Leading figure among the Utrecht Caravaggists. Baburen went to Rome in c. 1612, where he came upon the works of Caravaggio and his close follower, Bartolomeo Manfredi. He remained there until 1622, painting mainly religious scenes. When he returned to Utrecht, Baburen almost completely abandoned religious art, concentrating instead on genre works, although he remained faithful to the Caravaggist mode. His Procuress (1622; Boston, Museum of Fine Arts) is among his best-known works. Thematically, it relates to Caravaggio’s cardsharps and fortune tellers. Visually, it borrows Caravaggio’s heavy chiaroscuro and use of three-quarter figures that occupy most of the pictorial space. Not only did Baburen adopt the basic elements of the Caravaggist mode, but he also quoted directly from specific paintings by the Italian master. His old procuress is, in fact, based on Abra, the old servant in Caravaggio’s Judith and Holofernes (c. 1598; Rome, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica).
Term used to refer to the period from 1309–1377, when the seat of the papacy was in Avignon, France. Pope Clement V moved his court there to avoid the constant conflicts caused by the rivaling factions of Rome and intrusions from the Holy Roman Emperor. Seven popes reigned during this period, all of French nationality. The term “Babylonian Captivity” was adopted to equate what some viewed as the captivity of the papacy by the French kings to the exile of the Jews in Babylon from the kingdom of Judea. The term also refers to Petrarch’s “unholy Babylon,” which he likened to the harlot of the Apocalypse. In this context, it alludes to the papacy’s lavish expenditures and abuses while in Avignon.
The Bacchino Malato is believed to be Caravaggio’s self-portrait in the guise of Bacchus, the mythological god of wine. Caravaggio here presents himself as a crude type dressed in a toga, seated at a table, holding grapes, and crowned with a wreath. The painting was among those taken in 1607, by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, from the Cavaliere d’Arpino, in whose studio Caravaggio had worked. At the time of its execution, Caravaggio fell seriously ill and was forced to remain in the Hospital of the Consolazione for a long stay. The figure in the painting bears a pale, unhealthy complexion; its title translates from the Italian to Little Ill Bacchus. This demonstrates Caravaggio’s insistence on rendering nature with all its imperfections, then a truly innovative approach to painting.
The mythological god of wine and fertility, son of Jupiter and Semele. When Jupiter accidentally killed Semele, he removed the fetus from the woman’s body and sewed it onto his thigh. Once born, Bacchus was entrusted to the care of nymphs, satyrs, and the wise Silenus. The envious Juno, Jupiter’s consort, struck Bacchus with madness, forcing him to wander throughout the world. In Phrygia, he was cured by Cybele, and then he went to Asia, where he taught men the cultivation of wine. Caravaggio’s rendition of Bacchus (1595–1596; Florence, Uffizi) shows the god with flushed cheeks from the effects of drinking. Michelangelo presented the figure in a similar inebriated state in his sculpture of 1496–1497 (Florence, Museo Nazionale del Bargello). In the Farnese ceiling (c. 1597–1600; Rome, Palazzo Farnese), Annibale Carracci showed him triumphantly returning from India, his consort Ariadne at his side, and Titian also painted Bacchus with Ariadne (1518–1523; Madrid, Prado) for Alfonso I d’Este’s Camerino d’Alabastro in the ducal palace of Ferrara.
Italian painter and engraver who studied with Agostino Carracci in his hometown of Parma. When Agostino died in 1602, Badalocchio’s protector Ranuccio I Farnese sent him to Rome to work alongside Annibale Carracci on the Farnese ceiling (c. 1597–1600; Rome, Palazzo Farnese). In Rome, Badalocchio collaborated with Giovanni Lanfranco on several projects, including a series of engravings based on Raphael’s Vatican loggia frescoes (1607). Badalocchio’s Susanna and the Elders (c. 1609; Sarasota, Ringling Museum) is one of his best-known works. Here, he used an ancient crouching Venus type as the model for Susanna, a motif Ludovico Carracci was to repeat in 1616, in his version in the National Gallery in London. Although the subject was often depicted by members of the Carracci School, the linear contours and colors in Badalocchio’s work recall the paintings of Bartolomeo Schedoni, who was a Caravaggist.
Roman painter and biographer, the rival of Caravaggio. Baglione began his career as a Mannerist. His most important works from this phase are the frescoes in the Capella Paolina at Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, executed for Pope Paul V (1611–1612). In c. 1600, he began to experiment with Caravaggism, in response to the demands of his patrons. In c. 1603, he painted for Benedetto Giustiniani the Divine Love (Rome, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica), in response to Caravaggio’s Amor Vincit Omnia, painted for Giustiniani’s brother, Vincenzo Giustiniani. Caravaggio openly ridiculed Baglione’s abilities as painter when the latter’s Resurrection was unveiled in the Church of Il Gesú, Rome. Baglione retaliated by accusing Caravaggio of slander, and the transcripts of the trial of 1603 are still preserved. Baglione’s greatest contribution to art was in writing. In 1639, he published a guide to Roman churches and, in 1642, his Vite de’ pittori, scultori, e architetti [Lives of Painters, Sculptors, and Architects], two texts that offer a wealth of information on contemporary masters and commissions.
There is no concrete information on Baldovinetti’s training, although his painting style reveals the influence of Domenico Veneziano, who may have been his teacher. Baldovinetti is credited with translating Desiderio da Settignano’s stil dolce (sweet style) from sculpture to painting. Baldovinetti’s Annunciation (1447) and Virgin and Child with Saints (c. 1454) at the Uffizi in Florence, and his smiling Virgin and Child in the Louvre in Paris (c. 1460), exemplify his adoption of this approach. The figures in these paintings are delicate and elegantly posed, and they tenderly glance at one another, common elements of Desiderio’s mode. Baldovinetti was also an accomplished portraitist. His Portrait of a Young Woman (c. 1465) at the National Gallery in London shows the unidentified sitter in profile, wearing an elaborate costume and jewelry, the customary format in Italy during the mid-15th century for female portraiture. In 1462, Baldovinetti received the commission to fresco scenes in the cloister of the Church of Santissima Annunziata in Florence. These, unfortunately, are severely damaged. As Giorgio Vasari informs, Baldovinetti finished off the frescoes in a dry technique to protect them from humidity, which caused the surfaces to flake off. Although the outcome turned out to be a disaster in terms of conservation, his method testifies to his desire to discover more effective modes of artistic production.
Beginning in the 14th century, banking was central to the Florentine economy. Banking families, for example, the Bardi, Peruzzi, Medici, and Acciaiuoli, owed their wealth to the making of loans, collection of moneys owed to the papacy and other entities, currency exchange, the arranging of insurance, and the engaging in direct commerce through branches throughout Europe, Constantinople, and Jerusalem. The supremacy of the Florentines in the banking industry continued well into the 16th century, although the Bardi and Peruzzi declared bankruptcy in the 1340s, when rulers like Edward III of England and others defaulted on their loans. After the 16th century, the major banking families were the Spinola, Pallavicini, and Sauli of Genoa, who benefited from their dealings with Spain and the silver and gold the Spanish monarchy had obtained from the Americas. Germany also came to the forefront during this time with the establishment of banks by the Fugger and Welser families of Augsburg, whose wealth was determined by their involvement in Hapsburg finances.
Painting rendered by Frans Hals for the oldest militia group of the city of Haarlem, the St. George Civic Guard Company, also known as the Oude Schuts. In gratitude for the services provided by these men, it was customary for the city to organize three banquets a year in their honor. Hals chose to portray the guards while participating in one of these events. A tradition already existed for these types of group portraits, usually stiff representations with figures lined up on three sides of a table. Hals infused the type with life by arranging the figures in two diagonals and granting them informal poses. Some of the men sit, while others stand, and they eat, drink, and engage in conversation. The constant repetition of oblique lines created by sashes, drapes, banners, and figures grants the work a dynamic quality. The most innovative aspect of the rendering is that Hals counted the viewer as a participant in the scene by directing some of the guards’ gazes outside the painting. It is as if the viewer’s sudden presence in front of the work has interrupted the men’s conversation.
The scene depicts the establishment of baptism as a sacrament, when Christ stands in the River Jordan and his cousin, St. John the Baptist, pours water over his head as a purifying ritual. Then God the Father appears in the heavens and pronounces that Christ is his son. In art, the scene is usually depicted with the dove of the Holy Spirit descending upon the figures. Examples include Andrea Pisano’s quatrefoil gilded bronze relief on the south doors of the Baptistery of Florence (1330–1333) and Piero della Francesca’s scene painted in the 1450s (London, National Gallery) as the central panel of a polyptych for the Camaldolese abbey of San Sepolcro. Andrea del Verrocchio’s version of c. 1472–1475 (Florence, Uffizi) shows the hands of God releasing the Holy Dove. Two angels, the one on the left executed by Leonardo da Vinci, while apprenticed with Verrocchio, kneel in response to the solemnity of the event. Tintoretto’s version (c. 1570; Madrid, Prado) is a pretext for the depiction of the sensuous male nude form, while El Greco’s (1608–1614; Toledo, Hospital de San Juan Bautista de Afuera) shows an explosion of lines and color in the upper portion, where God the Father gives his blessing to his son and angels witness the event. Finally, Gerard David viewed the scene (c. 1502–1507; Bruges, Groeningemuseum) as an opportunity to not only depict the seminude body of Christ, but also his legs under water.
A Romanesque octagonal structure built at the end of the 11th century over the ancient ruins of a 5th-century Roman temple dedicated to Mars. Clad in the exterior with two-toned marble and dedicated to St. John the Baptist, patron saint of the city of Florence, the structure served as the place where Florentine citizens were baptized. In the 13th century, a major decorative campaign to embellish the building’s interior was launched. The octagonal vault was covered with mosaics that depict scenes from the Creation; the Last Judgment; angels; Apostles; and the lives of Patriarch Joseph, St. John the Baptist, and Christ arranged in concentric bands. Above the altar is a large figure of Christ as judge, sitting on a rainbow and enclosed in a heavenly circle. These mosaics have been attributed to Coppo di Marcovaldo, although some believe them to have been executed by masters from Venice, where the medium was more commonly used.
In 1330–1334, sculptor Andrea Pisano was commissioned to create a set of gilded bronze doors for the baptistery, composed of 14 rectangular reliefs. The upper 10 panels represent scenes from the life of the Baptist, from the announcement of his birth made to his father Zacharias to his decollation and burial. The remaining lower panels contain the Virtues. In 1401, a major competition was launched for the execution of the baptistery’s east doors. It was won by Lorenzo Ghiberti, who submitted a Sacrifice of Isaac panel that conformed to the new classicism expected in art. In 1425–1452, Ghiberti also executed the final set of doors, which led from the baptistery to the Cathedral of Florence, called the Gates of Paradise.
The Barbadori Altarpiece was executed by Fra Filippo Lippi for the Barbadori Chapel in the Church of Santo Spirito, Florence. The work relies on Masaccio’s Holy Trinity at Santa Maria Novella, Florence, in its pyramidal composition and hierarchic placement of figures. In Lippi’s painting, the Virgin and Child are elevated from the rest and isolated by the aedicula behind them. Below are two kneeling saints, Augustine and Fredianus, who complete the pyramid. As in the Holy Trinity, Lippi’s scene unfolds in a believable Brunelleschian interior that is completely dependent on ancient architectural types. The figures’ contrapposto, the definition of their forms through the use of chiaroscuro, and their solidity, stem from Masaccio. Lippi’s figures, however, are more aesthetically pleasing and his drapery folds more realistic and varied, these last learned from Donatello. A major innovation in Lippi’s painting is the fact that his Madonna is standing, not seated, as she was traditionally rendered. Also, Lippi included himself in the work. He is the figure on the extreme left, dressed as a Carmelite monk and resting his chin on the parapet.
Member of the Venetian nobility and important patron of the arts. Barbaro was educated in Padua in philosophy, mathematics, and science. He was founder of the Orto dei Semplici, the most important Padovese botanical garden, acting as its superintendent beginning in 1545. From 1548–1550, Barbaro also acted as ambassador to England, and in 1550, he was elected patriarch of Aquileia, an episcopal see transferred to Venice in 1450. In this capacity, he participated in the Council of Trent. In 1556, he published an edition of Vitruvius’ De architectura with his own commentaries. More than a decade later, he also published the Pratica della prospettiva [The Practice of Perspective; 1569], which includes a description of the camera obscura, a device used by artists as an aid in rendering three-dimensional scenes. Daniele was the patron of Andrea Palladio and Paolo Veronese, both working in his Villa Barbaro at Maser, the one building the structure and the other decorating it with frescoes. Titian painted his portrait in c. 1545 (Madrid, Prado).
Of Tuscan origin, the Barberini settled in Florence in the 11th century, where they became part of the merchant class. In 1623, their prominence increased when Cardinal Maffeo Barberini ascended the papal throne as Pope Urban VIII and showered his family with favors. He elevated his brother Antonio and nephews Francesco and Antonio to the cardinalate, and he appointed his nephew Taddeo prefect of Rome and prince of Palestrina. The benefices amassed by these individuals enriched the family in great measure, allowing them to spend generously on the arts. In 1628–1633, Carlo Maderno designed for them a magnificent palazzo in Rome, which, in the early 1630s, was frescoed by Andrea Sacchi, Pietro da Cortona, and others with impressive scenes that spoke of the family’s sociopolitical eminence. When Urban was succeeded by Innocent X, the Barberini were accused of misappropriating public funds. Their possessions were seized, and they were forced to leave Rome. They took refuge in France, where Cardinal Jules Mazarin, first minister to Louis XIV, offered them protection. Mazarin eventually persuaded Innocent to recant the accusations by threatening to invade the Papal States, and the Barberini were able to return to Rome, although they were never to regain the social position they enjoyed during Urban’s reign.
Giotto’s frescoes in the Bardi Chapel at Santa Croce, Florence, were whitewashed in the 18th century and uncovered in the 19th century, when they were over-restored. Eventually, the excessive overpaint was removed to reveal the original frescoes. These, surprisingly, are in fair condition, save for some bare spots where a tomb once stood. The Bardi were a prominent Florentine family who made their fortune through banking. With branches in Italy, England, France, and Flanders, by 1310, they were the wealthiest family of Florence. Their chapel at Santa Croce offered the opportunity to assert publicly their socioeconomic position. They gave the task to decorate their chapel to Giotto, who by then had attained great fame.
Santa Croce served as the mother church of the Franciscan Order in Florence. Appropriately, the Bardi chose scenes from the life of the order’s founder, St. Francis. Of the narratives, the Death of St. Francis, St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata, and the Trial by Fire are the most poignant. This last scene, which shows St. Francis about to walk on fire to prove his faith to the Moslem priests of the Sultan of Egypt, includes one of the earliest representations in art of figures with African features. The scenes depend on St. Bonaventure’s Legenda Maior, the official account of St. Francis’ life.
The Bardi di Vernio Chapel was frescoed by Maso di Banco, one of Giotto’s pupils and followers. The theme chosen was the story of St. Sylvester, who reigned as pope from 314–335, and who cured Emperor Constantine the Great from leprosy by persuading him to convert to Christianity and close the empire’s pagan temples. The cycle begins with the emperor’s conversion and ends with the Cleansing of the Roman Capitol of the corruption of pagan Rome. Of the scenes in the chapel, the most often discussed is St. Sylvester Resuscitating Two Deceased Romans, which depicts another of the miracles the saint effected. Two men were killed at the Roman Forum by the breath of a dragon, here read as the symbol of religious ignorance. Sylvester closed the dragon’s throat so it would cause no further harm and revived the victims, much to the amazement of onlookers. In the fresco, the Roman Forum is rendered not as it looked in the 4th century, when the scene occurred, but in its ruinous state of the 14th century, when Maso painted it, to denote the end of the pagan era. It has been suggested that the events from the lives of a pope-saint were chosen to refer to the Bardi as the bankers of the papacy.
A banking family who, by 1310, had become the wealthiest in Florence. Their bank had branches in Italy, France, England, and Flanders. They asserted their socioeconomic status by commissioning from Giotto, the most sought-after artist in Florence, frescoes for the Bardi Chapel in the Church of Santa Croce. Members of another branch of the family, the Bardi di Vernio, also established their chapel in Santa Croce and commissioned Maso di Banco, Giotto’s pupil, to render the frescoes on its walls. The Bardi went bankrupt in the mid-1340s, when Edward III of England, who had borrowed 900,000 florins from the Bardi to finance the war against France, defaulted on his loans. Edward also borrowed 600,000 florins from the Peruzzi banking family and caused their bankruptcy as well by failing to repay the money owed.
This altarpiece is Ludovico Carracci’s earliest signed and dated work. His patron was Cecilia Bargellini, widow of Boncompagno Boncompagni, whose brother was Pope Gregory XIII, and it was intended for the Capppella Boncompagni in the Church of the Monache Convertite in Bologna. The Bargellini Madonna borrows its composition from Titian’s Madonna of the Pesaro Family (c. 1519–1526; Venice, Santa Maria dei Frari). As in the Venetian prototype, Ludovico’s shows the enthroned Virgin and Child elevated and to the side, with saints Dominic, Francis, Clare, and Mary Magdalene at their feet, putti hovering above, and columns framing the scene. The monumentality of the figures, their closeness to the viewer, and the emotional component of the work, on the other hand, are Ludovico’s own choices. These elements add a greater sense of immediacy to the figures depicted—a Baroque characteristic. Several figures point to the Virgin in grand gestures to bring her to the viewer’s attention, while two putti crown her with a flowered wreath and angels play musical instruments, granting the work a celebratory mood. In turn, the Virgin looks directly at the viewer as if to denote her availability as the intercessor between humanity and God. In the background is a portrait of the city of Bologna set against a luminous blue sky, included to situate the scene in a locale familiar to viewers and denote that theirs is a city that receives the Virgin’s blessing and protection.
Painter from Urbino, qualified as one of the art reformers of the Baroque era. Early in his career, Barocci served Guidobaldo II della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, in whose collection he studied the works of Titian and Raphael, both fundamental to the development of his career. Sometime in the mid-1550s, Barocci went to Rome, where he worked with the Zuccaro brothers, whose Mannerist style he adopted. There he enjoyed the protection of Cardinal Giulio della Rovere, Guidobaldo’s son. Barocci’s paintings were not well received in Rome. After a serious illness in 1565, he decided to return to Urbino, where he finally developed his own personal style, attaining tremendous success.
The Madonna del Popolo (1575–1579; Florence, Uffizi), painted for the Confraternity of the Misericordia in Arezzo, is an oval composition with central void and contorted figures that represents his Mannerist phase. It looks to Correggio for inspiration, especially in the softening of contours and overall hazy quality. His Visitation (1586) in the Cappella Pozzomiglio in the Chiesa Nuova, Rome, belongs to his mature period. The everyday types, sense of tenderness they evoke, realistic still-life details, diagonals that direct the viewer’s gaze toward the main event, and use of pink to soften the scene are elements that meet the demands of the Council of Trent regarding the proper depiction of religious subjects. Contemporary accounts relate how all of Rome lined up for three days to view the work once it arrived from Urbino. These accounts also speak of St. Philip Neri, founder of the Oratorians, to whom the Chiesa Nuova belonged, experiencing ecstatic raptures in front of the painting. Barocci’s Stigmatization of St. Francis (c. 1595), painted for the Church of the Capuchins in Urbino, depicts the saint’s mystical experience, which resulted in his receiving the wounds of Christ, here shown as actual nails piercing his palms. The Counter-Reformation Church demanded historical accuracy, and the nails are mentioned in the written account of the saint’s life. Protestants had questioned the validity of sainthood and mystical experiences; therefore, Barocci, like many artists who served the Counter-Reformation Church, often depicted mystical events and visions.
Frescoed by Taddeo Gaddi, Giotto’s pupil and principal assistant, the Baroncelli Chapel, one of the largest in Santa Croce, boasts scenes from the life of the Virgin, her parents Joachim and Anne, and Christ. The Baroncelli were a wealthy Florentine banking family who wanted their chapel to speak of their privileged position. In Giotto’s absence from Florence (he was in Naples from 1328–1334), they gave the commission to his pupil, Taddeo, who was running the master’s workshop. Some have suggested that it was Giotto who provided the designs for Taddeo to follow, since the altarpiece in the chapel, the Baroncelli Polyptych, is Giotto’s signature work. Like Giotto, Taddeo gave volume to his figures and draperies, placed them within believable architectural spaces and landscapes, and stressed familial affection and the humanity of Mary and Christ. Taddeo’s figures, however, are more slender than Giotto’s. Also, unlike his teacher, he had a particular interest in nocturnal scenes, for example, his Annunciation to the Shepherds, where an angel emerges from the dark sky to announce the birth of Christ.
Baroque is a term used to denote the art from roughly the 1580s to the end of the 17th century. Its development coincides with the Counter-Reformation, when the Catholic Church sought to curtail the spread of Protestantism, which threatened its hegemony. In the last session of the Council of Trent, which took place in 1563, enactments were made on the proper depiction of religious subjects to combat the threat. It was decreed that religious images were to invoke piety; inspire viewers to engage in virtuous behavior; and provide instruction on redemption, the intercessory role of the saints and the Virgin, and the veneration of relics. Most importantly, works of art were to validate visually Catholic dogma questioned by the Protestants. The effects of these enactments were not felt until more than a decade later, when key Church figures began writing treatises to instruct artists on the Tridentine stipulations. St. Charles Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan, provided in 1577 a treatise on the proper building of churches, and Gabrielle Paleotti, Archbishop of Bologna, wrote the Intorno alle imagini sacre e profane in 1582, a guide on the correct depiction of sacred and profane images.
The first church to be built that satisfied the demands of the Counter-Reformation and launched the Baroque was Il Gesù in Rome (1568–1584), the mother church of the Jesuit Order, designed by Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, who eliminated the aisles to prevent any visual obstructions to the main altar, where the rituals of the mass take place. In the exterior, completed by Giacomo della Porta, a rapid movement from sides to central bay and a progressive move forward of the engaged pilasters as they come closer to the entrance serve to invite the faithful in and symbolically welcome those who may have strayed from the true faith.
The artistic reform in painting was led by Federico Barocci in Urbino, the Carracci in Bologna, and Caravaggio in Rome, all offering images that rejected the ambiguities of Mannerism and presented instead clear renditions that appealed to the senses and emotions. Of these, Caravaggio had the greatest impact, as his naturalistic style with theatrical lighting effects spread throughout Europe, although in Italy Caravaggism lost its appeal by 1620 and the classicism of the Carracci followers came to dominate the scene. Key figures in this group were Domenichino, Guercino, Giovanni Lanfranco, Francesco Albani, and Andrea Sacchi. In the 1630s, a Neo-Venetianism was established by Pietro da Cortona that would contrast markedly with Andrea Sacchi’s meticulous renditions, again conjuring the marked contrasts between baroque vibrancy and classical restraint.
These contrasts of style also permeated the sculpture and architecture of the period. In sculpture, Gian Lorenzo Bernini embodied the dramatic, theatrical mode of representation, while Alessandro Algardi embraced a less exuberant language. In architecture, it was Bernini who favored the classical, sober lines of the High Renaissance, while Francesco Borromini experimented with swelling and contracting biomorphic forms.
Piero della Francesca portrayed Battista Sforza posthumously on the year of her death from childbirth. This work may have been hinged together with its companion portrait of Battista’s husband, Duke Federico da Montefeltro of Urbino. In both, the figures are shown in profile with fertile landscapes behind them, suggestive of their vast domain. On the verso of each portrait is a triumphal procession, inspired by the triumphs described by Petrarch in his writings. Battista sits on a chariot pulled by a unicorn, symbol of chastity and fidelity. Allegorical representations of Chastity, Modesty, Charity, and Faith accompany her to indicate that these are her character traits. Federico is being crowned by Fortune and accompanied by Justice, Prudence, Fortitude, and Temperance, again references to his qualities. The paintings were inspired by ancient Roman medals where a portrait in profile is included on the front and a narrative on the verso. As such, they speak of the duke and duchess’ position of power and desire for remembrance. An inscription below each portrait lauds them further. While Federico is hailed a great ruler, Battista is honored through her husband’s accomplishments, this in spite of the fact that she herself ruled Urbino during her husband’s absences. In portrait pairs where husband and wife are depicted, the male usually takes the dexter side. In this case, it is Battista who takes that position. The reason is that Federico was disfigured by the stroke of a sword while participating in a tournament. His nose was broken, and he lost his right eye. After that, he was usually portrayed from the left side.
The Battle of Anghiari was fought on 29 June 1440, by the Florentine army, led by Micheletto Attendolo and Gianpaolo Orsini, against the Milanese forces of Niccolò Piccinino, with the Florentines attaining victory. In 1503, Leonardo da Vinci was commissioned by the Florentine Republic to fresco the event in the Sala del Consiglio (Council Chamber) in the Palazzo Vecchio, the city’s seat of government. At the same time, Michelangelo was asked to paint the Battle of Cascina on the opposite wall. Destroyed in 1557, to make way for Giorgio Vasari’s frescoes glorifying the Medici, Leonardo never completed the work, as his experiments with new fresco techniques led to problems from the start. The central portion of the composition is known only through several copies, including one by Peter Paul Rubens (1615; Paris, Louvre). These reveal that the work captured effectively the chaos of war and the despair, fear, and hostility of the men involved. Although the work was never completed, it exerted tremendous influence throughout the Renaissance and well into the 19th century.
A conflict between Florence and Pisa that took place on 28 July 1364, with Florence emerging as the victor. In 1504, the fathers of the Florentine Republic decided to commemorate the event by commissioning Michelangelo to render a fresco of the subject in the Sala del Consiglio (Council Chamber) of the Palazzo Vecchio, the city’s seat of government. It fell on Leonardo to render the Battle of Anghiari of 1440, between Florence and Milan, on the opposite wall. Like Leonardo’s fresco, Michelangelo’s remained incomplete, since, in 1505, Pope Julius II summoned the artist to Rome to work on his tomb. Michelangelo returned briefly to Florence in 1506, and worked on the fresco a bit longer, but he never completed it. In 1557, the frescoes in the room where replaced by Giorgio Vasari’s works, meant to glorify the Medici. Michelangelo’s fresco, like Leonardo’s, is known only from extant sketches. These reveal that he rendered the Florentine soldiers, who were cooling off in the Arno River when the Pisans attacked, rushing to dress so they could fight the enemy. This would give Michelangelo the opportunity to demonstrate his skills in depicting the male nude form in different, complex poses. The cartoon for the fresco, also destroyed, is known to have been greatly admired and used as prototype by both High Renaissance and Mannerist artists.
The Battle of San Romano, which took place in 1432, was a battle in which the Florentines, led by Niccolò da Tolentino, were victorious against the Sienese army of Bernardino della Ciarda. The event was commemorated in three panels painted by Paolo Uccello, now respectively in the National Gallery in London, the Louvre in Paris, and the Uffizi in Florence. The first shows Niccolò da Tolentino leading his troops to victory amid the chaos of the battlefield. Armored horsemen charge one another, while a fallen soldier and discarded weapons litter the foreground. The second depicts Micheletto da Cotignola, a condottiere allied with the Florentines, framed by the lances held upright around him. In the third panel, Bernardino della Ciarda is thrown off his horse, while other fallen soldiers and horses occupy the foreground. The paintings are thought to have been created for the Medici, since they are listed in a 1492 inventory of their possessions. They divulge Uccello’s obsessive use of perspective and foreshortening to the point that verism is lost. Instead, the compositions become decorative, static, and devoid of the emotive component needed to render a convincing battle scene.
This sculpture relief belongs to Michelangelo’s formative years while training in the Medici household with his master, Bertoldo di Giovanni. The subject of the work, which stems from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, was suggested by poet Angelo Poliziano, who was a member of Lorenzo “the Magnificent” de’ Medici’s court. According to the written account, the Centaurs, half-men and half-horses, stormed a Lapith wedding celebration and attempted to carry off the women. Michelangelo presented the scene as if part of the deep carvings in a Roman sarcophagus. The figures are male and nude, the master’s favored subject. They emerge from the background and intertwine in complex poses. Although an early work by Michelangelo, it shows his knowledge of anatomy, even in his formative stages. Muscles stretch and contract in response to movement, and bones, tendons, and other details are rendered accurately.
Spanish architect, best known for his design of the Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial. Information on Bautista de Toledo’s architectural training is scant. He is believed to have worked in Rome as assistant to Michelangelo. In 1549, Bautista de Toledo was summoned to Naples to work for Viceroy Pietro Álvarez de Toledo. There he provided the architectural plans for the Church of San Giacomo degli Spagnuoli, the bastions of Castello Nuovo, and several fountains. In 1559, Philip II of Spain summoned Bautista de Toledo to the Madrid court and appointed him official architect of the royal works. From 1562–1564, the architect worked on the façade of the Church of the Descalzas Reales under the auspices of Philip’s sister, Juana de Austria. He also worked on the Palacio Real de Aranjuez, the alcazars in Toledo and Madrid, and La Casa Real de Aceca. In 1563, he began the work at El Escorial, providing the plans for the king’s palace, a seminary, a basilica, and a royal crypt. When he died in 1567, his pupil, Juan de Herrera, brought the Escorial work to completion.
French sculptor and manuscript illuminator from Valenciennes in Hainaut. Beauneveu is documented in Paris in c. 1360, working for Charles V of France until 1374, when he moved to the court of Louis de Mâle, count of Flanders. In c. 1380, he became Jean, duc de Berry’s court artist. For him he made 24 illustrations of prophets and Apostles in the Psalter of the Duke of Berry (Paris, Bibliothèque Natio- nal) in c. 1380–1385. These enthroned figures show a move toward naturalism and a solid, sculptural approach to the figure. A fragment head of an Apostle Beauneveu executed in stone for the duke as part of the decorations in the chapel of the Château de Mehun-sur-Yèvre is now in the Louvre in Paris (c. 1400) and presents an example of his sculpture.
Sienese Mannerist painter who began his career by following the Sienese tradition of the late 15th century, a style he abandoned once he was exposed to the art Michelangelo and Raphael had created in Rome. The composition of Beccafumi’s Stigmatization of St. Catherine of Siena (c. 1518; Siena, Pinacoteca Nazionale), meant for the Benedictine Convent of Monte Olivieto, depends on Raphael’s symmetrical arrangements. The earth tones and use of sfumato he borrowed from Leonardo da Vinci, and the sculptural forms from Michelangelo. Yet, while his representation owes debt to the greatest masters of the High Renaissance, it is nevertheless an anticlassical image without central focus. It also features unrealistic proportions and an extreme low placement of the background city, elements that classify the work as Mannerist. Beccafumi’s Christ in Limbo (c. 1535; Siena Pinacoteca Nazionale) represents his mature style. Here he created a complex composition with a large number of figures arranged in a semicircle, not the usual Renaissance pyramid or other geometric arrangement. The figures in the foreground are heavily foreshortened, and the scene seems to move up rather than back. These illogical elements are what place Beccafumi among the great masters of the Mannerist style.
German painter and engraver trained by Albrecht Dürer. A native of Nuremberg, Beham and his older brother Sebald, also an artist, were expelled from the city in 1525, for their anarchistic and heretic inclinations. In 1527, Beham went to Munich, and three years later, he entered into the service of Duke William IV of Bavaria. Beham is believed to have died during a journey to Italy in 1540. While his engravings closely adhere to Dürer’s style, his portraits, on the other hand, are tied to the Italian Mannerist aloof types rendered by Agnolo Bronzino. They also betray the influence of Hans Holbein the Younger in their clarity and emphasis on detail. His portraits of Ludwig X of Bavaria (1537–1538; Vienna, Liechtenstein Museum) and Ottheinrich, Prince of Pfalz (1535; Munich, Alte Pinakothek) are examples of his Italianate approach.
Mannerist painter and printmaker. Bellange was a native of the Lorraine region of France. Only a handful of his paintings have survived, among them the Lamentation (c. 1615–1617) at the St. Petersburg Hermitage Museum, as most were destroyed during the French Wars of Religion. He is therefore best known for his etchings and drawings. Less than 50 of his prints are known, and due to their low number, they are highly sought by museums and collectors.
From 1602–1616, Bellange acted as court painter to the dukes of Lorraine in Nancy. He is known to have executed murals, festival decorations, and paintings for the dukes, and he also designed some of their costumes. His Late Mannerist style betrays the influence of Parmigianino, the Fontainebleau School, and the Netherlandish Mannerism of Bartholomeus Spranger and Hendrik Goltzius. It is possible that Bellange traveled to Italy early in his career, where he would have been exposed to the etchings of Federico Barocci and Ventura Salimbeni; his etching technique is similar to that of these Italian masters.
Among his best known works are The Three Marys (London, British Museum), The Annunciation (London, British Museum), and the Hurdy-Gurdy Player (Windsor, Royal Library), the three etchings dating to the second decade of the 17th century. The first two scenes employ elongations, courtly sophistication, and illogical construction of space—typical characteristics of the Mannerist style. Contrary to these hyperelegant images, the third example presents a genre scene that captures the deformity of the blind beggar musician.
Venetian painter; the son of Jacopo Bellini and brother of Giovanni Bellini. Gentile catered mainly to the scuole (confraternities) of Venice, although he is also known to have obtained governmental commissions, including a cycle in the Doge’s Palace, destroyed by fire in 1577. His major extant works are the paintings he created for the Scuola di San Giovanni Evangelista, to be hung in their meeting hall. Of these, the Procession of the Relic of the True Cross (1496; Venice, Galleria dell’Accademia) is a journalistic scene that records a specific procession in 1444, when the relic cured an ill man, proving the relic’s validity. The work is invaluable not only for its artistic merits, but also historically, because it reveals the appearance of the façade of the Basilica of St. Mark in the late 15th century. Gentile included the now-destroyed St. Peter by Paolo Uccello on the basilica’s left pinnacle. The Miracle of the Cross at the Bridge of San Lorenzo (1500; Venice, Galleria dell’Accademia), also painted by Gentile for the Scuola di San Giovanni, shows another miraculous event where the relic fell into the water and eluded all who tried to rescue it, except Andrea Vendramin, head of the confraternity.
In 1479, the Venetian state sent Gentile to Constantinople, then under Turkish rule, to work for Sultan Mahomet II. Few works from his stay in the Turkish court have survived, mainly some portraits, including that of the sultan (1480) in the National Gallery in London. His decorations for the Imperial harem in Topkapi are also lost. Within a year, Gentile was back in Venice. He left, supposedly because he feared for his life. The sultan had disapproved of a painting Gentile had shown him of the decollation of St. John the Baptist. He called in two slaves and ordered one of them to chop off the other’s head. Then he exclaimed, “This is how a freshly severed head should look.”
Giovanni Bellini is credited with transforming Venice into one of the most important artistic centers of the Renaissance. He was the son of Jacopo Bellini; brother of Gentile Bellini; and brother-in-law of Andrea Mantegna, who deeply influenced him early on. Giovanni’s Agony in the Garden (c. 1460; London, National Gallery) is, in fact, based on Mantegna’s work of the same subject painted a decade earlier, although with less-pronounced foreshortening and detailing. He also omitted Mantegna’s usual references to the ancient Roman world. Giovanni’s Pesaro Altarpiece (1470s; Pesaro, Museo Civico) likewise borrows the architectural elements and figural arrangements from Mantegna’s San Zeno Altarpiece (1456–1459; Verona, San Zeno). To this period also belongs his Pietà (1460) in the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan; the Polyptych of St. Vincent Ferrer in the Church of S. Giovanni e Paolo, Venice (1464–1468); and the Virgin and Child (1460–1464) in the Accademia Carrara, Bergamo. This last work is one of many half-figured Madonnas Giovanni painted, a format he popularized and that came to be identified with the Venetian School.
In 1475, Giovanni’s style changed as a result of his exposure to the work of Antonello da Messina. Antonello arrived in Venice that same year, bringing with him the new application of oil glazes in layers he learned from the Early Netherlandish masters. Giovanni adopted this technique, resulting in a richer palette and velvety surfaces. His Frari (1488; Venice, Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari) and San Giobbe (c. 1487; Venice Galleria dell’Accademia) altarpieces exemplify this shift in his style. In both, he softened the contours of figures and objects, warmed up the colors, and bathed the surfaces with a golden glow—changes that would later become pivotal to the development of the art of such Venetian masters as Titian and Tintoretto. In these two altarpieces, Giovanni also established a new type for the Venetian enthroned Madonna and Child, with figures that are elevated from the saints and flanked by columns or pilasters. These compositions again recall Mantegna’s San Zeno Altarpiece, although perhaps Fra Filippo Lippi’s Barbadori Altarpiece (beg. 1437; Paris, Louvre), where the Virgin stands on a platform in front of an aedicula above the accompanying saints and angels, also offered Bellini inspiration.
The influence of Antonello is also perceived in Giovanni’s portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan (c. 1500, London, National Gallery). The clear rendering of details; the nonidealization of the figure; and his placement in front of a parapet, onto which Giovanni signed his name, are elements he learned from Antonello. These works present a lighter palette, common of Giovanni’s art of the 1500s, seen also in his San Zaccaria Altarpiece (1505) for the Church of San Zaccaria, Venice. This painting follows the format of the earlier Frari and San Giobbe altarpieces. Yet, here, an aura of silence permeates the scene, as the figures do not interact, instead immersing themselves in reading or meditation. Also, the landscape now predominates. Although the figures are enclosed in an apse, the sides of the structure are open to allow a glimpse of the outdoors.
While Bellini favored religious subjects, at times he also tackled mythologies and allegories. His Feast of the Gods (1514; Washington, D.C., National Gallery), painted for Alfonso I d’Este’s Camerino d’Alabastro in Ferrara, illustrates a passage from Ovid’s Fasti. His Young Woman with a Mirror (c. 1515; Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum), a soft, delicate nude set against a dark wall with a window that permits a glimpse of a distant, loosely painted landscape, is thought to represent an allegory of Vanity. In this last work, Giovanni signed his name on a fictive crumpled paper next to the figure, an element again borrowed from Antonello, who, in turn, borrowed it from the Early Netherlandish masters.
In 1483, Giovanni was recognized by the Venetian Republic for his artistic achievements with an appointment as official painter. His reputation was not limited to Venice. Albrecht Dürer visited the region in 1506–1507 and made it a point to meet Giovanni, writing later that the man was already of advanced age but still the best painter in the city. Bellini’s impact in the development of art is immeasurable. He established many of the standards the new generation of Venetian masters would follow, particularly the compositional types, rich tonalities, loose application of paint, and superb effects of lighting.
Founder of a family of painters in Venice composed of his two sons, Gentile Bellini and Giovanni Bellini, and his son-in-law, Andrea Mantegna. Jacopo was trained by Gentile da Fabriano, from whom he learned the International Style. In 1441, he is documented in Ferrara, working in the court of Lionello d’ Este, alongside Antonio Pisanello. There he painted the Madonna of Humility with a Donor (c. 1450; Paris, Louvre), with Lionello kneeling in prayer in front of the Virgin. She and the Christ Child are of considerably larger proportions than the donor to signify their preeminence over mortals, this reiterated by the inscription on Mary’s halo that hails her as “Queen of the World.” In the distance, the magi approach to worship the newly born Christ. Their presence, the emphasis on luxurious fabrics, gilding, and brilliant colors qualify this work as a masterpiece of the International Style.
Although an accomplished painter, Jacopo is best known for his drawings. Two bound volumes of his works on paper are now housed in the British Museum in London and the Louvre in Paris, respectively, and are believed to have functioned as instructional materials for his sons and pupils. The drawings present all sorts of subjects, including religious, archaeological, and mythological, and they are known to have inspired Venetian masters well into the 16th century.
One of the earliest Italian masters to be known by name. Berlinghiero was from Milan and is documented in Lucca, a banking community near Pisa, in 1225, where he established a family of painters that included his son, Bonaventura Berlinghieri. His Crucifixion at the Lucca Pinacoteca (early 13th century) originally hung in the Monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli, Lucca, and is signed Berlingerius me pinxit (Berlinghiero painted me) at the base, denoting the renewed interest during the 13th century in celebrating individual achievement. On the apron, Mary points to Christ to indicate that he is the Savior, and St. John rests his head on his right hand, a traditional gesture of grief. At the ends of the arms of the cross are the symbols of the four Evangelists, who related Christ’s story, and above Christ is the Virgin Mary flanked by two angels. The panel is painted in the Maniera Greca style and shows a Christus triumphans. Based on the figure types and stylistic elements of this work, a Virgin and Child at the Metropolitan Museum has also been attributed to Berlinghiero.
Italian painter, active in Lucca, the son of Berlinghiero Berlinghieri. Bonaventura is chiefly known for his St. Francis panel in the Church of S. Francesco in Pescia, a small town near Lucca. The panel, painted in the Maniera Greca style, is signed and dated 1235 at St. Francis’ feet, which means that it was painted only seven years after the saint’s canonization (1228), making it the earliest known work to depict his story. Considered a second Christ, St. Francis is shown in a similar manner as the Christ in the Crucifixions of the 13th century. The saint stands in the center of the panel, the stigmata (wounds resembling those on Christ’s crucified body) on his hands and feet clearly showing. At either side of the saint are scenes that narrate the visions he experienced, his preachings, and the miracles he effected. This makes clear that the purpose of the panel was to instruct the faithful on the cult of this newly canonized saint.
Spanish painter from Cordoba who may have trained in Flanders, as suggested by the fact that his works can be linked to those of Petrus Christus and Hans Memling. Some have suggested that instead, Bermejo’s training took place in Portugal in the workshop of Nuno Gonçalves, the leading master of that region in the 15th century whose work betrays an awareness of Flemish art. Bermejo was in Aragon from 1474 to 1477, where he painted his St. Michael (1474–1477; Luton Hoo, Wernher Collection), a work signed and dated that closely resembles Flemish versions of the same subject, especially in the angular drapery folds. In 1486, the artist was in Barcelona collaborating with Jaime Huguet on paintings for Santa María del Mar, and in 1490, he created his famed Pietà for the Cathedral of Barcelona, a work commissioned by Canon Luis Desplá as part of his funerary monument. In 1495, Bermejo also designed stained glass windows for the cathedral.
The son of Mannerist sculptor Pietro Bernini, Gian Lorenzo was the most important sculptor and one of the most notable architects of the Baroque period. Born in Naples while his father was working in that region, in c. 1606, he moved with his family to Rome. There, Pope Paul V and his nephew, Cardinal Scipione Borghese, noticed Bernini’s precocious talent, and soon the young boy was creating sculptures for them. In his youth, Bernini also spent three years at the Vatican studying the ancient statuary and works by Michelangelo and Raphael. He was particularly taken with Michelangelo’s accurate anatomical details and the sensuousness of his male forms—elements Bernini incorporated into his Martyrdom of St. Sebastian (c. 1615–1616; Madrid, Thyssen-Bornem- isza Collection), one of the early works he rendered for the Borghese. Also for his patrons was his first large-scale sculpture, the Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius Fleeing Troy (1619; Rome, Galleria Borghese), followed by Pluto and Proserpina (1621–1622) and Apollo and Daphne (1622–1625), both for Cardinal Borghese and now in the Galleria Borghese, Rome. For this last commission, Cardinal Maffeo Barberini, later Pope Urban VIII, is said to have composed the inscription on the cartouche at the base. Cardinal Maffeo supposedly also held a mirror for Bernini so he could use his own likeness to execute his David (1623–1624; Rome, Galleria Borghese). This was his last large-scale commission for the Borghese, since soon thereafter Maffeo was elected pope (1623), and he appointed Bernini the official papal artist.
In 1624, Urban charged Bernini with the renovation of the façade of the 5th-century Church of St. Bibiana in Rome. The saint’s body was found while the work was being carried out; to commemorate the recovery, Urban asked Bernini to also execute for the church a statue of the saint enduring her martyrdom (1624–1426). Also in 1624, Urban charged Bernini with the large bronze Baldacchino (1624–1633) for the altar of St. Peter’s. In 1629–1630, he put the artist in charge of the decoration of the basilica’s crossing. This entailed filling the niches on the four main pillars that support the dome with statues related to relics housed at St. Peter’s. Bernini provided the St. Longinus and then asked Francesco Mochi to render the statue of St. Veronica, Andrea Bolgi the St. Helena, and François Duquesnoy the St. Andrew. From 1628–1647, Bernini was busy executing the pope’s tomb (Rome, St. Peter’s), and from 1648–1651, he was also working on the Four Rivers Fountain at the Piazza Navona, Rome, commissioned by Urban’s successor, Innocent X. His later works include the Cornaro Chapel at Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome (1645–1652); the Cathedra Petri (1657–1666) and Tomb of Alexander VII (1671–1678), both at St. Peter’s; and the Death of the Blessed Ludovica Albertoni (1674) in the Altieri Chapel at San Francesco a Ripa, Rome.
As sculptor, Bernini stressed theatricality the use of various materials of different colors and textures, and the combination of different media. He was a religious individual who had close ties to the Jesuits and is known to have practiced St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises. St. Ignatius advocated meditation to feel the suffering of Christ, and Bernini’s sculptures are similarly made to appeal to viewers’ senses and enhance their emotional response. In architecture, Bernini was somewhat more conservative, preferring to adhere to the principles established by ancient and Renaissance architects. From 1656–1667, he was busy with the Piazza of St. Peter’s, which he based on Michelangelo’s Piazza del Campidoglio (fin. 1564). He created the Scala Regia, the ceremonial stairs that lead from the Vatican Palace into St. Peter’s, in 1633–1666; the Church of Sant’Andrea al Quirinale in Rome for the Jesuit Order in 1658–1670; and the churches of Santa Maria dell’Assunzione in Ariccia and San Tommaso di Villanova at Castel Gandolfo in 1662–1664 and 1658–1661, respectively, these last two for Pope Alexander VII. In 1664, Bernini also submitted designs for the east façade of the Louvre in Paris at the invitation of Louis XIV. These were rejected, although they exerted great influence in the development of French architecture.
Tuscan sculptor. Pietro Bernini was Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s father and teacher. Pietro was born in Sesto Fiorentino, and he moved to Naples sometime at the end of the 16th century to work at the Carthusian Monastery of Certosa di San Martino. There he created a series of sculptures, among them St. Martin Dividing His Cloak (c. 1596), a work in high relief originally intended for the monastery’s main portal and now housed in the Certosa museum. In c. 1606, Pietro moved his family to Rome, where he fulfilled commissions at Santa Maria Maggiore. His Assumption of the Virgin (1607–1610), a relief intended for the basilica’s sacristy, is a crowded and agitated Mannerist composition in which the figures occupy two realms. Below, the Apostles stand by the Virgin’s empty tomb and react to the miraculous event with grand gestures that denote their piety and astonishment. Above, the Virgin is being lifted up to Heaven by putti, while musical angels playing string and wind instruments add a festive element to the scene. Pietro is best known for his figure of St. John the Baptist (1612–1615), rendered for the Barberini Chapel at Sant’Andrea della Valle in Rome. His patron for this work was Maffeo Barberini, who would later be elected to the papal throne as Urban VIII. The work exhibits Giovanni da Bologna’s serpentine composition, which Gian Lorenzo Bernini would later also use. Gian Lorenzo would also adopt his father’s use of a variety of textures, for instance, the Baptist’s tight hair curls, his shaggy pelt, and the lamb’s fleece set against the smooth and polished skin.
Tuscan painter and architect who trained in Florence in the studio of the Mannerist Andrea Commodi. In c. 1612, Commodi took Cortona to Rome and placed him in the workshop of his colleague, Baccio Ciarpi. Sometime in the 1620s, Cortona came into contact with the Sacchetti, good friends of Pope Urban VIII, who became his most important early patrons. In c. 1623–1624, he rendered for them his Triumph of Bacchus and, in c. 1629, the Rape of the Sabine Women (both Rome, Capitoline Museum), two works that show Cortona’s affinity for Venetian colorism and loose brushwork. In 1633, Cortona was working for the Barberini, Urban’s family, creating for them one of his most important works, the Glorification of the Reign of Urban VIII, in the grand salon of their palazzo in Rome. This dynamic composition, with figures weaving in and out of the quadratura framework, is one of the grand masterpieces in the history of ceiling painting. Cortona’s frescoes in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence (1637–1647), commissioned by Grand Duke Ferdinand II de’ Medici, and the Palazzo Pamphili, Rome (1651–1654), painted for Pope Innocent X, are no less exuberant.
As architect, Cortona seems to have been self-taught. Among his earliest structures is the Villa del Pigneto (late 1630s), built for the Sacchetti just outside of Rome, a structure fronted by complex terraces and stairways inspired by the ancient Temple of Fortuna Primigenia in Rome, and Donato Bramante’s Belvedere Court (beg. 1505), at the Vatican. Cortona also worked on several churches in the papal city: Santi Luca e Martina (1635–1664), a new façade for Santa Maria della Pace (1656–1657), Santa Maria in Via Lata (beg. 1658), and San Carlo al Corso (beg. 1668). Cortona was among the first to experiment with convex and concave architectural forms, which many of his buildings possess. His energetic compositions and illusionistic devices did much to facilitate the development of Rococo art and architecture, particularly in Germany.
The painter, architect, and sculptor Alonso Berruguete was the son of Spanish painter Pedro Berruguete, from whom he received his artistic training. When his father died in 1504, Alonso left his native city of Paredes de Nava to travel to Italy. In Florence, he became a pupil of Michelangelo, and he also visited Rome, where he was able to study the Hellenistic Laocoön Group at the Vatican. This work impacted Alonso’s art, which is characterized by high drama and deep pathos, similar to that found in the ancient example. Alonso was also influenced by the art of Mannerist painters Jacopo da Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino, as his Salomé with the Head of St. John the Baptist (c. 1515; Florence, Uffizi) shows, especially in the refinement of the female figure and anatomical elongations.
By 1517, Alonso was back in Spain, and the following year, he was appointed court painter and sculptor to Charles V. At this time, he rendered the relief sculpture of the Resurrection for the Cathedral of Valencia. In 1521, he also submitted plans for the Capilla Real in Granada. These plans were not approved, and the commission was never brought to fruition. Three major retables are also by his hand: in the Monastery of La Mejorada in Olmedo (1526) and the churches of San Benito el Real (1527–1532) and Santiago in Valladolid. Alonso’s last work was the Tomb of Archbishop Juan de Tavera (1552–1561) in the Hospital de San Bautista de Toledo.
Spanish painter from Paredes de Nava. In 1477, Pedro Berruguete, father of Alonso Berruguete, is documented as being in Urbino, Italy, working with Joos van Ghent in the Ducal Palace of Federico da Montefeltro. There he painted the portrait of the duke and his son (1480–1481; Urbino, Galleria Nazionale) and assisted in the decoration of the ducal library and studio. By 1483, Berruguete was back in Spain. His predella paintings of five prophets and King David for the Retablo de Santa Eulalia (after 1483) in the church of the same appellation in Paredes de Nava shows his assimilation of the Italian style. The foreshortening of the figures’ hands, naturalistic arrangement of draperies, voluminous forms, and anatomical details follow Italian precedents.
One of the most important contributors to and promoters of Greek scholarship in the Renaissance. Born in Trebizond, Greece, and educated in Constantinople, Bessarion was appointed Bishop of Nicea in 1437, and the following year, he attended the Council of Ferrara and Florence to promote the reunification of the eastern and western churches. There he gained the favor of Pope Eugenius IV, who appointed him cardinal in 1439, after which he took up residence in Rome. His palace became the locus of learned discussions among the leading humanists of the era. Bessarion commissioned the translation of Greek manuscripts into Latin, making the works available to the West, and he himself translated Aristotle’s Metaphysics and Xenophon’s Memorabilia. He bequeathed his vast collection of Greek manuscripts to the Venetian Republic in 1468, which became the nucleus of the Library of St. Mark in Venice.
The betrayal by Judas takes place after the Last Supper when Christ goes to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray (Agony in the Garden). Judas leads the Roman soldiers and priests to Christ and kisses him so he may be identified as the individual to be arrested. Peter is so enraged by the event that he pulls out a knife and cuts off the ear of Malchus, one of the priests’ servants. The scene is rendered by Giotto in the Arena Chapel, Padua (1305), where Judas puckers his lips to kiss Jesus. He also envelops the Lord with his cloak to effectively convey the drama of the moment depicted. To the left is Peter, with knife in hand, behind Malchus. Similar scenes are offered by Duccio in the Maestà Altarpiece (1308–1311; Siena, Museo dell’Opera del Duomo), Fra Angelico at San Marco Monastery in Florence (c. 1450), and Dirk Bouts in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich (c. 1450). Caravaggio’s Betrayal of Christ by Judas (1602–1603; Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland) presents a close-up view of the event, with three-quarter figures in emotive gestures, among them the painter himself.
A stand on which a corpse is placed in preparation for burial or to be carried in a funeral procession. In Renaissance sculpted funerary monuments, the effigy of the deceased is usually shown lying on a bier, as in Bernardo Rossellino’s Tomb of Chancellor Leonardo Bruni (c. 1445) and Desiderio da Settignano’s Tomb of Chancellor Carlo Marsuppini (1453), both at Santa Croce, Florence. In both monuments, the bier is placed above the sarcophagus, with angels at either side holding an inscription with laudatory remarks on the virtues and accomplishments of the deceased.
Painted by Sandro Botticelli, probably for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici, in whose house, the Villa Castello, the painting once hung, alongside Botticelli’s Primavera (c. 1482; Florence, Uffizi). The scene ultimately stems from a poem by the Greek Hesiod, who wrote that Venus was born from the foam produced by Uranus’ testicles when they were cut off by his son Saturn and thrown into the sea. The true source of Botticelli’s painting, however, is an ekphrasis written by poet Angelo Poliziano, from the Medici circle, on the reliefs cast by Vulcan for the doors of Venus’ temple.
In the work, Venus stands naked on a seashell and is being blown ashore by the winds. A female, identified as either Pomona (goddess of the trees), Flora (goddess of the flowers), or an Hour, greets her with a robe in hand. Venus’ pose is that of a Venus Pudica type from antiquity, an image of the goddess covering her nudity with her arms. The painting does not follow nature. Instead, the figures are elongated, with little volume and anatomical detailing, milky complexions, complex curvilinear drapery folds, and hair strands that seem to take on a life of their own. Atmospheric perspective is absent in the landscape, so that every wave, cloud, and flower is clearly visible regardless of its distance from the foreground. Yet, while Botticelli ignored the technical advances introduced to painting in the 15th century, he managed to produce a work that is graceful, elegant, and aesthetically pleasing.
The celebration of the birth of the Virgin Mary on 8 September has taken place since the 6th century, when her cult intensified after the Council of Ephesus. The story is not biblical, but rather apocryphal. Mary’s parents, Joachim and Anne, were old when they conceived her, so her birth is considered miraculous. In art, the event is usually depicted in an interior domestic setting, with St. Anne reclining on the bed and the newborn being washed by the midwives who assisted in the birth. This is how Pietro Lorenzetti (1342; Siena, Museo dell’Opera del Duomo) and Domenico Beccafumi (c. 1542; Siena, Accademia) depicted the scene. In these works, Joachim is seated in an adjacent room, awaiting the news of the child’s birth. Albrecht Altdorfer placed his rendition (1525; Munich, Alte Pinakothek) in a Gothic interior church setting with a crown of angels hovering above the seated Anne, who holds the Virgin in her arms. With this he asserted the religious significance of the birth of the mother of God and her role as Ecclesia, Holy Mother of the Church.
A bout of bubonic plague that struck Europe in 1348 and decimated a large percentage of the population. Art was affected by the plague. Several important masters succumbed to it, including Andrea Pisano, Pietro Lorenzetti, Ambrogio Lorenzetti, and Bernardo Daddi. Furthermore, since the plague was considered punishment for sins committed, patrons commissioned religious works that served to expiate whatever sins had brought on the catastrophe. Most of the works commissioned in the mid-14th century in Florence and Siena, where 50 to 75 percent of the population is thought to have perished, dealt with scenes of death and final judgment. The plague recurred sporadically until the 18th century, when it was finally brought under control. In Florence, it struck again in 1448, lasting for three consecutive summers. Between 1557–1577, Venice lost 30 percent of its population to the disease. The doge vowed that if the city was delivered from the plague, he would commemorate the event by building a church in honor of Christ the Redeemer. Andrea Palladio received the commission, building Il Redentore (beg. 1577). To this day, a procession on the Feast of the Redeemer (the third Sunday in July) takes place, ending in the church with a thanksgiving mass.
One of the greatest Italian poets in history. Boccaccio was born either in the Tuscan town of Certaldo or Florence. He spent his youth in Naples, where his father worked as representative of the Bardi bank. There he studied law and commerce, and eventually recognized that his true calling was writing. In Naples, he composed his Caccia di Diana (c. 1334), Filostrato (c. 1335), and Teseida (1339–1341). By 1341, Boccaccio was back in Florence, and there he began work on his Decameron (c. 1350), which tells the tale of 10 aristocratic youths who flee Florence to avoid the Black Death. They set up court in the Tuscan countryside, where they pass the time by telling one another stories. Among these is the story of Nastagio degli Onesti, a subject sometimes depicted on domestic furnishings decorated with didactic narratives. The work was so successful that in the 16th century, it was declared the canon of vernacular prose.
During the mid-1350s, Boccaccio established a close friendship with Petrarch and acted as Florentine ambassador to Rome, Ravenna, Avignon, and Brandenburg. Among his later works is the De mulieribus claris, the first collection of biographies of women in Western literature and a major source of subjects for artists. Boccaccio spent his last years lecturing on Dante in Certaldo and Florence.
Spanish term used to denote a still life or a scene where kitchen implements or food preparation are included. Bodegónes usually possess a decisively Spanish flavor, with foods that form the ingredients of the local cuisine, as in, for example, the Still Life with Game Fowl, Fruit, and Vegetables by Juan Sánchez Cotán (1602; Madrid, Prado), Diego Velázquez’s Old Woman Cooking Eggs (1618; Edinburgh, National Gallery), and Francisco de Zurbarán’s Still Life with Lemons, Oranges, and Rose (1633; Pasadena; Norton Simon Museum). Sometimes the terracotta and metal vessels included in the paintings reflect the local artisanry, for instance, the large jars in Velázquez’s Water Carrier of Seville (1619; London, Wellington Museum).
In the 6th century B.C.E., Bologna, then called Felsina, was the economic center of Etruscan society because its location along the Po River and at the foot of the Apennines allowed for commercial links with other civilizations. In 189 B.C.E., Felsina became part of the Roman Empire and was renamed Bononia. The Romans built the Via Emilia, which connected the city to the network of Roman roadways, facilitating its growth. By the 6th century C.E., the city had come under Byzantine rule, and in the medieval era rivaling families took over—first the Pepoli, followed by the Visconti and the Bentivoglio. In 1506, Pope Julius II took the city and annexed it to the Papal States, with papal rule lasting until the 18th century. Bologna was the first city in Europe to establish a university, which made it the intellectual center of Western culture. During the Renaissance, it was also known for its silk industry. From the point of view of artistic production, Bologna did not gain fame as a major artistic center until the end of the 16th century, when the Carracci established their academy there and trained an entire generation of masters, including Domenichino, Francesco Albani, and Guido Reni.
Sculptor from Flanders. In 1550, Bologna went to Italy, where, after studying in Rome for two years, he settled in Florence. There he became the leading Mannerist sculptor. His best-known work is the Rape of the Sabine Woman (1581–1582; Florence, Loggia dei Lanzi), commissioned by Duke Francesco I de’ Medici. The work shows three figures interlocked in a vertical, corkscrew composition (serpentinata), which grants a different view at each side and forces the viewer to walk around it. Bologna looked to the recently recovered Hellenistic Laocoön Group for inspiration. The pose of the crouching male, the woman’s arm gestures, and their deep pathos stem from the ancient prototype. These compositional and emotive features are also present in his Samson Slaying a Philistine (1560–1562; London, Victoria and Albert Museum) and Hercules and Nessus (1599; Florence, Loggia dei Lanzi). His bronze Mercury (1580) is in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence and once served as a fountain in the Medici household. Here, Mercury, the messenger of the gods, balances on his left foot over the mouth of Zephyrus, the west wind. Bologna’s works, with their well-balanced and dynamic compositions, proved to be a major force in the development of Baroque sculpture in Italy and the North.
Manuscript illuminator and tapestry designer from Bruges who headed the manuscript workshop of King Charles V of France. Bondol’s illuminations show his desire to create rational spaces and naturalistic figures, as exemplified by the Parting of Lot and Abraham in the Bible of Jean de Sy (c. 1380; Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. 15397, fol. 14), believed to be by his hand. His Charles V and Jean de Vaudetar in the Bible Historiée (1371; The Hague, Rijksmuseum Meermanno-Westreenianium, Ms. 10 B 23, fol. 2) shows the French king dressed as a master of arts from the University of Paris. He receives the manuscript from the kneeling Vaudetar, who paid for the work. His throne is shown in three-quarter view to add depth to the image, this negated by the fleur-de-lis patterning in the background. The Gotha Missal in the Cleveland Museum of Art (c. 1375), named after its 18th-century owners, has also been attributed to Bondol and his workshop, and is believed to have been intended for King Charles’ private chapel. The mushroom-like trees, the figures rendered mostly in grisaille and set against a polychromatic background, and the gold decorative scrolls in the missal are characteristic of Bondol’s style.
Boniface’s reign was filled with failed policies. He supported the restoration of Sicily to Charles II of Naples but was forced to accept its independence under Frederick of Aragon. He also failed in his mediation between Venice and Genoa in effecting Scotland’s independence from England, and in securing the Hungarian crown for Charles I Carobert. He tried to end hostilities between France and England concerning the fiefs of Guienne and Gascony, but his efforts resulted in a major quarrel with Philip IV of France, whom he excommunicated in 1303. The pope was seized by Philip’s advisor, Guillaume de Nogaret, the feudal Colonna family of Rome, and a group of mercenaries who expected him to resign, but the Roman populace came to his rescue. Boniface was able to continue his reign until his death thanks to the protection of the Orsini, staunch enemies of the Colonna. Boniface was the patron of Arnolfo di Cambio, who designed his tomb in c. 1300. His portrait bust is the only piece of the tomb to have survived and is now housed in the Vatican grotto. Boniface also summoned Giotto to the Vatican to create a fresco (c. 1300), now badly damaged, depicting his addressing the crowds.
A book used for private devotion that contains the prayers of the Divine Office meant to be recited at the canonical hours of the day (matins, lauds, nones, vespers, etc.). These texts sometimes include a calendar with illustrations of the labors of the months. They are usually beautifully illuminated, as they were created for patrons of high standing. One of the most outstanding examples is the Limbourg brothers’ Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (Chantilly, Musée Condé) of c. 1416. Other examples include the Book of Hours of Jean le Meingre, Maréchal de Boucicaut (beg. c. 1409; Paris, Musée Jacquemart-André, Ms. 2) by the Boucicaut Master and the Book of Hours of Anne of Brittany (1500–1507; Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. lat. 9474) by Jean Bourdichon.
Nephew of Pope Paul V. The pope gave Borghese the cardinalate in 1605, upon his ascent to the papal throne. The appointment allowed him to amass a vast fortune, which helped finance his art patronage and collecting activities. His Villa Borghese in Rome became a showcase of ancient statuary, as well as contemporary art. He commissioned from Gian Lorenzo Bernini the Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius (1619); Pluto and Proserpina (1621–1622); and Apollo and Daphne (1622–1625). From Domenichino he obtained Diana and the Hunt (1617) and from Francesco Albani a series of four mythologies (c. 1618), all of which remain in the Galleria Borghese in Rome. Guido Reni painted for him the Aurora in the Casino Rospigliosi-Pallavicini (1613). Borghese also owned Caravaggio’s Bacchino Malato (1594; Rome, Galleria Borghese); Boy with Basket of Fruits (1594; Rome, Galleria Borghese); and Boy Bitten by a Lizard (1595–1596; London, National Gallery).
Borghese could be quite unscrupulous when it came to amassing his vast art collection. He coveted the works in the Cavaliere d’Arpino’s possession, which included the paintings by Caravaggio listed above. One of his positions was as grand penitentiary, and in this capacity he accused d’Arpino of carrying illegal weapons, sentencing him to death. He then commuted the sentence when d’Arpino relinquished his collection to the apostolic chamber and paid a large fine. Three months later, Paul V transferred the collection to Borghese’s care.
Painter from Barcelona, Spain, who adopted the International Style. Only 11 works are firmly attributed to Borrassá, based on documentation. About another 20 resemble his style and have therefore been tentatively given to him as well. Borrassá is known to have worked in the convent of St. Damián in Barcelona in 1383, and to have created the Retable of the Archangel Gabriel, now in the city’s cathedral, in 1390. In 1411–1413, he also executed the Retable of St. Peter in the Church of Santa María, Tarrasa, one of his best-known works. Borrassá had a number of pupils and followers, including Gerardo Gener, Juan Mates, and Jaime Cabrera.
Born in Arona on Lake Maggiore in Northern Italy, Saint Charles Borromeo was related on his mother’s side to Pope Pius IV. Charles was tonsured at the age of 12 and educated in the Benedictine abbey of Santi Felino e Gratiano in his hometown. He received his doctoral degree in civil and canon law in 1559, from the University of Pavia, and that same year, Pius ascended the papal throne, appointing Charles secretary of state in 1560. Two years later, Charles persuaded the pope to reconvene the Council of Trent, which had been suspended in 1552, playing a key role there. In 1563, he was ordained and appointed bishop of Milan, where his reforms, which followed the dictates of the Council of Trent, were met with opposition. That he imprisoned those he deemed to lack morality and excommunicated civil officials, including Governor Luis de Requesens, did not sit well with the Milanese senate. This antagonism led to the canons of Santa Maria della Scala to bar Charles from their church and an assassination attempt in which he was wounded. In 1583, Charles was in Switzerland preaching against Protestantism and fighting a supposed outbreak of sorcery.
Overzealous behavior aside, Charles was a champion of the poor and the sick. In 1570, a bout of famine struck the city of Milan, and Charles expended great effort in securing enough food to sustain 3,000 citizens a day for months. In 1576, during a bout of the plague, he tended to the sick and buried the dead, while the governor and officials fled the city for fear of contracting the disease. In 1577, Charles published his Instructiones fabricae et supellectilis Ecclesiasticae, a guide for sacred architecture based on Tridentine stipulations. The text was intended to serve as a guide for church-building in Milan, but it was soon adopted in other regions as well. Charles died in 1584, and was canonized in 1610, the event commemorated through the building of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane in Rome (1638–1641, façade 1665–1676) by Francesco Borromini.
Leading architect of the Baroque era. Borromini was a distant relative of Carlo Maderno and began his career in the latter’s workshop as a stone-carver and draughtsman. He had a difficult personality. He was ill tempered, was extremely envious of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and suffered from hypochondria and bouts of melancholy. His eccentric mode of dressing, lack of restraint, and states of depression were only tolerated by his patrons because these were then considered a sign of genius. As Borromini had a reputation for providing innovative designs at reasonable cost, he received a number of commissions from religious orders that could not afford the sumptuous marble constructions carried out by other masters.
Borromini incorporated the church San Ivo della Sapienza (1642–1650) into the courtyard of the University of Rome. Here, he created a biomorphic plan (some see it as the Barberini emblematic bee) by by superimposing two triangles to form a six-pointed star, probably as reference to the star of Solomon, known for his wisdom—appropriate for a university setting. Borromini here played with convex and concave forms, one of his greatest interests. The result is a structure with rhythmic forms that seem to expand and contract. The same features appear in his Oratory of St. Philip Neri (1637–1650), next to the Chiesa Nuova, the Collegio di Propadanda Fide (1654–1667), and San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane (beg. 1665), all in Rome. Borromini committed suicide by impaling himself with a sword. Twenty-four wax models of his buildings were listed in his death inventory, which demonstrates that he approached architecture like a sculptor, hence their organic, movemented forms.
Flemish master whose unique style has earned him placement among the most inventive painters in history. Bosch’s lack of interest in the rendition of realistic forms and choice of bizarre themes have fascinated art historians, who, until recently, believed that his works were nothing more than fantasies meant to amuse viewers. The current view among scholars is that there is deeper meaning to his works. He is now seen as a moralist whose paintings translate the sermons of his day and speak of man’s foolishness and its unavoidable cost. His grandfather moved from Aschen to sHertogenbosch, now Holland, in 1399, from which Bosch took his name. He is thought to have been trained by his father, also a painter. Little else is known of his life, except that he was a member of the Confraternity of Notre Dame, that he received commissions from Philip the Handsome of Burgundy, and that he married Aleyt Goyaerts van den Meervenne sometime between 1479–1481. The fact that his paintings were often copied suggests that he enjoyed great popularity.
The Seven Deadly Sins (c. 1475; Madrid, Prado), a painted tabletop once owned by Philip II of Spain, along with its companion piece, the Seven Sacraments (now lost), is believed to be Bosch’s earliest work. The Death of the Miser (c. 1485–1490; Washington, D.C., National Gallery) shows the foolishness of a dying man who takes the money bag from a demon, although the angel next to him points to the crucifix at the window as the road to salvation. The Hay Wain Triptych (c. 1490–1495; El Escorial, Monasterio de San Lorenzo) shows in the central panel a large hay wagon, symbol of earthly goods, followed by the pope, the emperor, noblemen, clergymen, nuns, the rich, and the poor. Among the crowd are the Seven Deadly Sins, and on the wagon sit a pair of lovers accompanied by an angel who looks up at Christ in the clouds and a demon who dances and plays his elongated nose like a trumpet. On the left panel are the Creation of Eve and Expulsion from Paradise, with rebel angels above being cast out of Heaven. On the right is a depiction of Hell, where sinners are tortured by demons. Bosch’s best-known work is the Garden of Earthly Delights (c. 1505–1510; Madrid, Prado), a painting that also presents the Creation on the left panel and Hell on the right. In the center, humanity engages in all sorts of strange, sinful activities. While the work is not fully understood and has given scholars much to write about, it is undoubtedly also a moralizing scene that casts humanity in a satirical light.
Botticelli (in Italian, “little barrel”) was a nickname first given to the artist’s brother, who was presumably overweight. Botticelli was trained in the studio of Fra Filippo Lippi alongside Lippi’s son Filippino Lippi. He also worked in Andrea del Verrocchio’s studio alongside Leonardo da Vinci. From this background one would expect an artist who used the latest advances in perspective, foreshortening, and anatomy. Yet, Botticelli rejected the naturalistic methods of contemporary masters, instead opting for lyrical representations not necessarily dependent on visual truth. His Adoration of the Magi (early 1470s; Florence, Uffizi), commissioned by Guasparre del Lama for the Church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence, does not rely on one-point linear perspective, but rather several simultaneous viewpoints. This work owes to Benozzo Gozzoli’s Procession of the Magi in the chapel of the Palazzo Medici in that it too represents the members of the Confraternity of the Magi engaging in procession, including Cosimo de’ Medici, his sons Piero the Gouty and Giovanni, and his grandsons Lorenzo and Giuliano.
In 1481, Botticelli was called to Rome by Pope Sixtus IV to work alongside Pietro Perugino, Domenico del Ghirlandaio, and others on the wall frescoes in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. The scenes were to represent subjects from the life of Moses that prefigured that of Christ and asserted the pope’s divinely sanctioned right to lead the Church. Although the program turned out to be somewhat of a fiasco, as severe stylistic and compositional discrepancies exist between the scenes, Botticelli’s contribution, the Punishment of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram (1481–1482), is among the best in the commission.
In 1482, Botticelli’s father died, and the artist was forced to return to Florence. The papal commission he received placed him among the most sought-after masters of the Early Renaissance. In the 1480s, he painted a series of important mythological works for the Medici, believed to reflect the Neoplatonic thought that permeated their court. His Primavera (c. 1482; Florence, Uffizi), Pallas and the Centaur (c. 1482; Florence, Uffizi), Birth of Venus (c. 1485; Florence, Uffizi), and Venus and Mars (1480s; London, National Gallery) have given art historians much topic for discussion, as their subjects are not completely understood. What is understood, however, is that the works were meant for an erudite audience interested in literature and philosophy. The figures in these paintings, with their graceful, elongated forms, are of the same stock as Botticelli’s Madonnas, among them the Madonna and Child with Adoring Angel (c. 1468; Pasadena, Norton Simon Museum), Madonna of the Magnificat (c. 1485; Florence, Uffizi), and Madonna of the Book (1483; Milan, Museo Poldi Pezzoli).
In his late phase, Botticelli’s palette became more brilliant, with an emphasis on primary colors and emotive representations. These changes may have been the result of his involvement with Girolamo Savonarola, the ascetic Dominican monk who acted as prior of the San Marco Monastery after St. Antonine and who initiated a political movement against the Medici. Botticelli’s two Lamentations (Milan, Museo Poldi Pezzoli and Munich, Alte Pinakothek) of the 1490s reveal this change in his style. In these paintings, Botticelli gave his figures a deep sense of sorrow to evoke compassion from the viewer. His Mystic Nativity (1500; London, National Gallery) is a work with a strange apocalyptic subject that is not completely understood and represents a major departure from his usual poetic representations. Savonarola died in 1498, after excommunication from the Church, and Botticelli fell in disfavor because of his association with the monk. He died in obscurity and was forgotten until the late 19th century, when scholars rediscovered his works and gave him his rightful place in the history of Renaissance art.
Leading manuscript illuminator in Paris in the early 15th century. He is not known by name, but his execution of the Book of Hours of Jean le Meingre, Maréchal de Boucicaut (beg. c. 1409; Paris, Musée Jacquemart-André, Ms. 2) is what gives him his current appellation. To the Boucicaut Master are also attributed illuminations in the Dialogues of Pierre Salmon (c. 1410–1415; Geneva, Bibliothèque Publique et Universitaire, Ms. fr. 165) and Les Grandes Heures du Duc de Berry (1409; Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. lat. 919). The Boucicaut Master stands out from other manuscript illuminators of his era in that he achieved a greater sense of realism, mainly through the use of atmospheric perspective and a single viewpoint—a realism he was able to integrate into the courtly scenes expected by his patrons.
French painter, active in Rome. Valentin was born into a family of artists and artisans. He moved to Rome in c. 1612, where he soon became influenced by Caravaggio’s style. His Cardsharps (c. 1615–1618; Dresden, Gemäldegalerie) closely relates to Caravaggio’s painting of the same subject (1595–1596; Fort Worth, Kimbell Museum of Art) in its dramatic use of chiaroscuro, crude figure types, emphatic gestures and glances, and theatrical costumes. In the late 1620s, Valentin entered in the service of the Barberini. For them he painted the Allegory of Rome (1628; Rome, Villa Lante), depicted as a female with shield, lance, and tower on her head, in accordance with Cesare Ripa’s Iconologia. The fruit at her feet denotes prosperity under Urban VIII, the Barberini pope. In 1629, Valentin received from Urban his most important commission, the Martyrdom of Sts. Processus and Martinian for one of the altars of St. Peter’s, a Counter-Reformatory work that speaks of the glory of martyrdom for the sake of the faith and the triumph of the Church.
French illuminator who studied under Jean Fouquet and worked for Louis XI of France, his wife Charlotte of Savoy, Charles VIII, Louis XII, and Louis’ wife Anne of Brittany. Bourdichon, in fact, is best known for the Book of Hours of Anne of Brittany (1500–1507; Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. lat. 9474), which he illuminated with 51 scenes. His style is characterized by the use of rounded forms, detailed depictions of draperies, large areas of pure color, and emphasis on clarity. His goal was to emulate panel painting on parchment surfaces rather than follow the Northern medievalist tradition.
Netherlandish master, probably born in Haarlem, who settled in Louvain, becoming the city’s official painter in 1468. The style Bouts used in his early works combines elements borrowed from Petrus Christus, Rogier van der Weyden, and Jan van Eyck, as demonstrated by his Infancy Altarpiece (c. 1445; Madrid, Prado). The treatment of the architectural details in this work stems from Christus’s Nativity (c. 1445; Washington, D.C., National Gallery), the short figures with large heads are from van der Weyden, and the palette and textural details depend on van Eyck. Bouts’s Deposition Altarpiece (c. 1450–1455; Granada, Capilla Real) was inspired by van der Weyden’s Prado Deposition (c. 1438). As in the prototype, Bouts presents a deeply emotional scene, although his is filled with more action.
The Last Supper Altarpiece (1464–1467; Louvain, Church of St. Pierre) is Bouts’s best-known work. It presents the institution of the Eucharist as a sacrament, a subject demanded in the contract for the work, which has survived. The document also informs readers that two professors of theology from the University of Louvain determined the subject. Surrounding this central scene are panels titled the Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek, Sacrifice of the Paschal Lamb, Gathering of Manna, and Elijah and the Angel, prefigurations to the central event. Bouts is also well known for his devotional images of the Virgin and Child, as exemplified by the versions in the National Gallery in London (c. 1465) and the Metropolitan Museum in New York (1455–1460).
This work, owned by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, belongs to Caravaggio’s early career and demonstrates the impact of Venetian art on his style. The sensuousness of the figure, with the shirt off the shoulder to reveal the soft skin, intense colors, and golden lighting, is borrowed from the likes of Titian, while the pushing of the figure and still-life elements in the foreground recall the immediacy of Lorenzo Lotto’s subjects. The work also demonstrates Caravaggio’s awareness of Sofonisba Anguissola’s Boy Bitten by a Crayfish (c. 1555), a drawing now at the Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples. The subject of the painting is not completely understood. The rose worn by the boy behind the ear is associated with Venus and amorous enticement. The cherries on the table carry erotic connotations, while the jasmine in the vase is a symbol of prudence. The word for lizard in Greek is similar to the word phallus, which peppers the scene with even greater erotic content. These symbolic elements suggest, as scholars have recognized, that the work speaks of engaging in love with prudence to avoid pain.
Italian humanist, Latinist, and collector of ancient art and manuscripts. Bracciolini belonged to the circle of humanist chancellor Coluccio Salutati in Florence, where he developed a keen interest in the recovery of ancient Roman manuscripts. In 1403, he was appointed apostolic secretary to the papal court, a charge that allowed him to travel to other parts of Europe. While in France, he discovered in the ecclesiastical libraries of Cluny and St. Gallen, manuscripts of unknown texts by Cicero and Quintilian, and an ancient version of Vitruvius’ De architectura. Later searches in France, Germany, and England led to the discovery of writings by Columella, Petronius, and Tacitus. In the 1430s, he began work on his De Varietate Fortunae, in which he described the ancient ruins of Rome. In 1453, he was appointed chancellor of Florence by the Medici. There he translated Lucian’s Golden Ass and wrote the History of Florence.
Leading architect of the High Renaissance. Bramante trained as a painter, probably with Piero della Francesca or Andrea Mantegna. His career as architect began in Milan, where, alongside Leonardo da Vinci, he worked for the Sforza rulers. His earliest known commission is the Church of Santa Maria presso San Satiro (beg. 1478), where the most interesting feature is the illusionistic relief in perspective he added to extend visually the shallow space of the apse. In Milan, Bramante also worked on the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie (beg. 1493), to serve as the final resting place of the Sforza family. The work was begun by Guiniforte Scolari and passed on to Bramante so he could modernize the design. Bramante, who left the project incomplete when he moved to Rome in 1499, added the transept, crossing (where the nave and transept cross), and apse using an Albertian vocabulary. In Rome, Bramante created his most important masterpieces: the Tempietto at San Pietro in Montorio (c. 1502–1512), the Belvedere Court at the Vatican (beg. 1505), and the plan for New St. Peter’s (1506). With these monuments, he gave the lead in architecture, until then held by Florence, to Rome.
Commissioned by Felice Brancacci from Masaccio and Masolino, the scenes in this chapel depict the story of St. Peter. Most of the frescoes on the wall have been attributed to Masaccio, while the scenes on the vault and lunettes, destroyed in the mid-18th century, are usually given to Masolino. Felice married the daughter of Palla Strozzi, and upon the return of their enemy, Cosimo de’ Medici, to Florence in 1434, he was exiled, along with his wife’s family. The Carmelite monks who resided at Santa Maria del Carmine then took the chapel away from Felice and erased the family portraits featured in the frescoes. In the 1480s, Filippino Lippi completed the chapel’s décor, repairing some of the scenes. In 1771, a fire swept through the church, causing damage to the chapel. Since then, the frescoes have been well restored, the latest campaign taking place from 1980–1990.
Of the scenes by Masaccio, the one to stand out is the Tribute Money. Based on the Gospels of St. Matthew, the work uses a continuous narrative technique to relate the arrival of Christ and the Apostles at Capernaum, where Peter is asked by a collector to pay his taxes. The scene has propagandist content in that at the time, a tax was levied on Florentine citizens based on exemptions and deductions, called the catasto, intended to finance the war against Milan. The fresco contends that taxes are a fact of life and that even important biblical figures were required to pay them. More than the propagandist content, it is the technical innovations Masaccio introduced in this painting that are of great importance to the development of art. He used one-point linear perspective and atmospheric perspective to render a three-dimensional space. The figures stand in contrapposto, they cast shadows on the landscape, and their draperies are pulled by gravity. The light, now from a single source, corresponds to the natural light that enters the chapel.
Among Masolino’s extant scenes is the Healing of the Lame Man and the Raising of Tabitha. In one field, the scene depicts two miracles effected by St. Peter. Placed opposite Masaccio’s Tribute Money, Masolino’s fresco also employs the one-point linear perspective technique, with the vanishing point in the center. Again, the light in the fresco corresponds to the natural light that enters the chapel, the figures cast shadows, and the scenery is a recognizable Florentine street and buildings. Although Masolino followed the techniques introduced by Masaccio in painting, his figures lack the visual impact of his partner’s. The contrast of styles in both masters is best illustrated by comparing the Temptation by Masolino to the Expulsion by Masaccio, scenes that face one another across the entrance to the chapel. Both represent the earliest examples in Renaissance painting of the fully nude form. Yet, Masaccio’s figures show greater understanding of human anatomy. While Ma- solino’s Adam and Eve stand in an almost completely frontal pose, Masaccio’s effectively move within the pictorial space. It is not clear exactly where Masolino’s figures stand, but Masaccio’s are unmistakably anchored to the ground and cast shadows. Masaccio’s angel, who expels Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, is foreshortened to seem as if emerging from the skies. The figures are clearly distressed, denoted by the fact that Adam covers his face, a traditional gesture of grief, and Eve grimaces as she tries to cover her nudity with her arms. Her pose is that of a Venus Pudica from antiquity, a Venus type who covers herself after being surprised at her bath.
Santa Maria del Carmine is the monastery where Fra Filippo Lippi grew up, which means that he had plenty of opportunities to study the frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel, and he may have, in fact, witnessed both Masaccio and Masolino painting their respective scenes. Of these two masters, the one to fully impact Fra Filippo’s art was Masaccio, from whom he would adopt the massive figures, pyramidal compositions, and use of the latest perspective techniques.
French cardinal who died during one of the sojourns of the papal curia in Orvieto. Braye had served as the treasurer of Reims and canon of Laon, and was raised to cardinal-priest by Pope Clement IV. Arnolfo di Cambio was charged with the creation of the cardinal’s funerary monument at the Orvietan Church of San Domenico, which he executed in c. 1282. The tomb was dismantled in 1680, and reinstalled in San Domenico in 1934, which unfortunately resulted in the loss of the Gothic tabernacle supported by spiral columns on the monument’s uppermost portion. Di Cambio’s original scheme may have also been altered. As it stands, the monument sits on a base decorated with Cosmatesque mosaic work. It includes two angels who pull back curtains to reveal the cardinal’s recumbent effigy. Above are two saints contained in niches, identified as Paul and either William (Guillame in French) or Mark (the cardinal was a titular of St. Mark). Crowning the monument is an enthroned Virgin and Child. A long inscription between the saints reads, “May Guillaume, who is here buried, be well pleasing to Christ. Born de Braye, adorned with the title of Mark, may through thee Mark, come to the citadel of Heaven . . . O France mourn this man; to thee his death will be a heavy blow, for there will scarcely be another like him. Mourn him, law of learning, and decrees of poetry . . . Arnolfo made this work.”
A member of the Danube School, Jörg Breu the Elder was a native of Augsburg. After working as a journeyman in Austria at the turn of the 16th century, he returned to Augsburg, where, in 1502, he established his own workshop. He not only painted altarpieces and frescoes, but also rendered woodcuts and designed stained glass. It is believed that Breu may have visited Italy twice, in 1508 and 1514, since Italian influence is perceived in his works. The composition of his Crucifixion (1524; Budapest, Szépmuvészeti Múzeum) is, in fact, loosely based on Filippino Lippi’s Crucifixion of St. Philip (1487–1502) in the Strozzi Chapel at Santa Maria Novella, Florence. Moreover, the complex architectural background of his Suicide of Lucretia (1528; Munich, Alte Pinakothek), commissioned by William IV of Bavaria, is also Italianate. For William, Breu also created the cataclysmic Battle of Zama (1528; Munich, Alte Pinakothek), part of a series of landscapes that included the Battle of Issus (1529; Munich, Alte Pinakothek) by Albrecht Altdorfer, another member of the Danube School.
Flemish master, known only for his Dijon Altarpiece (1394–1399; Dijon, Musée des Beaux-Arts), painted for the Chartreuse de Champmol, the Carthusian monastery of Dijon, established by Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. The work shows the Annunciation, Visitation, Presentation, and Flight into Egypt on two panels of irregular shape. These scenes owe debt to Italian developments of the era, particularly the three-dimensional architectural representations of Ambrogio Lorenzetti.
Italian Mannerist painter who trained with Jacopo da Pontormo and became the leading artist in Florence after his master’s death. Bronzino worked as court painter to Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici and excelled mainly as a portraitist. His Eleonora da Toledo and Her Son Giovanni de’ Medici (c. 1550; Florence, Uffizi) is one of the great masterpieces of the Mannerist movement and reflects the refined tastes of the Medici court. Cosimo’s wife is shown in a luxurious costume, befitting her aristocratic rank. She is presented as an exemplary mother who lovingly embraces her son, her elongated fingers and torso and porcelain-like skin being typical of Bronzino’s visual vocabulary. The Portrait of a Young Man (c. 1550) at the New York Metropolitan Museum again stresses the sitter’s social station. The unidentified male features a lavish costume and aloof demeanor. He holds a book in his hand to denote his main pastime, the pursuit of knowledge.
Bronzino’s Deposition (1545; Besançon, Musée des Beaux-Arts), intended as the altarpiece for the chapel of Eleonora in the Palazzo Vecchio, is among the most visually appealing religious works he created. The painting owes much to Pontormo in the complexity of the composition, lighting effects, and colorism. In fact, the crouching figure who supports the body of Christ is closely related to the crouching male in Pontormo’s Deposition (1525–1528) in the Capponi Chapel in the Church of Santa Felicità, Florence. Bronzino’s Allegory of Venus and Cupid (1540s; London, National Gallery) has baffled scholars who have tried to unravel its intended meaning. Meant for a highly educated audience, the work is filled with allegorical figures in strange combinations that are no longer completely understood. Bronzino was also an accomplished poet, and perhaps poetry played a part in the iconography of his painting.
French architect born in Verneuil to a Protestant family that was persecuted during the Wars of Religion (1562–1598). After 1598, de Brosse, who is credited with introducing classicism to French architecture, moved to Paris, where a large Huguenot population existed. Although little is known of his training, it is believed that de Brosse may have been taught the principles of architecture by Jean du Cerceau, to whom he was related. Unlike du Cerceau, who conceived his buildings in terms of textural decoration, de Brosse thought in terms of mass.
His most notable commission was the Luxembourg Palace in Paris (beg. 1615), which he received from Marie de’ Medici. Marie asked her aunt, the grand duchess of Tuscany, to send her the plans for the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, where she grew up, to be used as the model for de Brosse’s project. Marie circulated the plans throughout European courts for comments, but, in the end, de Brosse did not follow the Italian palace design. Instead, he built a typical French château type with a corps-des-logis (main body) flanked by two wings, as well as a screen that encloses the central court. Only the heavy rustications on the façade recall Bartolomeo Ammannati’s Mannerist rustications of the Palazzo Pitti. The rest of the structure is completely classical. Its massive arches, coupled with the rustications, create a masculine architecture that speaks of monarchic power.
Other important commissions de Brosse fulfilled are the Château de Coulommiers (1613; demolished in 1738) for Catherine de Gonzague de Clèves, Duchesse de Longueville; the Château de Blérancourt (fin. bef. 1619; partially destroyed) for Charlotte de Vieuxpont, wife of Bernard Potier, Signeur de Blérancourt; the Hôtel de Fresne (beg. 1608); and the Sale des Pas Perdus in the Palais de Justice (1616–1624). Maximilien de Béthune, Duc de Sully and Henry IV’s adviser and superintendent of finance, fortifications, and buildings, commissioned de Brosse to design the town of Henrichemont, named in the king’s honor. De Brosse began the project in 1608. The town was intended as a settlement for Protestant refugees that would allow free worship. It was also to function as a center of trade and industry. The project unfortunately failed; however, de Brosse’s plan, with its symmetrical arrangement of eight avenues radiating from a central square and four smaller plazas at the corners of the outer town parameters, would deeply influence future urban plans in the region.
Bruegel is thought to have been born in the town of Bruegel near Breda, now Holland, from which he received his name. He studied with Pieter Coecke, whose daughter he married. When Coecke died in 1550, Bruegel moved to Antwerp, where he worked in the engraving shop of Hieronymus Cock. There he entered the painter’s guild in 1551, and in c. 1552, he went to Italy, where he may have worked for Giulio Clovio, also the patron of El Greco, as suggested by the fact that Clovio owned some of his paintings (now lost). In c. 1553, Bruegel returned to Antwerp, where he remained for a decade. He then moved to Brussels, where he spent the rest of his life.
Bruegel is among the first artists to create pure genre scenes devoid of religious undertones and the first to unite landscape to genre. His Netherlandish Proverbs (1559; Berlin, Gemäldegalerie) shows a man banging his head against the wall to suggest futility. The pies on the roof in the foreground refer to the popular catchphrase, “There’ll be pie in the sky when you die”; the man with a globe on his thumb implies his having the world in the palm of his hand; and the inverted globe on the left refers to the upside-down, disordered world. Bruegel used the same all-inclusive approach in his Children’s Games (1560; Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum), where every imaginable game is included, among them leapfrog and hoops.
Some of Bruegel’s works are related to Hieronymus Bosch’s in that they too present scenes that speak of man’s folly. Examples of this include his Dulle Griet (Mad Meg; 1562; Antwerp, Musée Mayer van den Bergh) and the Tower of Babel (1563; Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum). The first shows, again, a multitude of figures, now in a hellish setting. The figure in the center is Mad Meg, a witch who pillages Hell. The meaning of the work is not completely understood, although it has been suggested that she may represent Avarice, one of the Seven Deadly Sins (see VIRTUES AND VICES), or Madness. The Tower of Babel shows building trades and other activities, again referring to futile effort and human ambition overriding capability.
By the mid- to late 1660s, Bruegel abandoned the encyclopedic representations of activities and overpopulated fantastic landscapes in favor of monumentalized peasants engaging in everyday chores and celebrations. Examples of this are the Wedding Dance (1566; Detroit Institute of Art) and Wedding Feast (c. 1566–1567; Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum). These types of compositions often stress the comical aspect of the individuals depicted, or the vulgar. Bruegel stands out from his contemporaries in that his works capture the absurdity of human nature in a way that can be truly categorized as charming and full of humor.
Pioneer of Early Renaissance architecture. The son of a Florentine notary and diplomat, Brunelleschi received a humanistic education. He was trained as a goldsmith and turned to architecture after losing to Lorenzo Ghiberti the competition for the east doors of the Baptistery of Florence (1401). His greatest achievement is the dome of the Cathedral of Florence. Arnolfo di Cambio and Francesco Talenti had built the cathedral in the 14th century, save for the octagonal dome. The opening they left above the crossing (where the transept and nave cross) spanned 140 feet, and no architect of the period possessed the engineering skills to cover such a large expanse. We know from Giorgio Vasari that Brunelleschi traveled to Rome with Donatello to study the Roman remains, and there he took precise measurements of ancient buildings. The knowledge he gained facilitated his successful design for the dome. A dome of such large proportions would have collapsed under its own weight had it not been for Brunelleschi’s innovative double-shelled construction, the first of its kind. To facilitate the task of building it, he devised a series of mechanical cranes and hoisting machines, and even arranged for a canteen at dome level for laborers to take their meals without leaving the worksite.
From 1419–1424, Brunelleschi was occupied with the Ospedale degli Innocenti, the Florentine foundling hospital built with funding from the Guild of Silk Merchants and Goldsmiths, to which the architect belonged, no doubt a factor in his obtaining the commission. Like the cathedral dome, the hospital was inspired by ancient Roman architecture. The loggia’s round arches, the columns that support them, its capitals, and the corbels, which provide added support, stem from Roman examples. So does the sober design, the rhythm established by the constant repetition of forms, and the emphasis on balance and symmetry. Brunelleschi also built two large churches in Florence: Santo Spirito (beg. 1436) and San Lorenzo (beg. 1421). In designing these structures, he rejected the Italo-Gothic style employed by his predecessors, instead opting for a classicized vocabulary dependent on ancient Roman prototypes. He also introduced a rational mathematical system of proportions, later adopted by other Renaissance architects, including Leon Battista Alberti.
While working on San Lorenzo, Brunelleschi completed the Old Sacristy, the funerary chapel of Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici, attached to the church’s left transept. The Pazzi Chapel (1433–1461), the Chapter House of Santa Croce, also by Brunelleschi (completed by his pupils after his death), is a more elaborate version of the Medician structure. The plans for these two spaces are based on simple quadrangular and circular forms that emphasize balance, symmetry, harmony, and proportions. From 1434–1437, Brunelleschi worked on the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, the seat of the Camaldolite Order in Florence and the earliest central plan church to be built in the 15th century. The church was modified in the 1930s, although extant plans and elevations reveal Brunelleschi’s intentions—to create a structure dependent on the number eight. The result of this Pythagorean approach was an interior composed of an octagonal nave capped by an octagonal dome supported by a drum that sits on eight piers. The nave is surrounded by eight chapels, one used as the entrance to the church, six dedicated to the Apostles, and the chapel facing the entrance assigned to the Virgin Mary.
Brunelleschi died in 1446. While he worked primarily in Florence, his influence was far-reaching, mainly thanks to his follower, Michelozzo, who worked in Venice, Pistoia, Montepulciano, Milan, and even Dalmatia, spreading Brunelleschi’s ideas. By rejecting the French Gothic style in favor of a classicized vocabulary and introducing a new, rational principle of proportions based on Pythagorean thinking, Brunelleschi single-handedly altered the course of architecture in Italy and abroad. He also can be credited with being among the first to intellectualize the field of architecture, which up to that point had been viewed exclusively as no more than a manual labor.
German painter, woodcutter, and engraver from Augsburg, the son of Thoman Burgkmair, also a painter. Burgkmair is thought to have been trained in the workshop of Martin Schongauer in Colmar. By 1498, he was back in Augsburg, where he married Hans Holbein the Elder’s sister and established himself as an independent master. He may have visited Venice, Milan, and the Netherlands, travels that were to influence his art in great measure. His St. John Altarpiece (1518; Munich, Alte Pinakothek) features Venetian colorism and emphasis on landscape details. His Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine (1520; Hannover, Niedersächsische Landesgalerie) includes Northern figure types in three-quarter length sitting in front of a landscape, recalling the compositions of Giovanni Bellini. As in the art of this Italian master, the Virgin and Child are separated from the rest of the scene by a cloth of honor. Among Burgkmair’s patrons were Emperor Maximilian I, for whom he created a number of woodcuts, and Duke William IV of Bavaria, for whom he painted Esther and Ahasuerus in 1528 and the Battle of Cannae (both Munich, Alte Pinakothek) the following year.
Created by El Greco, the Burial of Count Orgáz was commissioned by Andrés Nuñez, the parish priest of Santo Tomé. It depicts a miracle that unfolded during the count’s burial in 1323. Gonzalo de Ruiz, count of Orgáz, was the benefactor of the church and of the nearby Augustinian Monastery of San Esteban (St. Stephen), and to thank him for his generosity, St. Augustine and St. Stephen supposedly descended from Heaven to bury him. In the painting, the gentlemen of Toledo are in the process of lowering the body into the tomb, which is appropriately located directly beneath the painting. Above, the Virgin and Christ await the count’s soul, depicted as a child being carried up to Heaven by an angel, a mode of representation borrowed from 16th-century devotional prints. To separate the earthly from the heavenly, El Greco elongated and abstracted the divine figures and deepened his palette to render this upper section of the painting. The work’s message of attainment of salvation through charity and good deeds in life was a concept stressed by the Counter-Reformation Church, whose doctrines were closely followed by the clergy of Toledo, then the most important center of Catholicism, after Rome.
This work is Guercino’s famous altarpiece for the altar of St. Petronilla in St. Peter’s, Rome, commissioned by Pope Gregory XV. Of huge proportions, the painting depicts the burial of the supposed daughter of St. Peter, who was martyred for refusing to compromise her chastity. The work is no longer in situ; therefore, it has lost Guercino’s intended effect of making it seem as if the body of Petronilla is being lowered onto the actual altar above which the painting was originally placed. This is an element Guercino borrowed from Caravaggio, who used the device in his Entombment (1603–1604) for the Vittrici Chapel in the Chiesa Nuova, Rome. In the painting’s upper portion, Guercino again showed the saint, now being received into heaven by the Savior, while a putto gives her the crown of martyrdom. The painting uses a Carraccesque zigzagging composition that leads the viewer’s eye from the earthly to the heavenly realm, this movement enhanced by Guercino’s loose brushwork. The constant repetition of earth tones and deep blues, typical of Guercino’s palette, serves to visually unify the lower and upper parts of the work. As a product of the Counter-Reformation, the painting speaks of the nobility of Christian martyrdom, deemed pointless by Protestants.
Painted by Annibale Carracci, the Butcher Shop belongs to his early career. There was already an established tradition in Bologna for these types of genre scenes, but these were usually comical renditions by such Mannerist artists as Bartolomeo Passerotti, Agostino Carracci’s teacher. Annibale instead rendered the scene with the utmost dignity. It has been suggested that the figures in the painting are the portraits of Ludovico, Agostino, and Annibale Carracci, and that it speaks of their artistic philosophy. Ludovico, who was the son of a butcher, is the one standing behind the counter, Agostino is to the left weighing meat, and Annibale is the man who slaughters the lamb in the foreground. The contorted, overdressed figure on the extreme left is thought to symbolize the excesses of Mannerism. The Carracci described their style of painting as da viva carne, or “of living flesh.” The meat hanging in the shop no doubt refers to this premise. By using Michelangelo’s Sacrifice of Noah on the Sistine ceiling in the Vatican (1508–1512) as the prototype for the slaughtering of the lamb in the foreground, Annibale could allude to the Carracci as the reformers who rescued the art of painting from the artificiality of Mannerism and restored it to the classicism of the Renaissance.