Cosimo Lotti (1571–1643) was an Italian engineer, scenographer, and landscape designer. He worked around Florence until in his mid-fifties he moved to Madrid where he produced theatrical spectacles for the royal court.
Lotti was born in
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...
in 1571 and first became a pupil of
Bernardino Poccetti. He then worked with
Bernardo Buontalenti
Bernardo Buontalenti (), byname of Bernardo Delle Girandole ( 1531 – June 1608), was an Italian stage designer, architect, theatrical designer, military engineer and artist and inventor of italian ice cream.
Biography
Buontalenti was born in ...
on the lay out of the
Boboli Gardens
The Boboli Gardens ( it, Giardino di Boboli) is a historical park of the city of Florence that was opened to the public in 1766. Originally designed for the Medici, it represents one of the first and most important examples of the Italian garden, ...
and went on to install water features in other gardens. His paintings included a ''Birth of Mary'' for the church of San Giorgio a Castelnuovo in
Prato.
In 1626 he left Florence for Spain, at the request of the
Count Duke of Olivares, to join the court of
Philip IV Philip IV may refer to:
* Philip IV of Macedon (died 297 BC)
* Philip IV of France (1268–1314), Avignon Papacy
* Philip IV of Burgundy or Philip I of Castile (1478–1506)
* Philip IV, Count of Nassau-Weilburg (1542–1602)
* Philip IV of Spain ...
as an engineer. As well as redesigning royal gardens in the Italianate style, particularly involving spectacular fountains, he impressed the King with his cleverly engineered theatrical special effects. This included an extravagant staging of a musical piece in the Italian style with poetry by
Lope de Vega
Félix Lope de Vega y Carpio ( , ; 25 November 156227 August 1635) was a Spanish playwright, poet, and novelist. He was one of the key figures in the Spanish Golden Age of Baroque literature. His reputation in the world of Spanish literatu ...
.
Lotti became the organiser of the theatre at the
Palacio del Buen Retiro
Buen Retiro Palace (Spanish: ''Palacio del Buen Retiro'') in Madrid was a large palace complex designed by the architect Alonso Carbonell (c. 1590–1660) and built on the orders of Philip IV of Spain as a secondary residence and place of recr ...
.
[Lotti's roles in the creation of Buen Retiro are narrated in Jonathan Brown and J.H. Elliott, A Palace for a King: the Buen Retiro and the Court of Philip IV, 2003.] He was recognised by being given a royal pension and remained in Madrid until his death in 1643.
Sources
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lotti, Cosimo
1571 births
1643 deaths
Engineers from Florence
Italian scenic designers