Ottaviano Nelli (1375–1444?) was an Italian painter of the early Quattrocento. Nelli primarily painted
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 plaste ...
es, but also panel paintings. He had several pupils and two painters were influenced by him.
Biography
He was born in
Gubbio
Gubbio () is an Italian town and ''comune'' in the far northeastern part of the Italian province of Perugia (Umbria). It is located on the lowest slope of Mt. Ingino, a small mountain of the Apennines.
History
The city's origins are very ancient. ...
to the painter Martino Nelli, and was active there and in
Perugia
Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia.
The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part o ...
Assisi
Assisi (, also , ; from la, Asisium) is a town and ''comune'' of Italy in the Province of Perugia in the Umbria region, on the western flank of Monte Subasio.
It is generally regarded as the birthplace of the Latin poet Propertius, born aroun ...
, and
Foligno
Foligno (; Southern Umbrian: ''Fuligno'') is an ancient town of Italy in the province of Perugia in east central Umbria, on the Topino river where it leaves the Apennines and enters the wide plain of the Clitunno river system. It is located so ...
Giovanni Pintali Giovanni may refer to:
* Giovanni (name), an Italian male given name and surname
* Giovanni (meteorology), a Web interface for users to analyze NASA's gridded data
* '' Don Giovanni'', a 1787 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, based on the legend ...
Ubaldo Di Matteo Ubaldo is a masculine Italian and Spanish given name, from Germanic name, Germanic ''hug'' "mind" and ''bald'' "bold". Notable people with the name include:
*Ubald of Gubbio (Ubaldo Baldassini) (c. 1084 – 1160), Italian bishop and Catholic saint
* ...
.
Nelli was "consul" (a local government representative) for the Sant'Andrea district of Gubbio in 1440 and during the same year, the
prior
Prior (or prioress) is an ecclesiastical title for a superior in some religious orders. The word is derived from the Latin for "earlier" or "first". Its earlier generic usage referred to any monastic superior. In abbeys, a prior would be l ...
s of
Perugia
Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia.
The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part o ...
had him paint the
coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...
of the duke
Gian Galeazzo Visconti
Gian Galeazzo Visconti (16 October 1351 – 3 September 1402), was the first duke of Milan (1395) and ruled the late-medieval city just before the dawn of the Renaissance. He also ruled Lombardy jointly with his uncle Bernabò. He was the foundi ...
Polyptych of Pietralunga
A polyptych ( ; Greek: ''poly-'' "many" and ''ptychē'' "fold") is a painting (usually panel painting) which is divided into sections, or panels. Specifically, a "diptych" is a two-part work of art; a "triptych" is a three-part work; a tetrapty ...
''. Nelli painted the frescoes of the
Trinci Palace
The Trinci Palace is a patrician residence in the center of Foligno, central Italy. It houses an archaeological museum, the city's picture gallery, a multimedia museum of Tournaments and Jousts and the Civic Museum.
History
Palazzo Trinci was t ...
in
Foligno
Foligno (; Southern Umbrian: ''Fuligno'') is an ancient town of Italy in the province of Perugia in east central Umbria, on the Topino river where it leaves the Apennines and enters the wide plain of the Clitunno river system. It is located so ...
in 1424. From 1428 to 1432, he was a part of the brotherhood of Santa Croce, Florence and worked on the painting ''Madonna Crowned by Angels'' for the church. In 1441,
Domenico di Cecco
Domenico di Cecco, also known by Domenico di Cecco di Baldi (active mid-15th century) was an Italian painter of the Quattrocento.
Biography
He was born in Gubbio, and active there, where he was a pupil of Ottaviano Nelli
Ottaviano Nelli (13 ...
became his pupil and sometime around that year he adopted a son named Mars. His wife Balda died sometime before 1458.
The painters Gentile da Fabriano and
Giovanni Sanzio
Giovanni Santi (c. 1435 – 1 August 1494) was an Italian painter, decorator, and the father of Raphael. He was born in 1435 at Colbordolo in the Duchy of Urbino. He studied under Piero della Francesca and was influenced by Fiorenzo di Lorenzo. ...
were influenced by Nelli. It is believed that Fabriano and Nelli worked together to decorate the church
choir
A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...
easel painting
An easel is an upright support used for displaying and/or fixing something resting upon it, at an angle of about 20° to the vertical. In particular, easels are traditionally used by painters to support a painting while they work on it, normally ...
s on panel, but they are rare. One of his easel paintings can be found in the church of Sant'Agostino, Gubbio, but it has been almost entirely repainted. A second similar easel painting is at Montefalco.
Austen Henry Layard
Sir Austen Henry Layard (; 5 March 18175 July 1894) was an English Assyriologist, traveller, cuneiformist, art historian, draughtsman, collector, politician and diplomat. He was born to a mostly English family in Paris and largely raised in It ...
wrote that Nelli's easel paintings were "far inferior to his works in fresco".
Death
Nothing is recorded about Nelli after 1444, and it is presumed that he died during that year. Many local artists who were influenced by him did not become significant. The Gubbian school, which he was a part of, was taken over by the one which
Perugino
Pietro Perugino (, ; – 1523), born Pietro Vannucci, was an Italian Renaissance painter of the Umbrian school, who developed some of the qualities that found classic expression in the High Renaissance. Raphael was his most famous pupil.
Ear ...
started at
Perugia
Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia.
The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part o ...
Life of the Virgin
The Life of the Virgin, showing narrative scenes from the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus, is a common subject for pictorial cycles in Christian art, often complementing, or forming part of, a cycle on the Life of Christ. In both cases the nu ...
'' (1408 - 1413 circa), Fresco cycle, Church of San Francesco, Gubbio.
* ''Madonna del latte e angeli'', Urbino, Oratorio dell'Umiltà.
* ''Life of the Virgin'' (1424), Fresco cycle,
Foligno
Foligno (; Southern Umbrian: ''Fuligno'') is an ancient town of Italy in the province of Perugia in east central Umbria, on the Topino river where it leaves the Apennines and enters the wide plain of the Clitunno river system. It is located so ...
, Chapel of Palazzo Trinci.
* ''Madonna del latte'' (post 1427), Urbino, Oratory of Santa Croce.
*Panels from a polyptych, of before 1430, now divided (with at least one missing):
**''Nativity of Christ'',
Worcester Art Museum
The Worcester Art Museum, also known by its acronym WAM, houses over 38,000 works of art dating from antiquity to the present day and representing cultures from all over the world. WAM opened in 1898 in Worcester, Massachusetts, and ranks among th ...
, Worcester, Mass.
**''Saint Jerome'', Musée du Petit Palais, Avignon
**''Circumcision of Christ'' and ''Mystical Marriage of Saint Francis,
Pinacoteca, Vatican
The Vatican Museums ( it, Musei Vaticani; la, Musea Vaticana) are the public museums of the Vatican City. They display works from the immense collection amassed by the Catholic Church and the papacy throughout the centuries, including several of ...
* ''Life of Saint Augustine'', fresco cycle, c. 1430-40,
Sant'Agostino, Gubbio Sant'Agostino is a Gothic- Romanesque style Roman Catholic church in Gubbio, region of Umbria, Italy.
A church at the site was built in the second half of the 13th century. Among the works inside areSant'Agostino, Gubbio Sant'Agostino is a Gothic- Romanesque style Roman Catholic church in Gubbio, region of Umbria, Italy.
A church at the site was built in the second half of the 13th century. Among the works inside areSanta Maria della Piaggiola, Gubbio