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PITTORI E SCULTORI
Bernardino
Pinturicchio
Benozzo Gozzoli
Mino
da Fiesole
Vittore Pisanello
Antonio del Pollaiuolo
Domenico
Ghirlandaio
Andrea del Verrocchio
Francesco Laurana
Piero della Francesca
Tiziano
Vecellio
Rosso Fiorentino
(Paoletti and Radke: Art in Renaissance Italy, 1997)
Bernardino Pinturicchio – (1454 Perugia – 1513 Siena) Painter who assisted Perugino in the Sistine Chapel c. 1481 and then remained in Rome to work independently. From 1492 to 96 he worked at Orvieto Cathedral and between 1492 and 95 on the Borgia apartments in the Vatican for Pope Alexander VI. From 1496 to 98 he was in Perugia; he later painted scenes from the life of Pius II (1502-7) at the Piccolomini Library in Siena for Cardinal Piccolomini (later Pope Pius III).
Benozzo Gozzoli – (1421 Florence - 1497
Pistoia) Painter whose early training included assisting Fra Angelico on the San
Marco frescoes (1442) and at the Vatican (1448).
He also assisted Ghiberti on the Gates of Paradise (1446). Important commissions include frescoes for the Medici Palace
chapel (1459), Sant’Agostino, San Gimignano (1464), and the Camposanto, Pisa
(1468-84).
Mino da Fiesole – (1429 Papiano – 1484
Florence) Sculptor who possibly trained with Desiderio de Settignano or
Michelozzo and spent much of his career in Florence and Rome.
Several of his innovative sculpted portrait busts of eminent Florentines
survive, including those of Piero de’ Medici and Niccolò Strozzi.
Mino seems to have enjoyed great success in Rome, (1472-80) where he
worked for the papacy and the papal court, collaborating with Isaia da Pisa and
Paolo Romano. He defined the Roman
tomb for this period and revived the large scale alter tabernacle.
Vittore Pisanello – (c. 1395 probably
Pisa – 1455 probably Rome) Consummate court painter in the international
Gothic style and bronze medalist. Early
in his career Pisanello painted frescoes in the Doge’s Palace, Venice.
He worked for Ludovico Gonzaga in the 1420s, and by the early 30s he had
also been in the employ of the Duke of Milan and Pope Eugenius IV.
In the 1430s and 1440s he was periodically at the courts of Leonello
d’Este in Ferrara and the Malatesta in Rimini.
In 1448 he went to the courts of Alfonso of Aragon in Naples.
Antonio del Pollaiuolo – (1433
Florence- 1498 Rome) Artist who ran a collaborative and diverse workshop with
his brother Piero, producing sculpture, painting, metalwork, embroidery designs,
and engraving. He was originally
apprenticed to Bartoluccio Ghiberti (Lorenzo’s father). Primarily based in
Florence, Antonio created several commissions for the Medici.
After 1483, he established a bronze workshop with his brother in Rome,
where they produced the tombs of Sixtus IV and Innocent VIII.
Andrea Mantegna – (1430/31 Isola di
Cartura – 1506 Mantua) Painter, sculptor, engraver, and antiquarian.
Mantegna was the pupil and adopted son of Squarcione.
He first earned renown in frescoes for the Ovetari Chapel of the
Eremitani, Padua. From 1459 until
his death, he was court painter to the Gonzaga in Mantua.
Among his output were the Camera Picta and several paintings for Isabella
d’Este’s studiolo. From 1488 to 90 he was at the Vatican, painting a
chapel for Pope Innocent VIII.
Filippo Lippi – (c. 1406 Florence – 1469
Spoleto) Painter who was a Carmelite at Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, from
1421 to 31. After working in Padua
in 1434 he returned to Florence, where in 1437 he began the Barbadori
Altarpiece. In 1459, aided by
the intervention of Cosimo de’ Medici, Lippi and the nun Lucrezia Buti were
relieved of their vows and married. Filippo
enjoyed Medici patronage for many years. Later
commissions include fresco cycles in Prato (1452-65) and Spoleto Cathedral (1466
until his death).
Domenico Ghirlandaio – (1449
Florence to 1494 Florence) One of the most popular fresco painters of his day,
who established a workshop with his brother, having probably studied with
Baldovinetti. Around 1472 he was working for the Vespucci in the Ognissanti,
Florence. In 1481 he contributed a fresco to Sixtus IV’s decoration of the
Sistine Chapel in Rome. Once again
in Florence, he frescoed the Sassetti Chapel in Santa Trinita (1483-6) and the
Tornabuoni Chapel in Santa Maria Novella (1485-90).
Andrea del Verrocchio – (1435
Florence to 1488 Venice) Sculptor whose Florentine workshop produced work in
several media, including bronze, marble, and terracotta sculpture, metalwork and
painting. Trained originally as a goldsmith, Verrocchio later assisted
Antonio Rossellino and Desiderio da Settignano. By 1465 he was sculpting a Doubting Thomas for the
Mercanzia. He left Florence for
Venice in 1483 to work on a bronze equestrian figure for Colleoni.
Francesco Laurana – (c. 1430 Vrana,
Dalmatia – before 1502 France) Sculptor from Dalmatia, assumed to have been a
pupil of Giorgio da Sebenico. He is
first documented in 1453 in Naples and from 1459 to 60 was possibly involved in
decorative carvings at the Sala della Iole in the Palazzo Ducale at Urbino.
From 1461 to 67, he was employed by Renè of Anjou in France, from 1467
to c. 1474 he was in Sicily, in the mid 1470s in Naples, and from 1477 to 83
again in France (1479-81 at Avignon). From 1483 to 98, he was possibly back in
Naples.
Piero della Francesca – (c. 1420
Sansepolcro – 1492 Sansepolcro) Painter first documented in 1439 with Domenico
Veneziano in Florence. Piero
traveled to Ferrara (c. 1447), Rimini (c. 1451), Arezzo (1454), and Rome, where
he painted for Pius II. After 1469
he had frequent contact with the court of Federico da Montefeltro in Urbino.
Toward the end of his life he retired to Sansepolcro to write treatises
on geometry and mathematics.
Melozzo da Forlì – (1438 Forlì - 1494
Forlì) Primarily a fresco painter, influenced at an early stage by Piero della
Francesca, who was possibly his teacher. Little
is known of Melozzo’s early life and career. He seems to have been in Urbino
in 1465 and is best known as ‘papal painter’ to Pope Sixtus IV around 1477,
and for commissions for Sixtus’s nephews.
His mastery of the illusionism pioneered by Montegna is apparent in his di
sotto in su cupola fresco in Loretto.
Michelangelo Buonarroti – (1475
Caprese – 1564 Rome) Wide-ranging artist who was apprenticed to the painter
Domenico Ghirlandaio in 1488. In
1489, at the invitation of Lorenzo the Magnificent, he moved to the workshops of
the Medici gardens, where he apparently made his first sculpture.
He worked in Bologna in 1494, completing Niccolò dell’Arca’s project
on the Arca di San Domenico. From
1496 to 1534, he divided his activities between Florence and Rome. For the Florentine republic he completed David
(1501-04) and began work on a project for a colossal fresco of the Battle of
Cascina for the town hall. Called to Rome, he worked for Julius II, designing
the pope’s tomb (1505) and painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
(1508-12). When the Medici regained
control of Florence, Michelangelo designed their projects for the façade of San
Lorenzo, the Medici Chapel, and the Laurentian Library.
He returned permanently to Rome in 1534 where, after completing frescoes
of the Last Judgment in the Sistine chapel (1536 – 41) and the Pauline
Chapel (1542-50), he was active primarily as an architect.
His major projects were the redesign of the Capitoline Hill (after 1536)
and the building of the new St. Peter’s (after 1546), where he was the chief
architect.
Leonardo da Vinci – (1452 Vinci, near
Florence – 1519 Amboise, France) Artist trained in Verrocchio’s workshop who
later extended his genius to painting, sculpture, architectural design, and
engineering, as well as careful observation and recording of nature in drawings
and writings. In the second half of
the 1480s and most of the 1490s, he was at the Sforza court in Milan and in
1502/3 he worked as a military engineer for Cesare Borgia.
He returned to Milan in 1508 after a period in Florence. In 1513, he went to Rome and in 1516 he was called to France
by François I.
Raffaello Sanzio – (1483 Urbino – 1520
Rome) Painter and architect who trained in the workshop of his father, the
painter Giovanni Santi of Urbino. By 1500 he was probably in Perugia, working
with Perugino. His first recorded
commission is the St. Nicholas of Tolentino Altarpiece for Città di
Castello (1500-01). In 1504 he went to Florence, where he absorbed the
innovations of Leonardo and Michelangelo. In
Rome in 1508 he worked on the Stanza della Segnatura (1508-11) for Julius II.
He was appointed architect of St. Peters (1514) and surveyor of the
antiquities of Rome (1515); he planned to produce a map of the ancient city
(1519). Working continuously at the
papal court, he redefined the portrait (Julius II, c. 1512; Castiglione,
1516; Leo X with Two Cardinals, 1518).
His death was marked by a state funeral and he was buried in the
Pantheon- a sign of extraordinary honor.
Giulio Romano – (c. 1492 Rome – 1546
Mantua) Painter; one of the few Renaissance artists actually from Rome.
As a member of Raphael’s shop he worked on the frescoes in the Stanze
of the Vatican Palace. After
Raphael’s death in 1520 Giulio inherited many of the shop commissions.
In 1524, he left Rome to work for Duke Federigo Gonzaga in Mantua, where
he designed the Palazzo del Tè and its painted decoration.
In Mantua he developed a lavish and distinctive mannerist style.
Tiziano Vecellio – (c. 1485 Pieve di
Cadore – 1576 Venice) Internationally renowned painter who was employed by all
the great patrons of his time (Este, Gonzaga, Hapsburgs, and the papacy). Titian was probably apprenticed to Giovanni Bellini and later
worked with Giorgione. His independent career began in 1510.
He traveled widely (including visits to Padua, Ferrara, Mantua, Rome, and
Augsburg). In 1533 he was knighted
by Emperor Charles V. He was renowned for his dramatic compositions, virtuosic
technique, and the psychological depth of his portraits.
Rosso Fiorentino – (1495 Florence –
1540 Paris) Painter trained by Andrea del Sarto.
He went to Rome in 1523 and after its sack in 1527 traveled throughout
Italy until 1530. At that date he
was summoned to France by Francis I to lead the decoration of Fontainebleau. There, together with Primaticcio, he established a
distinctive school of French mannerism.
Pontormo (Jacopo Carucci) – (1494 Pontormo – 1557 Florence) Painter active mainly in and around Florence. He may have studied with Leonardo da Vinci, Albertinelli, and Piero di Cosimo. In 1512 he entered the studio of Andrea del Sarto. He was patronized by the Medici early in his career, painting the arms of Leo X (1513-4, Santissima Annunziata), a portrait of Cosimo il Vecchio (1519-21), and frescoes for Poggio a Caiano (1519-21). He also painted for other leading Florentine families. His diary from 1554 to 1556 is an important document of the period.