Raffaello Borghini (1537 – 26 December 1588) was a Florentine poet, playwright and art critic. His art treatise ''Il Riposo'' (1584) is an important work of the
Counter-Reformation
The Counter-Reformation (), also sometimes called the Catholic Revival, was the period of Catholic resurgence that was initiated in response to, and as an alternative to or from similar insights as, the Protestant Reformations at the time. It w ...
and
Counter-Maniera
Counter-''Maniera'' or Counter-Mannerism (variously capitalized and part-italicized) is a term in art history for a trend identified by some art historians in 16th-century Italian painting that forms a sub-category or phase of Mannerism, the do ...
.
Life
Borghini was probably born in 1537 in Florence. He was named after his grandfather. His mother was Alessandra Buontempi. Although noble, the Borghini had fallen on hard times at the time of his birth. He was the great nephew of Vincenzo Borghini and the two have sometimes been conflated as authors.
In his early years, Borghini was an opponent of the
Medici
The House of Medici ( , ; ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first consolidated power in the Republic of Florence under Cosimo de' Medici and his grandson Lorenzo "the Magnificent" during the first half of the 15th ...
. In 1572–1575, he worked in
Provence
Provence is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which stretches from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the France–Italy border, Italian border to the east; it is bordered by the Mediterrane ...
under the patronage of the governor, , and Cardinal
Georges d'Armagnac
Georges d'Armagnac (c. 1501 – July 1585) was a French humanist, patron of arts, cardinal and diplomat deeply embroiled in the Italian Wars and in the French Wars of Religion.
Biography
He was born at Avignon, the son of Pierre d'Armagnac ...
. In Provence, he may have earned a living by teaching dance. He returned to Florence and to his friends, including and Bernardo Vecchietti, in 1575. He returned to France in 1579–1580. He lived the rest of his life in Florence. His later years were more economically secure. He may have joined the
Benedictine Order
The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly Christian mysticism, contemplative Christian monasticism, monastic Religious order (Catholic), order of the Catholic Church for men and f ...
in 1584. He died on 26 December 1588 and was buried in Santa Croce. His portrait bust by is now lost.
Works
Borghini was known in his own time as a playwright first and a poet second. He is best known today for his work ''Il Riposo'', a prose treatise on art for the
Counter-Reformation
The Counter-Reformation (), also sometimes called the Catholic Revival, was the period of Catholic resurgence that was initiated in response to, and as an alternative to or from similar insights as, the Protestant Reformations at the time. It w ...
and
Counter-Maniera
Counter-''Maniera'' or Counter-Mannerism (variously capitalized and part-italicized) is a term in art history for a trend identified by some art historians in 16th-century Italian painting that forms a sub-category or phase of Mannerism, the do ...
, first published in 1584. It is "the first art treatise specifically directed towards a lay audience." It contains instructions on what to look for in art, a discussion of the writings of
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...
and
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 ...
, and a discussion of Italian art history in the sixteen years since the second edition of Vasari's ''
Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects
''The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects'' () is a series of artist biographies written by 16th-century Italian painter and architect Giorgio Vasari, which is considered "perhaps the most famous, and even today the ...
'' appeared in 1568. It is written in a variety of the
Tuscan language
Tuscan ( ; ) is a set of Italo-Dalmatian varieties of Romance spoken in Tuscany, Corsica, and Sardinia.
Standard Italian is based on Tuscan, specifically on its Florentine dialect, and it became the language of culture throughout Italy beca ...
approaching modern Italian and was admired in the 17th and 18th centuries by the
Accademia della Crusca
The (; ), generally abbreviated as La Crusca, is a Florence-based society of scholars of Italian linguistics and philology. It is one of the most important research institutions of the Italian language, as well as the oldest Academy#Linguisti ...
for its linguistic characteristics.
Borghini's play's include:
*''La Donna costante'' (1578), a version of the story of
Romeo and Juliet
''The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet'', often shortened to ''Romeo and Juliet'', is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare about the romance between two young Italians from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's ...
with a happy ending
*''Trattato di Giovanni di Marco Villa sopra l'Origine de' Tempii de' Giudei, de' Cristiani, e dei Gentili, e la infelice morte di quelli, che gli hanno saccheggiati, spogliati, e ruinati; e insieme il doloroso fine di coloro, che a' tempi nostri hanno distrutto i Tempj spirituali, e l'Immagini di Dio'' (1577), a translation of a French play by from 1563
*''Amante furioso'' (1583), dedicated to Piero di Gherardo Capponi
*''Diana pietosa'' (1586), dedicated to
Borghini's poems include:
*''La Veglia amorosa'', his first published work, "a long discussion of Platonic and carnal love, which includes a perhaps overly detailed description of the nude heroine"
*''Sonetto ai Lettori'', published in a Spanish translation in 1572
*''Canzone in morte della Serenissima Reina Giovanna d'Austria Granduchessa di Toscana'' (1578), a tribute poem on the death of
Joanna of Austria, Grand Duchess of Tuscany
Joanna is a feminine given name deriving from from . Variants in English include Joan, Joann, Joanne, and Johanna. Other forms of the name in English are Jan, Jane, Janet, Janice, Jean, and Jeanne.
The earliest recorded occurrence of t ...
*a collection poems, including 68
sonnet
A sonnet is a fixed poetic form with a structure traditionally consisting of fourteen lines adhering to a set Rhyme scheme, rhyming scheme. The term derives from the Italian word ''sonetto'' (, from the Latin word ''sonus'', ). Originating in ...
s, published for the first time in 1822, among them:
**a ''
canzone
Literally 'song' in Italian, a canzone (; : ''canzoni''; cognate with English ''to chant'') is an Italian or Provençal song or ballad. It is also used to describe a type of lyric which resembles a madrigal. Sometimes a composition which ...
'' he sent to Archbishop Antonio Altoviti between 1567 and 1573
**a ''canzone'' on the death of
Cosimo I de' Medici
Cosimo I de' Medici (12 June 1519 – 21 April 1574) was the second and last duke of Florence from 1537 until 1569, when he became the first grand duke of Tuscany, a title he held until his death. Cosimo I succeeded his cousin to the duchy. ...
(1574)
In addition there are collections of poems attributed to "Filareto" and "Philareto" that might be by Borghini. Giovambattista di Lorenzo Ubaldini attributed to him the lost work ''Dialogo in lode dell'ignoranza'' (Dialogue in Praise of Ignorance).
List of artists covered in ''Il Riposo''
The following are all the artists treated in ''Il Riposo'' in descending ordered based on space given.
Andrea del Sarto
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), now generally known in English as Raphael ( , ), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of paintings by Raphael, His work is admired for its cl ...
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 ide ...
Tintoretto
Jacopo Robusti (late September or early October 1518Bernari and de Vecchi 1970, p. 83.31 May 1594), best known as Tintoretto ( ; , ), was an Italian Renaissance painter of the Venetian school. His contemporaries both admired and criticized th ...
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 ...
Giotto
Giotto di Bondone (; – January 8, 1337), known mononymously as Giotto, was an List of Italian painters, Italian painter and architect from Florence during the Late Middle Ages. He worked during the International Gothic, Gothic and Italian Ren ...
Bronzino
Agnolo di Cosimo (; 17 November 150323 November 1572), usually known as Bronzino ( ) or Agnolo Bronzino, was an Italians, Italian Mannerism, Mannerist painter from Florence. His sobriquet, ''Bronzino'', may refer to his relatively dark skin or r ...
Pontormo
Jacopo Carucci or Carrucci (; May 24, 1494 – January 2, 1557), usually known as Jacopo (da) Pontormo or simply Pontormo (), was an Italian Mannerist painter and portraitist from the Florentine School. His work represents a profound stylisti ...
Giulio Romano
Giulio Pippi ( – 1 November 1546), known as Giulio Romano and Jules Romain ( , ; ), was an Italian Renaissance painter and architect. He was a pupil of Raphael, and his stylistic deviations from High Renaissance classicism help define the ...
Donatello
Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi ( – 13 December 1466), known mononymously as Donatello (; ), was an Italian Renaissance sculpture, Italian sculptor of the Renaissance period. Born in Republic of Florence, Florence, he studied classical sc ...
Titian
Tiziano Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), Latinized as Titianus, hence known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian Renaissance painter, the most important artist of Renaissance Venetian painting. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno.
Ti ...
Parmigianino
Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola (11 January 150324 August 1540), also known as Francesco Mazzola or, more commonly, as Parmigianino (, , ; "the little one from Parma"), was an Italian Mannerist painter and printmaker active in Florence, Rome, ...
Rosso Fiorentino
Giovanni Battista di Jacopo (8 March 1495 – 14 November 1540), known as Rosso Fiorentino (meaning "Florentine Redhead" in Italian) or Il Rosso ("The Redhead"), was an Italian Mannerist painter who worked in oil and fresco
Fresco ( or ...
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested o ...
Fra Bartolomeo
Fra Bartolomeo or Bartolommeo (, , ; 28 March 1472 – 31 October 1517), also known as Bartolommeo di Pagholo, Bartolommeo di San Marco, Bartolomeo di Paolo di Jacopo del Fattorino, and his original nickname Baccio della Porta, was an Ital ...
Fra Angelico
Fra Angelico, O.P. (; ; born Guido di Pietro; 18 February 1455) was a Dominican friar and Italian Renaissance painter of the Early Renaissance, described by Giorgio Vasari in his ''Lives of the Artists'' as having "a rare and perfect talent" ...
Polidoro da Caravaggio
Polidoro Caldara, usually known as Polidoro da Caravaggio ( – 1543), was an Italians, Italian painter of the Mannerist period, "arguably the most gifted and certainly the least conventional of Raphael's pupils", who was best known for his now- ...
Domenico Ghirlandaio
Domenico di Tommaso Curradi di Doffo Bigordi (2 June 1448 – 11 January 1494), professionally known as Domenico Ghirlandaio (also spelt as Ghirlandajo), was an Italian Renaissance painter born in Florence. Ghirlandaio was part of the so-c ...
Il Sodoma
Il Sodoma (1477 – 14 February 1549) was the name given to the Italy, Italian Renaissance Painting, painter Giovanni Antonio Bazzi. Il Sodoma painted in a manner that superimposed the High Renaissance style of early 16th-century Rome onto the tr ...
Masaccio
Masaccio (, ; ; December 21, 1401 – summer 1428), born Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone, was a Florentine artist who is regarded as the first great List of Italian painters, Italian painter of the Quattrocento period of the Italian Renaiss ...
Baldassare Peruzzi
Baldassare Tommaso Peruzzi (7 March 1481 – 6 January 1536) was an Italian architect and painter, born in a small town near Siena (in Ancaiano, ''frazione'' of Sovicille) and died in Rome. He worked for many years with Bramante, Raphael, and l ...
Cimabue
Giovanni Cimabue ( , ; – 1302), Translated with an introduction and notes by J.C. and P Bondanella. Oxford: Oxford University Press (Oxford World's Classics), 1991, pp. 7–14. . also known as Cenni di Pepo or Cenni di Pepi, was an Italian p ...
Perugino
Pietro Perugino ( ; ; born Pietro Vannucci or Pietro Vanucci; – 1523), an Italian Renaissance painter of the Umbrian school, developed some of the qualities that found classic expression in the High Renaissance. Raphael became his most famous ...
Botticelli
Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi ( – May 17, 1510), better known as Sandro Botticelli ( ; ) or simply known as Botticelli, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 1 ...
Sebastiano del Piombo
Sebastiano del Piombo (; – 21 June 1547) was an Italian painter of the High Renaissance and early Mannerism, Mannerist periods, famous as the only major artist of the period to combine the colouring of the Venetian School (art), Venetian scho ...
Niccolò Tribolo
Niccolò di Raffaello di Niccolò dei Pericoli, called "Il Tribolo" (1500 – 7 September 1550) was an Italian Mannerism, Mannerist artist in the service of Cosimo I de' Medici in his natal city of Florence.
Life
Niccolò di Raffaello began as ...
Daniele da Volterra
Daniele Ricciarelli (; 15094 April 1566), better known as Daniele da Volterra (, ), was a Mannerism, Mannerist List of Italian painters, Italian painter and sculpture, sculptor.
He is best remembered for his association with Michelangelo. Sev ...
Antonello da Messina
Antonello da Messina (; 1425–1430February 1479), properly Antonello di Giovanni di Antonio, but also called Antonello degli Antoni and Anglicized as Anthony of Messina, was an Italian painter from Messina, active during the Italian Early Ren ...
Paolo Veronese
Paolo Caliari (152819 April 1588), known as Paolo Veronese ( , ; ), was an Italian Renaissance painter based in Venice, known for extremely large history paintings of religion and mythology, such as ''The Wedding at Cana (Veronese), The Wedding ...
Andrea del Castagno
Andrea del Castagno () or Andrea di Bartolo di Bargilla (; – 19 August 1457) was an Italian Renaissance painting, Italian Renaissance painter in Florence, influenced chiefly by Masaccio and Giotto, Giotto di Bondone. His works include fresc ...
Domenico Puligo
Domenico Puligo (1492–1527) was an Italian painter of the Renaissance, active in Florence. His real name was ''Domenico di Bartolomeo Ubaldini''.
He trained under Ridolfo Ghirlandaio and acted as an assistant to Andrea del Sarto, whom he also ...
Piero di Cosimo
Piero di Cosimo (2 January 1462 – 12 April 1522), also known as Piero di Lorenzo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, who continued to use an essentially Early Renaissance style into the 16th century.
He is most famous for the mythologica ...
Giovanni da Udine
150px, Portrait in Vasari's Vite
Giovanni Nanni, also Giovanni de' Ricamatori, better known as Giovanni da Udine (1487–1564), was an Italian painter and architect born in Udine. A painter also named ''Giovanni da Udine'' was exiled from his na ...
Correggio
Antonio Allegri da Correggio (August 1489 – 5 March 1534), usually known as just Correggio (, also , , ), was an Italian Renaissance painter who was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the High Renaissance, who was responsible for som ...
Luca della Robbia
Luca della Robbia (, also , ; 1399/1400–1482) was an Italian Renaissance sculptor from Florence. Della Robbia is noted for his colorful, tin-glazed terracotta statuary, a technique that he invented and passed on to his nephew Andrea della R ...
Giorgione
Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco (; 1470s – 17 September 1510), known as Giorgione, was an Italian painter of the Venetian school during the High Renaissance, who died in his thirties. He is known for the elusive poetic quality of his work, ...
Lorenzo di Credi
Lorenzo di Credi (1456/59 – January 12, 1537) was an Italian Renaissance painter and sculptor best known for his paintings of religious subjects, and portraits. With some excursions to nearby cities, his whole life was spent in Florence. ...
Spinello Aretino
Spinello Aretino (c. 1350 – c. 1410) was an Italian Painting, painter from Arezzo, who was active in Tuscany at the end of the 14th and the first decade of the 15th century.Federigo Barocci
Verrocchio
Andrea del Verrocchio ( , , ; born Andrea di Michele di Francesco de' Cioni; – 1488) was an Italian sculptor, painter and goldsmith who was a master of an important workshop in Florence.
He apparently became known as ''Verrocchio'' after the ...
Cosimo Rosselli
Cosimo Rosselli (; 1439–1507) was an Italian painter of the Quattrocento, active mainly in his birthplace of Florence, but also in Pisa earlier in his career and in 1481–82 in the Sistine Chapel in Rome, where he painted some of the large ...
Benozzo Gozzoli
Benozzo Gozzoli (; born Benozzo di Lese; 4 October 1497) was an Italian Renaissance painter from Florence. A pupil of Fra Angelico, Gozzoli is best known for a series of murals in the Magi Chapel of the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, depicting festi ...
Giovanni Francesco Rustici
Giovan Francesco Rustici, or Giovanni Francesco Rustici, (1475–1554) was an Italian Italian Renaissance, Renaissance painter and sculptor.
__NOTOC__
He was born into a noble family of Florence, with an independent income. Rustici profited fr ...
Brunelleschi
Filippo di ser Brunellesco di Lippo Lapi (1377 – 15 April 1446), commonly known as Filippo Brunelleschi ( ; ) and also nicknamed Pippo by Leon Battista Alberti, was an Italian architect, designer, goldsmith and sculptor. He is considered to ...
Gentile Bellini
Gentile Bellini (c. 1429 – 23 February 1507) was an Italian painter of the Venetian painting, school of Venice. He came from Venice's leading family of painters, and, at least in the early part of his career, was more highly regarded than his y ...
Annibale Fontana
Annibale Fontana (1540–1587) was an Italian sculptor, medallist and crystal-worker.
Fontana was born in Milan. His first known work is a crystal case, now in the ''Schatzkammer '' of Munich, for Albert V of Bavaria (c. 1560-1570). In 1570–157 ...
Giovanni Bizzelli
Giovanni Bizzelli (1556 – around 1 August 1607 or 1612) was an Italian painter of the late-Mannerist period. He was a pupil of Alessandro Allori. He afterwards went to Rome. On his return to Florence he helped Antonio Tempesta in the decoratio ...
Giovanni Bellini
Giovanni Bellini (; c. 1430 – 29 November 1516) was an Italian Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian painters. He was raised in the household of Jacopo Bellini, formerly thought to have been his father, ...
Michelozzo
Michelozzo di Bartolomeo Michelozzi (; – 7 October 1472), known mononymously as Michelozzo, was an Italian architect and sculptor. Considered one of the great pioneers of architecture during the Renaissance, Michelozzo was a favored Medici ...
Gherardo Starnina
Gherardo Starnina (c. 1360–1413) was an Italian painter from Florence in the Quattrocento era.
According to the biographer Giorgio Vasari, Starnina initially trained with Antonio Veneziano (painter), Antonio Veneziano, then with Agnolo Gaddi. ...
Gentile da Fabriano
Gentile da Fabriano ( – 1427) was an Italian painter known for his participation in the International Gothic pictorial style. He worked in various places in central Italy, mostly in Tuscany.
His best-known works are his '' Adoration of the ...
Lorenzo Costa
Lorenzo Costa (1460 – 5 March 1535) was an Italian painter.
Biography
He was born at Ferrara, but moved to Bologna by his early twenties, and was probably influenced by the Bolognese school, Bolognese School. However, many artists worked in ...
Jan van Eyck
Jan van Eyck ( ; ; – 9 July 1441) was a Flemish people, Flemish painter active in Bruges who was one of the early innovators of what became known as Early Netherlandish painting, and one of the most significant representatives of Early Nort ...
Jacopo Bassano
Jacopo Bassano (c. 1510 – 14 February 1592), known also as Jacopo dal Ponte, was an Italian painter who was born and died in Bassano del Grappa near Venice, and took the village as his surname. Having trained in the workshop of his father, Fran ...