Giulio Mancini (21 February 1559 – 22 August 1630) was a

seicento The Seicento (, ) is Italian history and culture during the 17th century. The Seicento saw the end of the Italian Renaissance, Renaissance movement in Italy and the beginning of the Counter-Reformation and the Baroque era. The word means "six hu ...

physician, art collector, art dealer and writer on a range of subjects. His writings on contemporary artists like

Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (also Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi da Caravaggio; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), known mononymously as Caravaggio, was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the fina ...

and

Annibale Carracci Annibale Carracci ( , , ; November 3, 1560 – July 15, 1609) was an Italian painter and instructor, active in Bologna and later in Rome. Along with his brother Agostino Carracci, Agostino and cousin Ludovico Carracci, Ludovico (with whom the Ca ...

remain one of our earliest sources of biographical information; his ''Considerazioni'' being an important source on art in early 17th-century

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, ...

Biography

Mancini was born in

Siena Siena ( , ; traditionally spelled Sienna in English; ) is a city in Tuscany, in central Italy, and the capital of the province of Siena. It is the twelfth most populated city in the region by number of inhabitants, with a population of 52,991 ...

and attended the University of Padua, where he studied medicine, astrology and philosophy. He went to

in 1592, where he practised medicine; from 1595 at the Hospital of Santo Spirito. He became personal physician to pope

Urban VIII Pope Urban VIII (; ; baptised 5 April 1568 – 29 July 1644), born Maffeo Vincenzo Barberini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 6 August 1623 to his death, in July 1644. As pope, he expanded the papal terri ...

in 1623. The pope was a notable patron of the arts, and their relationship was such that, in 1628, Mancini was made an apostolic protonotary and a canon of St. Peter's. Mancini's writings went unpublished until the 20th century; his ''Considerazioni sulla pittura'' (thoughts on painting), written between 1617 and 1621, remaining so until 1956. His advice to the collector gives us insight into the contemporary art market in Rome; his notes on spotting fakes were the first indication of how sophisticated these pastiches had already become by the early 17th century. In the ''Considerazioni'', he distinguishes four tracts of painting in his contemporary Rome: that of Caravaggio; that of Carracci; the third of Giuseppe Cesari; and the fourth of everybody else, the

mannerist Mannerism is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, when the Baroque style largely replaced it ...

painter Cristoforo Roncalli for instance. There is evidence that he knew, at least Caravaggio, well, having attended to the artist when he was ill and staying at the Palazzo Madama, probably in 1595. Mancini was also well acquainted with Caravaggio's benefactor,

Francesco Maria del Monte Francesco Maria del Monte, full name Francesco Maria Bourbon del Monte Santa Maria, (5 July 1549 – 27 August 1627) was an Italian cardinal, diplomat, and connoisseur of the arts. His fame today rests on his early patronage of the important Bar ...

. As dealer he most notably sold Caravaggio's '' The Death of the Virgin'' to Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua for 280 scudi in 1607; a transaction proposed to the Duke by

Peter Paul Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens ( ; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish painting, Flemish artist and diplomat. He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque painting, Flemish Baroque tradition. Rubens' highly charged comp ...

and brokered by Giovanni Magno. In his private life, Mancini was known as a self-confessed atheist, someone who moved in libertine circles, an art lover and a connoisseur. He was a member of the Accademia degli Umoristi, a literary club founded in 1603, which members included

Giovanni Battista Guarini Giovanni Battista Guarini (10 December 1538 – 7 October 1612) was an Italian poet, dramatist, and diplomat. Courtier at Ferrara, diplomat and secretary to several ruling families, he served also at Florence and Urbino. He is best known as the a ...

Alessandro Tassoni Alessandro Tassoni (28 September 156525 April 1635) was an Italian poet and writer, from Modena, best known as the author of the mock-heroic poem '' La secchia rapita'' (''The Rape of the Pail'', or ''The stolen bucket''). Life He was born in ...

, and Gian Vittorio Rossi. He also wrote on such diverse subjects as dancing and the ways of courtiers. Upon his death, Mancini left his fortune to be distributed among the students of Siena.

Footnotes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mancini, Giulio 1559 births 1630 deaths Italian art historians Papal physicians