Spinello di Luca Spinelli, c.1346-1410, Italian painter, usually called Spinello Aretino from his birthplace, Arezzo. He was a leading exponent of the late Giottesque style (see
Giotto). He painted frescoes of the life of St. Benedict (Church of San Miniato, Florence) that were restored by a later painter, and the history of Pope Alexander III (Palazzo Pubblico, Siena). Several of his altarpieces are in the Academy, Florence; two paintings of the
Madonna and Child are in the Fogg Museum, Cambridge; and
St. Mary Magdalen is in the Metropolitan Museum.
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Santarosa, Santorre Annibale De Rossi di Pomarolo, conte di, 1783-1825, Italian revolutionary. Hoping to establish a constitutional monarchy under
Charles Albert, heir to the throne of Sardinia, he organized an unsuccessful revolution in Piedmont in 1821. He fled to Switzerland, then died while fighting for Greek independence.
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Rustico di Filippo, 13th cent. Italian poet. He was perhaps one of the first to use the Tuscan dialect in literature. Some 60 of his sonnets, most of them in a burlesque vein, are extant. He was a friend of Brunetto
Latini.
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Rudinì, Antonio Starrabba or Starabba, marchese di, 1839-1908, Italian political leader. A Sicilian revolutionist, he was mayor of Palermo (1864), prefect of Naples (1868), minister of the interior (1869), and twice premier (1891-92, 1896-98) as the leader of the right. He renewed the Triple Alliance (1891) and attempted a rapprochement with France. He was obliged to resign in 1898 after having severely suppressed a series of bread riots.
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Rosso di San Secondo, Piermaria, 1887-1956, Italian writer, b. Sicily. His sophisticated plays include Marionette, che passione! (1918) and La bella addormentata [sleeping beauty] (1919). His novel La fuga [flight] appeared in 1917 and Banda municipale, short stories, in 1954.
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Rienzi or Rienzo, Cola di, 1313?-1354, Roman popular leader. In 1343 on a mission to Pope Clement VI at Avignon, he won the papal confidence. While there he befriended Petrarch. Returning to Rome as papal votary, he won great popular support and received (May, 1347) wide dictatorial powers, which he claimed to hold under the pope's sovereignty. He crushed the barons and began great reforms in an effort to rouse an Italian national conscience. Calling himself tribune of the sacred Roman republic, he sought to rally the support of the other Italian cities and dreamed of a popular Italian empire with Rome as the capital. The pope, aroused by his policies, incited the barons against him. Renzi was defeated (Dec., 1347) and fled. At Prague in 1350 he disclosed to Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV his conviction that they shared a call to regenerate the Roman Catholic Church and the world. Charles, however, responded by jailing him and in 1352 sent him to Avignon to face the Inquisition. The new pope, Innocent VI, subsequently absolved and freed Rienzi and sent him with Cardinal Albornoz to Italy. The cardinal made him senator, and Rienzi entered Rome in triumph, but his violent and arbitrary rule soon resulted in a popular uprising and in his murder. In modern times Rienzi has been idealized as a forerunner of Italian nationalism.
See study by V. Fleischer (1948, repr. 1970).
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Reggio di Calabria, city (1991 pop. 177,580), capital of Reggio di Calabria prov., Calabria, extreme S Italy, on the Strait of Messina opposite Sicily. An impoverished area, it is a beach resort and an important agricultural market for fruits and tobacco. Bergamot essence (used in perfume) is produced there. Known as
Rhegium in ancient times, the city became (12th cent.) part of the kingdom of Sicily and later (13th cent.) of Naples. Its strategic position has resulted in numerous foreign invasions and incursions. The city has also suffered many earthquakes—the worst came in 1783 and 1908. In 1970-71 there was considerable unrest in the city when the capital of Calabria was shifted from Reggio to Catanzaro. The National Museum in Reggio has rich collections of ancient art.
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Pozzo di Borgo, Carlo Andrea, 1764-1842. Corsican politician and diplomat in Russian service, b. Corsica. In the French Revolution, he allied with Pasquale
Paoli against the Jacobins on Corsica and supported the British occupation of the island in 1794. He became head of the British-backed civil government, superseding Paoli. After the French reconquest of Corsica (1796), Pozzo di Borgo left the island. He entered the Russian diplomatic service in 1804. An irreconcilable enemy of the Bonapartes (largely because of the role they had played in Corsican events), he helped to promote the Russo-Austrian alliance of 1805 against Napoleon I. The treaty of Tilsit (1807) between Czar Alexander I and Napoleon (1807) caused him to retire from the Russian service. Alexander recalled him in 1812, when hostilities with France reopened. In 1814, after Napoleon's first abdication, he was appointed Russian ambassador in Paris. Strongly sympathetic to the restored Bourbon regime, he strove to lighten the burdens laid on it by the allies. His pro-French attitude eventually caused his transfer to London, where he served (1835-39) as ambassador.
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Piero di Cosimo, 1462-1521, Florentine painter, whose name was Piero di Lorenzo. He adopted the name of his master, Cosimo Rosselli, whom he accompanied to Rome in 1482 and assisted in the decorating of the Sistine Chapel. His religious works have charm, but more important are his animated mythological scenes. Commissioned by the Florentine Francesco Pugliese, he painted many works depicting the life of primitive man. Among these pictures are the
Hunting Scene and the
Return from the Hunt (both: Metropolitan Mus.);
Discovery of Honey (Worcester Mus.);
Discovery of Wine (Fogg Mus., Cambridge); and
Vulcan and Aeolus (National Art Gall. of Canada, Ottawa). Other well-known works by Piero are the
Death of Procris (National Gall., London) and
Simonetta Vespucci (Chantilly). The influence of Leonardo da Vinci is evident in some of his work, including the
Portrait of a Woman with a Rabbit (Yale Univ.).
See biography by R. L. Douglas (1946); S. J. Freedberg, Painting of the High Renaissance (1961).
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Pescara, Ferdinando Francesco d'Avalos, marchese di, 1490?-1525, Spanish-Neapolitan general in the Italian Wars. He served Charles V, Holy Roman emperor and king of Spain, and was chiefly responsible for the brilliant Spanish victory over Francis I of France at Pavia (1525). His wife was Vittoria
Colonna.
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Parma, Alessandro Farnese, duca di: see
Farnese, Alessandro.
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Niccolò di Piero Lamberti, c.1370-1451, Italian sculptor and architect of the early Renaissance, sometimes called Niccolò d'Arezzo. He worked mostly in Florence on decorations for the cathedral and for the Church of Orsanmichele and in Venice on the facade of St. Mark's.
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Nanni d'Antonio di Banco, c.1384-1421, Florentine sculptor. After study with his father, Antonio di Banco, who worked on the cathedral of Florence, Nanni executed his major figural sculpture for the cathedral and the Church of Orsanmichele. He relied upon classical Roman models for elements of his basically Gothic figures. Many of his works stood as companions to works by
Donatello.
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Monteleone di Calabria: see
Vibo Valentia, Italy.
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Montecucculi or Montecuccoli, Raimondo, conte di, 1609-80, Italian military commander in the service of the Holy Roman Empire. He distinguished himself in the Thirty Years War and was later sent to Hungary to take the field against the Ottomans. His victory (1664) at Szentgotthárd was the first serious blow to Ottoman power in Hungary. In the Dutch War of 1672-78, Montecucculi commanded imperial forces with mixed success against the French generals Turenne and Condé. He was made (1679) a prince of the Holy Roman Empire and duke of Melfi. After retirement he wrote on military subjects.
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Lorenzo di Pietro, c.1412-1480, Sienese painter, sculptor, and goldsmith, called Il Vecchietta. He painted a group of frescoes and a relic press in the hospital at Siena; four ceilings in the Baptistery of San Giovanni at Siena; an altarpiece, The Assumption of the Virgin, his masterpiece (cathedral, Pienza); a triptych, Madonna with Saints (Uffizi); St. Catherine and the Virgin of Mercy, fragments of frescoes (Palazzo Pubblico, Siena); and a Madonna (Siena). Lorenzo was one of the most important painters of the later Sienese school. He also executed many sculptures, including The Risen Christ (Santa Maria della Scala, Siena) and a bronze relief, The Resurrection (Frick Coll., N.Y.).
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Lorenzo di Credi, 1459-1537, Florentine painter. He spent his early years in the workshop of Verrocchio, whom he assisted in the painting of an altarpiece at the Cathedral of Pistoia. He was strongly influenced by his fellow pupil Leonardo da Vinci, whose works he copied devotedly. Examples of his art are two of the Madonna (Turin); Annunciation (Uffizi); Madonna Adoring the Child (Metropolitan Mus.); and Boy's Head (Mus. of Fine Arts, Boston).
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Lido di Venezia, long, narrow, sandy island in Venetia, Italy, separating the lagoon of Venice from the Adriatic. It has a beautiful beach and is one of the most fashionable bathing resorts in Europe.
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Lasso, Orlando di, 1532-94, Franco-Flemish composer, b. Mons, also known as Orlandus Lassus or Roland de Lassus. Lasso represents the culmination of Renaissance musical art. At age 12, he entered the service of Ferrante Gonzaga, viceroy of Sicily. Thereafter, he worked variously in Naples (1550-53), Rome (1553-54), and Munich (1556-94). In 1570 he was raised to a hereditary rank of nobility by Emperor Maximilian II, and in 1574 he became one of the very few musicians to receive a papal knighthood. Lasso brought Flemish polyphony to its highest development in the Renaissance and distilled in his music the best elements of European music of his time. His more than 2,000 works in every form known to his day—masses, motets, French chansons, Italian madrigals, German lieder, and others—make him one of the most versatile and cosmopolitan composers in history. In contrast to the restrained mystical style of Palestrina, Lasso's music is vigorous, often passionate and earthy. Many of his love songs were set to poems by Petrarch and other poets. Undisputed master of the motet, he showed his skill at its richest in the
Magnum opus musicum (pub. 1604), a selection of 516 sacred motets. His best-known works are his
Penitential Psalms of David (c.1560; pub. 1584) and his last work,
Lagrime di San Pietro (1594), completed three weeks before he died.
See A. Einstein, The Italian Madrigal (1949); G. Reese, Music in the Renaissance (2d ed. 1961); and studies by W. Boettiches (1958) and H. Leuchtmann (1976).
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Lampedusa, Giuseppe di, 1896-1957, Italian novelist. A wealthy Sicilian prince, Lampedusa drew on his family's history for his internationally acclaimed work,
Il gattopardo, published posthumously in 1958 (tr.
The Leopard, 1960). In urbane, elegant style, Lampedusa depicts the demise of an old, aristocratic society that came about with the unification of Italy. Lampedusa based much of his novel on Sicilian history as well as on autobiography. His only other work is
Racconti (1961; tr.
Two Stories and a Memory, 1962).
See biography by D. Gilmour (1988).
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Giovanni, Bertoldo di: see
Bertoldo di Giovanni.
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Giovanni di Pietro: see
Spagna, Lo.
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Giovanni di Paolo, c.1403-1483, major Italian painter of the Sienese school. Typical of the Sienese painters of his era, he paid scant attention to the artistic innovations made in nearby Florence, but often depended on the style established by the Sienese masters of the 14th cent. Fortunately, Giovanni di Paolo was endowed with great imagination. His first dated work (1426) was the Pecci altarpiece (major panels in Siena; predella panels in the Walters Art Gall., Baltimore). He produced a tremendous number of works during his long career. Many paintings have remained in Siena, but there are probably more examples of his art in the United States. The Metropolitan Museum has several of his paintings; among them is a delightful scene of Paradise; in the Philip Lehman collection is the exquisite Creation of the World. The Madonna and Child in a Landscape (Mus. of Fine Arts, Boston) exemplifies his inclination toward pure fantasy and disregard for the laws of perspective. Giovanni di Paolo is best represented by six highly expressive scenes from the life of St. John the Baptist (Art Inst., Chicago). Examples of his work are in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; the Johnson Collection, Philadelphia; the Gardner Museum, Boston; the Fogg Museum, Cambridge; and at Yale Univ.
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Giorgio, Francesco di (Francesco di Giorgio Martini), 1439-1502, also called Francesco di Giorgio Martini, Italian engineer, architect, painter, and sculptor, b. Siena. With Renaissance versatility he worked as military architect and engineer, first at Siena (1463-78) and later in the service of Lorenzo de' Medici and the duke of Urbino. He constructed parts of the ducal palace at Urbino and influenced architectural design in the Marches. In Milan he made a model for the dome of the cathedral. As a sculptor, he is remembered for his work in the choir of the Siena Cathedral. His paintings, which show the influence of the Botticelli circle, have great charm. They remain mostly in Siena. His treatise
Trattato di architettura civile e militare, written c.1482 and based on Vitruvius is one of the most important documents of Renaissance architectural theory. It was first published in 1841.
See study by A. S. Weller (1943).
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Gattinara, Mercurino Arborio, marchese di, 1465-1530, Italian statesman and jurist, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. After a distinguished legal career in his native Piedmont, he served
Margaret of Austria as counselor. In 1518 he was made chancellor by the king of Spain, later Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V. A humanist and a scholar, Gattinara had much influence upon Charles, whom he urged to create a dynastic empire. Gattinara was made a cardinal in 1529.
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Francesco di Stefano: see
Pesellino, Il.
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Filipepi, Alessandro di Mariano: see
Botticelli, Sandro.
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Duccio, Agostino di: see
Agostino di Duccio.
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Duccio di Buoninsegna, fl. 1278-1319, early Italian artist, first great painter of Siena. Infusing new life into the stylized Byzantine tradition, he initiated a style intrinsic to the development of the Sienese school—the expressive use of outline. The use of line varied from a vigorous quality in his rendering of narrative scenes to a lyrical and majestic tone in his portrayal of the Madonna and angels. In Siena he is recorded as having decorated some official chests in 1278 and as having painted a book cover in 1285. Also in 1285 he was commissioned to paint a Madonna for Santa Maria Novella, Florence, today identified with the Rucellai Madonna (Uffizi). His most celebrated and only authenticated work is a large altar called the Maestà in the Siena cathedral. It was finished in 1311 and was carried to its place by a rejoicing populace. While the main panel of the altar remains in the cathedral, the scattered predelle are now in the galleries of London and Berlin; the Frick Collection, New York City; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; and several private collections. Several other works are attributed to Duccio on stylistic grounds, including the design of stained-glass windows in the cathedral at Siena.
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Credi, Lorenzo di: see
Lorenzo di Credi.
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Colonna, Vittoria, marchesa di Pescara, 1492-1547, Italian poet; daughter of Fabrizio Colonna. Her love for her husband, Ferrante d'Avalos, is the subject of part of her lamenting verse. After his death (1525) she lived in convents, devoting herself to religious reform. The larger part of her work treats religious themes. In her later years she was a close friend of Michelangelo. For a translation of her verse, see Lorna de' Lucchi, An Anthology of Italian Poems (1922).
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Cione, Andrea di: see
Orcagna.
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Certosa di Pavia, former Carthusian abbey of Pavia. One of the most magnificent of all monastic structures, it has been maintained as a national monument since 1866. The church, forming its nucleus, was begun in the style of the Italian Gothic in 1396 by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, duke of Milan. Little more than the nave was executed in this style, since the Renaissance, diffusing its new taste, quickly dominated the design of the edifice. The facade seems to have been begun in 1491 by a group of architects and sculptors under the leadership of Giovanni Antonio Amadeo; it was finished in the mid-16th cent. Built of rich marbles and profusely ornamented with fine sculptural decorations, the facade is one of the masterpieces of Renaissance decorative design. The two large arcaded cloisters are of richly ornamented terra-cotta. The main choir was badly damaged in World War II but was restored between 1953 and 1959.
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Cavour, Camillo Benso, conte di, 1810-61, Italian statesman, premier (1852-59, 1860-61) of the Kingdom of
Sardinia. The active force behind King
Victor Emmanuel II, he was responsible more than any other man for the unification of Italy under the house of Savoy (see
Risorgimento). Of a noble Piedmontese family, he entered the army early but came under suspicion for his liberal ideas and was forced to resign in 1831. He then devoted himself to travel, agricultural experimentation, and the study of politics.
In 1847 he founded the liberal daily, Il Risorgimento, through which he successfully pressed King Charles Albert of Sardinia to grant a constitution to his people and to make war on Austria in 1848-49. A member of parliament briefly in 1848 and again in July of the following year, he became minister of agriculture and commerce (1850), finance minister (1851), and premier (1852). As premier, he aimed at making the kingdom of Sardinia the leading Italian state by introducing progressive internal reforms. Having reorganized the administration, the financial and legal system, industry, and the army, he won for Sardinia prestige and a place among the powers through participation in the Crimean War (1855).
Conscious of the failures of the 1848-49 revolution, Cavour probably did not believe that the creation of a unified Italy was feasible within his lifetime; until at least 1859 he strove rather for an aggrandized N Italian kingdom under the house of Savoy. To achieve this goal he wooed foreign support against Austrian domination. In 1858, by an agreement reached at Plombières, he won the backing of Emperor Napoleon III of France for a war against Austria, promising in exchange to cede Savoy and possibly Nice to France. Austria was maneuvered into declaring war (1859) and was forced to cede Lombardy. But Cavour resigned the premiership when France refused to continue fighting and signed the separate armistice of Villafranca di Verona with Austria.
Cavour returned to office in 1860. In that year Tuscany, Parma, Modena, and the Romagna voted for annexation to Sardinia, and Giuseppe Garibaldi overran the Two Sicilies. Cavour, taking advantage of the auspicious circumstances for Italian unification, sent Sardinian troops into the Papal States, which, with the exception of Latium and Rome, were soon annexed to Sardinia. By his superior statesmanship Cavour convinced Garibaldi to relinquish his authority in the south and avoided foreign intervention in favor of the dispossessed rulers and of the pope, whose interests he professed to be safeguarding. The annexation (1860) of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies was consummated with the abdication (1861) of Francis II. Cavour's labors were crowned two months before his death, when the kingdom of Italy was proclaimed under Victor Emmanuel II.
See studies by D. M. Smith (1954 and 1971).
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Catena, Vincenzo di Biagio, c.1470-1531, Venetian painter. His early work, reflecting the influence of Giovanni Bellini, includes the two paintings of
Madonna and Child with Saints in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, and the Academy, Venice. In his later period Catena followed closely the style of Giorgione. The best works of this period are
The Doge Loredan Kneeling before the Madonna (Correr Mus., Venice);
The Martyrdom of St. Christina (Church of Santa Maria Mater Domini, Venice); and
Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter (Gardner Mus., Boston).
See monograph by G. Robertson (1954).
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Castellammare di Stabia, city (1991 pop. 68,720), in Campania, S Italy, on the Bay of Naples. A summer resort and spa, it has thermal mineral springs that have been used since Roman times. It is also a commercial and industrial center, with shipyards founded in 1783. Manufactures include food products, paper, and cement. The city was built on the site of Stabiae, a favorite Roman resort, which was buried in the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in A.D. 79. The royal villa, Quisisana (built 1310, rebuilt 1820), is now a hotel.
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Canosa di Puglia, Lat. Canusium, city (1991 pop. 31,240), Apulia, S Italy, on the Ofanto River. It is a commercial and agricultural center. The city flourished under the Romans and was noted for its wool and its fine vases, many of which have been unearthed in nearby tombs (3d and 4th cent. B.C.). The Romans fled to Canusium after their disastrous defeat by Hannibal at nearby Cannae (216 B.C.). The city was destroyed by the Arabs in the 9th cent. but was resettled by the Normans in the 11th cent. There are other Roman remains, including walls, an amphitheater, and a gate. The city also has an 11th-century Romanesque cathedral and the mausoleum of the Norman leader Bohemond I (d. 1111), which has fine sculptured bronze doors.
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Campagna di Roma, low-lying region surrounding the city of Rome, c.800 sq mi (2,070 sq km), Campania, central Italy. A favorite residential area in Roman times, it was later largely abandoned for centuries because of the prevalence of malaria and the lack of sufficient water for cultivation. Much of the region was reclaimed in the 19th and 20th cent. It is now used to grow crops and to pasture cattle; new settlements have been founded. There are remains of Roman aqueducts and tombs.
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Cambio, Arnolfo di: see
Arnolfo di Cambio.
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Cagliostro, Alessandro, Conte di, 1743-95, Italian adventurer, magician, and alchemist, whose real name was Giuseppe Balsamo. After early misadventures in Italy he traveled in Greece, Arabia, Persia, and Egypt. While in Italy, he married Lorenza Feliciani, who became his assistant on his trips to the cities of Europe, where he posed as a physician, alchemist, mesmerist, necromancer, and Freemason. He claimed the secret of the philosopher's stone and of miraculous philters and potions. As the Grand Copt of the order of Egyptian Masonry he organized many lodges. His reputation was amazing, particularly at the court of French king Louis XVI. Implicated in the Affair of the
Diamond Necklace, he was imprisoned, acquitted, and banished. Cagliostro returned to Rome in 1789, where the Inquisition charged him with heresy and sorcery. Imprisoned for life, he died in a dungeon. Cagliostro has fascinated later generations as well as his contemporaries, and he appears often in literary works.
See biographies by F. King (1929), W. R. H. Trowbridge (new ed. 1961), F. R. Dumas (tr. 1968), R. Gervaso (tr. 1974), R. Silva (1975), T. Freller (1997), and I. McCalman (2003); H. C. Schnur, Mystic Rebels (1949).
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Buoninsegna, Duccio di: see
Duccio di Buoninsegna.
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Betto, Bernardino di: see
Pinturicchio.
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Bertoldo di Giovanni, c.1420-91, Italian sculptor. A pupil and assistant to Donatello and later the teacher of Michelangelo, Bertoldo was employed by the Medici to supervise instruction in sculpture and care for their collection of antique sculpture. His own works, often small bronzes, include battle scenes and mythological episodes (e.g., Orpheus, Bargello, Florence).
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Beccaria, Cesare Bonesana, marchese di, 1738-94, Italian criminologist, economist, and jurist, b. Milan. Although of a retiring disposition, he held, in the Austrian government, several public offices, the highest being counselor of state. Through these and through his writings he influenced local economic reforms and stimulated penal reform throughout Europe. As a young man he published (1764) his famous
Essay on Crimes and Punishments (tr. 1767; 2d American ed. 1819, repr. 1953). The book, widely acclaimed in Western Europe, was one of the first arguments against capital punishment and inhuman treatment of criminals. His ideas especially influenced Jeremy Bentham and the utilitarians. He made original contributions to economic theory, applying mathematics to economics, analyzing population problems, and anticipating the wage and labor theories of Adam Smith. Much of this work appears in
Elementi di economia publica (1804), a posthumous collection of his lectures (1768-70) in political economy at Milan.
See M. Maestro, Caesare Beccaria and the Origins of Penal Reform (1973).
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Beccafumi, Domenico di Pace, 1486-1551, Italian mannerist painter and sculptor, also called Il Meccherino. He studied painting in Siena and Rome and was a versatile engraver and sculptor. He is best known for his frescoes in the city hall in Siena and for his designs of scenes from the Old Testament for the pavement of Siena Cathedral (1518-46). Among his other works are Holy Family (Pitti Palace, Florence) and some fine sculptural work for the Siena Cathedral. Nativity of the Virgin, Descent into Limbo, and St. Michael (all in Siena) exemplify the peculiar spatial and lighting effects of mannerism. Holy Family with Angels is in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
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Bartolommeo di Pagholo del Fattorino, Fra, 1475-1517, Italian painter, also called Baccio della Porta. Under the influence of Savonarola, he joined (1500) the Dominican order. He abandoned art for a while, but resumed practice in 1504, becoming the leading Florentine master for a number of years. He visited Venice (1508) and Rome (1514). Influenced by the art of Raphael, he adapted the classic equilibrium of composition and harmony of color typical of the High Renaissance. He executed a number of paintings together with Albertinelli. Among his works are Annunciation (1497, cathedral, Volterra); Vision of St. Bernard (1507, Florence Acad.); God the Father Adored by Mary Magdalen and St. Catherine (1509, Lucca); two panels of the Marriage of St. Catherine (1512, Louvre and Pitti Palace, Florence).
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Avogadro, Amedeo, conte di Quaregna, 1776-1856, Italian physicist, b. Turin. He became professor of physics at the Univ. of Turin in 1820. In 1811 he advanced the hypothesis, since known as Avogadro's law, that equal volumes of gases under identical conditions of pressure and temperature contain the same number of molecules. Since then, through the work of other physicists, the number of molecules in the gram molecular volume has been determined and found to be the same for all gases. This number (6.02×10
23) has been called
Avogadro's number. Avogadro's hypothesis, though not accepted for some fifty years after its introduction, is now one of the fundamental concepts of the atomic theory of matter.
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Arnolfo di Cambio, b. c.1245, d. before 1310, Italian architect and sculptor. He was Nicola Pisano's chief assistant on the Siena pulpit, but he soon began to work independently on important tomb sculpture. He designed admirable monuments to Cardinal Annibaldi (St. John the Lateran, Rome); Pope Adrian V (Viterbo); and Cardinal de Braye (c.1282; Orvieto). These works became the model for Gothic funerary art. Arnolfo is recognized as the foremost architect of his era. In 1296 he was in charge of construction of the cathedral in Florence. He is said to have had a hand in designing other major buildings in Florence, including the baptistery, the Church of Santa Croce, and the Palazzo Vecchio. The monumental character of Arnolfo's work has left its mark on the appearance of Florence.
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Agostino di Duccio, b. 1418, d. after 1481, Florentine sculptor. Agostino worked mainly in other parts of Italy; he carved marble narrative reliefs for the facade of the cathedral at Modena, decorated portions of the so-called Tempio Malatestiana at Rimini, and worked on the facade of San Bernardino at Perugia. Somewhat awkward in his rendering of anatomy, Agostino nevertheless developed a lively style. There are numerous charming reliefs by him of the Madonna and Child (Opera del Duomo, Florence; Louvre; National Gall. of Art, Washington, D.C.).
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or
Luca da Cortona(born 1445/50, Cortona, Republic of Florence—died Oct. 16, 1523, Cortona) Italian painter. Highly influenced by the Florentine artists, he was probably a student of Piero della Francesca. He went to Rome circa 1483, where he produced the Testament of Moses fresco in the Sistine Chapel. The dramatic action and depiction of great muscular effort in this and similar Renaissance works mark him as essentially a Florentine naturalist. His masterpiece, the End of the World and Last Judgment frescoes in Orvieto Cathedral, with their many muscular nudes, greatly influenced Michelangelo.
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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
known as
Rosso Fiorentino or
Il Rosso(born March 8, 1495, Florence, Republic of Florence—died Nov. 14, 1540, Paris, Fr.) Italian painter and decorator. He trained under Andrea del Sarto, alongside Jacopo da Pontormo, with whom he became a leading figure in the development of Mannerism. In his later work, the highly charged emotionalism of his early works (e.g., the Assumption fresco, 1513–14, in Florence's Santissima Annunziata) is more subdued; his new style is seen in his Dead Christ with Angels (1525–26). In 1530 he went to France at the invitation of Francis I; there he became a founder of the Fontainebleau school, and the ornamental style he developed influenced decorative arts across northern Europe. He remained in the royal service until his death.
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ancient
RhegiumCity (pop., 2001 prelim.: 179,384), capital of Reggio di Calabria province and former capital (until 1971) of Calabria region, southern Italy. A Greek colony founded on the Strait of Messina at the end of the 8th century BC, it was allied with Athens in the 5th century BC and with Rome circa 280 BC. From the 5th century AD it was ruled successively by the Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Byzantines, and Arabs. It was conquered by the Normans under Robert Guiscard circa 1060 and became part of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Destroyed many times by Muslim invaders and by earthquakes, it has repeatedly been rebuilt. It is a tourist resort and seaport that exports dried herbs and essential oils for the perfume and pharmaceutical industries.
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orig.
Piero di Lorenzo(born 1462, Florence, Republic of Florence—died 1521, Florence) Italian painter. His name derives from that of his master, Cosimo Rosselli, whom he assisted on frescoes for the Sistine Chapel. His later mythological paintings exhibit a bizarre Romantic style. Many are filled with fantastic hybrid human-animal forms engaging in revels (The Discovery of Honey, circa 1500) or fights (Battle of the Centaurs and the Lapiths, circa 1500). His art reflects his eccentric personality. He belonged to no school of painting but borrowed from many artists, including Sandro Botticelli and Leonardo da Vinci.
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(born Feb. 24, 1463, Mirandola, duchy of Ferrara—died Nov. 17, 1494, Florence) Italian scholar, philosopher, and humanist. He settled in Florence in 1484 as a protégé of Lorenzo de' Medici and Marsilio Ficino. In 1486 he posted in Rome a list of 900 theses on logic, mathematics, physics, and other subjects that he proposed to defend against any opponent. His Oration on the Dignity of Man (1486), which accompanied the posting, epitomizes Renaissance humanism. Accused of heresy by the pope, he was later cleared, and he was later reconverted to orthodoxy by Girolamo Savonarola. Pico was the first Christian scholar to use Kabbalistic doctrine (see Kabbala) in support of Christian theology. His other works include Heptaplus (a seven-point exposition of the Book of Genesis) and a synoptic treatment of Plato and Aristotle, of which Of Being and Unity is a portion. He died at age 31.
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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
or
Orlando di Lasso or
Roland de Lassus(born 1530/32, Mons, Spanish Hainaut—died June 14, 1594, Munich) Flemish composer. He began as a choirboy (with such a beautiful voice that he is said to have been kidnapped to sing elsewhere), and his first known position was in service to the Gonzaga family in Italy (1544). After 1556 he was based in Munich as kapellmeister to the duke of Bavaria, but he pursued an international career, traveling in Italy, Germany, Flanders, and France. He wrote more than 1,200 works, in every contemporary style and genre, sacred (including some 60 masses and 500 motets) and secular (including hundreds of madrigals and chansons), his attention to the correspondence of music and words being especially remarkable. Because of his range of styles (he always kept up with fashion) and because his works were printed widely during and after his lifetime, he influenced many composers and is regarded as one of the greatest masters of his century.
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(born circa 1403, Siena, Republic of Siena—died 1482, Siena) Italian painter active in Siena. A prolific artist, he produced his most characteristic works from the 1440s, notably the monumental altarpiece The Presentation of Christ in the Temple (1447–49), 12 scenes from the life of St. John the Baptist, and a Madonna (1463) altarpiece in Pienza Cathedral. He also painted countless other religious panels. His tormented spirituality and expressionistic style were little appreciated until his reputation was revived in the 20th century.
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orig.
Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi
The Birth of Venus, oil on canvas by Sandro Botticelli, circa 1485; elipsis
(born 1445, Florence—died May 17, 1510, Florence [Italy]) Italian Renaissance painter. As a youth he may have been apprenticed to a goldsmith, and he later trained with
Fra Filippo Lippi in Florence. By 1470 he had developed a distinctive style and was established as a master. In 1481 he was among a team of Florentine and Umbrian artists called to Rome to decorate the
Sistine Chapel; three of his finest religious frescoes (completed 1482) can be seen there. Though prolific as a painter of religious images, his mythological paintings are his best-known works. His outstanding portraits show the influence of contemporary Flemish art in the placement of the figure in front of a landscape. Among his greatest works are the
Primavera,
Pallas and the Centaur,
Venus and Mars, and
The Birth of Venus, all painted
circa 1477–90. About 75 of his paintings survive, many of them in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Interest in his work revived in the 19th century, and today he is one of the most esteemed painters of the Italian Renaissance.
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Madonna Rucellai, tempera on wood by Duccio, 1285; in the Uffizi elipsis
(born 13th century, Siena, Republic of Siena—died
circa 1318, Siena?) Italian painter. Little is known of his life, but several commission records survive, as well as two documented works, the
Rucellai Madonna for the Florentine church of Santa Maria Novella (1285) and the famous
Maestà altarpiece for Siena Cathedral (1308–11); both represent landmarks in the history of Italian painting. His style reflected the influence of
Cimabue and Byzantine art, though he introduced a warmth of human feeling that was comparable to that of
Giotto in Florentine painting. He was the leading painter in Siena, one of Italy's most vital artistic centres in the Middle Ages.
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(born Aug. 10, 1810, Turin, Piedmont, French Empire—died June 6, 1861, Turin, Italy) Italian statesman, leading figure of the Risorgimento. Influenced by revolutionary ideas from an early age, he traveled to Paris and London and in 1847 founded the liberal newspaper Il Risorgimento, and he helped persuade Charles Albert to grant a liberal constitution. Elected to Parliament in 1848, Cavour held several cabinet posts before becoming prime minister of Piedmont (1852–59, 1860–61). His exploitation of international rivalries and of revolutionary movements brought about the unification of Italy under the house of Savoy, with himself as the first prime minister of the new kingdom (1861).
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(born circa 1245, Colle di Val d'Elsa—died 1301/10, Florence) Italian sculptor and architect active in Florence. He studied under Nicola Pisano and assisted him on the pulpit for Siena Cathedral (1265–68). In 1277 he went to Rome, where he worked for Charles of Anjou, king of Sicily. He also designed and constructed monuments, including the tomb of Cardinal de Braye in San Domenico, Orvieto. In 1296 Arnolfo returned to Florence to undertake his most important commission, the design of the Duomo (the cathedral of Florence) and the carving of statues for its facade. Other buildings in Florence attributed to him include the Palazzo Vecchio and the church of Santa Croce. The structural and decorative elements of Santa Croce and the Duomo have a unity, balance, and a lightness of movement that demonstrate Arnolfo's complete mastery of the late 13th-century Gothic architectural vocabulary. His works embody the transition between the late Gothic and Renaissance architectural sensibilities.
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