Antonio Tempesta, also called il Tempestino (1555 – 5 August 1630), was an Italian painter and engraver, whose art acted as a point of connection between Baroque Rome and the culture of

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

. Much of his work depicts major battles and historical figures.

Life

He was born and trained in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...

and painted in a variety of styles, influenced to some degree by "Counter-''Maniera''" or

Counter-Mannerism Counter-''Maniera'' or Counter-Mannerism (variously capitalized and part-italicized) is a term in art history for a trend identified by some art historians in 16th-century Italian painting that forms a sub-category or phase of Mannerism, the do ...

. He enrolled in the Florentine

Accademia delle Arti 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 1576. He was a pupil of

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 Flor ...

, then of the

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

painter Joannes Stradanus. He was part of the large team of artists working under

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 ...

on the interior decoration of the

Palazzo Vecchio The Palazzo Vecchio ( "Old Palace") is the town hall of Florence, Italy. It overlooks the Piazza della Signoria, which holds a copy of Michelangelo's ''David'' statue, and the gallery of statues in the adjacent Loggia dei Lanzi. Originally ...

. His favourite subjects were battles, cavalcades, and processions. He relocated to Rome, where he associated with artists from the

Habsburg Netherlands Habsburg Netherlands was the Renaissance period fiefs in the Low Countries held by the Holy Roman Empire's House of Habsburg. The rule began in 1482, when the last Valois-Burgundy ruler of the Netherlands, Mary, wife of Maximilian I of Austr ...

, which may have led to his facility with

landscape painting Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coherent compo ...

. Among his followers was Marzio di Colantonio.

Commissions

Tempesta and the Flemish painter

Matthijs Bril Matthijs Bril or Matthijs Bril the Younger (1550 – 8 June 1583) was a Flemish painter and draughtsman of landscapes. He spent most of his active career in Rome where his drawings of ancient Roman sites played an important role in the development ...

were commissioned by

Pope Gregory XIII Pope Gregory XIII ( la, Gregorius XIII; it, Gregorio XIII; 7 January 1502 – 10 April 1585), born Ugo Boncompagni, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 May 1572 to his death in April 1585. He is best known for ...

to paint wide panoramas of the ''Procession to Transfer the Relics of St. Gregory of Nazianzus'' (1572) for the

loggia In architecture, a loggia ( , usually , ) is a covered exterior gallery or corridor, usually on an upper level, but sometimes on the ground level of a building. The outer wall is open to the elements, usually supported by a series of columns ...

s on the third floor of the

Vatican Palace The Apostolic Palace ( la, Palatium Apostolicum; it, Palazzo Apostolico) is the official residence of the pope, the head of the Catholic Church, located in Vatican City. It is also known as the Papal Palace, the Palace of the Vatican and the V ...

. He completed frescoes in the Palazzina Gambara at the

Villa Lante Villa Lante is a Mannerist garden of surprise in Bagnaia, Viterbo, central Italy, attributed to Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola. Villa Lante did not become so known until it passed to Ippolito Lante Montefeltro della Rovere, Duke of Bomarzo, in the ...

in Bagnaia (1578-1609). From 1579–83, Tempesta participated in the decoration of the

Villa Farnese The Villa Farnese, also known as Villa Caprarola, is a pentagonal mansion in the town of Caprarola in the province of Viterbo, Northern Lazio, Italy, approximately north-west of Rome. This villa should not be confused with the Palazzo Farnese a ...

Caprarola Caprarola is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Viterbo, in the Lazio region of central Italy. The village is situated in a range of volcanic hills known as the Cimini Mounts. The town is home to the large Renaissance mansion or villa which ...

, notably of this villa's Scala Regia. He is also known to have collaborated on

fresco Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plast ...

es in the

Villa d'Este The Villa d'Este is a 16th-century villa in Tivoli, near Rome, famous for its terraced hillside Italian Renaissance garden and especially for its profusion of fountains. It is now an Italian state museum, and is listed as a UNESCO World Her ...

Tivoli Tivoli may refer to: * Tivoli, Lazio, a town in Lazio, Italy, known for historic sites; the inspiration for other places named Tivoli Buildings * Tivoli (Baltimore, Maryland), a mansion built about 1855 * Tivoli Building (Cheyenne, Wyoming), ...

and the Palazzina Gamara at

, Bagnaia. He painted a series of turbulent and crowded battle scenes for the Medici. He also completed a series of engravings on outdoor courtly hunting scenes. Tempesta painted frescoes for the Palazzos

Colonna The House of Colonna, also known as ''Sciarrillo'' or ''Sciarra'', is an Italian noble family, forming part of the papal nobility. It was powerful in medieval and Renaissance Rome, supplying one pope (Martin V) and many other church and pol ...

, the

Doria Pamphilj The House of Pamphili (often with the final ''long i'' orthography, Pamphilj) was one of the papal families deeply entrenched in Catholic Church, Roman and Italian politics of the 16th and 17th centuries. Later, the Pamphili family line merged ...

, and for the

Marchese Giustiniani Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani (13 September 1564 – 27 December 1637) was an aristocratic Italian banker, art collector and intellectual of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, known today largely for the Giustiniani art collection, assembled ...

in his Roman palace, where Tempesta collaborated with

Paul Bril Paul Bril (1554 – 7 October 1626) was a Flemish painter and printmaker principally known for his landscapes.Nicola Courtright. "Paul Bril." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 26 September 2016 He spent most of ...

, and at Bassano di Sutri.M.V. Brugnoli, "I primi affreschi nel palazzo Bassano di Sutro", ''Bollettinon d'arte'' (1957:241-54. He painted a '' Massacre of the Innocents'' for the church of Santo Stefano Rotondo in Rome. Tempesta is now best known as a

printmaker Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proce ...

etching Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...

and engraving. He also left numerous etchings, among them: ''Plates from the Old Testament''; twenty-four plates from the ''Life of St. Anthony''; a set of 150 prints from ''

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom ...

’s

Metamorphoses The ''Metamorphoses'' ( la, Metamorphōsēs, from grc, μεταμορφώσεις: "Transformations") is a Latin narrative poem from 8 CE by the Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his '' magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the ...

''; 13 plates on ''The

Labours of Hercules The Labours of Hercules or Labours of Heracles ( grc-gre, wikt:ὁ, οἱ wikt:Ἡρακλῆς, Ἡρακλέους wikt:ἆθλος, ἆθλοι, ) are a series of episodes concerning a penance carried out by Heracles, the greatest of the ...

'' and four plates on respectively ''The ages of man''; ''The entry of

Alexander Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

into Babylon''; ''Diana and Actaon'', and ''

The crucifixion The crucifixion and death of Jesus occurred in 1st-century Judea, most likely in AD 30 or AD 33. It is described in the four canonical gospels, referred to in the New Testament epistles, attested to by other ancient sources, and considere ...

'' (1612). In 1612 he engraved a series of plates under the title "Batavorum cum Romanis Bellum" after designs of the

Netherlandish The Low Countries comprise the coastal Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta region in Western Europe, whose definition usually includes the modern countries of Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands. Both Belgium and the Netherlands derived their ...

artist

Otto van Veen Otto van Veen, also known by his Latinized name Otto Venius or Octavius Vaenius (1556 – 6 May 1629), was a painter, draughtsman, and humanist active primarily in Antwerp and Brussels in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. He is known for ...

, also known as Vaenius (1556-1629) and court painter to Alessandro Farnese. Van Veen was influenced by the Italian mannerists but had developed his own style anticipating the Flemish baroque of his pupil

Peter Paul Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradit ...

. The series consists of 36 numbered engraved plates and illustrates the armed struggle between the ancient Dutch tribes and their Roman oppressors as narrated in

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. The surviving portions of his two major works—the ...

' Histories. Each plate bears at the bottom an engraved legend in

and in Latin while a detailed explanation is printed on the otherwise blank verso. Plate I, signed 'Ant.Tempesta f. Anno 1611', shows 'Roma' and ' Batavia' in battle dress with respective scenic backgrounds, symbolizing the two nations. Fifteen other plates bear Tempesta's monogram. The plates depict heroic events, sieges, and battle scenes. This historicist work was very popular in its time. Tempesta also drew many designs for tapestries.

Gallery

File:Antonio Tempesta (attr) Schlachtenbild.jpg, Schlachtenbild File:Painting depicting the arrival of Christine of France to Turin in 1619 by Antonio Tempesta (1555-1630).jpg, 16th c. painting by Tempesta File:Antonio tempesta, condannato a morte salvato dall'annuinziata, 1614-19.jpg, Condannato a morte salvato dall'annuinziata File:The Egyptians Drowning in the Red Sea by Antonio Tempesta.jpg, Egyptians Drowning in the Red Sea File:Antonio tempesta, scena di battaglia.jpg, Scena di Battaglia File:Antonio tempesta, miracolo del soldato caduto e salvato.jpg, Miracolo del soldato caduto e salvato File:Antonio Tempesta (1555-1630) - Nero (AD 37–68), Roman Emperor - 515498 - National Trust.jpg, Depiction of Nero File:Julius Caesar, Roman Emperor.png, Roman Emperor File:A. Tempesta Cerialis 1612.jpg, Cerialis in 1612 File:Tempesta Gerusalemme Liberata3.jpg, Gerusalemme Liberata 3 File:Tempesta Gerusalemme Liberata8.jpg, Gerusalemme Liberata 8 File:Tempesta Gerusalemme Liberata13.jpg, Gerusalemme Liberata 13 File:Tempesta Gerusalemme Liberata17.jpg, Gerusalemme Liberata 17 File:Tempesta Gerusalemme Liberata18.jpg, Gerusalemme Liberata 18 File:Tempesta Gerusalemme Liberata20.jpg, Gerusalemme Liberata 20 File:Antonio Tempesta - Tereus Philomela Procne.jpg, Tereus Philomela Procne File:Antonio Tempesta - Die Kreuzigung des hl. Petrus - 2344 - Bavarian State Painting Collections.jpg, Die Kreuzigung des hl. Petrus

Notes

References

* Text from

Karel van Mander Karel van Mander (I) or Carel van Mander I (May 1548 – 2 September 1606) was a Flemish painter, poet, art historian and art theoretician, who established himself in the Dutch Republic in the latter part of his life. He is mainly remembere ...

's ''Schilderboeck'', p. 195: ''Daer is nae mijnen tijdt, oft noch teghenwoordich te Room, een Florentijn, Discipel van Ioan van der straet, oft Stradanus, geheeten Antonio Tempesta, die seer ghepresen wort, hebbende veel dinghen gheteyckent en ghehetst, als Iachten, Batailgen der Amasones: oock Ao. 1593. in platte forme, en in't groote, de Stadt van Room.''
Brief bio of Tempesta from Web Gallery of Art
*Grove Art Dictionary *Eckhard Leuschner, ''Antonio Tempesta. Ein Bahnbrecher des roemischen Barock und seine europaeische Wirkung'', Petersberg 2005 (in German). *

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tempesta, Antonio 1555 births 1630 deaths 16th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 17th-century Italian painters Italian Renaissance painters Italian printmakers Painters from Florence