Alessandro di Cristofano di Lorenzo del Bronzino Allori (Florence, 31 May 153522 September 1607) was an Italian
painter of the late
Mannerist
Mannerism, which may also be known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Ita ...
Florentine school.
Biography
In 1540, after the death of his father, Allori was brought up and trained in art by a close friend, often referred to as his 'uncle', the mannerist painter
Agnolo Bronzino, whose name he sometimes assumed in his pictures. Allori supplemented this training with a study trip to Rome, between 1554 and 1560, and with anatomical research which included the dissection of human corpses, provided by the
Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova
The Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova (i.e. ''Ospedale di Santa Maria Nuova'' in Italian) is the oldest hospital still active in Florence, Italy.
History and artistic profile
Origins
The hospital was founded in 1288 by Folco Portinari, the father ...
.
In the prime of his career, Allori headed one of the "two most important workshops in Florence in the second half of the 16th century" (the other being headed by
Santi di Tito
Santi di Tito (5 December 1536 – 25 July 1603) was one of the most influential and leading Italian painters of the proto- Baroque style – what is sometimes referred to as "Counter-Maniera" or Counter-Mannerism.
Biography
He was born in Flo ...
). He served as First Consul of the
Accademia del Disegno
The Accademia delle Arti del Disegno ("Academy of the Arts of Drawing") is an academy of artists in Florence, Italy. Founded as Accademia e Compagnia delle Arti del Disegno ("Academy and Company of the Arts of Drawing") on 13 January 1563 by ...
in 1573, and was made head of the ''Arazzeria Medicea'', Florence's state-owned tapestry workshop, in 1581. Allori also worked, under the guidance of
Giorgio Vasari
Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work '' The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculp ...
, among the team of artists who decorated the
Studiolo of Francesco I. He contributed two painted panels, depicting a ''Banquet of
Cleopatra'' and a landscape with figures diving for pearls.
S. J. Freedberg derides Allori as derivative, claiming he illustrates "the ideal of Maniera by which art (and style) are generated out of pre-existing art." The cold and polished appearance of his painted figures makes them resemble statues as much as living beings. The art historian Simona Lecchini Giovannoni is more positive, remarking that Allori lends life and immediacy to his paintings through his minute and realistic depictions of vegetal motifs (especially flowers), household articles, and textiles of all kinds; the "grandiose, introverted figures" are thus enabled to "approach the spectator, not with dialogue and sentiment, but through the tangible evidence of objects and details".
Among his collaborators was
Giovanni Maria Butteri and his main pupil was
Giovanni Bizzelli
Giovanni Bizzelli (1556 – around 1 August 1607 or 1612) was an Italian painter of the late-Mannerist period. He was a pupil of Alessandro Allori. He afterwards went to Rome. On his return to Florence he helped Antonio Tempesta in the decoration ...
.
Cristofano dell'Altissimo
Cristofano dell'Altissimo (c. 1525–1605) was an Italian painter in Florence.
For duke Cosimo I de' Medici he copied in Como at least 280 of the portraits from the Collection of Paolo Giovio known as the Giovio Series (484 in total).
Most ...
,
Cesare Dandini,
Aurelio Lomi
Aurelio Lomi (29 February 1556 – 1622) was an Italian painter of the late-Renaissance and early- Baroque periods, active mainly in his native town of Pisa, Tuscany.
__NOTOC__
Biography
He may have initially been trained by his father, Giovann ...
, John Mosnier,
Alessandro Pieroni,
Giovanni Battista Vanni
Biography
Giovanni Battista Vanni was born in either Pisa or Florence around 1599; he studied successively under Jacopo da Empoli, Aurelio Lomi, and Matteo Rosselli, and then became a disciple of Cristofano Allori. He is better known as an engr ...
, and Monanni also were his pupils.
[Hobbes J.R. page 5] He was the father of the painter
Cristofano Allori
Cristofano Allori (17 October 1577 – 1 April 1621) was an Italian painter of the late Florentine Mannerist school, painting mostly portraits and religious subjects. Allori was born at Florence and received his first lessons in painting from his ...
(1577–1621).
In some ways, Allori is the last of the line of prominent Florentine painters, of generally undiluted Tuscan artistic heritage:
Andrea del Sarto worked with
Fra Bartolomeo
Fra Bartolomeo or Bartolommeo (, , ; 28 March 1472 – 31 October 1517), also known as Bartolommeo di Pagholo, Bartolommeo di S. Marco, and his original nickname Baccio della Porta, was an Italian Renaissance painter of religious subjects. ...
(as well as
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...
),
Pontormo
Jacopo Carucci (May 24, 1494 – January 2, 1557), usually known as ''Jacopo da Pontormo'', ''Jacopo Pontormo'', or simply Pontormo, was an Italian Mannerist painter and portraitist from the Florentine School. His work represents a profound st ...
briefly worked under Andrea, and trained
Bronzino, who trained Allori. Subsequent generations in the city would be strongly influenced by the tide of
Baroque styles pre-eminent in other parts of Italy.
Main works
* ''Portrait of a Young Man'' (1561;
Ashmolean Museum,
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
)
* ''Christ and the Samaritan Woman'' (Altarpiece, 1575,
Santa Maria Novella
Santa Maria Novella is a church in Florence, Italy, situated opposite, and lending its name to, the city's main railway station. Chronologically, it is the first great basilica in Florence, and is the city's principal Dominican church.
The ch ...
, now Prato)
* ''Road to Calvary'' (1604, Rome)
* ''Dead Christ and Angels'', (Museum Fine Arts, Budapest)
[Web Gallery of Art, image collection, virtual museum, searchable database of European fine arts (1100-1850)](_blank)
/ref>
* ''Portrait of Piero de Médici'', (São Paulo Art Museum
SAO or Sao may refer to:
Places
* Sao civilisation, in Middle Africa from 6th century BC to 16th century AD
* Sao, a town in Boussé Department, Burkina Faso
* Saco Transportation Center (station code SAO), a train station in Saco, Maine, U. ...
, São Paulo
São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...
)
* ''Pearl Fishing'' (1570–72, Studiolo of Francesco I, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence)
* ''Susanna and the Elders
Susanna (; : "lily"), also called Susanna and the Elders, is a narrative included in the Book of Daniel (as chapter 13) by the Catholic Church, Oriental Orthodox Churches and Eastern Orthodox Churches. It is one of the additions to Daniel, plac ...
'' (202 × 117 cm, Musée Magnin
The Musée Magnin is a national museum in the French city of Dijon in Burgundy, in the Côte-d'Or department, with a collection of around 2,000 works of art collected by Maurice Magnin and his sister Jeanne and bequeathed to the state in 1938 alo ...
, Dijon
Dijon (, , ) (dated)
* it, Digione
* la, Diviō or
* lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920.
The earlies ...
)
* ''Allegory of Human Life''
* ''The Miracle of St. Peter Walking on Water''
* ''Venus and Cupid'', (Musée Fabre
The Musée Fabre is a museum in the southern French city of Montpellier, capital of the Hérault ''département''.
The museum was founded by François-Xavier Fabre, a Montpellier painter, in 1825. Beginning in 2003, the museum underwent a 61.2 mi ...
, Montpellier)
* Additions to Andrea del Sarto's '' Tribute to Caesar'' (1582; Villa di Poggio a Caiano)
In 2006 the BBC foreign correspondent Sir Charles Wheeler
Sir Selwyn Charles Cornelius-Wheeler (26 March 1923 – 4 July 2008) was a British journalist and broadcaster. Having joined the BBC in 1947, he became the corporation's longest-serving foreign correspondent, remaining in the role until his deat ...
returned an original Alessandro Allori painting to the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
The Gemäldegalerie (, ''Painting Gallery'') is an art museum in Berlin, Germany, and the museum where the main selection of paintings belonging to the Berlin State Museums (''Staatliche Museen zu Berlin'') is displayed. It was first opened in ...
. He had been given it in Germany in 1952, but only recently realized its origin and that it must have been looted in the wake of World War II. The work is possibly a portrait of Eleonora (Dianora) di Toledo de' Medici, niece of Eleonora di Toledo
Eleanor of Toledo (Italian: ''Eleonora di Toledo'', 11 January 1522 – 17 December 1562), born Doña Leonor Álvarez de Toledo y Osorio, was a Spanish noblewoman and Duchess of Florence as the first wife of Cosimo I de' Medici. A keen business ...
, and measures 12 cm x 16 cm.
Gallery
File:Alessandro Allori 003.jpg, Maria de Medici
Marie de' Medici (french: link=no, Marie de Médicis, it, link=no, Maria de' Medici; 26 April 1575 – 3 July 1642) was Queen of France and Navarre as the second wife of King Henry IV of France of the House of Bourbon, and Regent of the Kingd ...
(probably), c. 1555
File:Alessandro Allori, Sainte Famille avec le cardinal Fernand de Médicis (1584), huile sur toile, 363 x 201 - Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado (36903026421).jpg, Holy Family with Cardinal Fernando de Médicis, 1584
File:Alessandro Allori - The Body of Christ Anointed by Two Angels - Google Art Project.jpg, ''The Body of Christ Anointed by Two Angels'', c. 1593
File:Allori - Portrait of a Lady in Black and White, about 1590-1599.jpg, ''Portrait of a Lady in Black and White'', 1590s
File:Alessandro Allori, , Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Gemäldegalerie - Christus bei Maria und Martha - GG 1625 - Kunsthistorisches Museum.jpg, Christ with Mary and Martha, 1625
References
Alessandro Allori in the "History of Art"
* ''Painting in Italy 1500-1600'', Freedberg, S.J. (Penguin History of Art, 2nd Edition, 1983).
*
External links
Alessandro Allori Paintings Gallery
(Public Domain Paintings - www.art.onilm.com)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Allori, Alessandro
1535 births
1607 deaths
16th-century Italian painters
Italian male painters
17th-century Italian painters
Painters from Florence
Italian Mannerist painters
Italian portrait painters