Amico Aspertini, also called Amerigo Aspertini, was an Italian

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

painter and sculptor whose complex, eccentric, and eclectic style anticipates

Mannerism 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 Italy, ...

. He is considered one of the leading exponents of the Bolognese School of painting.

Biography

He was born in

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

to a family of painters (including Giovanni Antonio Aspertini, his father, and Guido Aspertini, his brother), and studied under masters such as Lorenzo Costa and Francesco Francia. He traveled to Rome with his father in 1496, and is briefly documented there again between 1500–1503, returning to Bologna thereafter and painting in a style influenced by Pinturicchio and

Filippino Lippi Filippino Lippi (April 1457 – 18 April 1504) was an Italian painter working in Florence, Italy during the later years of the Early Renaissance and first few years of the High Renaissance. Biography Filippino Lippi was born in Prato, Tusc ...

(whose work the critic Roberto Longhi suggested n ''Officina ferrarese'', 1934he may have seen in Florence before 1500). To his Roman years belong at least two collections of drawings, the "Parma Notebook" (''Taccuino di Parma'') and the Wolfegg Codex. In Bologna in 1504, he joined Francia and Costa in painting frescoes for the Oratory of Santa Cecilia next to

San Giacomo Maggiore The Basilica of San Giacomo Maggiore is an historic Roman Catholic church in Bologna, region of Emilia Romagna, Italy, serving a monastery of Augustinian friars. It was built starting in 1267 and houses, among the rest, the Bentivoglio Chapel, f ...

, a work commissioned by

Giovanni II Bentivoglio Giovanni II Bentivoglio (12 February 144315 February 1508) was an Italian nobleman who ruled as tyrant of Bologna from 1463 until 1506. He had no formal position, but held power as the city's "first citizen." The Bentivoglio family ruled over Bol ...

. In 1508-1509, while in exile from Bologna following the fall of the Bentivoglio family, Aspertini painted the splendid frescoes in the Chapel of the Cross in the Basilica di San Frediano in Lucca (a church, like the Oratory of Santa Cecilia, maintained by Augustinian friars). Aspertini was also one of two artists chosen to decorate a triumphal arch for the entry into Bologna of Pope Clement VII and Emperor Charles V in 1529. He produced sculptures for doors in

San Petronio Basilica The Basilica of San Petronio is a minor basilica and church of the Archdiocese of Bologna located in Bologna, Emilia Romagna, northern Italy. It dominates Piazza Maggiore. The basilica is dedicated to the patron saint of the city, Saint Petronius ...

in Bologna. Aspertini also painted façade decorations (all now lost), and altarpieces. Many of his works are often eccentric and charged in expression. For example, the ''Pietà'' he painted inside San Petronio appears to occur in an other-worldly electric sky. His Tuscan near-contemporary Giorgio Vasari described Aspertini (in '' The Lives'') as having an eccentric, half-insane personality. According to Vasari, he was ambidextrous and worked so rapidly with both hands that he was able to divide

chiaroscuro Chiaroscuro ( , ; ), in art, is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to achi ...

between them, painting ''chiaro'' with one hand and ''scuro'' with the other. Vasari also quotes Aspertini as complaining that all his Bolognese colleagues were copying

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of works by Raphael, His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of ...

. He died in Bologna.

Anthology of works

*''Adoration of the Shepherds'' - Staatliche Museen, Berlin *''Adoration of the Shepherds'' (1515) - Uffizi, Florence *

Domus Aurea The Domus Aurea (Latin, "Golden House") was a vast landscaped complex built by the Emperor Nero largely on the Oppian Hill in the heart of ancient Rome after the great fire in 64 AD had destroyed a large part of the city.Roth (1993) It repla ...

, Rome *''A Baptismal Ceremony'' - Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery, Nashville, Tennessee *Frescoes, Oratorio di Santa Cecilia, Bologna * San Frediano, Lucca *

San Michele in Bosco San Michele in Bosco is a religious complex in Bologna, central Italy, including the church with the same name and the annexed Olivetan monastery. The buildings of the monastery were acquired in 1955 by the municipality of Bologna, to house an o ...

, Bologna *''Pietà with Saint Mark, Ambrose, John the Evangelist, and Anthony Abbot'' (1519) -

San Petronio The Basilica of San Petronio is a minor basilica and church of the Archdiocese of Bologna located in Bologna, Emilia Romagna, northern Italy. It dominates Piazza Maggiore. The basilica is dedicated to the patron saint of the city, Saint Petronius ...

, Bologna) *''Saint Sebastian'', National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC *''Battle of the Amazons'' (Italy) *''Madonna and Child with Saints George, Joseph, John the Evangelist and Sebastian'', Museo Nazionale di Villa Guinigi, Lucca *

, Bologna *''Profile of a Hero'' (1496) - Christian Museum,

Esztergom Esztergom ( ; german: Gran; la, Solva or ; sk, Ostrihom, known by alternative names) is a city with county rights in northern Hungary, northwest of the capital Budapest. It lies in Komárom-Esztergom County, on the right bank of the river Danu ...

*''Madonna Enthroned with Saints'', (c. 1515) -

San Martino, Bologna San Martino church, also called San Martino Maggiore is a Gothic-style, Roman Catholic church located at the corner of Via Marsala and Via Guglielmo Oberdan in Bologna, region of Emilia Romagna, Italy. The church was founded by the adjacent Carmeli ...

*''Holy Family with Saints'' (after 1530) - Saint Nicolas des Champs, Paris

References

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External links

Web Gallery

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aspertini, Amico 15th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 16th-century Italian painters 16th-century Italian sculptors Painters from Bologna Renaissance painters Fresco painters