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CAVALORI, Mirabello - b. 1535 Salincorno, d. 1572 Firenze - WGA

CAVALORI, Mirabello

(b. 1535 Salincorno, d. 1572 Firenze)

Mirabello d’Antonio di Pacino Cavalori (Mirabello di Salincorno), Italian painter. He was one of the founders of the Accademia del Disegno in Florence and worked on the academy’s first major projects: the decorations for Michelangelo’s funeral in S Lorenzo (1564) and for Duke Francesco I de’ Medici’s wedding (1565) to Joanna of Austria. For Michelangelo’s catafalque he collaborated with Girolamo Macchietti on a grisaille painting of Lorenzo de’ Medici Receiving Michelangelo (untraced); for the Arch of Religion, a temporary structure erected along the route of Francesco I’s wedding procession, Cavalori painted in monochrome St Francis Founding the Retreat at Vernia and Receiving the Stigmata (untraced).

Vasari employed Cavalori in the decoration of the Studiolo of Francesco I in the Palazzo Vecchio, for which he produced The Wool factory. His paintings on the Sacrifice of Lavinia and Blessing of Isaac are also in the Palazzo Vecchio.

Portrait of a Seated Man Holding a Book
Portrait of a Seated Man Holding a Book by

Portrait of a Seated Man Holding a Book

The identity of the elegantly dressed sitter is not known. The careful handling of light as it plays off of the cheeks and skin of the sitter are entirely characteristic of Cavalori and the group of artists who, in the 1560s, helped define a new mode of expression in Mannerist portraiture.

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Wool Factory
Wool Factory by

Wool Factory

The Studiolo is a tiny chamber in the Palazzo dei Priori (Palazzo Vecchio), accessible by a hidden spiral staircase. It was dedicated to the geological, mineralogical and alchemical interest of Francesco I de’ Medici, son and successor of Cosimo I. Its walls are lined with two tiers of oil paintings on slate or panel that act as doors for cupboards containing Francesco’s scientific books, specimens, and instruments.

Mirabello Cavalori’s contribution to the decoration of the Studiolo in the Palazzo Vecchio was the Wool Factory. Only four pictures by him are known, and all were painted in the last four years of his life. In the Studiolo, he was assigned a subject from daily life, to which his only possible addition appears to be the architectural setting, a severe Tuscan order.

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