The Renaissance in Emilia concerns multiple realities in a dense network of exchanges with all the surrounding areas. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Emilia was fractioned into several lordships, among which Ferrara of the Este, Bologna of the Bentivoglio, and Parma of the Farnese became known as art centers. [1] [2]
Ferrara made it possible for varied artists to meet at the Este court, from Pisanello to Leon Battista Alberti, from Jacopo Bellini to Piero della Francesca, from the young Andrea Mantegna to foreigners such as Rogier van der Weyden and Jean Fouquet. [3] During the era of Borso d'Este (in power from 1450 to 1471), the multiple artistic influences of the court were transformed into a distinctive style, especially in painting, characterized by linear tension and preciousness combined with expressiveness. [3] The emergence of the School of Ferrara can be seen in the decorations of the Studiolo di Belfiore and developed in the frescoes of the Salone di Mesi in Palazzo Schifanoia, where the figures of Cosmè Tura and, later, Francesco del Cossa and Ercole de' Roberti emerged. [3] [4]
Even in the 16th century, Ferrara was confirmed as a demanding and avant-garde center regarding the arts. Alfonso d'Este was a patron of Raphael and Titian, while among local artists he brought out Garofalo and Dosso Dossi. [2] [3]
Bologna's University, the construction site of the Basilica of San Domenico, and the liberality of the Bentivoglio seigniory attracted humanists, artists, and other personalities, such as the mathematician Luca Pacioli, who would meet Albrecht Dürer in the city at the beginning of the 16th century. [3]
Here studied Leon Battista Alberti and, between 1425 and 1434, Jacopo della Quercia left his masterpiece, the Porta Magna of the Basilica of San Petronio. In the 1470s, the Ferrara-born Francesco del Cossa and Ercole de' Roberti worked in the city, completing, among other things, the Griffoni Polyptych and the Garganelli Chapel, works that had a particular influence on sculptors. Niccolò dell'Arca, active at the Arca di San Domenico, created a Lamentation over the Dead Christ (c. 1464), inspired by Burgundian art, the last Donatello, and, probably, the Ferrarese frescoes, of which only a few fragments remain today. [3] However, in later sculptural groups by Guido Mazzoni of Modena, the tones are more conciliatory and conventional. In painting, too, after the return of Ercole de' Roberti to Ferrara, local artists relied on the more serene Umbrian-Florentine modes, for example in the work of Francesco Francia. [2] [3]
In 1494-1495 the young exile Michelangelo stayed in Bologna, where, protected by the noble Giovan Francesco Aldovrandini, he found employment with the Dominican Order, for whom he made some statues for the Ark of San Domenico, where he anticipated the expressive graveness of some later masterpieces such as the David. Recent studies emphasize the importance of this period of residence in the formation of the artist, who studied the ways of representing the restrained energy and expressive variations of Jacopo della Quercia and the Ferrara works, drawing fundamental inspiration from them in the maturation of his own style. Already well established, he returned to Bologna in 1507-1508 to reconcile with Pope Julius II and create a bronze sculpture of the blessing pope, which was destroyed during the riots of 1511. [5]
A Bolognese school was not organized until the 16th century when a group of artists worked on the frescoes in the oratory of Santa Cecilia (1504-1506). The young talents included Francesco Francia, Lorenzo Costa, and especially Amico Aspertini, author of a personal reinterpretation of Raphael. [2] [6] [7]
After a dormant 15th century, the new century brought on new figures and influences to Parma, with Filippo Mazzola, Correggio, and Parmigianino. [2] [3] The church of San Giovanni Evangelista, rebuilt in 1519, was decorated by Correggio and a team of young men who would later become well-known artists.
The career of Correggio was punctuated by three fresco cycles in Parma: the Camera della Badessa in the convent of San Paolo (1518), the decoration in the church of San Giovanni Evangelista (1520-1523), and the dome of Parma Cathedral with the Assumption (1526-1530). In these works, moving further and further away from fifteenth-century spatial rules, he implemented scenographic solutions that laid the groundwork, a century in advance, for Baroque decoration. [3]
Parmigianino, on the other hand, was a more eclectic master, interested from his early years in graphics, optics, and alchemy. This interest shows in works such as the Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror (1524), with its very particular perceptive rendering. He favored tapered forms, polished and compact fields, and almost glazed color, with a sharp definition of forms, as opposed to the soft Correggio-style luminous intonation. [3]
Parma is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second most populous city in Emilia-Romagna after Bologna, the region's capital. The city is home to the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world. Parma is divided into two parts by the stream of the same name. The district on the west side of the river is Oltretorrente. Parma's Etruscan name was adapted by Romans to describe the round shield called Parma.
Antonio Allegri da Correggio, usually known as just Correggio was an Italian Renaissance painter who was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the High Renaissance, who was responsible for some of the most vigorous and sensuous works of the sixteenth century. In his use of dynamic composition, illusionistic perspective and dramatic foreshortening, Correggio prefigured the Baroque art of the seventeenth century and the Rococo art of the eighteenth century. He is considered a master of chiaroscuro.
Jacopo della Quercia, also known as Jacopo di Pietro d'Agnolo di Guarnieri, was an Italian sculptor of the Renaissance, a contemporary of Brunelleschi, Ghiberti and Donatello. He is considered a precursor of Michelangelo.
The cultural and artistic events of Italy during the period 1400 to 1499 are collectively referred to as the Quattrocento from the Italian word for the number 400, in turn from millequattrocento, which is Italian for the year 1400. The Quattrocento encompasses the artistic styles of the late Middle Ages, the early Renaissance, and the start of the High Renaissance, generally asserted to begin between 1495 and 1500.
Cosmè Tura, also known as Il Cosmè or Cosimo Tura, was an Italian early-Renaissance painter and considered one of the founders of the School of Ferrara. He provided a great contribution to the Renaissance in Ferrara.
The School of Ferrara was a group of painters which flourished in the Duchy of Ferrara during the Renaissance. Ferrara was ruled by the Este family, well known for its patronage of the arts. Patronage was extended with the ascent of Ercole d'Este I in 1470, and the family continued in power till Alfonso II, Ercole's great-grandson, died without an heir in 1597. The duchy was then occupied in succession by Papal and Austrian forces. The school evolved styles of painting that appeared to blend influences from Mantua, Venice, Lombardy, Bologna, and Florence.
Alessandro Tiarini was an Italian Baroque painter of the Bolognese School.
Palazzo Schifanoia is a Renaissance palace in Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna (Italy) built for the Este family. The name "Schifanoia" is thought to originate from "schifare la noia" meaning literally to "escape from boredom" which describes accurately the original intention of the palazzo and the other villas in close proximity where the Este court relaxed. The highlights of its decorations are the allegorical frescoes with details in tempera by or after Francesco del Cossa and Cosmè Tura, executed ca 1469–70, a unique survival of their time.
Palazzo dei Diamanti is a Renaissance palace located on Corso Ercole I d'Este 21 in Ferrara, region of Emilia Romagna, Italy. The main floor of the Palace houses the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Ferrara.
Borso d'Este was the duke of Ferrara the first duke of Modena, which he ruled from 1450 until his death. He was a member of the House of Este.
Niccolò III d'Este was Marquess of Ferrara from 1393 until his death. He was also a condottiero.
Ercole Grandi was an Italian painter of the early-Renaissance period, active mainly in Ferrara. Also known as Ercole da Ferrara and Ercole di Giulio Cesare Grandi, he has been claimed to be a favourite pupil of the painter Lorenzo Costa. Ercole Grandi first appeared in the historical record as being in the service of the house of Este in 1489. Between 1489 and 1495, Ercole Grandi seems to have been working in Bologna, both in San Petronio and in the Cappella Bentivoglio of San Giacomo Maggiore, as an assistant to Lorenzo Costa. In 1495, he was in Ferrara as the chief architect for realising Duke Ercole's plans to embellish the city and renovate the churches; the facade and interior of Santa Maria in Vado were executed from his design. He worked with Ludovico Mazzolino and others on the decoration of the Castello, and painted in the apartments of Lucretia Borgia. Also in Ferrara, he painted the frescoes for the church of San Pietro Martire, although some frescoes are preserved. One problem in assigning attribution to the hand of Ercole Grandi is that none of his works is signed or dated, or accompanied by supporting documents, but he is thought by some scholars to have painted—in the manner of Mantegna—or had a hand in, the decorative frescoed ceiling in the Sala del Tesoro of the Palazzo Costabili in Ferrara between 1503 and 1506. Other scholars attribute the work to Benvenuto Tisi da Garofalo. Confusingly, the identity of Ercole Grandi is sometimes conflated with Garofalo, and an Ercole da Bologna, and with that of Ercole di Antonio Roberti or Ercole de' Roberti, who was first documented as being in Ferrara in 1479, and was author of the great frescoes of the Garganelli chapel in Bologna. Most of Ercole Grandi's works have been reattributed to other Ferrarese painters, such as Giovan Francesco Maineri and Lorenzo Costa, while other scholars insist that Ercole Grandi is a mythical character.
Ercole de' Roberti, also known as Ercole Ferrarese or Ercole da Ferrara, was an Italian artist of the Early Renaissance and the School of Ferrara. He was profiled in Vasari's Le Vite delle più eccellenti pittori, scultori, ed architettori. The son of the doorkeeper at the Este castle, Ercole later held the position of court artist for the Este family in Ferrara. According to Vasari:
Ercole had an extraordinary love of wine, and his frequent drunkenness did much to shorten his life, which he had enjoyed without any accident up to the age of forty, when he was smitten one day by apoplexy, which made an end of him in a short time.
Italian Renaissance painting is the painting of the period beginning in the late 13th century and flourishing from the early 15th to late 16th centuries, occurring in the Italian Peninsula, which was at that time divided into many political states, some independent but others controlled by external powers. The painters of Renaissance Italy, although often attached to particular courts and with loyalties to particular towns, nonetheless wandered the length and breadth of Italy, often occupying a diplomatic status and disseminating artistic and philosophical ideas.
The decade of the 1460s in art involved some significant events.
San Giovanni Evangelista is a Mannerist-style, Roman Catholic church located on Piazzale San Giovanni, located just behind the apse of the Parma Cathedral, in the historic center of Parma, northern Italy. The buildings surrounding the piazza were also part of a former Benedictine convent. The church is notable for its Correggio frescoes.
The Carracci were a Bolognese family of artists that played an instrumental role in bringing forth the Baroque style in painting. Brothers Annibale (1560–1609) and Agostino (1557–1602) along with their cousin Ludovico (1555–1619) worked collaboratively. The Carracci family left their legacy in art theory by starting a school for artists in 1582. The school was called the Accademia degli Incamminati, and its main focus was to oppose and challenge Mannerist artistic practices and principles in order to create a renewed art of naturalism and expressive persuasion.
The Pinacotecta Nazionale is an art gallery in Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. It is located on the piano nobile of the Palazzo dei Diamanti, a work of Renaissance architecture by Biagio Rossetti, commissioned by Leonello d’Este in 1447. Not to be confused with the Civic Museum on the lower floor, which has hosted temporary exhibitions of contemporary art since 1992, the Pinacoteca houses a collection of paintings by the Ferrarese School dating from the thirteenth to the eighteenth centuries. It was founded in 1836 by the Municipality of Ferrara after Napoleon's widespread dissolution of churches threatened the protection of important public artworks. The gallery is formed as much around notable northern Italian painters as it is around the exquisite interior decoration of the palace itself, together with remnants of frescoes from local churches and later acquisitions from the Sacrati Strozzi collection.
The Bergamasque and Brescian Renaissance is one of the main variations of Renaissance art in Italy. The importance of the two cities on the art scene only expanded from the 16th century onward, when foreign and local artists gave rise to an original synthesis of Lombard and Venetian modes, due in part to the two cities' particular geographical position: the last outpost of the Serenissima on the mainland for Bergamo and a disputed territory between Milan and Venice for Brescia.
The Renaissance in Ferrara began with the signoria of Leonello d'Este around the mid-15th century. Under Leonello's patronage, Ferrara became a hub for the arts and intellectual thought, attracting prominent artists and scholars of the time. A significant contribution came from the Ferrarese school of painters, including Cosmè Tura, Francesco del Cossa, and Ercole de' Roberti. These artists were known for their innovative use of color, intricate detail, and emotive expressions, helping to define early Italian Renaissance art.
