#orazio lomellini

[gardenofkore]

But Sofonisba of Cremona, the daughter of Messer Amilcaro Anguisciuola, has laboured at the difficulties of design with greater study and better grace than any other woman of our time, and she has not only succeeded in drawing, colouring, and copying from nature, and in making excellent copies of works by other hands, but has also executed by herself alone some very choice and beautiful works of painting.

Giorgio Vasari, The Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects 

Sofonisba (of Sophonisba) was born in Cremona (at that time, part of the Duchy of Milano, ruled by the Austrian pawn, Francesco II Sforza) around 1532. She was the eldest child of nobleman (but not wealthy) Amilcare Anguissola (also spelled Angussola or Aguisciola) and his second wife, noblewoman Bianca Ponzone. Following Sofonisba, Bianca would give birth to five other daughters (Elena, Lucia, Europa, Annamaria – all future painters - and Minerva, a writer and Latin teacher) and a son, Asdrubale.

Amilcare Anguissola was an art lover and part of the culturally vibrant Cremonese high society. It’s no wonder then that he introduced his daughters to the study of literature, art and music, although he had another much prosaic reason behind it. He couldn’t afford to pay a dowry for six daughters, and so he hoped they could provide for themselves and secure additional incomes to the meagre familial funds.

From 1545 to 1549, Sofonisba studied fine arts at Bernardino Campi’s workshop (although Vasari affirms it was Giulio). When her maestro left Cremona, she moved to study under artist Bernardino Gatti (called il Sojaro).

As an art appreciator, Amilcare must have noticed his daughter’s talent and also thanks to his (perhaps interested) support, he contributed to making Sofonisba well known outside Cremona. He, for example, sent two of her drawings as a gift to the Duke of Ferrara and in 1554 the proud father sent to Michelangelo Buonarroti one of her works, a drawing representing a laughing girl. It’s said Michelangelo appreciated her style but challenged the younger painter to draw a good crying face. She then proceeded to draw and sent to him Fanciullo morso da un gambero, where she sketched her younger brother, Asdrubale, crying because his sister Europa had just pinched him. This earned Sofonisba Michelangelo’s appreciation and guidance. The sketch, alongside Buonarroti’s Cleopatra, was sent to Cosimo I de’ Medici.

Amilcare introduced Sofonisba’s art to some of the most notorious Italian dynasties, such as Gonzaga, Este and Farnese, on whose behalf she painted some portraits.

In 1557 she stayed for about a month in Piacenza to study miniature under the great artist Giulio Clovio, who also showed her many masterpieces, like Raffaello’s Madonna Sistina (now in Dresden). In 1557, she was commissioned a portrait of Massimiliano Stampa, the young son of Ermes Stampa second marquis of Soncino, one of the most important noble families in Lombardia. By the time she finished the portrait (1558), Ermes had died and Massimiliano had become the third Marquis.

Sofonisba’s life changed dramatically in 1559. In June of that year, 14-years old Élisabeth of Valois became Felipe II of Spain’s third wife. The Duke of Alba, at that time Governor of the Duchy of Milan, convinced the Spanish sovereign to hire Sofonisba (already a famous artist at European level) to give the young new Queen painting lessons. The whole Anguissola family moved then to Milan, where they stayed, personal guests at the Governor’s mansion for about two months before Sofonisba left for Madrid, where she arrived at the beginning of 1560.

The artist and the teen Queen became fast friends. She held the office of official portrait painter as well as lady-in-waiting and art teacher for the Queen and her two daughters, the princesses Isabella Clara Eugenia and Catalina Micaela, for almost twenty years, enjoying the Royal couple’s sponsorship and a very generous annual pension of 100 ducats. It is known she used part of her salary to support her family back in Cremona, especially following her father’s death in 1573. Sofonisba financially helped her brother Asdrubale, to the point of granting him an annual stipend of 800 lire and, later in 1606, she requested that her lifetime pension from the Spanish crown be transferred to him.

During her Spanish period, she portrayed many royal members, like Élisabeth of Valois, the two princesses, the King, Juana Regent of Spain, Don Carlos (whose original portrait, sadly, is lost, but were made many copies), Margherita of Parma, and Anna of Austria, who’ll become Queen of Spain after Élisabeth of Valois’s death in childbirth in 1568.

Following his third wife’s death, Felipe II became interested in marrying off Sofonisba (who was already 36 at the time) to one of his noblemen, perhaps to keep her anchored in the Spanish court, and provided her a dowry of 12 thousands scudi plus an annual income of 1000 ducati. In 1571 she married by proxy Sicilian nobleman Fabrizio Moncada Pignatelli. Fabrizio was the second son of Francesco I Moncada de Luna, earl of Caltanissetta and prince of Paternò, and Caterina Pignatelli Carafa. In that same year, his older brother Cesare had died, leaving his title and possessions to his 2-years old son Francesco II. Fabrizio had then stepped in to act as regent for his infant nephew and was named governor of the city of Paternò (nearby Catania).

It is not known for sure when she had moved to her husband’s Sicilian domains, what is certain is that in 1578 her brother Asdrubale had meant to join her in Palermo. At that time Sofonisba was already a widow (and childless) since Fabrizio had died that same year in a pirate attack off the coast near Capri. Moncada had drowned after desperately trying to defend his ship. The painting representing the Madonna dell’Itria, preserved in the Church of Santissima Annunziata of Paternò, dates back to this period.

By the end of 1579, the widowed Sofonisba sailed from Palermo together with her brother headed for her native Cremona. Surely she would have never thought another chapter of her life was about to begin. During the journey, she met and fell in love with the Genoese sea captain Orazio Lomellini, widowed with a son. Lomellini was the illegitimate son of wealthy shipowner Nicolò and some 15 years younger than Sofonisba. Because of bad weather, the ship had to dock in Livorno, from there Orazio escorted Sofonisba and Asdrubale in Pisa since in Livorno they couldn’t find a proper accommodation. Defying her brother’s opposition, she married Orazio and moved with him to Genova, where we can find her surely in 1584. This marriage too would be childless, but it appears Sofobisba got along quite well with her step-son, Giulio.

She’ll live in Genova for about 30 years, becoming the city’s leader portrait painter and hosting in her house many famous artists and literates. In 1585 she might have traveled with her husband all the way to Savona where she paid homage to her former pupil, Catalina Micaela of Spain, headed for Torino to marry Carlo Emanuele I Duke of Savoy. It has been hinted Anguissola had often been a guest of the new Duchess of Savoy from then on, although this hasn’t been yet proved.

The Portrait of three kids, the Game of tric-trac, the Portrait of a Lady of the Galleria Borghese presumably date back to this period. In 1599 she met another one of her august pupils, Isabella Clara Eugenia had stopped in Genova to meet her former art teacher on her way to Brussels to marry Archduke Albert VII of Austria. On this occasion Sofonisba painted the Spanish princess and the artwork was later sent as a gift to Isabella Clara’s half-brother, Felipe III.

In 1615 the Lomellini couple decided to move to Sicily, where Orazio would better pursue his business deals and in Palermo they bought a mansion in strata Pilerij nearby Palazzo Branciforte. Sofonisba was already over 80 and her eyesight had started to fail her and in 1620 she painted her last self-portrait. She compensated her loss of sight by becoming a patron of the arts and her mind showed to be sharp even past the 90s. On July 12th, 1624 Sofonisba was visited by a young Anthony van Dyck, her successor as official portrait painter for the Spanish court, who was impressed by her clear-headness. He recorded their conversation and sketched the old artist.

On November 16th, 1625 she died of old age. She was buried in San Giorgio dei Genovesi, church of the Genoan community of Palermo. Seven years later, in 1632, on what would have been her 100th birthday, her widower Orazio placed an inscription which reads: 

“To Sofonisba, my wife, who is recorded among the illustrious women of the world, outstanding in portraying the images of man. Orazio Lomellino, in sorrow for the loss of his great love, in 1632, dedicated this little tribute to such a great woman.”

Sources

Fortune Jane, Michelangelo Buonarroti and his women

Nicotra Alfio, Sofonisba Anguissola. Dalla Sicilia alla corte dei Savoia

Romanini Angiola Maria, ANGUISSOLA, Sofonisba, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Vol 3

Ross Sarah Gwyneth, Anguissola, Sofonisba (b. ca. 1532–1625), in Encyclopedia of Women in the Renaissance: Italy, France, and England, p. 14-18

Vasari Giorgio, The Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects

[fondazioneterradotranto]

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La cappella di San Matteo nella Cattedrale di San Siro, uno dei sepolcri della famiglia Imperiali a Genova

di Mirko Belfiore

Incastonata fra la moderna via Cairoli e l’antica via San Luca, nel quartiere della Maddalena, trova sede uno dei più antichi templi cristiani della città di Genova: la Basilica di San Siro.

1. Basilica di San Siro, prospetto neoclassico di Carlo Barabino (XIX secolo)

  Eretta, secondo la tradizione, intorno al IV secolo d.C. su un luogo di culto già dedicato ai Dodici Apostoli, fu la prima cattedra vescovile della città fino a quando la sede non venne spostata presso la Cattedrale di San Lorenzo (X secolo). Ospita le spoglie di uno dei santi più cari della tradizione cittadina: il vescovo San Siro (IV secolo) e leggenda vuole che lo stesso abbia scacciato da un pozzo il temibile “Basilisco”, una creatura mitologica che con la sua presenza atterriva i genovesi; metafora di quella lotta all’eresia ariana, allora imperante, che l’Episcopo intraprese durante il suo governo e che gli valse la riconoscenza dei suoi fedeli e l’intitolazione della suddetta chiesa.

2. Genova, Vico San Pietro della Porta, lapide marmorea che raffigura San Siro nell’atto di sottomettere il Basilisco, iscrizione latina del 1580

  Superata la soglia dell’imponente portale d’ingresso neoclassico opera dell’architetto genovese Carlo Barabino, si viene subito catturati dalla complessità decorativa delle superfici, uno dei massimi esempi del Barocco genovese e frutto di una ricostruzione avvenuta dopo il terribile incendio del 1580.

3. Basilica di San Siro, navata principale

  L’immenso ambiente scandito da una serie di imponenti colonne binate e suddiviso in tre navate, affascina non solo per la magnificenza della cupola e delle ampissime volte, rivestite da affreschi, stucchi e fregi, opera della bottega dei Carlone (1650-1670) ma anche per l’ampio presbiterio dove, in tutta la sua raffinatezza, si erge l’altare maggiore realizzato dal francese Pierre Puget (1670), realizzato in bronzo e marmo nero. Considerevole poi, la successione di cappelle nobiliari e imponenti statue di apostoli che si stagliano lungo i lati delle navate minori e che nel ricco corredo artistico portano la firma di famosi artisti della scena seicentesca genovese e non: Taddeo Carlone, Gregorio de Ferrari, Orazio de Ferrari, Orazio Gentileschi, Domenico Fiasella, Aurelio Lomi, Domenico Piola e Andrea Semino.

4. Basilica di San Siro, particolare della cupola con gli affreschi di Giovan Battista Carlone (1650-1670)

  Queste molteplici tombe gentilizie erano riservate alle principali famiglie patrizie della città (Centurione, Grimaldi, Invrea, Lomellini, Pallavicini, Pinelli, Serra e Spinola), le quali contribuirono profumatamente alla decorazione artistica della Cattedrale, ricevendo in cambio l’assegnazione di questi spazi tramite un giuspatronato (sistema di privilegi e oneri concessi dall’autorità ecclesiastica).

5. Basilica di San Siro, particolare del presbiterio

  6. Basilica di San Siro, altare maggiore di Pierre Puget (1670)

  7. Basilica di San Siro, cappella gentilizia famiglia Grimaldi-Cebà, Annunciazione di Orazio Gentileschi (olio su tela, 1624).

  Una di queste fu concessa nel 1599 alla famiglia Imperiale e divenne subito il luogo di sepoltura della dinastia. Fra i molti membri che quivi trovarono sepoltura ricordiamo: Gian Giacomo, facoltoso banchiere e Doge di Genova nel biennio 1617-1619, il figlio Gian Vincenzo, illustre collezionista e celebrato poeta, e Francesco Maria, Senatore della Repubblica e Doge nel biennio 1711-13.

8. Basilica di San Siro, cappella gentilizia della famiglia Imperiale

  La cappella nobiliare, posta subito alla sinistra del varco d’accesso, si presenta come uno spazio non troppo ampio ma dall’ambientazione intima e raccolta. Essa è introdotta da una massiccia balaustra e da una coppia di imponenti colonne in marmo arabesco di Carrara, su cui poggia un architrave spezzato con mensole aggettanti, al centro del quale si inserisce lo stemma gentilizio della famiglia. L’intera superficie interna è rivestita da un diffuso rivestimento lapideo, caratterizzato da compositi intarsi marmorei che riprendono fedelmente gli stilemi baroccheggianti dell’edificio.

All’interno, altre due eleganti colonne corinzie in marmo nero di Portovenere sorreggono un imponente architrave spezzato, manufatto che trova solide basi su compatti parallelepipedi dalla bicromia B/N, collegati a un ampio altare in marmo. Nell’incavo creatosi, un piccolo podio accoglie uno dei tre putti posti in alto che insieme ai restanti due, posti ai lati, vanno a comporre un elegante gruppo statuario. Un pregevole motivo a dentelli decora sia l’architrave centrale che le mensole poste ai lati mentre alcuni fregi si diffondono su tutta la superficie emergendo sottoforma di cartigli, volute e arricci.

Sui profili angolari, il prospetto è scandito da una nicchia posta a mezza altezza, dove probabilmente trovava posto un’opera d’arte, e da un piccolo portale cieco inquadrato da greche e bassorilievi dalle linee sinuose.

L’intero paramento marmoreo fu messo in opera dagli artisti Battista Orsolino e Domenico Solaro mentre l’unica opera artistica presente, un olio su tela, venne realizzata nel 1605 dai fratelli Agostino e Giovanni Battista Montanari, i quali rappresentarono le concitate fasi del martirio di San Matteo, ucciso in terra etiope per mano di un sicario inviato dal re Irtaco. Ciò che più addolora è sicuramente la perdita senza possibilità alcuna di recupero degli affreschi e degli stucchi che impreziosivano la piccola volta a botte della cappella, opera dell’artista Bernardo Castello (primi decenni del XVII), molto attivo nelle commissioni della famiglia Imperiale. Questi realizzò una serie di riquadri con tematiche inerenti alle storie della “Sacra Famiglia”, irrimediabilmente danneggiati da una delle frequenti incursioni aeree intercorse durante la Seconda guerra mondiale e che sconvolsero Genova fra il 1940 e il 1945.

9. Basilica di San Siro, cappella gentilizia famiglia Imperiale, Martirio di San Matteo dei fratelli Agostino e Giovanni Battista Montanari (olio su tela, 1605)

  10. Basilica di San Siro, cappella famiglia Imperiale, particolare della volta con affreschi sulla Sacra Famiglia di Bernardo Castello (XVIII secolo)

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Anthony van Dyck [Flemish/Spanish Netherlands. 1599-1641] Portrait of Sofonisba Anguissola 1624 ____

The Amazing Life of Sofonisba Anguissola

Sofonisba Anguissola was an Italian Renaissance painter born in Creomona to a relatively poor noble family.

She became well-known outside of Italy and in 1559 King Phillip II of Spain asked her to be lady-in-waiting and art teacher to Queen Elisabeth of Valois, who was only 14 at the time.

After the death of Elisabeth of Valois in 1568, Philip II took a special interest in Anguissola's future. He had wished to marry her to one of the nobles in the Spanish Court. In 1571, Anguissola entered an arranged marriage to a Sicilian nobleman chosen for her by the Spanish court. Philip II paid a dowry of 12,000 scudi for her marriage to Fabrizio Moncada Pignatelli, son of the Prince of Paternò, Viceroy of Sicily. Fabrizio was said to be supportive of her painting. After he died in 1579, two years later while traveling to Genoa by sea, she fell in love with the ship's captain, sea merchant Orazio Lomellini. They married in Pisa in 1584.

Lomellino's fortune, plus a generous pension from Philip II, allowed Anguissola to paint freely and live comfortably. By now quite famous, Anguissola received many colleagues who came to visit and discuss the arts with her. Several of these were younger artists, eager to learn and mimic Anguissola's distinctive style.

In her later life, Anguissola painted not only portraits, but religious themes, as she had done in the days of her youth, although many of the latter have been lost.

On 12 July 1624, Anguissola was visited by the young Flemish painter Anthony Van Dyck, who recorded sketches from his visit to her in his sketchbook. Van Dyck, who believed her to be 96 years of age (she was actually 92) noted that although "her eyesight was weakened", Anguissola was still mentally alert. Excerpts of the advice she gave him about painting survive from this visit, and he was said to have claimed that their conversation taught him more about the "true principles" of painting than anything else in his life. Van Dyck painted an oil portrait of Sofonisba after visiting the famous painter.

In 1625, she died at age 93 in Palermo. Anguissola's adoring second husband Orazio Lomellino, who described her as small of frame, yet "great among mortals", buried her with honor in Palermo at the Church of San Giorgio dei Genovesi.

[widvile-blog]

Sofonisba Anguissola (1532 - 16 November 1625)