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 (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...

Biography

Vita di Michelagnolo Buonarroti title page (cropped)

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

Ripatransone Ripatransone is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Ascoli Piceno in the Italian region Marche, located about southeast of Ancona and about northeast of Ascoli Piceno. History The hill of Ripatransone (whose name means "rock of Tran ...

in the

Marche Marche ( , ) is one of the twenty regions of Italy. In English, the region is sometimes referred to as The Marches ( ). The region is located in the central area of the country, bordered by Emilia-Romagna and the republic of San Marino to the ...

. He moved to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

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 (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work ''The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculpt ...

'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 Domenico di Tommaso Curradi di Doffo Bigordi (, , ; 2 June 1448 – 11 January 1494), professionally known as Domenico Ghirlandaio, also spelled as Ghirlandajo, was an Italian Renaissance painter born in Florence. Ghirlandaio was part of ...

). Also, much is made of his supposed descent from the

Counts of Canossa {{Infobox noble house , surname = House of Canossa , native_name = {{Lang-it, Casa Canossa , coat of arms = Coat of arms of the Canossa family.svg , image_size = 180px , caption = Motto: "When the dog will end his b ...

, although this belief of Michelangelo's was utterly unfounded. Due to its literary qualities some scholars believe that the poet

Annibale Caro Fra' Annibale Caro, K.M., (6 June 150717 November 1566) was an Italian writer and poet. Biography Born in Civitanova Marche, then in the March of Ancona, Caro became tutor to the wealthy family of Lodovico Gaddi in Florence, and then secret ...

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 Casa Buonarroti is a museum in Florence, Italy. The building was a property owned by the sculptor Michelangelo, which he left to his nephew, Leonardo Buonarroti. The house was converted into a museum dedicated to the artist by his great nephew, Mi ...

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 an ...

), relied completely for its composition on a

cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...

provided by Michelangelo. The cartoon, known as the '' Epifania'' as it was once erroneously believed to depict the

Epiphany Epiphany may refer to: * Epiphany (feeling), an experience of sudden and striking insight Religion * Epiphany (holiday), a Christian holiday celebrating the revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ ** Epiphany season, or Epiph ...

, is now housed in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. Condivi died on 10 December 1574, because of a sudden flood while fording the

torrent Torrent or torrents may refer to: * A fast flowing stream Animals * Torrent duck, a species of the family Anatidae * Torrent fish * Torrent frog, various unrelated frogs * Torrent robin, a bird species * Torrent salamander, a family of s ...

, down the valley north of his birth town.

References

External links

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