Ascanio Condivi (1525 – 10 December 1574) was an Italian painter and writer. Generally regarded as a mediocre artist, he is primarily remembered as the

biographer Biographers are authors who write an account of another person's life, while autobiographers are authors who write their own biography. Biographers Countries of working life: Ab=Arabia, AG=Ancient Greece, Al=Australia, Am=Armenian, AR=Ancient Rome ...

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6March 147518February 1564), known mononymously as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was inspir ...

Biography

The son of Latino Condivi and Vitangela de' Ricci, Ascanio Condivi was a nobleman born in the town of Ripatransone in the

Marche Marche ( ; ), in English sometimes referred to as the Marches ( ) from the Italian name of the region (Le Marche), is one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. The region is located in the Central Italy, central area of the country, ...

. He moved to

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

in , where he became an acquaintance of Michelangelo. In 1553 he published ''Vita di Michelagnolo ' Buonarroti'', an authorised account of Michelangelo's life over which his subject had complete control. The ''Vita'' was partly a rebuttal of hostile rumours that were being perpetuated about the artist, namely that he was arrogant, avaricious, jealous of other artists, and reluctant to take on pupils. It also served to correct inaccuracies Michelangelo found in the fawning biography of him in

Giorgio Vasari Giorgio Vasari (30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance painter, architect, art historian, and biographer who is best known for his work ''Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects'', considered the ideol ...

's '' Vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori, ed architettori'' ("Lives of the most excellent painters, sculptors and architects"), which was later revised considerably by Vasari in the wake of Condivi's biography. Condivi's ''Vita'' denies that Michelangelo was indebted to any other artist and claims that he was self-taught (he was in fact a pupil of Domenico Ghirlandaio). Also, much is made of his supposed descent from the Counts of Canossa, although this belief of Michelangelo's was utterly unfounded. Due to its literary qualities some scholars believe that the poet Annibale Caro had a hand in the writing of the ''Vita''. After the publication of the ''Vita'' Condivi returned to Ripatransone, where he undertook civic duties, married, and devoted himself to painting religious subjects. One of these paintings, the unfinished and ambiguously themed ''Holy Family and other figures'' (now in the Casa Buonarroti,

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

), relied completely for its composition on a

cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently Animation, animated, in an realism (arts), unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or s ...

provided by Michelangelo. The cartoon, known as the '' Epifania'' as it was once erroneously believed to depict the Epiphany, is now housed in the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. Condivi died on 10 December 1574, because of a sudden flood while fording the torrent , down the valley north of his birth town.

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* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Condivi, Ascanio 1525 births 1574 deaths People from the Province of Ascoli Piceno 16th-century Italian painters 16th-century Italian writers 16th-century Italian male writers Italian male painters Italian art historians Italian Renaissance painters Italian biographers Italian male biographers Michelangelo Writers from the Papal States