difficulties. In 1884, when this post was reviewed in light of saving money, the major additions and decorations of the palace are the work of the following popes for 150 years. In the 20th century, Pope Pius XI built an art gallery. Construction of the Papal Palace at the Vatican in Vatican City, covering 162, 000m squared, it contains the Papal Apartments, offices of the Roman Catholic Church and Holy See, chapels, Vatican Library, museums and art galleries. The Apostolic Palace is run by the Prefecture of the Pontifical Household, the palace is more accurately a series of self-contained buildings within the well-recognized outer structure which is arranged around the Courtyard of Sixtus V. It is located northeast of St Peters Basilica and adjacent to the Bastion of Nicholas V, the Apostolic Palace houses both residential and support offices of various functions as well as administrative offices not focused on the life and functions of the Pope himself. Perhaps the best known of the Palace chapels is the Sistine Chapel named in honor of Sixtus IV and it is famous for its decoration that was frescoed throughout by Renaissance artists including Michelangelo, Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, Pinturicchio, Domenico Ghirlandaio, and others. One of the functions of the chapel is as a venue for the election of each successive Pope in a conclave of the College of Cardinals. In this closed-door election, the cardinals choose a successor to the first pope, St. Peter and this suite of rooms is famous for its frescos by a large team of artists working under Raphael. They were originally intended as a suite of apartments for Pope Julius II and he commissioned Raphael, then a relatively young artist from Urbino, and his studio in 1508 or 1509 to redecorate the existing interiors of the rooms entirely. It was possibly Julius intent to outshine the apartments of his predecessor Pope Alexander VI and they are on the third floor, overlooking the south side of the Belvedere Courtyard. After the death of Julius in 1513, with two rooms frescoed, Pope Leo X continued the program, following Raphaels death in 1520, his assistants Gianfrancesco Penni, Giulio Romano and Raffaellino del Colle finished the project with the frescoes in the Sala di Costantino
12.
Raphael Rooms
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The four Raphael Rooms form a suite of reception rooms in the palace, the public part of the papal apartments in the Palace of the Vatican. They are famous for their frescoes, painted by Raphael and his workshop, together with Michelangelos ceiling frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, they are the grand fresco sequences that mark the High Renaissance in Rome. The Stanze, as they are called, were originally intended as a suite of apartments for Pope Julius II. He commissioned Raphael, then a young artist from Urbino. It was possibly Julius intent to outshine the apartments of his predecessor Pope Alexander VI and they are on the third floor, overlooking the south side of the Belvedere Courtyard. After the death of Julius in 1513, with two rooms frescoed, Pope Leo X continued the program, following Raphaels death in 1520, his assistants Gianfrancesco Penni, Giulio Romano and Raffaellino del Colle finished the project with the frescoes in the Sala di Costantino. The scheme of the works is as follows, The largest of the rooms is the Sala di Costantino. Its paintings were not begun until Pope Julius and, indeed Raphael himself, had died, the room is dedicated to the victory of Christianity over paganism. Its frescoes represent this struggle from the life of the Roman Emperor Constantine, because they are not by the master himself, the frescos are less famous than works in the neighboring rooms. Continuing a long tradition of flattery, Raphaels assistants gave the features of the current pontiff, Clement VII, the fresco of The Vision of the Cross depicts the legendary story of a great cross appearing to Constantine as he marched to confront his rival Maxentius. The vision in the sky is painted with the words in Greek Εν τούτω νίκα written next to it, the Battle of Milvian Bridge shows the battle that took place on October 28,312, following Constantines vision. The next room, going from East to West, is the Stanza di Eliodoro, painted between 1511 and 1514, it takes its name from one of the paintings. The theme of this private chamber – probably an audience room – was the protection granted by Christ to the Church. The four paintings are, The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple, The Mass at Bolsena, The Meeting of Pope Leo I and Attila, Raphaels style changed here from the Stanza della Segnatura. Instead of the images of the Popes library, he had dramatic narratives to portray. The composition is more dramatic than Raphaels earlier frescoes in the Stanza della Segnatura. Although the focal point is the figure of the priest at prayer, Heliodorus. At the left Julius II, carried by the Swiss Guard in a chair and his inclusion here refers to his battles to prevent secular leaders from usurping papal territories
13.
The School of Athens
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The School of Athens is one of the most famous frescoes by the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael. It was painted between 1509 and 1511 as a part of Raphaels commission to decorate the rooms now known as the Stanze di Raffaello, the picture has long been seen as Raphaels masterpiece and the perfect embodiment of the classical spirit of the Renaissance. The School of Athens is one of a group of four main frescoes on the walls of the Stanza that depict distinct branches of knowledge, accordingly, the figures on the walls below exemplify Philosophy, Poetry, Theology, and Law. The traditional title is not Raphaels, indeed, Plato and Aristotle appear to be the central figures in the scene. However, all the philosophers depicted sought knowledge of first causes, many lived before Plato and Aristotle, and hardly a third were Athenians. The architecture contains Roman elements, but the general semi-circular setting having Plato, compounding the problem, Raphael had to invent a system of iconography to allude to various figures for whom there were no traditional visual types. For example, while the Socrates figure is immediately recognizable from Classical busts, aside from the identities of the figures depicted, many aspects of the fresco have been variously interpreted, but few such interpretations are unanimously accepted among scholars. The popular idea that the gestures of Plato and Aristotle are kinds of pointing is very likely. Aristotle, with his four-elements theory, held that all change on Earth was owing to motions of the heavens, in the painting Aristotle carries his Ethics, which he denied could be reduced to a mathematical science. Finally, according to Vasari, the scene includes Raphael himself, however, as Heinrich Wölfflin observed, it is quite wrong to attempt interpretations of the School of Athens as an esoteric treatise. The all-important thing was the motive which expressed a physical or spiritual state. An interpretation of the fresco relating to hidden symmetries of the figures, the identities of some of the philosophers in the picture, such as Plato or Aristotle, are certain. Beyond that, identifications of Raphaels figures have always been hypothetical, to complicate matters, beginning from Vasaris efforts, some have received multiple identifications, not only as ancients but also as figures contemporary with Raphael. Vasari mentions portraits of the young Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, leaning over Bramante with his hands raised near the bottom right and he was writing over 40 years after the painting, and never knew Raphael, but no doubt reflects what was believed in his time. Many other popular identifications of portraits are very dubious, luitpold Dussler counts among those who can be identified with some certainty, Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Pythagoras, Euclid, Ptolemy, Zoroaster, Raphael, Sodoma and Diogenes. Other identifications he holds to be more or less speculative, both figures hold modern, bound copies of their books in their left hands, while gesturing with their right. Plato holds Timaeus, Aristotle his Nicomachean Ethics, Plato is depicted as old, grey, wise-looking, and bare-foot. By contrast Aristotle, slightly ahead of him, is in manhood, handsome, well-shod and dressed with gold
14.
Stanza della Segnatura
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The four Raphael Rooms form a suite of reception rooms in the palace, the public part of the papal apartments in the Palace of the Vatican. They are famous for their frescoes, painted by Raphael and his workshop, together with Michelangelos ceiling frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, they are the grand fresco sequences that mark the High Renaissance in Rome. The Stanze, as they are called, were originally intended as a suite of apartments for Pope Julius II. He commissioned Raphael, then a young artist from Urbino. It was possibly Julius intent to outshine the apartments of his predecessor Pope Alexander VI and they are on the third floor, overlooking the south side of the Belvedere Courtyard. After the death of Julius in 1513, with two rooms frescoed, Pope Leo X continued the program, following Raphaels death in 1520, his assistants Gianfrancesco Penni, Giulio Romano and Raffaellino del Colle finished the project with the frescoes in the Sala di Costantino. The scheme of the works is as follows, The largest of the rooms is the Sala di Costantino. Its paintings were not begun until Pope Julius and, indeed Raphael himself, had died, the room is dedicated to the victory of Christianity over paganism. Its frescoes represent this struggle from the life of the Roman Emperor Constantine, because they are not by the master himself, the frescos are less famous than works in the neighboring rooms. Continuing a long tradition of flattery, Raphaels assistants gave the features of the current pontiff, Clement VII, the fresco of The Vision of the Cross depicts the legendary story of a great cross appearing to Constantine as he marched to confront his rival Maxentius. The vision in the sky is painted with the words in Greek Εν τούτω νίκα written next to it, the Battle of Milvian Bridge shows the battle that took place on October 28,312, following Constantines vision. The next room, going from East to West, is the Stanza di Eliodoro, painted between 1511 and 1514, it takes its name from one of the paintings. The theme of this private chamber – probably an audience room – was the protection granted by Christ to the Church. The four paintings are, The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple, The Mass at Bolsena, The Meeting of Pope Leo I and Attila, Raphaels style changed here from the Stanza della Segnatura. Instead of the images of the Popes library, he had dramatic narratives to portray. The composition is more dramatic than Raphaels earlier frescoes in the Stanza della Segnatura. Although the focal point is the figure of the priest at prayer, Heliodorus. At the left Julius II, carried by the Swiss Guard in a chair and his inclusion here refers to his battles to prevent secular leaders from usurping papal territories
15.
Printmaking
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Printmaking is the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper. Printmaking normally covers only the process of creating prints that have an element of originality, except in the case of monotyping, the process is capable of producing multiples of the same piece, which is called a print. Each print produced is not considered a copy but rather is considered an original, a print may be known as an impression. Printmaking is not chosen only for its ability to multiple impressions. Prints are created by transferring ink from a matrix or through a screen to a sheet of paper or other material. Screens made of silk or synthetic fabrics are used for the screenprinting process, other types of matrix substrates and related processes are discussed below. Multiple impressions printed from the matrix form an edition. Prints may also be printed in book form, such as illustrated books or artists books, Printmaking techniques are generally divided into the following basic categories, Relief, where ink is applied to the original surface of the matrix. Relief techniques include woodcut or woodblock as the Asian forms are known, wood engraving. Intaglio, where ink is applied beneath the surface of the matrix. Intaglio techniques include engraving, etching, mezzotint, aquatint, planographic, where the matrix retains its original surface, but is specially prepared and/or inked to allow for the transfer of the image. Planographic techniques include lithography, monotyping, and digital techniques, stencil, where ink or paint is pressed through a prepared screen, including screenprinting and pochoir. Other types of printmaking techniques outside these groups include collagraphy and viscosity printing, collagraphy is a printmaking technique in which textured material is adhered to the printing matrix. This texture is transferred to the paper during the printing process, Contemporary printmaking may include digital printing, photographic mediums, or a combination of digital, photographic, and traditional processes. Many of these techniques can also be combined, especially within the same family, for example, Rembrandts prints are usually referred to as etchings for convenience, but very often include work in engraving and drypoint as well, and sometimes have no etching at all. Woodcut, a type of print, is the earliest printmaking technique. It was probably first developed as a means of printing patterns on cloth, woodcuts of images on paper developed around 1400 in Japan, and slightly later in Europe. These are the two areas where woodcut has been most extensively used purely as a process for making images without text, the artist draws a design on a plank of wood, or on paper which is transferred to the wood
16.
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
17.
Umbria
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Umbria, is a region of historic and modern central Italy. It is the only Italian region having neither a coastline nor a border with other countries and it includes the Lake Trasimeno, Marmores Falls, and is crossed by the River Tiber. Umbria is known for its landscapes, traditions, history, culinary delights, artistic legacy, and influence on culture. Contained within Umbria is Cospaia, a republic created by accident that existed from 1440 to 1826 Umbria is bordered by Tuscany to the west, Marche to the east. It is the only Italian region having neither a coastline nor a border with other countries. The commune of Città di Castello has an exclave named Monte Ruperto within Marche. Umbria is crossed by two valleys, the Umbrian valley, stretching from Perugia to Spoleto, and the Tiber Valley, west of the first one, the Tiber River forms the approximate border with Lazio, although its source is just over the Tuscan border. The Tibers three principal tributaries flow southward through Umbria, the Chiascio basin is relatively uninhabited as far as Bastia Umbra. About 10 kilometres farther on, it joins the Tiber at Torgiano, the third river is the Nera, flowing into the Tiber further south, at Terni, its valley is called the Valnerina. The upper Nera cuts ravines in the mountains, the lower, in antiquity, the plain was covered by a pair of shallow, interlocking lakes, the Lacus Clitorius and the Lacus Umber. They were drained by the Romans over several hundred years, an earthquake in the 4th century and the political collapse of the Roman Empire resulted in the refilling of the basin. The eastern part of the region, being crossed by many faults, has often hit by earthquakes, the last ones have been that of 1997. In literature, Umbria is referred to as il cuore verde dItalia, the phrase is taken from a poem by Giosuè Carducci, the subject of which is the source of the Clitunno River in Umbria. The region is named for the Umbri people, an Italic people which was absorbed by the expansion of the Romans, the Umbris capital city was Gubbio, where today is housed the longest and most important document of any of the Osco-Umbrian group of languages, the Iguvine Tablets. In fact, they belonged to a family of neighbouring peoples with similar roots. Their language was Umbrian, one of the Italic languages, related to Latin, the Etruscans were the chief enemies of the Umbri. The Etruscan invasion went from the western seaboard towards the north and east, eventually driving the Umbrians towards the Apennine uplands, nevertheless, the Umbrian population does not seem to have been eradicated in the conquered districts. The border between Etruria and Umbria was the Tiber river, the ancient name of Todi, Tular, after the downfall of the Etruscans, Umbrians aided the Samnites in their struggle against Rome
18.
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
19.
Giovanni Santi
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Giovanni Santi was an Italian painter, decorator, and the father of Raphael. He was born at Colbordolo in the Duchy of Urbino and he was a petty merchant for a time, he then studied under Piero della Francesca. He was influenced by Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, and seems to have been an assistant and his poetry includes an epic in honor of one of his patrons, Federico III da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, followed a discourse on painting. Giovanni Santi at Panopticon Virtual Art Gallery The Gubbio Studiolo and its conservation, volumes 1 &2, from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries, which contains material on Giovanni Santi
20.
Marche
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Marche, or The Marches /ˈmɑːrtʃᵻz/, is one of the twenty regions of Italy. The name of the region derives from the name of marca, originally referring to the medieval March of Ancona and nearby marches of Camerino. Marche is well known for its tradition, with the finest and most luxurious Italian footwear being manufactured in this region. Except for river valleys and the very narrow coastal strip. A railway from Bologna to Brindisi, built in the 19th century, inland, the mountainous nature of the region, even today, allows relatively little travel north and south, except by twisting roads over the passes. Most of the region is mountainous or hilly, the features being the Apennine chain along the internal boundary. With the sole exception of Monte Vettore,2,476 metres high, the hilly area covers two-thirds of the region and is interrupted by wide gullies with numerous – albeit short – rivers and by alluvial plains perpendicular to the principal chain. The parallel mountain chains contain deep river gorges, the best known being those of the Furlo, the Rossa and the Frasassi. The coastal area is 173 kilometres long and is relatively flat, inland, in the mountainous areas, is more continental with cold and often snowy winters, by the sea is more mediterranean. Precipitation varies from 1000-1500 mm. per year inland and 600-800 mm. per year on the Adriatic coast, Marche was known in ancient times as the Picenum territory. The Picens or Picentes were the Italic tribe who lived in Picenum during the Iron Age, in the fourth century BC the northern area was occupied by the Senones, a tribe of Gauls. In Marche was fought the Battle of Sentinum in 295 BC, after it, the Romans founded numerous colonies in the areas, connecting them to Rome by the Via Flaminia, Ascoli was a seat of Italic resistance during the Social War. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the region was invaded by the Goths, after the Gothic War, it was part of the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna. After the fall of the Exarchate it was briefly in the possession of the Lombards, in the ninth to eleventh centuries the marches of Camerino, Fermo and Ancona were created, hence the modern name. Marche was nominally part of the Papal States, but most of the territory was under local lords, in the twelfth century, the commune of Ancona resisted both the imperial authority of Frederick Barbarossa and the Republic of Venice, and was a maritime republic on its own. An attempt to restore Papal suzerainty by Gil de Albornoz in the century was short-lived. During the Renaissance, the region was fought over by rival aristocratic families, such as the Malatesta of Rimini, Pesaro, Fano and the house of Montefeltro of Urbino. The last independent entity, the Duchy of Urbino, was dissolved in 1631, after Napoleons defeat, Marche returned to Papal rule until 4 November 1860, when it was annexed to the unified Kingdom of Italy by a plebiscite
21.
Federico III da Montefeltro
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Federico da Montefeltro, also known as Federico III da Montefeltro KG, was one of the most successful condottieri of the Italian Renaissance, and lord of Urbino from 1444 until his death. Federico was born in Castello di Petroia in Gubbio, the son of Guidantonio da Montefeltro, lord of Urbino, Gubbio and Casteldurante. Two years later he was legitimized by Pope Martin V, with the consent of Guidantonios wife, Caterina Colonna, in the aftermath of the Peace of Ferrara in 1433, he lived in Venice and Mantua as a hostage. In 1437 he was knighted by Emperor Sigismund, and in the year he married Gentile Brancaleoni in Gubbio. At sixteen he began a career as condottiero under Niccolò Piccinino, in 1441 he distinguished himself in the conquest of the castle of St. Leo, which Federico was to hold for the rest of his life. After Piccininos resignation, he went to Pesaro to defend it against his enemy in the Marche, Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta. However, the situation of the small dukedom being in disarray. His first condotta was for Francesco I Sforza, with 300 knights, despite Federicos efforts, the Sforza sovereignty in the Marche was dismantled in the following years. When Sforza left for Lombardy, Sigismondo fomented a riot in Fossombrone, after six years in the service of Florence, Federico was hired in 1450 by Sforza, now Duke of Milan. However, he could not perform his duties as he lost his eye during a tournament. He subsequently carried a vast and disfiguring scar for the rest of his life, after the loss of the eye, Federico – no stranger to conspiracies and one of the leaders that inspired Niccolò Machiavelli to write Il Principe – had surgeons remove the bridge of his nose. In 1453 the Neapolitan army was struck by malaria, and Federico himself risked losing his healthy eye, the Peace of Lodi of the following year seemed to deprive him of occasions to exhibit his ability as a military commander. In 1458 the death of both Alfonso and of his illegitimate son, Buonconte, did not help to raise Federicos mood. His fortunes recovered when Pius II, a man of culture like him, became Pope, after some notable exploits in the Kingdom of Naples, he fought in the Marche against Malatesta, soundly defeating him at the Cesano river near Senigallia. The following year he captured Fano and Senigallia, taking Sigismondo Pandolfo prisoner, the Pope made him vicar of the conquered territories. In 1464 the new Pope Paul II called him to back the Anguillara. The following year he captured Cesena and Bertinoro in Romagna, in 1466 Francesco Sforza died, and Federico assisted his young son Galeazzo Sforza in the government of Milan, and also commanded the campaign against Bartolomeo Colleoni. In 1467 he took part in the Battle of Molinella, after defeating the Papal forces in a great battle on 30 August 1469, he ceded it to Sigismondos son, Roberto Malatesta
22.
Condottieri
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Condottieri were the leaders of the professional military free companies contracted by the Italian city-states and the Papacy from the late Middle Ages and throughout the Renaissance. In Renaissance Italian, condottiero meant contractor, in contemporary Italian, condottiero acquired the broader meaning of military leader, not restricted to mercenaries. In Italian historiography, Renaissance mercenary captains are usually called capitani di ventura, thus, the word Condottiere in the English language has come to denote, in the modern sense, any hired soldier. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the Italian city-states of Venice, Florence, in the event that foreign powers and envious neighbors attacked, the ruling nobles hired foreign mercenaries to fight for them. From the eleventh to the century, European soldiers led by professional officers fought against the Muslims in the Crusades. These crusading officers provided large-scale warfare combat experience in the Holy Land, on the Crusades’ conclusion, the first masnada appeared in Italy. Given the profession, some masnade were less mercenaries than bandits and these masnada were not Italian, but German, from the Duchy of Brabant, and from Catalonia and Aragon. The latter were Spanish soldiers who had followed King Peter III of Aragon in the War of the Sicilian Vespers in Italy in October 1282, by 1333 other mercenaries had arrived in Italy to fight with John of Bohemia as the Compagnia della Colomba in Perugia’s war against Arezzo. The first well organised mercenaries in Italy were the Ventura Companies of Duke Werner von Urslingen, werner’s company differed from other mercenary companies because its code of military justice imposed discipline and an equal division of the contract’s income. The Ventura Company increased in number until becoming the fearsome “Great Company” of some 3,000 barbute, the first mercenary company with an Italian condottiero as its chief was the Company of St. George formed in 1339 and led by Lodrisio Visconti. This company was defeated and destroyed by Luchino Visconti of Milan in April 1339, later, in 1377, a second Company of St. Once aware of their military power monopoly in Italy, the bands became notorious for their capriciousness. In turn, many condottieri, such as Braccio da Montone and Muzio Sforza, consequently, the condottieri fought by outmanoeuvring the opponent and fighting his ability to wage war, rather than risk uncertain fortune —defeat, capture, death— in battlefield combat. Niccolò Machiavelli even said that condottieri fought each other in grandiose, in 1347, Cola di Rienzo had Werner von Urslingen executed in Rome, and Konrad von Landau assumed command of the Great Company. Towards the end of the century the Italians began to organize armies of the same description and this ended the reign of the purely mercenary company, and began that of the semi-national mercenary army which endured in Europe till replaced by the national standing army system. In 1363, Count von Landau was betrayed by his Hungarian soldiers, strategically, the barbuta was replaced with the three-soldier, mounted lancia, five lance composed a posta, five poste composed a bandiera. If the condotta expired definitively, the condottiere could not declare war against the contracting city-state for two years. In fifteenth-century Italy, the condottieri were masterful lords of war, during the wars in Lombardy, Machiavelli observed, the others being bred to arms from their infancy, were acquainted with no other art, and pursued war for emolument, or to confer honor upon themselves
23.
Duke of Urbino
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The Duchy of Urbino was a sovereign state in central-northern Italy. The first lords of Urbino were the House of Montefeltro, who obtained the title of counts from Emperor Frederick II in 1213, the first Duke was Oddantonio, who received the title from Pope Eugene IV in 1443. In 1523 the capital was moved to Pesaro, History of Urbino Pesaro List of historic states of Italy Holy Roman Empire James Dennistoun. Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino, Illustrating the Arms, Arts, Volume One, Volume Two, Volume Three History of the popes, their church and state by Leopold von Ranke Franceschini, G. Storia dei conti e duchi dUrbino, ugolini, Filippo, Storia dei conti e duchi dUrbino - volume 2
24.
Pope Sixtus IV
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Pope Sixtus IV, born Francesco della Rovere, was Pope from 9 August 1471 to his death in 1484. His accomplishments as pope included building the Sistine Chapel and the creation of the Vatican Archives, a patron of the arts, the group of artists that he brought together introduced the Early Renaissance into Rome with the first masterpieces of the citys new artistic age. Sixtus aided the Spanish Inquisition, though he fought to prevent abuses therein and he was famed for his nepotism and was personally involved in the infamous Pazzi conspiracy. Francesco was born to a family of modest means from Liguria, Italy and he was born in Celle Ligure, a town near Savona. He went on to lecture at Padua and many other Italian universities, in 1464, Della Rovere was elected Minister General of the Franciscan order at the age of 50. In 1467, he was appointed Cardinal by Pope Paul II with the church being the Basilica of San Pietro in Vincoli. Before his papal election, Cardinal della Rovere was renowned for his unworldliness and had even written learned treatises entitled On the Blood of Christ and On the Power of God. His pious reputation was one of the factors that prompted the College of Cardinals to elect him pope upon the unexpected death of Paul II at the age of fifty-four. Upon being elected pope Della Rovere adopted the name Sixtus – a name that had not been used since the 5th century, one of his first acts was to declare a renewed crusade against the Ottoman Turks in Smyrna. However, after the conquest of Smyrna, the fleet disbanded, some fruitless attempts were made towards unification with the Greek Church. For the remainder of his pontificate, Sixtus turned to temporal issues, Sixtus IV sought to strengthen his position by surrounding himself with relatives and friends. His nephew Pietro Riario also benefited from his nepotism, Pietro became one of the richest men in Rome and was entrusted with Pope Sixtus foreign policy. However, Pietro died prematurely in 1474, and his role passed to Giuliano della Rovere, six of the thirty-four cardinals that he created were his nephews. Francesco Salviati, Archbishop of Pisa and an organizer of the plot, was hanged on the walls of the Florentine Palazzo della Signoria. To this, Sixtus IV replied with an interdict and two years of war with Florence, however, Infessura had partisan allegiances to the Colonna and so is not considered to be always reliable or impartial. However, such accusations are easily dismissed as propaganda, but did nevertheless prompt the noted historian of the Catholic Church, Ludwig von Pastor. Sixtus continued a dispute with King Louis XI of France, who upheld the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, according to which papal decrees needed royal assent before they could be promulgated in France. This was a cornerstone of the claimed for the Gallican Church
25.
Masque
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The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment that flourished in 16th- and early 17th-century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio. Professional actors and musicians were hired for the speaking and singing parts, in the tradition of masque, Louis XIV of France danced in ballets at Versailles with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully. The masque tradition developed from the elaborate pageants and courtly shows of ducal Burgundy in the late Middle Ages, masques were typically a complimentary offering to the prince among his guests and might combine pastoral settings, mythological fable, and the dramatic elements of ethical debate. There would invariably be some political and social application of the allegory, such pageants often celebrated a birth, marriage, change of ruler or a Royal Entry and invariably ended with a tableau of bliss and concord. Masque imagery tended to be drawn from Classical rather than Christian sources, Masque thus lent itself to Mannerist treatment in the hands of master designers like Giulio Romano or Inigo Jones. The New Historians, in works like the essays of Bevington, in English masques, purely musical interludes might be accompanied by a dumbshow. The rustic presentation of Pyramus and Thisbe as an entertainment in Shakespeares A Midsummer Nights Dream offers a familiar example. Spectators were invited to join in the dancing, at the end, the players would take off their masks to reveal their identities. A descriptive narrative of a processional masque is the masque of the Seven Deadly Sins in Edmund Spensers The Faerie Queene, a particularly elaborate masque, performed over the course of two weeks for Queen Elizabeth, is described in the 1821 novel Kenilworth, by Sir Walter Scott. Later, in the court of James I, narrative elements of the masque became more significant, plots were often on classical or allegorical themes, glorifying the royal or noble sponsor. At the end, the audience would join with the actors in a final dance, Ben Jonson wrote a number of masques with stage design by Inigo Jones. Their works are thought of as the most significant in the form. Sir Philip Sidney also wrote masques, william Shakespeare wrote a masque-like interlude in The Tempest, understood by modern scholars to have been heavily influenced by the masque texts of Ben Jonson and the stagecraft of Inigo Jones. There is also a sequence in his Romeo and Juliet. John Miltons Comus is described as a masque, though it is reckoned a pastoral play. Reconstructions of Stuart masques have been few and far between, part of the problem is that only texts survive complete, there is no complete music, only fragments, so no authoritative performance can be made without interpretive invention. In the 18th-century, masques were even less frequently staged, but because of its ephemeral nature, not a lot of documentation related to masques remains, and much of what is said about the production and enjoyment of masques is still part speculation. While the masque was no longer as popular as it was at its height in the 17th Century, during the late 17th century, English semi-operas by composers such as Henry Purcell had masque scenes inset between the acts of the play proper
26.
Early Netherlandish painting
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Their work follows the International Gothic style and begins approximately with Robert Campin and Jan van Eyck in the early 1420s. It lasts at least until the death of Gerard David in 1523, the major Netherlandish painters include Campin, van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Dieric Bouts, Petrus Christus, Hans Memling, Hugo van der Goes and Hieronymus Bosch. These artists made significant advances in natural representation and illusionism, and their subjects are usually religious scenes or small portraits, with narrative painting or mythological subjects being relatively rare. Landscape is often richly described but relegated as a background detail before the early 16th century, the painted works are generally oil on panel, either as single works or more complex portable or fixed altarpieces in the form of diptychs, triptychs or polyptychs. The period is noted for its sculpture, tapestries, illuminated manuscripts, stained glass. Assisted by the system, panels and a variety of crafts were sold to foreign princes or merchants through private engagement or market stalls. A majority were destroyed during waves of iconoclasm in the 16th and 17th centuries, Early northern art in general was not well regarded from the early 17th to the mid-19th century, and the painters and their works were not well documented until the mid-19th century. Art historians spent almost another century determining attributions, studying iconography, attribution of some of the most significant works is still debated. These artists became a driving force behind the Northern Renaissance. In this political and art-historical context, the north follows the Burgundian lands which straddled areas that encompass parts of modern France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlandish artists have been known by a variety of terms. Late Gothic is a designation which emphasises continuity with the art of the Middle Ages. In the early 20th century, the artists were variously referred to in English as the Ghent-Bruges school or the Old Netherlandish school. In this context, primitive does not refer to a lack of sophistication. When the Burgundian dukes established centres of power in the Netherlands, in the 19th century the Early Netherlandish artists were classified by nationality, with Jan van Eyck identified as German and van der Weyden as French. Scholars were at times preoccupied as to whether the schools genesis was in France or Germany, in the 14th century, as Gothic art gave way to the International Gothic era, a number of schools developed in northern Europe. Early Netherlandish art originated in French courtly art, and is tied to the tradition. Modern art historians see the era as beginning with 14th-century manuscript illuminators and this patronage continued in the low countries with the Burgundian dukes, Philip the Good and his son Charles the Bold. The demand for illuminated manuscripts declined towards the end of the century, following van Eycks innovations, the first generation of Netherlandish painters emphasised light and shadow, elements usually absent from 14th-century illuminated manuscripts
27.
Guidobaldo da Montefeltro
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Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, also known as Guidobaldo I, was an Italian condottiero and the Duke of Urbino from 1482 to 1508, KG. Born in Gubbio, he succeeded his father Federico da Montefeltro as Duke of Urbino in 1482, Guidobaldo married Elisabetta Gonzaga, the sister of Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua. Guidobaldo was impotent, and they had no children, but Elisabetta refused to divorce him, in 1496, while fighting for the pope near Bracciano, Guidobaldo was taken prisoner by the Orsini and the Vitelli, being freed the following year. Guidobaldo was forced to flee Urbino in 1502 to escape the armies of Cesare Borgia and he adopted as his heir Francesco Maria della Rovere, his sisters child and nephew of Pope Julius II, thus uniting the seigniory of Senigallia with Urbino. He aided Pope Julius II in reconquering the Romagna, the court of Urbino was at that time one of the most refined and elegant in Italy. Many men of letters met there, suffering from pellagra, Guidobaldo died in Fossombrone at the age of 36, and was succeeded by his nephew. Holy Conversation Portrait of Luca Pacioli Saint George and the Dragon Rendina, pietro Bembo, Vita dello illustrissimo s. Helisabetta Gonzaga sua consorte, Firenze, Lorenzo Torrentino 1555 P. Giovio, istorie dei suoi tempi, Venezia 1570 F. Ugolini. Guidobaldo da Montefeltro in «Imparziale fiorentino»,1857 Bernardino Baldi, Della vita e de fatti di Guidobaldo I da Montefeltro, Duca dUrbino libri dodici, Milano, Silvestri 1821 G. Franceschini. I Montefeltro, Milano 1970 C. H. Clough, A. Conti, Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, duca di Urbino, fu mai gonfaloniere di Sancta Romana Ecclesia. in «Studi Montefeltrani», n. 27, San Leo 2006 The Gubbio Studiolo and its conservation, volumes 1 &2, from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries, which contains material on Guidobaldo da Montefeltro
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Elisabetta Gonzaga
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Elisabetta Gonzaga was a noblewoman of the Italian Renaissance, renowned for her cultured and virtuous life. A member of the House of Gonzaga, she was a sister of Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua and by marriage the Duchess of Urbino. Because her husband, Duke Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, was impotent, Elisabetta never had children of her own, Elisabetta was born in Mantua, Italy, the second daughter of Federico I Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua and Margaret of Wittelsbach. Her brother was Francesco II Gonzaga and she married Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, the duke of Urbino, in 1489. Guidobaldo was sickly and impotent, and they had no children, Elisabettas education led her to a life in the company of some the greatest minds of late 15th century Italy. Her court attracted writers, artists, and scholars and her nobility gave her contact and involvement in the power politics of 16th century Italy. She was the sister-in-law of Isabella dEste, an influential Renaissance patron, on 21 June 1502 Cesare Borgia occupied Urbino, putting to flight Guidobaldo and forcing Elisabetta to remain in Mantua, where she had been staying as a guest. She remained there until 1503 and then joined Guidobaldo in Venice and they were restored to power in 1504. Having no children they adopted in the same year Francesco Maria I della Rovere, the child of Guidobaldos sister, in 1506 Elisabetta reluctantly accompanied Lucrezia Borgia on her journey to Ferrara, where Lucrezia was married to Alfonso I dEste. Following Guidobaldos death in 1508 at the age of 36 she continued to live in Urbino as regent to the underage heir, in 1509 Francesco Maria I was married to Eleonora Gonzaga, Elisabettas niece, further consolidating the dynasty. However, in June 1516 she was expelled from Urbino by Pope Leo X, together with her niece Eleonora Gonzaga and without a penny, they found refuge in Ferrara, where Elisabetta died in 1526. Elisabetta Gonzaga was immortalized by the writer Baldassare Castiglione, whose work of 1528, a portrait of her around the years 1504 to 1506 is attributed to the artist Raphael and is in the Uffizi gallery, Florence, Italy. Sarah Bradford, Lucrezia Borgia, Milano, Mondadori,2005
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Mantua
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Mantua is a city and commune in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the province of the same name. In 2016, Mantua became Italian Capital of Culture, as chosen by the Italian Government on 27 October 2015, in 2017, Mantua will also be European Capital of Gastronomy, included in the Eastern Lombardy District. In 2007, Mantuas centro storico and Sabbioneta were declared by UNESCO to be a World Heritage Site. Mantuas historic power and influence under the Gonzaga family has made it one of the artistic, cultural, and especially musical hubs of Northern Italy. Mantua is noted for its significant role in the history of opera, the city is known for its architectural treasures and artifacts, elegant palaces. It is the place where the composer Monteverdi premiered his opera LOrfeo and it is the nearest town to the birthplace of the Roman poet Virgil, who was commemorated by a statue at the lakeside park Piazza Virgiliana. Mantua is surrounded on three sides by artificial lakes, created during the 12th century, as the defence system. These lakes receive water from the Mincio River, a tributary of the Po River which descends from Lake Garda, the three lakes are called Lago Superiore, Lago di Mezzo, and Lago Inferiore. A fourth lake, Lake Pajolo, which served as a defensive water ring around the city. These dated, without interruption, from Neolithic times to the Bronze Age and the Gallic phases, and ended with Roman residential settlements, which could be traced to the 3rd century AD. Mantua was a settlement which was first established about the year 2000 BC on the banks of River Mincio. In the 6th century BC, Mantua was an Etruscan village which, the name may derive from the Etruscan god Mantus. This new Roman territory was populated by soldiers of Augustus. Mantuas most famous ancient citizen is the poet Virgil, or Publius Vergilius Maro, after the fall of the western Roman Empire in 476 AD, Mantua was invaded in turn by Goths, Byzantines, Longobards, and Franks. In the 11th century, Mantua became a possession of Boniface of Canossa, the last ruler of that family was the countess Matilda of Canossa, who, according to legend, ordered the construction of the precious Rotonda di San Lorenzo in 1082. The Rotonda still exists today and was renovated in 2013, free Imperial City of Mantua After the death of Matilda of Canossa, Mantua became a free commune and strenuously defended itself from the Holy Roman Empire during the 12th and 13th centuries. In 1198, Alberto Pitentino altered the course of River Mincio, three of these lakes still remains today and the fourth one, which ran through the centre of town, was reclaimed in the 18th century. Podesteria Rule From 1215, the city was ruled under the podesteria of the Gallic-Guelph Rambertino Buvalelli, during the struggle between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, Pinamonte Bonacolsi took advantage of the chaotic situation to seize power of the podesteria in 1273
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Baldassare Castiglione
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Baldassare Castiglione, count of Casatico, was an Italian courtier, diplomat, soldier and a prominent Renaissance author, who is probably most famous for his authorship of The Book of the Courtier. The work was an example of a book, dealing with questions of the etiquette and morality of the courtier. Castiglione was born into a family at Casatico, near Mantua. The signoria of Casatico had been assigned to an ancestor, Baldassare da Castiglione, the later Baldassare was related to Ludovico Gonzaga through his mother, Luigia Gonzaga. In 1494 at the age of sixteen Castiglione began his humanist studies in Milan, however, in 1499 after the death of his father, Castiglione left his studies and Milan to succeed his father as the head of their noble family. Soon his duties included representing the Gonzaga court, for instance. Regular guests included, Pietro Bembo, Ludovico da Canossa, Giuliano de Medici, Cardinal Bibbiena, francesco Maria della Rovere, and Cesare Gonzaga, a cousin of both Castiglione and the Duke. The hosts and guests organized intellectual contests, pageants, dances, concerts, recitations, plays, elisabettas virtue and abilities inspired Castiglione to compose a series of Platonic love songs and sonnets in her honor. She deeply loved her husband though his invalid state meant they could never have children, in 1506 Castiglione wrote a pastoral play, his eclogue Tirsi, in which he depicted the court of Urbino allegorically through the figures of three shepherds. The work contains echoes of ancient and contemporary poetry, recalling Poliziano and Sannazzaro as well as Virgil. Francesco Maria della Rovere succeeded as Duke of Urbino at Guidobaldos death and he and the new Duke of Urbino took part in Pope Julius IIs expedition against Venice, an episode in the Italian Wars. For this the Duke conferred on Castiglione the title of Count of Novilara, when Pope Leo X was elected in 1512, Castiglione was sent to Rome as ambassador from Urbino. There he was friendly with artists and writers, including Raphael, whom he already knew from Urbino. In tribute to their friendship, Raphael painted his famous portrait of Castiglione, in 1516 Castiglione was back in Mantua, where he married a very young Ippolita Torelli, descendant of another noble Mantuan family. Sadly, Ippolita died a mere four years after their marriage, in 1521 Pope Leo X conceded to him the tonsura and thereupon began Castigliones second, ecclesiastical career. In 1524 Pope Clement VII sent Castiglione to Spain as Apostolic nuncio in Madrid, Castiglione answered both the pope and Valdés in two famous letters from Burgos. He took Valdés to task, severely and at length, in his response to the comments about the Sack of Rome. Against all expectations, Castiglione received the popes apologies and the emperor honored him with the offer of the position of Bishop of Avila, historians today believe that Castiglione had carried out his ambassadorial duties to Spain in an honorable manner and bore no responsibility for the sack of Rome
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Bernardo Dovizi
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Bernardo Dovizi of Bibbiena was an Italian cardinal and comedy writer, known best as Cardinal Bibbiena, for the town of Bibbiena, where he was born. He received a substantial training, and became a preceptor and boon companion of Giovanni dei Medici. In November 1494, when the Medici were banished, he supported them, soon afterwards he was rewarded with the protection of Julius II and many honours at the Roman court. In 1513 his arduous efforts on behalf of his lifelong patron secured the election of Giovanni dei Medici to the pontifical throne. Leo X repaid such services by naming him a Cardinal in the Consistory of 23 September 1513, later on, the cardinals strong sympathies for France lost him Leos confidence. As cardinal he steadily extended his generous patronage of the arts - he was a friend of Raphael, whom he had known since his youth. Raphael painted a number of works for him, including frescoes of a classical and his literary fame is mainly connected with the first comedy of note written in Italian prose, La Calandra, was probably given for the first time at Urbino, about 1507. It was performed elaborately at Rome, seven years later, in the presence of Leo X and Isabella Gonzaga dEste, Marchioness of Mantua. Though containing glaringly immoral scenes, using the plot of Plautuss Menaechmi, it possessed the features of comedy and won plaudits for its sparkling wit. The main character, Calandro or Calandrino, was borrowed from Giovanni Boccaccios Decameron in which he appears as a character in four stories. The author of the comedy sympathizes with Fulvia, and her lover Lidio, mocking the foolish husband of Calandro, who falls in love with Lidio, the speeches of Fesenio, the servant of Calandro, shine with Italian sparkling jokes. Ariosto and Machiavelli imitated this comedy in their plays, a Paduan poet serving at the Dresden Court, Stefano Benedetto Pallavicini, wrote a libretto based on the same story for the comic opera Calandro by Giovanni Alberto Ristori. It was first staged in 1726 at the castle of Pilnitz near Dresden, there were also the operas by, Antonio Sacchini, Lavaro deluso, o Don Calandrino Johann Georg Schürer, Calandro Giuseppe Gazzaniga, Il Calandrino Barbiche, B. S. de Dainville Barbiche. Les lègats a latere en France, in, Archivium historiae pontificiae,22, memorie storiche de cardinali della santa romana. G L Moncallero, ed. Epistolario di Bernardo Dovizi da Bibbiena, Il Bibbiena diplomatico, Rinascimento, serie 2,9, pp. 69-94. Il Cardinale Bernardo Dovizi da Bibbiena, umanista e diplomatico, uomini e avvenimenti del rinascimento alla luce di documenti inediti, santelli, A. Il cardinal Bibbiena, Bologna 1931. Works by Bernardo Dovizi da Bibbiena at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Bernardo Dovizi at Internet Archive Works by or about Bibbiena at Internet Archive Catholic Encyclopedia
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Pietro Bembo
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Pietro Bembo, O. S. I. H. was an Italian scholar, poet, literary theorist, member of the Knights Hospitaller and a cardinal. He was a figure in the development of the Italian language, specifically Tuscan, as a literary medium. His writings assisted in the 16th-century revival of interest in the works of Petrarch, Bembos ideas were also decisive in the formation of the most important secular musical form of the 16th century, the madrigal. Bembo was born in Venice to an aristocratic family and his father, Bernardo Bembo, cared deeply for the literature of the Italian people, erecting a monument to Dante in his hometown of Ravenna. The father also served as an ambassador for the Republic of Venice, one of the places he visited was Florence, there acquiring a love for the Tuscan form of Italian, a love which was to prove so important in literary and musical history. He studied Greek for two years under the Greek scholar Constantine Lascaris at Messina, and afterwards went to the University of Padua. Further travels included two years spent at the Este court in Ferrara, under the reign of Ercole dEste I, then a significant literary, while there he met Ariosto and commenced writing his first work, Gli Asolani, a dialogue on the subject of courtly love. The poems in book were reminiscent of Boccaccio and Petrarch. Bembo himself preferred his poetry to be performed by a singer accompanied by a lute. In 1502 and 1503 he was again in Ferrara, and had an affair with the notorious Lucrezia Borgia. In 1513 Bembo accompanied Giulio de Medici to Rome, where he was soon after appointed Latin secretary to Pope Leo X, in 1514 he became a member of the Knights Hospitaller, now known as the Knights of Malta. On the pontiffs death in 1521 he retired, with impaired health, to Padua, and there lived for a number of years, during which he continued to write, and in 1525 finally published his famous work. In 1530 he accepted the office of official historian of the Republic of Venice, his homeland, on 20 December 1538 Pope Paul III named him a cardinal in pectore and Bembo returned to Rome. The following year he received Holy Orders as a priest of the Order and he was advanced to the rank of Cardinal Priest in February 1542, with title to the Church of San Crisogono, changed two years later to that of the Basilica of San Clemente. While in Rome Bembo continued to write and revise his work, in addition to studying theology. He received as a reward for his achievements the administration of the dioceses of Gubbio and Bergamo and he died in Rome in his 77th year and was buried in the Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, near his papal patron. As a writer, Bembo attempted to restore some of the legendary affect that ancient Greek had on its hearers, but in Tuscan Italian instead. He held as his model, and as the highest example of poetic expression ever achieved in Italian, the work of Petrarch and Boccaccio, two 14th century writers he assisted in bringing back into fashion
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Cardinal (Catholicism)
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A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical leader, considered a Prince of the Church, and usually an ordained bishop of the Roman Catholic Church. The cardinals of the Church are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, the duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and making themselves available individually or in groups to the Pope as requested. Most have additional duties, such as leading a diocese or archdiocese or managing a department of the Roman Curia, a cardinals primary duty is electing the pope when the see becomes vacant. During the sede vacante, the governance of the Holy See is in the hands of the College of Cardinals. The right to enter the conclave of cardinals where the pope is elected is limited to those who have not reached the age of 80 years by the day the vacancy occurs. In 1059, the right of electing the pope was reserved to the clergy of Rome. The term was applied in this sense as early as the century to the priests of the tituli of the diocese of Rome. The Church of England retains an instance of this origin of the title, which is held by the two senior members of the College of Minor Canons of St Pauls Cathedral. In Rome the first persons to be called cardinals were the deacons of the seven regions of the city at the beginning of the 6th century, when the word began to mean principal, eminent, or superior. The name was given to the senior priest in each of the title churches of Rome. By the 8th century the Roman cardinals constituted a class among the Roman clergy. They took part in the administration of the church of Rome, by decree of a synod of 769, only a cardinal was eligible to become pope. In 1059, during the pontificate of Nicholas II, cardinals were given the right to elect the pope under the Papal Bull In nomine Domini. For a time this power was assigned exclusively to the cardinal bishops, Cardinals were granted the privilege of wearing the red hat by Pope Innocent IV in 1244. In cities other than Rome, the name began to be applied to certain church men as a mark of honour. This meaning of the word spread rapidly, and from the 9th century various episcopal cities had a class among the clergy known as cardinals. The use of the title was reserved for the cardinals of Rome in 1567 by Pius V, in the year 1563 the influential Ecumenical Council of Trent, headed by Pope Pius IV, wrote about the importance of selecting good Cardinals. The earlier influence of temporal rulers, notably the French kings, in early modern times, cardinals often had important roles in secular affairs
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Renaissance humanism
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Renaissance humanism is the study of classical antiquity, at first in Italy and then spreading across Western Europe in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. The term Renaissance humanism is contemporary to that period — Renaissance, Renaissance humanism was a response to the utilitarian approach and what came to be depicted as the narrow pedantry associated with medieval scholasticism. This was to be accomplished through the study of the studia humanitatis, today known as the humanities, grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry, and moral philosophy. Humanism was a cultural mode and not the program of a small elite, a program to revive the cultural legacy, literary legacy. There were important centres of humanism in Florence, Naples, Rome, Venice, Genoa, Mantua, Ferrara, some of the first humanists were great collectors of antique manuscripts, including Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio, Coluccio Salutati, and Poggio Bracciolini. Of the four, Petrarch was dubbed the Father of Humanism because of his devotion to Greek, some of the highest officials of the Catholic Church were humanists with the resources to amass important libraries. Such was Cardinal Basilios Bessarion, a convert to the Catholic Church from Greek Orthodoxy, who was considered for the papacy, and was one of the most learned scholars of his time. There were several 15th-century and early 16th-century humanist Popes one of whom, Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, was a prolific author and these subjects came to be known as the humanities, and the movement which they inspired is shown as humanism. They included Gemistus Pletho, George of Trebizond, Theodorus Gaza, budé was a royal absolutist who was active in civic life, serving as a diplomat for François I and helping to found the Collège des Lecteurs Royaux. Many humanists were churchmen, most notably Pope Pius II, Sixtus IV, and Leo X, humanity—with all its distinct capabilities, talents, worries, problems, possibilities—was the center of interest. It has been said that medieval thinkers philosophised on their knees, inevitably, the rediscovery of classical philosophy and science would eventually challenge traditional religious beliefs. Lorenzo Valla, however, puts a defense of epicureanism in the mouth of one of the interlocutors of one of his dialogues. And if it is names that bother us, no one deserves the name of Epicurean than the revered founder and head of the Christian philosophy Christ. Completely mistaken, therefore, are those who talk in their foolish fashion about Christs having been sad and gloomy in character, on the contrary, he alone shows the most enjoyable life of all and the one most full of true pleasure. This passage exemplifies the way in which the humanists saw pagan classical works, such as the philosophy of Epicurus, Renaissance Neo-Platonists such as Marsilio Ficino attempted to reconcile Platonism with Christianity, according to the suggestions of early Church fathers Lactantius and Saint Augustine. In this spirit, Pico della Mirandola attempted to construct a syncretism of all religions, historian Steven Kreis expresses a widespread view, when he writes that, The period from the fourteenth century to the seventeenth worked in favor of the general emancipation of the individual. The city-states of northern Italy had come into contact with the customs of the East. The writings of Dante, and particularly the doctrines of Petrarch and humanists like Machiavelli, emphasized the virtues of intellectual freedom, in the essays of Montaigne the individualistic view of life received perhaps the most persuasive and eloquent statement in the history of literature and philosophy
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Self-portrait
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A self-portrait is a representation of an artist that is drawn, painted, photographed, or sculpted by that artist. With better and cheaper mirrors, and the advent of the panel portrait, Portrait of a Man in a Turban by Jan van Eyck of 1433 may well be the earliest known panel self-portrait. He painted a portrait of his wife, and he belonged to the social group that had begun to commission portraits. The genre is venerable, but not until the Renaissance, with increased wealth and interest in the individual as a subject, a self-portrait may be a portrait of the artist, or a portrait included in a larger work, including a group portrait. Many painters are said to have included depictions of specific individuals, including themselves, in these works, the artist usually appears as a face in the crowd or group, often towards the edges or corner of the work and behind the main participants. Rubenss The Four Philosophers is a good example and this culminated in the 17th century with the work of Jan de Bray. Many artistic media have used, apart from paintings, drawings. In the famous Arnolfini Portrait, Jan van Eyck is probably one of two figures glimpsed in a mirror – a surprisingly modern conceit. The Van Eyck painting may have inspired Diego Velázquez to depict himself in view as the painter creating Las Meninas, as the Van Eyck hung in the palace in Madrid where he worked. This was another modern flourish, given that he appears as the painter, in what may be one of the earliest childhood self-portraits now surviving, Albrecht Dürer depicts himself as in naturalistic style as a 13-year-old boy in 1484. In later years he appears variously as a merchant in the background of Biblical scenes, leonardo da Vinci may have drawn a picture of himself at the age of 60, in around 1512. The picture is often reproduced as Da Vincis appearance, although this is not certain. In the 17th century, Rembrandt painted a range of self-portraits, family and professional group paintings, including the artists depiction, became increasingly common from the 17th century on. From the later 20th century on, video plays a part in self-portraiture. Vigée-Lebrun painted a total of 37 self-portraits, many of which were copies of earlier ones, Women artists have historically embodied a number of roles within their self-portraiture. Most common is the artist at work, showing themselves in the act of painting, or at least holding a brush and palette. Often, the viewer if the clothes worn were those they normally painted in. Images of artists at work are encountered in Ancient Egyptian painting, one of the first self-portraits was made by the Pharaoh Akhenatens chief sculptor Bak in 1365 BC
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Paolo Uccello
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Paolo Uccello, born Paolo di Dono, was an Italian painter and mathematician who was notable for his pioneering work on visual perspective in art. In his book, Lives of the Artists, Giorgio Vasari wrote that Uccello was obsessed by his interest in perspective, while his contemporaries used perspective to narrate different or succeeding stories, Uccello used perspective to create a feeling of depth in his paintings. His best known works are the three representing the battle of San Romano, which were wrongly entitled the Battle of Sant Egidio of 1416 for a long period of time. Paolo worked in the Late Gothic tradition, emphasizing colour and pageantry rather than the classical realism that other artists were pioneering and his style is best described as idiosyncratic, and he left no school of followers. He has had influence on twentieth-century art and literary criticism. The sources for Paolo Uccello’s life are few, Giorgio Vasari’s biography, written 75 years after Paolo’s death, due to the lack of sources, even his date of birth is questionable. It is believed that Uccello was born in Pratovecchio in 1397, and his tax declarations for some years indicate that he was born in 1397 and his father, Dono di Paolo, was a barber-surgeon from Pratovecchio near Arezzo, his mother, Antonia, was a high-born Florentine. His nickname Uccello came from his fondness for painting birds, from 1412 until 1416 he was apprenticed to the famous sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti. Ghiberti was the designer of the doors of the Florence Baptistery, ghibertis late-Gothic, narrative style and sculptural composition greatly influenced Paolo. It was also around this time that Paolo began his friendship with Donatello. In 1414, Uccello was admitted to the guild, Compagnia di San Luca. These featured a scene that might well have impressed itself in the mind of the young Uccello. According to Vasari, Uccello’s first painting was a Saint Anthony between the saints Cosmas and Damianus, a commission for the hospital of Lelmo, next, he painted two figures in the convent of Annalena. Shortly afterwards, he painted three frescoes with scenes from the life of Saint Francis above the door of the Santa Trinita church. For the Santa Maria Maggiore church, he painted a fresco of the Annunciation, in this fresco, he painted a large building with columns in perspective. According to Vasari, people found this to be a great and beautiful achievement because this was the first example of how lines could be used to demonstrate perspective. As a result, this became a model for artists who wished to craft illusions of space in order to enhance the realness of their paintings. Paolo painted the Lives of the Church Fathers in the cloisters of the church of San Miniato, Uccello was asked to paint a number of scenes of distempered animals for the house of the Medici
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Luca Signorelli
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Luca Signorelli was an Italian Renaissance painter who was noted in particular for his ability as a draftsman and his use of foreshortening. His massive frescoes of the Last Judgment in Orvieto Cathedral are considered his masterpiece and he was born Luca dEgidio di Ventura in Cortona, Tuscany. The precise date of his birth is uncertain, but birth dates between 1441 and 1445 have been proposed and he died in 1523 in his native Cortona, where he is buried. He was likely between seventy-eight and eighty-two years old and he is considered to be part of the Tuscan school, although he also worked extensively in Umbria and Rome. His first impressions of art seem to originate in Perugia — including the styles of such as Benedetto Bonfigli, Fiorenzo di Lorenzo. Lazzaro Vasari, the great-grandfather of art historian Giorgio Vasari, was Lucas maternal uncle, according to Giorgio Vasari, Lazzaro had Luca apprenticed to Piero della Francesca. In 1472 the young artist was painting at Arezzo, and in 1474 at Città di Castello and he presented to Lorenzo de Medici a work which is likely School of Pan. Janet Ross and her husband Henry discovered the painting in Florence circa 1870 and subsequently sold it to the Kaiser Frederick Museum in Berlin, additionally, Signorelli executed various sacred pictures, displaying a study of Botticelli and Lippo Lippi. Signorelli worked in Rome from 1478 to 1484, in 1484 he returned to his native Cortona, which remained his home until his death. In the Monastery of Monte Oliveto Maggiore in Siena he painted eight frescoes, forming part of a vast series depicting the life of St. Benedict, in the palace of Pandolfo Petrucci he worked upon various classic or mythological subjects, including the aforementioned School of Pan. Signorelli remained healthy until his death, continuing to paint and accept commissions into his final year, from the Monastery of Monte Oliveto Maggiore near Siena, Signorelli went to Orvieto and produced his masterpiece, the frescoes in the chapel of S. Brizio, in the cathedral. The Cappella Nuova already contained two groups of images in the vaulting over the altar, the Judging Christ and the Prophets, the works of Signorelli in the vaults and on the upper walls represent the events surrounding the Apocalypse and the Last Judgment. The events of the Apocalypse fill the space which surrounds the entrance into the large chapel, the Apocalyptic events begin with the Preaching of Antichrist, and proceed to the Doomsday and The Resurrection of the Flesh. They occupy three vast lunettes, each of them a continuous narrative composition. In one of them, the Antichrist, after his portents and impious glories, falls headlong from the sky, the events of the Last Judgment fill the facing vault and the walls around the altar. The series is composed of Paradise, the Elect and the Condemned, Hell, the Resurrection of the Dead, the unifying factor of the paintings is found in the scripture readings in the Roman liturgies for the Feast of All Saints and Advent. Stylistically, the daring and terrible inventions, with their treatment of the nude. Michelangelo is claimed to have borrowed, in his own fresco at the Sistine Chapel wall, a Pietà composition in a niche in the lower wall contains explicit references to two important Orvietan martyr saints, San Pietro Parenzo and San Faustino
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Pietro Perugino
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Pietro Perugino, born Pietro Vannucci, was an Italian Renaissance painter of the Umbrian school, who developed some of the qualities that found classic expression in the High Renaissance. Raphael was his most famous pupil, Pietro Perugino was born Pietro Vannucci in Città della Pieve, Umbria, the son of Cristoforo Marie Vannucci. Pietros nickname characterizes him as from Perugia, the city of Umbria. Scholars continue to dispute the status of the Vannucci family. While certain academics maintain that Vannucci worked his way out of poverty and his exact date of birth is not known, although, based on his age at the death mentioned by Vasari and Giovanni Santi, he is suspected to be born between 1446 and 1452. Pietro most likely began studying painting in local workshops in Perugia such as those of Bartolomeo Caporali or Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, the date of this first Florentine sojourn is unknown, some make it as early as 1466/1470, others push the date to 1479. According to Vasari, he apprenticed in the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio alongside Leonardo da Vinci, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Lorenzo di Credi, Filippino Lippi, piero della Francesca is thought to have taught him perspective form. In 1472 he must have completed his apprenticeship, for he was enrolled as a master in the Confraternity of St Luke, Pietro, although very talented was not extremely enthusiastic about his work. Perugino was one of the earliest Italian practitioners of oil painting, a good specimen of his early style in tempera is the tondo in the Musée du Louvre of the Virgin and Child Enthroned between Saints. Perugino returned from Florence to Perugia, where his Florentine training showed in the Adoration of the Magi for the church of Santa Maria dei Servi of Perugia, in about 1480, he was called to Rome by Sixtus IV to paint fresco panels for the Sistine Chapel walls. The frescoes he executed there included Moses and Zipporah, the Baptism of Christ, pinturicchio accompanied Perugino to Rome, and was made his partner, receiving a third of the profits. He may have some of the Zipporah subject. The Sistine frescoes were the major high Renaissance commission in Rome, the altar wall was also painted with the Assumption, the Nativity, and Moses in the Bulrushes. He had a studio in Florence, and received a great number of commissions. His Pietà in the Uffizi is an uncharacteristically stark work that avoids Peruginos sometimes too easy sentimental piety, in 1499 the guild of the cambio of Perugia asked him to decorate their audience-hall, the Sala delle Udienze del Collegio del Cambio. The humanist Francesco Maturanzio acted as his consultant, on the mid-pilaster of the hall Perugino placed his own portrait in bust-form. It is probable that Raphael, who in boyhood, towards 1496, had been placed by his uncles under the tuition of Perugino, Perugino was made one of the priors of Perugia in 1501. On one occasion Michelangelo told Perugino to his face that he was a bungler in art, Vannucci brought an action for defamation of character, unsuccessfully
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Timoteo Viti
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Timoteo Viti, sometimes called Timoteo della Viti or Timoteo da Urbino, was an Italian Renaissance painter, who was closely associated with Raphael, who was fourteen years his junior. Born in Urbino, Viti was the grandson of the painter Antonio Alberti, according to Vasari and Malvasia, Viti was apprenticed to Francesco Francia in Bologna between 1490 and 1495, aspects of Vitis style would seem to confirm an apprenticeship in Bologna. In 1495 he returned to Urbino and replaced Giovanni Santi, the deceased father of Raphael, as painter to the small. He completed paintings of the Muses in the Ducal Palace that Santi had left unfinished, the precocious Raphael, who was eleven at his fathers death, continued to run his fathers workshop with help from his family. It has often speculated that Viti contributed to Raphaels training. In any case they remained friends, and Viti obtained or inherited the most important group of Raphaels studio drawings, drawings have often been disputed between the two artists in the past, and Viti has also been accused of forging some Raphael drawings. In 1503 Viti was painting banners for Cesare Borgia, who had expelled Duke Guidobaldo da Montefeltro as lord of the city, Guidobaldo regained Urbino in 1504 and Viti, along with Girolamo Genga, was commissioned by Bishop Arrivabene to decorate the chapel of S Martino in the cathedral. He continued to work successfully in the Marches for the rest of the decade, and as far south as Siena, where he and Genga collaborated on paintings in the Palazzo Petrucci in about 1508. Around 1514, Viti formed part of the team assembled by Raphael. It has been suggested that he is depicted in The School of Athens, Raphaels most famous work, standing next to Raphaels self-portrait, in later works he rejected Raphaels influence and looked back to the art of the late 15th century. In his last paintings his style became heavier, possibly as a result of the intervention of pupils. According to Vasari, Timoteo was an artist, a poet, and he was also politically active in Urbino. He served as magistrate in 1508 and chief magistrate in 1513, media related to Timoteo Viti at Wikimedia Commons
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History of art
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The history of art is the history of any activity or product made by humans in a visual form for aesthetical or communicative purposes, expressing ideas, emotions or, in general, a worldview. The subsequent expansion of the list of arts in the 20th century reached to nine, architecture, dance, sculpture, music, painting, poetry, film, photography. The study of the history of art was developed during the Renaissance. Today, art enjoys a network of study, dissemination and preservation of all the artistic legacy of mankind throughout history. The rise of media has been crucial in improving the study, international events and exhibitions like the Whitney Biennial and biennales of Venice and São Paulo or the Documenta of Kassel have helped the development of new styles and trends. Institutions like UNESCO, with the establishment of the World Heritage Site lists, the field of art history was developed in the West, and originally dealt exclusively with European art history, with the High Renaissance as the defining standard. Gradually, over the course of the 20th century, a vision of art history has developed. This expanded version includes societies from across the globe, and it attempts to analyze artifacts in terms of the cultural values in which they were created. Thus, art history is now seen to all visual art. The history of art is often told as a chronology of masterpieces created in each civilization and it can thus be framed as a story of high culture, epitomized by the Wonders of the World. On the other hand, vernacular art expressions can also be integrated into art historical narratives, in the latter cases art objects may be referred to as archeological artifacts. One way to examine how art history is organized is by examining the major survey textbooks, information on canonical art history is also found in the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, which is sponsored by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The first tangible artifacts of human art that have found are from the Stone Age. During the Paleolithic, humans practiced hunting and gathering and lived in caves, in the Bronze Age, the first protohistoric civilizations arose. The Paleolithic had its first artistic manifestation in 25,000 BCE, the first traces of human-made objects appeared in southern Africa, the Western Mediterranean, Central and Eastern Europe, Siberia, India and Australia. These first traces are generally worked stone, wood or bone tools, to paint in red, iron oxide was used, in black, manganese oxide and in ochre, clay. Surviving art from this period includes small carvings in stone or bone, cave paintings have been found in the Franco-Cantabrian region. There are pictures with magical-religious character and also pictures with a naturalistic sense, sculpture is represented by the so-called Venus figurines, feminine figures which were probably used in fertility cults, such as the Venus of Willendorf
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Craquelure
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Craquelure is the fine pattern of dense cracking formed on the surface of materials, either as part of the process of ageing or of their original formation or production. It can also develop in old ivory carvings, and painted miniatures on an ivory backing are prone to craquelure, normally, craquelure is formed by the aging of paints. It can be used to determine the age of paintings and to detect art forgery, authentic paint craquelure occurs because paint dries and becomes less flexible as it ages and shrinks. In the case of paintings on canvas, the canvas slackens as it ages as it cannot endure the stress of stretching. Paint at the center of a painting is the least cracked, whereas paint at the edges is the most cracked, the precise pattern of craquelure depends on where, when, and under what conditions the picture was painted, and subsequently kept. Cracks caused by stretching or slackening the canvas are quite different from cracks due to other factors, the stress at the corners is more than double that of the center. The distinctness of these styles has been confirmed by studies. The English style arises from the use of bitumen in paint that was pioneered by Sir Joshua Reynolds, radiating circular patterns of cracks are a result of impact. Modern acrylic paint is especially likely to develop if it experiences low temperatures. Induced craquelure can be created by a variety of techniques, and in paintings is often used by forgers of Old Master paintings, art forger Eric Hebborn developed a technique and Tony Tetro discovered a way to use formaldehyde and a special baking process. Craquelure is almost impossible to accurately reproduce artificially in a particular pattern and these methods, however, generally achieve cracks that are uniform in appearance, while genuine craquelure has cracks with irregular patterns. Craquelure affecting the glaze in ceramics may develop with age, but has also used as a deliberate decorative effect. These deliberate glazing effects are known as crackle, with crackle glaze or crackle porcelain being common terms. It is distinguished from crazing, which is accidental craquelure arising as a glaze defect, although in some cases experts have difficulty in deciding whether milder effects are deliberate or not. Leading Chinese wares of the Song and Yuan dynasties with deliberate crackle glazes are Guan ware and Ge ware, in Ru ware the milder crackle may be accidental, though the majority of pieces have it. The modern decor industry has used the technique of craquelure to create objects and materials such as glass, ceramics. This was made possible by the use of marketing kits that react with the used in decorative acrylic colors. The extent of craquelure produced varies according to the percentage of reagent, to highlight the cracks, glitter powder—usually available in copper, bronze and gold—is used
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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
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Baronci Altarpiece
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The Baronci Altarpiece was a painting by the Italian High Renaissance artist Raphael. His first recorded commission, it was made for Andrea Baroncis chapel in the church of SantAgostino in Città di Castello, the altarpiece was seriously damaged during an earthquake in 1789, and since 1849 fragments of the original painting have been part of different collections. In the documents Raphael, not his collaborator, is referred to as magister, the work on the paintings was completed on September 13,1501. In the center of the painting Nicholas of Tolentino stood in an archway, next to him were three angels. Above him God the Father was placed with a crown in his hand, on his left the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Augustine were painted. During a heavy earthquake in 1789 the painting was damaged so severely that it was decided to saw it into pieces, in the same year, the fragments were acquired by Pope Pius VI for the collections of the Vatican, where they remained until 1849. It is unclear what happened to them after that, only many years later scholars were able to trace back six different pieces, four fragments of the main painting and two predellas, which had become part of different collections. An impression of the work is given by an 18th-century copy in the Pinacoteca Comunale. Preliminary sketches by Raphael can be found in the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, Lille, on the basis of these drawings it is assumed that the design of the altar was entirely Raphaels work, whereas in the execution he was joined by Evangelista da Pian di Meleto. While Raphael probably painted the altarpiece itself, the predellas are attributed to Pian di Meleto, fragments of the main altarpiece, God the Father,112 x 75 cm. Blessed Virgin Mary,51 x 41 cm, predellas, Saint Nicholas of Tolentino Restoring Two Partridges to Life,29.2 x 54.0 cm. Saint Nicholas of Tolentino Rescuing a Boy from Drowning,26.7 x 51.8 cm, based on the article from the German Wikipedia, which in turn gives as its sources, Hertig, Louis, Pierluigi de Vecchi. Ferino Pagden, Sylvia, Maria Antonietta Zancan, predellas attributed to the Circle of Perugino in the DIAs collection
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Nicholas of Tolentino
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Nicholas of Tolentino, known as the Patron of Holy Souls, was an Italian saint and mystic. Born in 1245 in SantAngelo, St. Nicholas of Tolentino took his name from St. Nicholas of Myra, Nicholas became a monk at 18, and seven years later, he was ordained a priest. He gained a reputation as a preacher and a confessor,1274, he was sent to Tolentino, near his birthplace. The town suffered from civil strife between the Guelphs, who supported the pope, and Ghibellines, who supported the Holy Roman Emperor, Nicholas was primarily a pastor to his flock. He ministered to the poor and the criminal and he is said to have cured the sick with bread over which he had prayed to Mary, the mother of God. He gained a reputation as a wonder-worker, Nicholas died in 1305 after a long illness. People began immediately to petition for his canonization, Eugene IV canonized him in 1446, and his relics were rediscovered in 1926 at Tolentino. A studious, kind and gentle youth, at the age of 16 Nicholas became an Augustinian Friar and was a student of the Blessed Angelus de Scarpetti. A monk at the monasteries at Recanati and Macerata as well as others, he was ordained in 1270 at the age of 25, and soon became known for his preaching and teachings. Nicholas, who had had visions of angels reciting to Tolentino, in 1274 took this as a sign to move to that city, Nicholas worked to counteract the decline of morality and religion which came with the development of city life in the late thirteenth century. Once, when weak after a long fast, he received a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Augustine who told him to eat some bread marked with cross, upon doing so he was immediately stronger. He started distributing these rolls to the ailing, while praying to Mary, often curing the sufferers and he ministered to his flock, helped the poor and visited prisoners. When working wonders or healing people, he asked those he helped to Say nothing of this. During his life, Nicholas is said to have received visions, including images of Purgatory, prayer for the souls in purgatory was the outstanding characteristic of his spirituality. Because of this Nicholas was proclaimed patron of the souls in Purgatory, towards the end of his life he became ill, suffering greatly, but still continued the mortifications that had been part of his holy life. Nicholas died on September 10,1305, there are many tales and legends which relate to Nicholas. One says the devil once beat him with a stick, which was displayed for years in his church. In another, Nicholas, a vegetarian, was served a roasted fowl, for which he made the sign of the cross, and it flew out a window
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