Ottavio Leoni - Francesco Maria del Monte

Francesco Maria del Monte, full name Francesco Maria Bourbon del Monte Santa Maria, (5 July 1549 – 27 August 1627) was an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **'' Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **'' Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, t ...

diplomat A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or interna ...

, and connoisseur of the arts. His fame today rests on his early patronage of the important

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 ...

master

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 h ...

, and on his art collection (the del Monte collection) which provides provenance for many important works of the period.

Career

Rome Palazzo Madama 10-01-2011 13-00-15 adjusted

Born in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

of the aristocratic del Monte family of Tuscan origin (which provided several cardinals to the

Church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chri ...

), he was the son of Marquis Ranieri Bourbon del Monte, first Count of Monte Baroccio, and Minerva Pianosa. He began his ecclesiastical career as

Abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. Th ...

commendatario of Santa Croce a Monte Fabali. He then went to

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 ...

when he was still quite young, and was appointed as auditor for Cardinal Alessandro

Sforza The House of Sforza () was a ruling family of Renaissance Italy, based in Milan. They acquired the Duchy of Milan following the extinction of the Visconti family in the mid-15th century, Sforza rule ending in Milan with the death of the last m ...

, before being finally admitted into the court of Cardinal Ferdinando de'

Medici The House of Medici ( , ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici, in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the 15th century. The family originated in the Mu ...

. He made his way up through the clerical ranks as

Referendary Referendary is the English form of a number of administrative positions, of various rank, in chanceries and other official organizations in Europe. Pre-modern history The office of ' (plural: ', from the Latin ', "I inform") existed at the Byzan ...

of the Tribunals of the Apostolic Signature of Justice and of Grace (1580), and later went to serve the grand-duke of Tuscany, the former Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici. He was created cardinal deacon in the

consistory Consistory is the anglicized form of the consistorium, a council of the closest advisors of the Roman emperors. It can also refer to: *A papal consistory, a formal meeting of the Sacred College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church * Consistor ...

of 14 December 1588 under

Pope Sixtus V Pope Sixtus V ( it, Sisto V; 13 December 1521 – 27 August 1590), born Felice Piergentile, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 24 April 1585 to his death in August 1590. As a youth, he joined the Franciscan order ...

, and received the deaconry of S. Maria in Domnica the following year. He took part in the two conclaves of 1590 ( Papal Conclave of September 1590 and the Papal Conclave of Autumn 1590), the conclave of 1591 and the conclave of 1592. He subsequently took the titles of

Santa Maria in Aracoeli The Basilica of St. Mary of the Altar of Heaven ( la, Basilica Sanctae Mariae de Ara coeli in Capitolio, it, Basilica di Santa Maria in Ara coeli al Campidoglio) is a titular basilica in Rome, located on the highest summit of the Campidoglio. ...

, Santa Maria in Trastevere, and S. Lorenzo in Lucina. As a cardinal he proved an accomplished diplomat and administrator: he represented the interests of the Grand Duke of

Tuscany it, Toscano (man) it, Toscana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Citizenship , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = Italian , demogra ...

, the former Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici, in Rome, and was firmly but discreetly pro-French in the ongoing struggle between the French and Spanish for influence over the papacy. He served as Prefect of the

Tridentine Council The Council of Trent ( la, Concilium Tridentinum), held between 1545 and 1563 in Trent (or Trento), now in northern Italy, was the 19th ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation, it has been describe ...

(1606 to 1616) and as

Bishop of Palestrina The Roman Catholic Suburbicarian Diocese of Palestrina ( la, Diocesis Praenestina) is a Roman Catholic suburbicarian diocese centered on the comune of Palestrina in Italy. The current bishop of Palestrina is Domenico Sigalini, who from 3 Novem ...

from 1615 to 1621. He participated in the Papal Conclave of 1621 and had ambitions of being elected Pope but his pro-French sympathies ensured his veto by the Spanish. Academics such as Posner, Frommel, and Hibbard have drawn upon extant documents (principally the correspondence of Dirk van Ameyden) that suggest the strong likelihood that he was

homosexual Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...

and this may have influenced his tastes in the art he commissioned (including those by

), as well as damaging prospects of assuming the

papacy The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

. Van Ameyden mischievously painted a portrait in words of a man that seemed to display more than a paternal care for the boys in his charge. But Graham-Dixon argues that such accusations seem deliberately to have been cast by the pro-Spanish Ameyden against the pro-French Del Monte in order to discredit him, and bear little real scrutiny. Besides which, there is better evidence that Del Monte had courted women in his youth. In short, the most honest and impartial scholarly conclusion about Del Monte's sexuality is that just as we currently do not have grounds to prove his homosexuality, we likewise do not have grounds to absolutely exclude that possibility. He died in his Rome palace, the ( Palazzo Madama, today the home of the

Italian Senate The Senate of the Republic ( it, Senato della Repubblica), or simply the Senate ( it, Senato), is the upper house of the bicameral Italian Parliament (the other being the Chamber of Deputies). The two houses together form a perfect bicameral s ...

) and was buried in the church of Sant'Urbano, Rome.

Patron of science and art

The epitaph on De Monte's tomb describes him as an "excellent patron of the good arts". Del Monte was a perceptive supporter of the arts and sciences - he was the first recorded owner of the Portland Vase, and his Palazzo Madama household was one of the most important intellectual salons in Rome. At his death his art collection contained more than six hundred paintings, and his support of the young Caravaggio has given provenance to several of that artist's early works. Together with his brother, he helped

Galileo 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 ...

win a lectureship in mathematics in

Pisa Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the ci ...

in 1589 and in

Padua Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

in 1592. In the wake of Galileo's discovery of the 'Medicean Planets', he gave the Cardinal a copy of his ''

Sidereus Nuncius ''Sidereus Nuncius'' (usually ''Sidereal Messenger'', also ''Starry Messenger'' or ''Sidereal Message'') is a short Astronomy, astronomical treatise (or ''pamphlet'') published in New Latin by Galileo Galilei on March 13, 1610. It was the first ...

'' (Sidereal message) and a telescope as gifts (in 1610). When Galileo went to Rome in 1611, Grand Duke

Cosimo II Cosimo II de' Medici (12 May 1590 – 28 February 1621) was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1609 until his death. He was the elder son of Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Christina of Lorraine. For the majority of his twelve-ye ...

recommended him to the Cardinal's council so that he could be helped during his sojourn at the Vatican.'Galileo, Courtier: RRThe Practice of Science in the Culture of Absolutism', Mario Biagioli, University of Chicago Press, 1993. Del Monte was a patron of German painter

Adam Elsheimer __NOTOC__ Adam Elsheimer (18 March 1578 – 11 December 1610) was a German artist working in Rome, who died at only thirty-two, but was very influential in the early 17th century in the field of Baroque paintings. His relatively few paintin ...

and

Andrea Sacchi Andrea Sacchi (30 November 159921 June 1661) was an Italian painter of High Baroque Classicism, active in Rome. A generation of artists who shared his style of art include the painters Nicolas Poussin and Giovanni Battista Passeri, the sculptors ...

Selected art from his collection

File:Michelangelo Caravaggio 020.jpg, Caravaggio, ''The Lute Player'', oil on canvas, 94 × 119 cm, Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg File:Caravaggio - I Musici.jpg, Caravaggio, ''The Musicians'', oil on canvas, 92 × 118.5 cm,

The Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

File:Michelangelo Caravaggio 060.jpg, Caravaggio, ''Saint Catherine of Alexandria'', oil on canvas, 173 x 133 cm,

Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza The Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum (in Spanish, the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza (), named after its founder), or simply the Thyssen, is an art museum in Madrid, Spain, located near the Prado Museum on one of the city's main boulevards. I ...

, Madrid File:Baco, por Caravaggio.jpg, Caravaggio, ''Bacchus'', oil on canvas, 85 × 95 cm,

Uffizi Gallery The Uffizi Gallery (; it, Galleria degli Uffizi, italic=no, ) is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian muse ...

, Florence File:La Diseuse de bonne aventure, Caravaggio (Louvre INV 55) 02.jpg, Caravaggio, ''The Fortune Teller'', oil on canvas, 93 × 131 cm, Louvre, Paris File:Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi) - The Cardsharps - Google Art Project.jpg, Caravaggio, ''The Cardsharps'', oil on canvas, 94 × 131 cm, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Del Monte, Francesco Maria 1549 births 1627 deaths Republic of Venice clergy 17th-century Italian cardinals Italian art collectors Bourbon del Monte family Italian art patrons Republic of Venice diplomats