Jacopo Ligozzi

Jacopo Ligozzi (1547 - 1627) was an Italian painter, illustrator, designer, and miniaturist of the late Renaissance and early Mannerist styles.

Biography

Born in Verona, he was the son of the artist Giovanni Ermano Ligozzi, and part of a large family of painters and artisans. After a time in the Habsburg court in Vienna where he displayed drawings of animal and botanical specimens, he was invited to come to Florence, receiving the patronage of the Medici as one of the court artists. Upon the death of Giorgio Vasari in 1574, he became head of the "Accademia del Disegno" (now the "Accademia di Belle Arti Firenze"), the officially patronized guild of artists, which was often called to advise on diverse projects. He served Francesco I, Ferdinando I, Cosimo II and Ferdinando II, Grand Dukes of Tuscany. He worked on some projects with Bernardino Poccetti. Late in life, he was named director of the grand-ducal "Galleria dei Lavori" [ Now called "Opificio delle pietre dure"; [http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opificio_delle_pietre_dure| See Italian wikipedia entry.] ] , a workshop providing designs for artworks made mainly for export: embroidered textiles and for the newly popular medium of pietre dure, mosaics of semiprecious stones and colored marbles.

Jacopo Ligozzi was born at Verona c. 1543, He died after 1632. He painted some frescoes for the cloister of the Ognissanti. Hepainted for Santa Maria Novella a canvas of "St. Raymond resuscitating a Child" and a "Martyrdom of St. Dorothea" for the church of the Conventuali at Pescia. Both Agostino Carracci and Andrea Andreani engraved some of his works. [cite book| first=Michael| last=Bryan| year=1889| title=‘‘Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, Biographical and Critical’‘ (Volume II L-Z)| editor = Walter Armstrong & Robert Edmund Graves| pages= page 57| publisher=George Bell and Sons|location=York St. #4, Covent Garden, London; Original from Fogg Library, Digitized May 18, 2007 |id= |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=K2cCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=Michael+Bryan+Painters+Engravers#PPP7,M1| authorlink=]

Ligozzi completed many pen and wash drawings on religious or mythologic images or for heraldic images. He is known best for his depictions of fauna and flora; Ligozzi in this part of his work reflects the nascent scientific pursuits of the Medici, particularly with his botanical work. His botanically-correct depictions of plants can even include exquisitely-observed root systems. Ligozzi was commissioned to create some of the depictions found in the encyclopedic visual catalogue of the plant collections of Bolognese Ulisse Aldrovandi (kept in the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe of the Uffizi Gallery). He is an Audubon of late Renaissance Florence. He is credited with bringing the lusher color-palate of Verona to Florence.

He was influential among some subsequent Florentines including Bartolomeo Bimbi, among direct pupils are Donato Mascagni, known as Frate Arsenio. He died in Florence.

ources

*John Seabrook, "Annals of Agriculture: Renaissance Pears", "The New Yorker", September 5, 2005, p. 105.
* [http://www.getty.edu/art/collections/bio/a3013-1.html Getty Center Biography]
* [http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/flowerartist.htm National Gallery Art exhibition titled "The Flowering of Florence: Botanical art for the Medici"]

Notes

External links

* [http://www.virtualuffizi.com/uffizi1/artista.asp?Autore=Jacopo+Ligozzi Uffizi Gallery site]