Giulio Mancini

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Giulio Mancini (born February 21, 1559 in Siena , † August 22, 1630 in Rome ) was an Italian doctor , art theorist and biographer of primarily Italian artists . His main work are the Considerazioni sulla pittura , which were not edited until the 20th century, but were already being circulated and received by hand in the early Seicento . In particular, writing is a major source for the biographies of the painters Caravaggio and Annibale Carracci .

Life

Giulio Mancini was born in 1559 as the son of the doctor Bartolomeo di Niccolò and Camilla di Francesco Mucci. He received his school education in Siena from the Jesuits and probably started studying in the same city in 1576. During these years he was likely to have been in contact with the art collector Ippolito Agostini , for whom Mancini sent several works of art to Siena after moving to Padua for study purposes. A bundle of lecture notes kept in Siena is very likely from Mancini's time in Padua. In addition to the correspondence with his older brother Deifebo, there are above all lively contacts with the Paduan medicine professor Girolamo Mercuriale , for whom Mancini also took over the editing of the print edition of De decoratione in 1585 .

In 1584 Mancini moved to Bologna , where he was in close contact with Gaspare Tagliacozzi and Ulisse Aldrovandi , to whom he transferred a (lost) plant treatise. In 1586 he first returned to Siena, but can be traced back to Bologna the following year. On January 31, 1587 he defended his dissertation , on June 8 of this year he was appointed doctor in the Sienese convent of Santo Spirito and in the same year appointed to a newly created chair at the University of Siena . Numerous medical writings date from this time, although they have only survived in handwritten form - sometimes also in notes or copies.

Mancini was imprisoned between 1590 and 1591. Probably because of the background of the imprisonment - which has not been clarified by research - but also because of the course of the plague , he settled first in Viterbo , later in Rome . At the end of 1592 he was given the post of doctor in the Roman hospital Santo Spirito in Sassia . In Rome he quickly made friends with numerous cardinals such as Francesco Maria Del Monte , who are known for their art patronage; Giulio Mancini is particularly interested in the works of Caravaggio . In his Roman years Mancini built up a not insignificant collection of works of art: In his gallery, in addition to works by Caravaggio, there are paintings by Federico Barocci , Giuseppe Cesari , Annibale and Antonio Carracci , Domenichino , Giovanni Lanfranco and Guido Reni . Mancini was in direct contact with many of these artists, as well as with other famous collectors of his time such as Cassiano Dal Pozzo and Vincenzo Giustiniani .

Numerous writings of Mancini on medicine, but also on politics , astrology , honor , love or the essence of Cortegianos have been preserved from the years in Rome or at least proven by title or subject. His most important treatise, however, are the Considerazioni sulla pittura ( reflections on painting ), which were not edited until 1956 and 1957, but were already received by contemporaries such as Giovanni Pietro Bellori , Carlo Cesare Malvasia and Filippo Baldinucci . The first phase of the writing is made up of the years 1617 to 1619 (still under the title Discorso di pittura ), then Mancini himself revised the text several times (at least until the year 1628), so that the Considerazioni are handed down today in various editorial offices, which are again in numerous copies and copies. Besides the numerous factual information contained in this treatise, the importance lies Considerazioni in their text formatting. It differs from the forerunners of the Cinquecento art literature in that it specifically addresses amateurs and art collectors and gives these classes of readers the tools to assess and classify art so that they can build up an art collection in this way.

On August 9, 1623 Giulio Mancini was appointed personal physician to the newly elected Pope Urban VIII , and in the following years he also received numerous ecclesiastical titles and benefices . He died on August 22, 1630 and was buried the following day in the church of Santi Vincenzo e Anastasio.In April 1633, following the wishes of the deceased, his body was transferred to Siena and buried there in the family chapel in San Martino .

Fonts (in selection)

  • Viaggio per Roma. Edited by Ludwig Schudt . Klinkhardt & Biermann, Leipzig 1923.
  • Considerazioni sulla pittura. Edited by Adriana Marucchi with commentary by Luigi Salerno. Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rome 1956–1957.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Mancini, Giulio
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian doctor, art theorist and biographer of artists
DATE OF BIRTH February 21, 1559
PLACE OF BIRTH Siena , Italy
DATE OF DEATH 22nd August 1630
Place of death Rome , Italy