Angelo Michele Colonna
Encyclopedia
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
period, active in Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
, northern and central Italy and Spain. He is sometimes referred to as Michelangelo Colonna.
Biography
He was born in CernobbioCernobbio
Cernobbio is a comune in the Province of Como in the Italian region of Lombardy, located about north of Milan and about northwest of Como, on the border with Switzerland...
. As a boy in Como
Como
Como is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy.It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como....
, he worked with a painter by the name of Caprera
Caprera
Caprera is a small island off the coast of Sardinia, Italy, located in the Maddalena archipelago.In the area of La Maddalena island in the Strait of Bonifacio, it is a tourist destination and is famous as the place to which Giuseppe Garibaldi retired .This island has been declared a natural reserve...
. By 1617, he travelled to Bologna to apprentice with Gabriello Ferrantino or il Occhiale, and then the early quadratura master, Girolamo Curti
Girolamo Curti
Girolamo Curti was an Italian painter of the early-Baroque, specializing in quadratura.He was also called il Dentone.He was born to a poor family at Bologna, and worked for cloth spinner till age 25. His first formal training was with the Cremonese painter Cesare Baglioni...
, called il Dentone.
He painted frescoes for the Palazzo Albergati in Bologna. He would have been known by the biographer of Bolognese artists, Cesare Malvasia, for whom Colonna frescoed the Villa Malvasia in Trebbo in 1624, along with Curti and Domenico Ambrogi
Domenico Ambrogi
Domenico Ambrogi was an Italian painter from Bologna of the 17th century, also called Menichino or Menghino del Brizio, after a master. Mainly known as a decorator of quadratura. He is also known as Domenico degli Ambrogi...
. The following year, Curti and Colonna frescoed parts of the Villa Paleotti (now Villa Monari-Sardè). Also in 1625, along with Ambrogi, he carried out frescoes in the Villa Malvezzi-Campeggi in Bagnarola and after being recommended by Alessandro Tiarini
Alessandro Tiarini
Alessandro Tiarini was an Italian Baroque painter of the Bolognese School.He was born in Bologna. His mother died when he was a child, and he was raised by an aunt, and early on they tried, unsuccessfully to guide him towards becoming a cleric...
, he helped to decorate the ceiling of the church of Sant'Alessandro in Parma
Parma
Parma is a city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna famous for its ham, its cheese, its architecture and the fine countryside around it. This is the home of the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world....
. In 1625, he collaborated with Lucio Massari
Lucio Massari
Lucio Massari was an Italian painter of the School of Bologna. He can be described as painting during both Mannerist and early-Baroque periods....
, Francesco Gessi
Francesco Gessi
Francesco Gessi was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in Bologna.Born to a noble family, but his father noticed his attraction to the arts and placed him in the apprenticeship with Denys Calvaert. This did not last, since he apparently disturbed the other pupils. He was more...
and others in the decoration of the Oratory of San Rocco in Bologna, painting six of the saints and allegories. In 1627, he painted in San Michele in Bosco.
After Curti died in 1632, Colonna began a long collaboration with the skilled quadratura painter Agostino Mitelli
Agostino Mitelli
Agostino Mitelli was an Italian painter of the Baroque period and best known as a fresco painter of quadratura or illusionistic perspectival architectural frameworks....
until 1660. Together they contributed to the decorations of the Palazzo Spada
Palazzo Spada
The Palazzo Spada is a palace in the historic centre of Rome, Italy. It is located in the rione Regola, at Piazza Capo di Ferro, 13, very close to the Palazzo Farnese. It has a garden facing towards the River Tiber....
in Rome, and then painted in the Pitti Palace in Florence, including a large fresco of the 'Fame of the Medici crowned by Glory' .
They became the pre-eminent quadratura fresco painters of northern Italy with Colonna principally executing the figurative elements and Mitelli, the quadratura or illusionistic architectural frameworks: in Modena, they painted in the Este
Este
The House of Este is a European princely dynasty. It is split into two branches; the elder is known as the House of Welf-Este or House of Welf historically rendered in English, Guelf or Guelph...
palace at Sassuolo
Sassuolo
Sassuolo is an important industrial centre of the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. The town stands on the right bank of the river Secchia some 17 km south-west of Modena.-History :...
; they executed the ceiling of the now destroyed Oratorio de San Girolamo of Rimini
Rimini
Rimini is a medium-sized city of 142,579 inhabitants in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, and capital city of the Province of Rimini. It is located on the Adriatic Sea, on the coast between the rivers Marecchia and Ausa...
; in 1657 they carried out the decoration of the chapel of the Rosary in the basilica of San Domenico
Basilica of San Domenico
The Basilica of San Domenico is one of the major churches in Bologna, Italy. The remains of Saint Dominic, founder of the Order of Preachers , are buried inside the exquisite shrine Arca di San Domenico, made by Nicola Pisano and his workshop, Arnolfo di Cambio and with later additions by Niccolò...
in Bologna, including a framed 'Assumption of the Virgin'; and between 1653-8, they painted the gallery leading to the High Altar of San Michele in Bosco.
In 1658, Colonna left Italy to go to Spain to work for Philip IV of Spain
Philip IV of Spain
Philip IV was King of Spain between 1621 and 1665, sovereign of the Spanish Netherlands, and King of Portugal until 1640...
; he had initially been contracted for this work by Diego Velázquez
Diego Velázquez
Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez was a Spanish painter who was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV. He was an individualistic artist of the contemporary Baroque period, important as a portrait artist...
. He was to return to Italy in 1662, where his collaborator now was Mitelli's pupil, Giacomo Alboresi
Giacomo Alboresi
Giacomo Alboresi was an Italian painter of the Baroque period. Born in Bologna, he was a pupil of Domenico Santi and the quadratura painter Agostino Mitelli and later worked under Angelo Michele Colonna in Spain, Florence, and Parma...
(1632–1677). He continued to be prolific in Bologna, decorating the Palazzo Cospi-Ferreti and a chapel in the church of San Bartolomeo (1667). In 1677, he completed frescoes for the Council Hall of the Bolognese Palazzo Comunale or town hall, working with Gioacchino Pizzoli. Giuseppe Romani was one of his apprentices.
Colonna died at Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
in 1687.