Giuseppe Valeriano ( L'Aquila, August, 1542 –

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, July 15, 1596) was an Italian painter and architect, priest of the Jesuit order, and active in Rome, Spain, and Naples.

Biography

He began training in his native town under a minor painter named Pompeo Cesura, but by 1560 he was in Rome, and collaborated on the decoration of the Cappella dell'Ascensione in the church of Santo Spirito,

Sassia ''Sassia'' is a genus of sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the family Cymatiidae Cymatiidae is a family of large sea snails in the superfamily Tonnoidea and the order Littorinimorpha. Members of this family are predators. Genera The ...

. He also painted an altarpiece of the ''Glory of Christ'' (c. 1570), in which he shows the influence of

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 ...

painters such as

Sebastiano del Piombo Sebastiano del Piombo (; c. 1485 – 21 June 1547) was an Italian painter of the High Renaissance and early Mannerist periods famous as the only major artist of the period to combine the colouring of the Venetian school in which he was trained ...

and

Pellegrino Tibaldi Pellegrino Tibaldi (Valsolda, 1527–Milan, 1596), also known as Pellegrino di Tibaldo de Pellegrini, was an Italian mannerist architect, sculptor, and mural painter. Biography Tibaldi was born in Puria di Valsolda, then part of the duchy of ...

. Valeriano's work as an architect had greater impact than as a painter. In 1573, Valeriano travels to Spain, and by the next year he had joined the Jesuits. For this order, he helped design the church of Villagarcía de Campos, and worked on other projects in

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

, Granada, Córdoba, Málaga, and Trigueros. By way of Portugal, he returns to Italy in 1580, and helps design, in collaboration with

Giacomo della Porta Giacomo della Porta (1532–1602) was an Italian architect and sculptor, who worked on many important buildings in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica. He was born at Porlezza, Lombardy and died in Rome. Biography Giacomo Della Porta was ...

, the ''Collegio Romano'', sometimes attributed to Bartolomeo Ammanati. In Rome, he collaborates with

Scipione Pulzone Scipione Pulzone (1544 – February 1, 1598), also known as Il Gaetano, was a Neapolitan painter of the late Italian Renaissance. His work differs in several respects from the Mannerist style predominant at the time. He was active mainly in Ro ...

and

Gaspare Celio Gaspare Celio (1571 in Rome–November 24, 1640 in Rome) was an Italian painter of the late-Mannerist and early- Baroque period, active mainly in his native city of Rome. Celio was the pupil of Circignani, according to Baglione, but of Cristof ...

respectively in designing the decoration of the Chapels of Strada (1588) and Passion (c. 1590) in the church of the Gesù. In 1584, he completed designs for a building of the Collegio Massimo (now University of Naples), and began work on his masterpiece, the church of Gesù Nuovo. This Jesuit church was built into what had been a fortified family palace in central Naples. Valeriano also designed the posterior part (1589) of the church of Gesù in

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...

. He also provided plans for the order's Michaelskirche (1591) in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

, though it is unclear how much influence they had in that construction. He also contributed plans for buildings in Lisbon,

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

, L'Aquila,

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

, and Palermo (1592). It is impossible for him to have traveled to all these places in such short a span, and likely submitted plans "site unseen", which fits in with the Jesuit vision of itself as an international, homogenizing order for the apostolic spread of a unitary post- Tridentine Catholic faith.

Bibliography

* *Dizionario degli architetti, scultori, pittori: intagliatori in ..., Volumes 3, 1823, Milan, Stefano Ticozzi, Page 445=44

Sydney Joseph Freedberg Sydney Joseph Freedberg (November 11, 1914 – May 6, 1997) was an American art historian and curator, mainly of Italian Renaissance painting. Freedberg was born in Boston and attended the Boston Latin School. He graduated from Harvard College i ...

(1978). ''Pintura en Italia, 1500–1600''. Editorial Cátedra, Madrid. , pages 659–661. * ''The Grove Dictionary of Art'', Macmillan Publishers (2000). * Gauvin A. Bailey, ''Between Renaissance and Baroque: Jesuit art in Rome, 1565–1610'', University of Toronto Press (2003) {{DEFAULTSORT:Valeriano, Giuseppe 1542 births 1596 deaths 16th-century Italian Jesuits Italian Mannerist architects Architects from Naples 16th-century Italian architects 16th-century Italian painters Italian male painters Painters from Naples People from L'Aquila Italian Mannerist painters