Francesco Livi

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Francesco di Domenico Livi (* in Gambassi Terme ; † around 1439) was a Tuscan glass painter of the late Gothic .

Life

Little is known about Livi's life and early work in Lübeck , where he lived, learned and earned a reputation as a glass artist for a long time. The literature sometimes mentions a stained glass window with a coronation of Mary , which he is said to have made in 1434 for the large chapel of the Arezzo cathedral . In any case, in 1436 he received a call from Florence in Lübeck to create the new glass windows for the dome of the Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral that had just been completed . The contract then concluded with him for this activity has been preserved. Livi accepted the offered position and became a citizen of Florence on October 30, 1436. He executed the leaded glass windows he created in Florence from cardboard boxes from other design artists, such as the second cathedral master builder Lorenzo Ghiberti . Nothing is known about the circumstances and the time of his death (probably around 1439). In 1439 a successor continued his work at the cathedral. A demarcation of his work in Florence and an individual allocation of windows is therefore not possible, only a negative demarcation in terms of which windows he could not have been involved in, because it can be proven that they were created sooner or later.

reception

The choir of the Lübeck Castle Church, built between 1399 and 1401, shortly before its demolition in 1818

The document of his appointment to Florence in 1436 was published there in 1820. In Germany, this news triggered lively interest in the person of Francesco Livi through a review of the book published in Italy in February 1821 in the Kunstblatt , a supplement to the morning paper for educated classes . This is also the case in Lübeck itself, where the first state ordinance on monument protection had been issued shortly before. Heinrich Christian Zietz reported in his views of the Free Hanseatic City of Lübeck and its surroundings , published in 1822, of a master "Franz" and his appointment to Florence.

Shortly before, the dilapidated church of the castle monastery in Lübeck had been demolished. It was thanks to the burgeoning idea of ​​monument protection and the reviving interest in the German Gothic that the art objects, including the medieval glass windows of the castle church , were recovered for the first time in Lübeck before the demolition of a sacred building and later stored in the high choir of the city's Katharinenkirche . Towards the middle of the 19th century they were documented in drawings by the Lübeck restorer Carl Julius Milde , restored together with the glazier Johann Jacob Achelius and then installed in Lübeck's Marienkirche , where they were finally destroyed in the air raid on Lübeck in 1942. German art history ascribed these stained glass windows to Francesco Livi as Lübeck's main work, not without scientific debate. Franz Kugler noted in his review of Milde's documentation in the Kunstblatt in 1848 that it was close to the Cologne Glass Painting School and recognized the extraordinary artistic value of the castle church windows , but questioned the attribution to Livi.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Georg Kaspar Nagler : New general artist lexicon. Volume 7, EA Fleischmann, 1839, p. 566.
  2. ^ Giuseppe Molini: La metropolitana Fiorentina illustrata. Fiorenza 1820 ( digitized in the Google book search); also with Johann Wilhelm Gaye : Carteggio inedito d'artisti dei secoli XIV, XV, XVI. Volume 2, Presso G. Molini, 1839, p. 441 ( digitized in the Google book search).
  3. ^ Morgenblatt für educated stands of February 19, 1821, p. 59 ( digitized version ).
  4. ^ Heinrich Christian Zietz: Views of the Free Hanseatic City of Lübeck and its surroundings. Friedrich Wilmans, Frankfurt am Main 1822; Weiland, Lübeck 1978 (reprint), p. 375 (footnote).
  5. ↑ Monuments of fine arts in Lübeck. Drawn and edited by C. J. Milde and accompanied by an explanatory historical text by Ernst Deecke , booklets I and II, Lübeck, self-published 1843–1847.
  6. ↑ Gustav Schaumann, Friedrich Bruns (editor): The architectural and art monuments of the Free and Hanseatic City of Lübeck . Edited by the building deputation. Volume 2, part 2: The Marienkirche. Nöhring, Lübeck 1906, p. 177 ff. With images ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive )
  7. ^ Heinrich Otte , Ernst Wernicke: Handbook of the church art-archeology of the German Middle Ages. Volume 2, Weigel, 1868, pp. 704–705 ( digitized in the Google book search)
  8. ↑ Printed in: Franz Kugler: Small writings and studies on art history: with illustrations and other artistic supplements. Volume 2, Stuttgart 1854, p. 581.
personal data
SURNAME Livi, Francesco
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Livi, Francesco di Domenico
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Tuscan glass painter in Lübeck and Florence
DATE OF BIRTH 14th century or 15th century
PLACE OF BIRTH Gambassi Terme
DATE OF DEATH around 1439
Place of death Italy