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Michelangelo: 1475-1564

March 6, 2017 By Wendy Campbell

Born on March 6, 1475, in Caprese, Italy, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni was a Renaissance sculptor, painter, draftsman, architect, and poet. Michelangelo was thought of as the greatest living artist in his lifetime, and is considered to be one of the greatest artists of all time.

In 1488, at the age of 13, Michelangelo apprenticed with Domenico Ghirlandaio, Florence’s best fresco painter. Following that, he studied with sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni in the Medici gardens in Florence. During this time, he was surrounded by prominent people including Lorenzo de’ Medici (known as “Lorenzo the Magnificent”), who introduced him to poets, artists, and scholars in his inner circle.

Early on, Michelangelo strove for artistic perfection in his depictions of the human body. He studied anatomy with great interest and at one point even gained permission from the prior of the church of Santo Spirito to study cadavers in the church’s hospital. It was at this time that Michelangelo began a life-long practice of preparatory drawing and sketching for his works of art and architecture.

After Medici’s death in 1492, Michelangelo left Florence, traveled to Bologna and eventually to Rome, where he continued to sculpt and study classical works. In 1498-99, the French Ambassador in the Holy See commissioned Michelangelo to sculpt the “Pietà” for Saint Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.

In 1501, Michelangelo returned to Florence where he began work on his famous marble statue “David”. This work established Michelangelo’s prominence as a sculptor of incredible technical skill and innovation.

In 1503, Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to create his papal tomb which features the famous statue of Moses. The artist worked on the tomb for 40 years, stopping often to work on other commissions including the painting of more than 300 figures on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel from 1508-12.

From 1534 to 1541, Michelangelo produced an enormous fresco “The Last Judgment” in the Sistine Chapel. “A depiction of the second coming of Christ and the apocalypse, the work was controversial even before its unveiling because of the depictions of nude saints in the papal chapel, which were considered obscene and sacrilegious.”

From about 1516, Michelangelo began to focus his attention more on architecture. In 1534, he designed plans for the Medici Tombs and the Laurentian Library attached to the church of San Lorenzo. In 1536, he designed the Piazza del Campidoglio, and in 1546 he was appointed architect of Saint Peter’s Basilica and designed its dome. From 1561-65, Michelangelo’s final plans were for the Porta Pia, a gate in the Aurelian Walls of Rome.

More than any other artist, “Michelangelo elevated the status of the artist above the level of craftsman. His deeply felt religious convictions were manifested in his art. For him, the body was the soul’s prison. By using movement, monumental forms, and gesture to express spiritual urges, he opened up new artistic vistas in the direction of Mannerism and the Baroque.”

Michelangelo was known to be a complicated man. “Arrogant with others and constantly dissatisfied with himself, he nonetheless authored tender poetry. In spite of his legendary impatience and indifference to food and drink, he committed himself to tasks that required years of sustained attention, creating some of the most beautiful human figures ever imagined.”

“He constantly cried poverty, even declaring to his apprentice Ascanio Condivi: ‘However rich I may have been, I have always lived like a poor man’, yet he amassed a considerable fortune that kept his family comfortable for centuries. And though he enjoyed the reputation of being a solitary genius and continually withdrew himself from the company of others, he also directed dozens of assistants, quarrymen, and stonemasons to carry out his work.”

Michelangelo’s final work in marble, the “Rondanini Pietà,” was left unfinished. He died in Rome on February 18, 1564 at the age of 88.


The-Torment-of-Saint-Anthony---Michelangelo-1487--88
The Creation of Man-Sistine Chapel-Michelangelo- 1508-12





Sources: The Getty Museum, Wikipedia, Michelangelo.syr.edu

Filed Under: Architecture, ART, Art History, Drawing, Painting, Sculpture Tagged With: Italian Art, Italian Renaissance, Michelangelo, Renaissance Art

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio: 1571-1610

September 29, 2016 By Wendy Campbell

Michelangelo Merisi da CaravaggioBorn in Milan, Italy on September 29, 1571, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio is considered one of the first great painters of the Baroque school and a revolutionary figure in European art.

Caravaggio trained in Milan under the Lombard painter Simone Peterzano, a pupil of Titian – the leading painter of the 16th century Venetian school of the Italian Renaissance.

In 1592, Caravaggio fled Milan for Rome after becoming involved in a quarrel that resulted in the wounding of a police officer. With next to no money to survive, he found work with Giuseppe Cesari – Pope Clement VIII’s favourite painter. Here, he painted flowers and fruit in a factory-like workshop until 1594.

Carvaggio’s luck changed in 1595 when Cardinal Francesco del Monte became his patron, taking him into his house, where Caravaggio received his first public commissions. These made him popular in a short period of time.

Carvaggio preferred to paint his subjects with intense realism with all of their flaws and defects in contrast to the typical idealized representations produced by Italian Renaissance painters such as Michelangelo. He also differed in his method of painting, preferring the Venetian practice of painting his subjects directly without any traditional lengthy preparatory drawings.

From 1600-1606, Caravaggio received numerous prestigious commissions for religious works, increasing his fame over this period. But for all his success, Caravaggio led an unruly life. He was known for brawling and was arrested and imprisoned numerous times. In May of 1606, Caravaggio killed (possibly by accident) a man named Ranuccio Tomassoni. Wanted for murder, he fled Rome for Naples where he also became well known, receiving several important church commissions.

Caravaggio stayed in Naples for only a few months before traveling to the headquarters of the Knights of Malta where he hoped to gain the patronage of the Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt, who could help him obtain a pardon for his murder charge. The Grand Master was so impressed with Caravaggio that he made him a knight.

In August 1608, Carvaggio was in trouble again after a brawl and was arrested and imprisoned. It was not long after that he was expelled from the Knights and was on the move again – this time to Sicily where his friend Mario Minniti was living.

Caravaggio returned to Naples after nine months in Sicily, still hoping to secure a pardon from the Pope and return to Rome. In 1610, believing his pardon would be granted, he began his journey by boat back to Rome. With him were his final three paintings which he planned to give to Cardinal Scipione, who had the power to grant or withhold his pardon. Caravaggio never made it home.

Carvaggio’s death is the subject of much debate. No body was found and there were several accounts of his death including a religious assassination and malaria. A poet friend of the artist gave July 18, 1610 as his date of death. In 2001, an Italian researcher claims to have found the death certificate which says that he died on that same date in S Maria Ausiliatrice Hospital of an illness.

For a full biography and to view Caravaggio’s complete works, visit Caravaggio-Foundation.org.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio - The Taking of Christ c-1598
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio - The Death of the Virgin 1606
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio - David with the Head of Goliath
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio - The Musicians 1595-96
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio - Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy c-1595
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio - Narcissus c1597-99
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio - Judith Beheading Holofernes c-1598
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio - Amor Vincit Omnia 1601-1602
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio - St Jerome 1605-1606

Sources: Caravaggio Foundation, MET Museum, BBC, Wikipedia

Filed Under: ART, Art History, Painting Tagged With: Baroque Art, Caravaggio, Caravaggio Birthday, Italian Art

Raphael: 1483-1520

April 6, 2016 By Wendy Campbell

Born in Urbino, Italy on April 6 (or March 28) 1483, Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino aka Raphael was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. Though his career was short,  Raphael produced works of “extraordinary refinement” that would have a great influence on European painting. Along with Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, Raphael was a member of the trinity of the great masters of the Renaissance.

Raphael first trained with his father Giovanni Santi, who was a court painter. After his father’s death in 1494, he traveled extensively and worked with several masters including the dominant Umbrian painter Pietro Perugino. From about 1500, Raphael became an independent master  and worked throughout central Italy where he became known as a portraitist and painter of Madonnas.

In 1508, Raphael moved to Rome to work on Pope Julius II’s papal apartments. “Raphael’s frescoes there and the  Stanza d’Eliodoro and dell’Incendio, along with Michelangelo’s work in the nearby Sistine Chapel, represent the finest examples of High Renaissance art. “

Raphael’s commissions increased in Rome and he was dependent on teams of assistants to assist in the completion of his projects. He was a superior draftsmen and used drawings extensively  to refine his poses and compositions, apparently to a greater extent than most other painters.

After the achitect Donato Bramante’s death in 1514, Raphael was named architect of  St Peter’s Basilica. Most of his work there was altered or demolished after his death and the acceptance of Michelangelo’s design, but a few drawings have survived. Raphael designed several other buildings, and for a short time was the most important architect in Rome, working for a small circle around the Papacy.

The Vatican projects took most of Raphael’s  time. “Among Raphael’s most famous works are the frescos that are painted on the walls of Julius II’s own rooms in the Vatican Palace, known as the Stanze. The paintings in the Stanza della Segnatura and the Stanza d’Eliodoro were created by Raphael himself, whilst the Stanza dell’Incendio was designed by Raphael and painted by his assistants.”

Another important papal commission was the “Raphael Cartoons”, a series of 10 cartoons, of which seven survive, for tapestries with scenes of the lives of Saint Paul and Saint Peter, for the Sistine Chapel. The cartoons were sent to Brussels to be woven in the workshop of Pier van Aelst. It is possible that Raphael saw the finished series before his death which were most likely completed in 1520.

At the age of 37, Raphael died on his birthday, April 6, 1520, after a short illness. He was buried in the Pantheon.   His two main assistants, Giulio Romano and Gianfrancesco Penni, inherited his studio and completed the outstanding contracts.

“Raphael was highly admired by his contemporaries, although his influence on artistic style in his own century was less than that of Michelangelo. Mannerism, beginning at the time of his death, and later the Baroque, took art “in a direction totally opposed” to Raphael’s qualities with Raphael’s death, classic art – the High Renaissance – subsided.”

Self-Portrait-Raphael-1506
The-Transfiguration-Raphael-1518-1520
The-Three-Graces-Raphael-1504-05
The-Parnassus-Raphael-1509-1511
The-Battle-at-Pons-Milvius-Raphael-1520-24
Self-Portrait-Raphael-1499
School-of-Athens-Raphael-1509
Psyche Received on Olympus-Raphael-1517
Portrait-of-Pope-Leo-X-and-Two-Cardinals-Raphael-1519-19
Portrait of a Woman-Raphael-1507
Madonna-della-Seggiola-Raphael-1514
Madonna-and-Child-Enthroned-with-Saints-Raphael-1504-05
Lady-with-a-Unicorn-Raphael-1505
La-Fornarina-Raphael-1518
Kneeling-Nude-Woman-Raphael-1518
Holy-Family-with-St.-Joseph-Raphael-1506
Holy-Family-below-the-Oak-Raphael-1518
Healing-of-the-Lame-Man-Raphael-1515
Gregory-IX-Approving-the-Decretals---Raphael-1511
Double-Portrait-Raphael-1518
Diotalevi-Madonna-Raphael-1503
Crucifixion-Raphael-1502-03
Christ-Supported-by-Two-Angels-Raphael-1490
Christ Falls on the Way to Calvary-Raphael-1517
Ceiling-Stanza di Eliodoro-Raphael-1512
Ceiling-Stanza della Segnatura-Raphael-1509-1511
Cardinal Tommaso Inghirami-Raphael-1515-16
Bridgewater-Madonna-Raphael-1511
Head of a Muse - Raphael

 

Sources: J. Paul Getty Museum, National Gallery London, Athenaeum (images), Wikipedia

Filed Under: Architecture, ART, Art History, Drawing, Painting Tagged With: Italian Art, Italian Renaissance, Raphael, St. Peter's Basilica

Alessia Iannetti: Daphne Descends @ Dorothy Circus Gallery

March 3, 2013 By Wendy Campbell

Blue-Throat-Alessia Iannetti

Alessia Iannetti was born in 1985 in Carrara (Italy), where she still lives and works. She enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts of Carrara, majoring in Painting and studying under Omar Galliani and Fabio Sciortino.

“Her work, characterized by an illustrative style, is nourished by poetic elements, the artist prefers the classical drawing technique, creating an encounter of hyperrealism of subjects, details and a surreal dimension where female characters, evanescent as spirits, reign in a space between infancy and adulthood. Her pale creatures, angels or demons, nymphs of the forest, or gothic lolitas, breathe in a natural, fantastic universe where metaphors and dark symbols pullulate; references of the dream world that send us to Pre-Raphaelite and Symbolist Painting. Her moths, little hummingbirds that sew blinding sutures, or nourish through the blood of a sacred heart. Her dragonflies that enlighten the darkness and other fragile tiny insects, getting lost in the thick vegetation to live there hidden as locked secrets. All these arcane elements are re-interpretated in a dark way by the artist, who associate them to the world of literature, horror movies, Indie and Alternative Rock music; an essential ingredient and soundtrack of her creative process.

The exhibition Daphne Descends takes name from the song of the Smashing Pumpkins and follows the mith of Apollo and Daphne. Ten brand new artworks, with Iannetti’s unique style, realized in graphite and oil colors on wood or paper, take us through a surreal exciting fusion with Mother Nature.” ( from artist’s website)

Daphne Descends runs through April 6, 2013. For more information, visit Dorothy Circus Gallery. Check out more of Iannetti’s work at AlessiaIannetti.carbonmade.com
Blue-Throat-Alessia Iannetti


Filed Under: ART, Drawing, Painting Tagged With: Alessia Iannetti, Italian Art

Nicoletta Ceccoli: Girls Don’t Cry @ Roq La Rue Gallery

January 18, 2012 By Wendy Campbell

Italian artist Nicoletta Ceccoli (featured) has a new exhibition entitled “Girls Don’t Cry” on now at Roq La Rue Gallery in Seattle.

Ceccoli has made a name for herself illustrating children’s books, including winning the prestigious Italian Anderson Prize for best illustrator of the year in 2001. She recently has been showing paintings in US galleries and has already has already garnered great demand for her allegorical, luminous, dream-like paintings, which usually feature characters in occasionally provocative Alice-In-Wonderland type scenarios. Painted in acrylic on paper, each work is meticulously crafted to the point where brush stokes disappear, and each image seems to float within it’s own hazy light.

“Girls Don’t Cry” runs through February 4, 2012. To see more from this exhibition, visit Roq La Rue Gallery. To see previous works, visit NicolettaCeccoli.com.



Filed Under: ART Tagged With: Italian Art, Nicoletta Ceccoli

Andrea Petrachi: Cyber Sculptures

August 31, 2011 By Wendy Campbell

Born in Lecce, Italy in 1975, Andrea Petrachi a.k.a. Himatic creates cyber sculptures from things most of people simply throw away. His work is based on the assembly of everyday items,  discarded electronics, gadgets and toys. Himatic sees his work as a symbol of our out-of-control desire to buy things.

Petrachi will be exhibiting at the EU Robot Festival from November 30, 2011 – December 5, 2011 at the Science Museum, London.

To see more, check out AdreaPetrachi.com.



All images © Andrea Petrachi © photo: Giuseppe Fogarizzu

Filed Under: ART, Eco-Art, Mixed Media, Sculpture Tagged With: Andrea Petrachi, Assemblage Art, Italian Art

Silvia Pelissero: Mixed Media

June 23, 2011 By Wendy Campbell

Silvia Pelissero (aka Agnes-Cecile), is a young artist from Rome, Italy. Pelissero studied at Liceo Artistico Giorgio De Chirico in Rome and  works in a variety of mediums including watercolour, oil, acrylic, varnish, and digital paintings.

To see more visit Pelissero’s portfolio on Deviant Art. There is also a video on YouTube showing the artist in action.




Filed Under: ART, Digital, Drawing, Mixed Media, Women in Visual Arts Tagged With: Agnes-Cecile, Italian Art, Silvia Pelissero, Watercolour

Stefano Bonazzi: Photo Manipulation

June 9, 2011 By Wendy Campbell

Based in Ferrara, Italy  mixed media artist Stefano Bonazzi uses charcoal drawings, photo manipulation, and digital photography to create his surreal concepts.

“All my work is steeped in the perspective with which to face life, a disillusioned and cynical vision that leads me to focus on the negative aspects of things. Theway I look at reality, however, is not disillusionment, but rather an alternative view to doing good and depicting falsehoods that are a basic part of our society.  My creative path winds through the representation of states of mind tormented, but never definitive. I am fascinated by the endless shades in between that color our contemporary life, I love the gray rather than black and white. The feelings of anxiety and discomfort, which belong in some way each of us, as well as the approach that we have about death.”

To see more, visit StefanoBonazzi.it.




Filed Under: ART, Digital, Mixed Media, Photography Tagged With: Italian Art, Stefano Bonazzi

Leonardo da Vinci: 1452 – 1519

April 15, 2011 By Wendy Campbell

In honour of the great Leonardo da Vinci’s birthday (April 15, 1452), DAF is replaying this interesting Ted Talk by Siegfried Woldhek on the “True Face of Leonardo”.  A full biography of da Vinci is on the way – stay tuned.

Filed Under: ART, Art History, Drawing, Video Tagged With: Italian Art, Leonardo da Vinci

Nicoletta Ceccoli: Painting

August 3, 2010 By Wendy Campbell

candyforest-nicoletta-ceccoli

Nicoletta Ceccoli was born in San Marino, Italy and graduated from the Institute of Art in Urbino where she studied animation cinema.

While Ceccoli is gaining  recognition as a painter, she is already well known as an award winning children’s book illustrator. Working with publishers in Italy, the US, and the UK, some of her credits include The Faery’s Gift, Fiendish Deeds (Joy of Spooking), Horns and Wrinkles, and Oscar and the Mooncats. In 2001, Nicoletta was awarded with the Andersen prize as best Italian illustrator of the year. She is also a four time recipient of the ‘Award of Excellence’ from Communication Arts. As well, in 2006 she received the silver medal from Society of Illustrators (New York).

With influences such as Remedios Varo, Domenico Gnoli, Paolo Uccello, Mark Ryden, Edward Gorey, Winsor McKay, and Ray Caesar, Ceccoli creates her own unique style of  surrealism with doll-like characters and other strange creatures that are darkly whimsical.

Ceccoli’s work has been exhibited at numerous galleries including Roq la Rue (Seattle), Magic Pony (Toronto), Dorothy Circus (Rome), and the Richard Goodall Gallery (Manchester). Her illustrations have been shown at the Bologna Children’s Book fair seven times.

For more information about Nicoletta Ceccoli, visit her website at NicolettaCeccoli.com.com. There is also a great interview at Arrested Motion.





Sources: Arrested Motion, Richard Goodall Gallery (images)

Filed Under: ART, Illustration, Women in Visual Arts Tagged With: Italian Art, Nicoletta Ceccoli

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