Ascanio Condivi

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ascanio Condivi (* 1525 in Ripatransone ; † December 10, 1574 ibid) was an Italian painter and author. He was a student and collaborator of Michelangelo and his biographer. Condivi's biography is the most important written source for Michelangelo's life and work , along with Vasari's vita .

Life

Condivi was born the son of Latino Condivi and Vitangela de 'Ricci in Ripatransone, Ascoli Piceno province , in the Marche region. In 1545 he went to Rome and was accepted into Michelangelo's workshop. According to the sources, it is not yet possible to prove whether and in which work he was involved. Around this time Vasari wrote the first version of his Vite , which came out in print in 1550 and contains a detailed biography and appreciation of Michelangelo. In the same year Condivi began writing his own biography of Michelangelo, which was printed in Rome in 1553.

In 1554 Condivi returned to Ripatransone, where he worked as a painter, but mainly as a businessman and held various offices in the community. In 1556 he married Porzia Caro, a niece of Michelangelo's friend, the literary figure Annibal Caro , and they had six children with her. In 1565, a year after Michelangelo's death, he was accepted into the Florentine Academy . Condivi drowned on December 10, 1574 while attempting to cross a stream during flooding.

Even after his return to his homeland, he seems to have seldom worked as a painter. The altarpiece "Mystery of the Rosary", a "Madonna and Child", today in the Casa Buonarroti in Florence, and an "Apparition of the Lord", created between 1550 and 1554, are attributed to him. In 1567 he painted a triptych, a cross for them Church of Santa Maria della Petrella, 1569 a fresco of the “Madonne del Carmine” for the Church of San Sovino.

Michelangelo's life

Vita di Michelagnolo Buonarroti , title page

Condivi's book with the title Vita di Michelagnolo Buonarroti raccolta per Ascanio Condivi da la Ripa Transone was printed in Rome in 1553 by Antonio Blado Stampatore's publisher. It is arguably the first book in print that contains only the biography of a living artist and was authorized by him. To what extent the text comes from Condivi, whether Michelangelo is only monitoring it, whether he dictated it to Condivi into the pen, or whether Michelangelo's friend, the literary man Annibal Caro, wrote the book, is controversial in scholarship. Frank Zöllner assumes that Michelangelo initiated the book himself, Ascanio Condivi wrote it and Annibal Caro took over the editing. With Condivi's book, Michelangelo was able to correct errors in Vasari's book concerning his works, e. For example, the tiresome problems with the Julius tomb or the circumstances of the papal commission to fresco the Sistine Chapel and the stories surrounding the rivalries between Michelangelo, Raphael and Bramante . It can therefore also be seen as an attempt by Michelangelo to counter the rumors that were circulating about him and his behavior. Vasari used the book to correct and supplement the text about Michelangelo in the second edition of his Vite from 1568.

The first edition of Condivi's book is extremely rare. Three copies of the print from July 16, 1553 are in the possession of Venetian libraries, two of them in the Biblioteca Marciana and one in the Biblioteca Civica Correr, and one copy is in the Vatican library. In 1746 a second edition of the book was published in Florence under the title "Vita di Michael Angelo," by Ascanio Condivi, which contains more details about Condivi's life in the foreword.

Expenses (selection)

  • Vita di Michelagnolo Buonarroti raccolta per Ascanio Condivi da la Ripa Transone (Rome 1553) full text with a foreword and bibliographies, edited by Charles Davis. 2009. (= Fontes 24.), ub.uni-heidelberg.de (PDF)
  • Vita di Michelagnolo Buonarroti, pittore, scultore, architetto e gentiluomo fiorentino, pubblicata mentre viveva dal suo scolare Ascanio Condivi . 2nd ed., Corretta ed accresciuta di varie annotazioni col ritratto del medesimo ed altre figure in rame. Firenze: Per Gaetano Albizzini, 1746.
  • Ascanio Condivi: The Life of Michelangelo . Ed. by Hellmut Wohl. 5th ed. Pennsylvania State University Press, 2003.
  • Giovanni Nencioni (Ed.): Vita di Michelangelo Buonarotti. With essays by Michael Hirst and Caroline Elam. Florence 1998.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Davis 2009. p. 4.
  2. ^ Frank Zöllner: Michelangelo's frescoes in the Sistine Chapel: seen by Giorgio Vasari and Ascanio Condivi. Freiburg i.Br. 2002.
personal data
SURNAME Condivi, Ascanio
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian painter and author
DATE OF BIRTH 1525
PLACE OF BIRTH Ripatransone
DATE OF DEATH December 10, 1574
Place of death Ripatransone