Lodovico Cardi (21 September 1559 – 8 June 1613), also known as Cigoli, was an Italian painter and architect of the late Mannerist and early

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

period, trained and active in his early career 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 an ...

, and spending the last nine years of his life in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Biography

Lodovico Cardi was born at Villa Castelvecchio in Cigoli,

Tuscany Tuscany ( ; it, Toscana ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence (''Firenze''). Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, art ...

, whence the name by which he is commonly known. Initially, Cigoli trained in Florence under the fervid mannerist

Alessandro Allori Alessandro di Cristofano di Lorenzo del Bronzino Allori (Florence, 31 May 153522 September 1607) was an Italian painter of the late Mannerist Florentine school. Biography In 1540, after the death of his father, Allori was brought up and trai ...

, and studied the works of

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...

, Correggio,

Andrea del Sarto Andrea del Sarto (, , ; 16 July 1486 – 29 September 1530) was an Italian painter from Florence, whose career flourished during the High Renaissance and early Mannerism. He was known as an outstanding fresco decorator, painter of altar-pieces, ...

and

Pontormo Jacopo Carucci (May 24, 1494 – January 2, 1557), usually known as ''Jacopo da Pontormo'', ''Jacopo Pontormo'', or simply Pontormo, was an Italian Mannerism, Mannerist painter and portraitist from the Florentine School. His work represents a pr ...

. Later, influenced by the most prominent of the " Counter-''Maniera''" painters,

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 ...

, as well as by

Barocci Federico Barocci (also written ''Barozzi'')(c. 1535 in Urbino – 1612 in Urbino) was an Italian Renaissance painter and printmaker. His original name was Federico Fiori, and he was nicknamed Il Baroccio. His work was highly esteemed and inf ...

, Cigoli shed the shackles of mannerism and infused his later paintings with an expressionism often lacking from 16th-century Florentine painting. For the Roman patron, Massimo Massimi, he painted an '' Ecce Homo'' (now in Palazzo Pitti). Supposedly unbeknownst to any of the painters, two other prominent contemporary painters, Passignano and

Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi (Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi) da Caravaggio, known as simply Caravaggio (, , ; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the final four years of hi ...

, had been requested canvases on the same theme. This work was afterwards taken by

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

to the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

, and was restored to Florence in 1815. One of his early paintings was of ''Cain slaying Abel''. He then gained the employ of the Grand-Duke in some works for the Pitti Palace, where he painted a ''Venus and Satyr'' and a ''Sacrifice of Isaac''. Other important pictures are ''St. Peter Healing the Lame Man'' in St Peter's; an unfinished ''Burial of St. Paul'' in the church of San Paolo fuori le Mura, and a ''Story of Psyche'' in a fresco incorporated in the decorative scheme of the Villa Borghese; a ''Martyrdom of Stephen'', which earned him the name of the "Florentine Correggio", and a ''Stigmata of St. Francis'' at Florence. Shortly before his death, Cigoli was made a

Knight of Malta The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta ( it, Sovrano Militare Ordine Ospedaliero di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme, di Rodi e di Malta; ...

at the request of Pope Paul V. As stated by the prominent 17th-century painter, Andrea Sacchi, Cigoli's, ''St Peter Healing the Lame Man'' came to be recognized as the third most beautiful painting in Rome after Raphael's ''Transfiguration'' and Domenichino's ''The Last Communion of St Jerome''. Cigoli's fame and influence, even prior to coming to Rome, was of such a degree that the Florentine ambassador to the city greeted the artist on his arrival to the Eternal City. In Baldanucci's ''Notizie'' or lives of the artists, Cigoli is the only artist, along with Michelangelo, given the unique title of "Divine". Cigoli, a close personal friend of

Galileo Galilei Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Commonly referred to as Galileo, his name was pronounced (, ). He was ...

– and regarded by him as the greatest painter of the age – painted a last fresco in the dome of the Pauline chapel of the church of

Santa Maria Maggiore The Basilica of Saint Mary Major ( it, Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, ; la, Basilica Sanctae Mariae Maioris), or church of Santa Maria Maggiore, is a Major papal basilica as well as one of the Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome and the larges ...

in Rome, depicting the Madonna standing upon a pock-marked lunar orb. This is the first extant example of Galileo's discoveries about the physical nature of the Moon (as he himself drew it in his 1610 treatise '' Sidereus Nuncius'') having penetrated the visual arts practice of his day. Until this image, the Moon in pictures of the Virgin had always been mythical and smooth, perfectly spherical as described by Platonic & Ptolemaic tradition. His pupils include

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), the Fleming

Giovanni Biliverti Giovanni Biliverti (surname also written as Bilivelt and Bilivert or other variants) (Florence, 25 August 1585 – Florence, 16 July 1644) was an Italian painter of the late-Mannerism and early-Baroque period, active mainly in his adoptive city o ...

(1576–1644),

Domenico Fetti Domenico Fetti (also spelled Feti) (c. 1589 – 1623) was an Italian Baroque painter who had been active mainly in Rome, Mantua and Venice. Biography Born in Rome to a little-known painter, Pietro Fetti, Domenico is said to have apprenticed i ...

Giovanni Antonio Lelli Giovanni Antonio Lelli (1591 – August 3, 1640) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period. He was a pupil of the painter Cigoli. In the church of San Matteo in Merulana in Rome (now demolished), he painted an ''Annunciation''. He painted a ''V ...

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 ...

, Pietro Medici,

Gregorio Pagani Gregorio Pagani (14 July 1559 – 1605) was an Italian painter of the late 16th century, active mainly in Florence. He was the son of the painter Francesco Pagani, then became a pupil of Santi di Tito, then entered the studio of Ludovico Cigoli. ...

, and

Andrea Comodi Andrea Commodi (1560–1638) was an Italian painter of the early-Baroque period. Born in Florence, but mostly active in Rome, he was a pupil of the painter Cigoli. He painted frescoes in the sacristy of San Carlo ai Catinari and a ''Fall of the Ang ...

(1560–1638).

References

Sources

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External links

''Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi''
a fully digitized exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries, which contains material on Cigoli (see index) {{DEFAULTSORT:Cigoli, Lodovico 1559 births 1613 deaths People from the Province of Pisa 16th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 17th-century Italian painters Painters from Tuscany Italian Mannerist painters Italian Mannerist architects