Domenico Beccafumi

Self-portrait, 1525–1530

Domenico di Giacomo di Pace Beccafumi , called il Mecherino (* around 1486 near Siena , probably in Montaperti (today part of the municipality of Castelnuovo Berardenga ); † May 18, 1551 in Siena) was an Italian painter and sculptor of Mannerism .

Life

Beccafumi was born the son of the farmer Giacomo di Pace who worked for Lorenzo Beccafumi. He too entered the service of Beccafumi and was practically adopted by him. His adoptive father recognized his artistic talent early on and let him train in Siena .

In 1510 Beccafumi went to Rome for two years . There he, who came from conservative Siena, where people still painted according to the principles of the 15th century, was able to study the revolutionary works of the Roman Renaissance , such as Raphael's stamps or possibly Michelangelo's ceiling frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, which were already partially completed at that time . He also got to know works of antiquity in Rome, as well as pictures of Florentine painters of the Renaissance. However, none of his works have survived from his early days in Siena and Rome.

Triptych, around 1513, Siena, Pinacoteca Nazionale

Back in Siena he received a number of public contracts for the municipality, for the cathedral and for the Oratorio di San Bernardino as well as for private clients. He worked on frescoes for the Cappella del Manto in the municipal hospital Santa Maria della Scala and for the facade of the Palazzo Borghesi, for which only the draft drawings have survived. From 1519 a cycle of allegorical frescoes on the theme of family virtue was created in the Palazzo Venturi . In 1529 he painted the ceiling in the Sala del Concistoro in the Palazzo Pubblico .

In 1519 he was commissioned to produce designs for the figurative decoration of the marble floor in the cathedral, on which he worked for the next 30 years until his death.

For his private bourgeois and aristocratic clients, he painted a series of large and small altarpieces and devotional pictures. He also worked as an illustrator of manuscripts. Beccafumi also worked as a sculptor. There is an equestrian statue of Emperor Charles V of him and bronze angels on the main altar and the pillars of the Sienese cathedral that are closest to it. In the last years of his life he experimented with woodcut techniques.

Beccafumi was never a court painter at one of the Italian princely courts, the short stay in 1540 with Andrea Doria in Genoa remained the exception. Almost all of his work can be seen in Siena; pictures in European museums are rare.

Works

Nativity, Siena, San Martino

• Meeting Joachim with Anna, around 1513, fresco in the Cappella del Manto, Siena
• Trinity with Saints, 1513, Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena
• Frescoes in the Oratorio di San Bernardino, 1518, Siena
• Saint Michael drives out the rebellious angels, around 1524, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena
• Saint Michael drives out the rebellious angels, around 1528, San Niccolò del Carmine , Siena
• Holy Family. Wooden tondo, around 1520, Galleria degli Uffizi , Florence
• Nativity, 1523/24, altarpiece in the Church of San Martino in Siena
• Mary Enthroned with Saints, 1528, Siena
• Christ in Limbus, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena
• Holy Family. Palazzo Pitti , Florence
• Moses smashes the tablets of the law, 1537, altarpiece, Pisa Cathedral
• Madonna with the baby Jesus and the boy John, Palazzo Barberini , Rome
• The Birth of the Virgin, Siena
• Venus, The Barber Institute of Arts, Birmingham
• Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine, Monte dei Paschi, Siena
• Floor in the Cathedral of Siena, 1519–1551

literature

• Emil Maurer : Domenico Beccafumi: Mannerist from the very beginning. In dsb .: mannerism. Figura serpentinata and other ideals of figures. NZZ libro, Zurich 2001 ISBN 3770535235 ; as TB ISBN 3-85823-791-4
  • Oskar Bätschmann : Review, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, November 24, 2001; Abstract in pearl divers
• Domenico Sanminiatelli:  BECCAFUMI, Domenico (Mecherino, Mecarino). In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 7:  Bartolucci – Bellotto. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1965.
• Giorgio Vasari: Sodoma and Beccafumi. Ed. Giorgio Vasari, 14. In the new translation by Victoria Lorini. Edited by Alessandro Nova u. a. Edited by Katja Lemelsen and Jessica Witan. Verlag Klaus Wagenbach , Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-8031-5033-2
• Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz :  Beccafumi, Domenico. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 1, Bautz, Hamm 1975. 2nd, unchanged edition Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-013-1 , Sp. 442-443.

Web links

Commons : Domenico Beccafumi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Domenico Beccafumi in the catalog of the German National Library
• List of works (selection) by Beccafumi Domenico (Mecarino) in the Fondazione Zeri of the University of Bologna
• Pictures in European u. American museums
• Pictures in museums

Individual evidence

1. ↑ cf. DBI / Domenico Sanminiatelli
2. ↑ Madonna col Bambino e San Giovannino (1538−40) ( Memento of the original from March 7, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Galleria Borghese website, accessed February 11, 2013  
3. ↑ [1]
4. ↑ Detail at jmrw on the sgraffiti of Beccafumi on the floor of the Cathedral of Siena ( Memento of the original from November 2, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on February 11, 2013 (Detail 1)  
5. ↑ Detail at jmrw on the sgraffiti of Beccafumi on the floor of the Cathedral of Siena ( Memento of the original from December 16, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on February 11, 2013 (Detail 2)