Jacopo Ligozzi
Encyclopedia
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
painter, illustrator, designer, and miniaturist of the late Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
and early Mannerist
Mannerism
Mannerism is a period of European art that emerged from the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520. It lasted until about 1580 in Italy, when a more Baroque style began to replace it, but Northern Mannerism continued into the early 17th century throughout much of Europe...
styles.
Biography
Born in VeronaVerona
Verona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...
, he was the son of the artist Giovanni Ermano Ligozzi
Giovanni Ermano Ligozzi
Giovanni Ermano Ligozzi was an Italian painter a native of Verona, flourished about 1570. By some he is related to Jacopo Ligozzi. In the Church of the Apostles at Verona is a picture by him entitled The Name of Jesus and a fresco over the main door of the church of SS. Nazaro e Celso....
, and part of a large family of painters and artisans. After a time in the Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...
court in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
where he displayed drawings of animal and botanical specimens, he was invited to come to Florence, receiving the patronage of the Medici
Medici
The House of Medici or Famiglia de' Medici was a political dynasty, banking family and later royal house that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici in the Republic of Florence during the late 14th century. The family originated in the Mugello region of the Tuscan countryside,...
as one of the court artists. Upon the death of Giorgio Vasari
Giorgio Vasari
Giorgio Vasari was an Italian painter, writer, historian, and architect, who is famous today for his biographies of Italian artists, considered the ideological foundation of art-historical writing.-Biography:...
in 1574, he became head of the Accademia e Compagnia delle Arti del Disegno
Accademia delle Arti del Disegno
The Accademia delle Arti del Disegno of Florence promotes the safeguard of the works of art in Italy. Founded in 1563, it was the first academy of drawing established in Europe.- History of the Accademia :...
, the officially patronized guild of artists, which was often called to advise on diverse projects. He served Francesco I
Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany was the second Grand Duke of Tuscany, ruling from 1574 to 1587.- Biography :...
, Ferdinando I
Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1587 to 1609, having succeeded his older brother Francesco I.-Biography:...
, Cosimo II
Cosimo II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
Cosimo II de' Medici was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1609 until 1621. He was the elder son of the then incumbent Grand Duke and Christina of Lorraine. He married Maria Magdalena of Austria, and had eight children....
and Ferdinando II
Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
Ferdinando II de' Medici was grand duke of Tuscany from 1621 to 1670. He was the eldest child of Cosimo II de' Medici and Maria Maddalena of Austria. His 49 year rule was punctuated by the terminations of the remaining operations of the Medici Bank, and the beginning of Tuscany's long economic...
, Grand Duke
Grand Duke
The title grand duke is used in Western Europe and particularly in Germanic countries for provincial sovereigns. Grand duke is of a protocolary rank below a king but higher than a sovereign duke. Grand duke is also the usual and established translation of grand prince in languages which do not...
s of Tuscany
Tuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....
. He worked on some projects with Bernardino Poccetti
Bernardino Poccetti
Bernardino Poccetti , also known as Barbatelli, was an Italian Mannerist painter and printmaker in etching ....
. Late in life, he was named director of the grand-ducal Galleria dei Lavori, a workshop providing designs for artworks made mainly for export: embroidered textiles and for the newly popular medium of pietre dure, mosaics of semiprecious stones and colored marbles.
Jacopo Ligozzi was born at Verona c. 1543, He died after 1632. He painted some frescoes for the cloister of the Ognissanti
Church of Ognissanti, Florence
The Chiesa di Ognissanti is a Franciscan church in Florence, Italy. Founded by the lay order of the Umiliati, the church was dedicated to all the saints and martyrs, known and unknown....
. He painted for Santa Maria Novella a canvas of St. Raymond resuscitating a Child and a Martyrdom of St. Dorothea for the church of the Conventuali at Pescia
Pescia
Pescia is an Italian city in the province of Pistoia, Tuscany, central Italy.It is located in a central zone between the cities Lucca and Florence, on the banks of the homonymous river.-History:...
. Both Agostino Carracci
Agostino Carracci
Agostino Carracci was an Italian painter and printmaker. He was the brother of the more famous Annibale and cousin of Lodovico Carracci....
and Andrea Andreani
Andrea Andreani
Andrea Andreani was an Italian engraver on wood, who was among the first printmakers in Italy to use chiaroscuro, which required multiple colours....
engraved some of his works.
Ligozzi completed many pen-and-wash drawings on religious or mythologic images or for heraldic images. He is known best for his depictions of fauna
Fauna
Fauna or faunæ is all of the animal life of any particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is flora.Zoologists and paleontologists use fauna to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "Sonoran Desert fauna" or the "Burgess shale fauna"...
and flora
Flora
Flora is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous—native plant life. The corresponding term for animals is fauna.-Etymology:...
; Ligozzi in this part of his work reflects the nascent scientific pursuits of the Medici, particularly with his botanical work. His botanically correct depictions of plants can even include exquisitely observed root systems. Ligozzi was commissioned to create some of the depictions found in the encyclopedic visual catalogue of the plant collections of Bolognese Ulisse Aldrovandi
Ulisse Aldrovandi
Ulisse Aldrovandi was an Italian naturalist, the moving force behind Bologna's botanical garden, one of the first in Europe. Carolus Linnaeus and the comte de Buffon reckoned him the father of natural history studies...
(kept in the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe of the Uffizi Gallery). He is an Audubon
John James Audubon
John James Audubon was a French-American ornithologist, naturalist, and painter. He was notable for his expansive studies to document all types of American birds and for his detailed illustrations that depicted the birds in their natural habitats...
of late Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
Florence. He is credited with bringing the lusher color-palate of Verona to Florence.
He was influential among some subsequent Florentines including Bartolomeo Bimbi
Bartolomeo Bimbi
Bartolomeo Bimbi was a Florentine painter of still lifes spurred by his patrons including Cosimo III, Grand Duke of Tuscany to paint large canvases of flora and fauna for the Medici Villa dell'Ambrogiana and della Topaia, now conserved in the Pitti Palace and the Museo Botanico dell'Universita. He...
, among direct pupils are Donato Mascagni
Donato Mascagni
Donato Mascagni was an Italian painter of the Renaissance active in Florence, Volterra, Rome, Mugello, and Salzburg. He was a pupil of Jacopo Ligozzi. He is also known as Fra or Frate Arsenio because he joined the Servite monastery in 1605. He however obtained special dispensation through cardinal...
, known as Frate Arsenio. He died in Florence.
Sources
- John Seabrook, "Annals of Agriculture: Renaissance Pears", The New YorkerThe New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, September 5, 2005, p. 105. - Getty Center Biography
- National Gallery Art exhibition titled The Flowering of Florence: Botanical art for the Medici