Posts in Category: Italian
Sebastiano del Piombo
Sebastiano del Piombo, c 1485–June 21, 1547, was an Italian painter born in Venice. He was probably trained with Giovanni Bellini and Giorgione before moving to Rome in 1511 under the patronage of Agostino Chigi.
In Rome, he became close to Michelangelo and developed a distinctive synthesis of Venetian colour and Roman monumentality. He painted religious works and portraits, and in 1531 received the office of Keeper of the Papal Seal, from which his name “del Piombo” derives.
He died in Rome in 1547. His work is represented in collections including the Uffizi Gallery, Museo del Prado, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and National Gallery, London.
Ambrosius Benson
Ambrosius Benson, c 1495 – 1550, was an Italian-born painter who worked in Bruges. He entered the Bruges painters’ guild in 1519 and worked for a time in the workshop of Gerard David.
Benson established a successful workshop and served several terms in the administration of the Bruges guild. He painted religious subjects, portraits, and scenes of music and courtly company, and his sons Willem and Jan also became painters.
Benson remained active in Bruges until his death in 1550. His work is held by collections including the Groeningemuseum, National Gallery, Louvre Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Saint Louis Art Museum.
Gentile Bellini
Gentile Bellini, c 1429 – February 23, 1507, was a Venetian painter of the Early Renaissance. He was born in Venice, the son of the painter Jacopo Bellini and brother of Giovanni Bellini. He trained in his father’s workshop, which was one of the leading artistic centers in Venice and helped shape the city’s developing Renaissance style. Gentile worked primarily for the Venetian state, religious confraternities, and prominent civic patrons.
His paintings are known for detailed depictions of public ceremonies, religious processions, and urban life in Venice. In 1479 he was sent by the Venetian Republic to Constantinople, where he worked at the court of Sultan Mehmed II and produced portraits and drawings that became important visual records of Ottoman society. His work combined Venetian traditions of color and pageantry with an unusually strong interest in architecture, costume, and contemporary events. He collaborated at times with Giovanni Bellini and was associated with the generation of Venetian painters that bridged the late Gothic and Renaissance periods.
Gentile maintained an active workshop and contributed to major state commissions in Venice, although he is not chiefly remembered as a teacher. His works are held by institutions including the Gallerie dell’Accademia, National Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, British Museum, and Gemäldegalerie. His paintings and drawings remain important sources for the study of late fifteenth-century Venice and the Ottoman world.
Piero di Cosimo
Piero di Cosimo, January 2, 1462–April 12, 1522, was an Italian Renaissance painter born and active in Florence. The son of Lorenzo di Piero d’Antonio, he entered Cosimo Rosselli’s workshop by 1480 and assisted him on the Sistine Chapel frescoes in Rome in 1481–1482.
He painted altarpieces, portraits, and mythological and allegorical scenes, including long spalliera panels for Florentine interiors. His work combined Florentine traditions with influences from Early Netherlandish painting and Leonardo da Vinci, and he was particularly noted for landscapes, animals, and narratives of humanity’s early history.
Piero spent his later career in Florence and died there in 1522. Andrea del Sarto was associated with his workshop according to Vasari. Major works are held by the Uffizi Gallery, National Gallery, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, and other European and North American collections.
Palma Vecchio
Palma Vecchio was born Jacopo Negretti around 1480 in Serina, near Bergamo. He was established in Venice by 1510 and may have trained with Andrea Previtali or another Bergamasque painter working there.
He became a successful painter of the Venetian Renaissance, specializing in sacred conversations, portraits, and idealized half-length images of women. His work combined Giorgionesque landscape and atmosphere with the rich color and substantial figures associated with Titian and contemporary Venetian painting.
Palma remained active in Venice until his death there in 1528. His paintings were widely admired and collected, and his grandnephew Jacopo Palma the Younger later became a prominent Venetian painter.
Agostino Carracci
Agostino Carracci, August 16, 1557 – March 22, 1602, was an Italian painter, draftsman, and printmaker from Bologna. He was the elder brother of Annibale Carracci and cousin of Ludovico Carracci.
With Ludovico and Annibale, he helped establish the Carracci academy in Bologna and participated in major decorative projects, including work connected with the Farnese Gallery in Rome. His work combines Bolognese training with close study of Venetian color and central Italian figure design.
Carracci is also known for his engravings after major Italian masters, which helped circulate works by artists such as Correggio, Titian, and Veronese. His paintings and drawings include portraits, religious works, mythological scenes, and figure studies.
Rosso Fiorentino
Rosso Fiorentino (Giovanni Battista di Jacopo), March 8, 1494–November 14, 1540, was a Florentine painter, draughtsman, and print designer. He trained in the workshop of Andrea del Sarto and studied the work of Michelangelo and Baccio Bandinelli. He worked in Florence from 1513 to 1523, then in Rome and elsewhere in Italy.
In 1530, Rosso entered the service of Francis I of France and joined Francesco Primaticcio at the royal château of Fontainebleau. He designed and painted work for the palace, including the Galerie François Ier, and helped shape the Fontainebleau school.
Paintings and drawings by Rosso Fiorentino are held by the Uffizi and Palazzo Pitti in Florence, the National Gallery in London, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Louvre in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Nationalmuseum in Stockholm.
