SALVIATI, Cecchino del

The picture shows the overdoor grisaille on the centre of the east wall of the Sala dell’Udienza in the Palazzo della Signoria (Palazzo Vecchio) in Florence.

The decorative system in this room is itself a significant part of the message of this work, for it shows us an accurate image of Cardinal Giovanni Ricci as a well-to-do, eclectic collector as interested in fine arts and objets d’art as in expensive curiosities. Salviati in his frescoes shows his reverence for these interests and the taste of his patron.

That the decoration is intended to show the wealth and fortune of its patron is made clear to the observer in a different way: the various hangings beneath the main paintings all have as their protagonist a small hedgehog (riccio in Italian), the patron’s impresa, which cannot be seen at first glance but is clear on closer inspection. He is here illuminated by the sun; above him Fortuna and other gods empty their cornuscopiae.

The decorative system in this room is itself a significant part of the message of this work, for it shows us an accurate image of Cardinal Giovanni Ricci as a well-to-do, eclectic collector as interested in fine arts and objets d’art as in expensive curiosities. Salviati in his frescoes shows his reverence for these interests and the taste of his patron.

That the decoration is intended to show the wealth and fortune of its patron is made clear to the observer in a different way: the various hangings beneath the main paintings all have as their protagonist a small hedgehog (riccio in Italian), the patron’s impresa, which cannot be seen at first glance but is clear on closer inspection. He is here illuminated by the sun; above him Fortuna and other gods empty their cornuscopiae.

The young woman kneeling in the foreground stands out against the drapes in the background. She is wearing a lightweight robe that enhances her prosperous, sculptural shape and leaves one breast bare. She is surrounded by three children, one of whom is intent on playing with the robe, while the others cling to her shoulder and thigh, exchanging affectionate glances. Salviati has constructed the four figures as if they were a single body, harmoniously connecting every movement within a strongly sophisticated balance of elements that come together to create one of the most successful examples of what Vasari called the ‘Bella Maniera’.

The composition is inspired by the undisputed cornerstone of Florentine painting in the early 16th century: the Doni Tondo by Michelangelo, which can be seen here both in the pose of the female figure and of the three children. However, the sinuous fluidity, the languid expressions and the precious nature of the details in the surroundings more specifically refer to the cultural hub that had been developing since the mid 1520s in Rome, at the court of Clement VII, as artists from different origins - including Parmigianino, Perino del Vaga, Giulio Romano, Rosso, Sansovino and others - came together with results that would influence the direction of painting through to the final decades of the century.

This piece was painted in Florence when Salviati was staying in the city to carry out public works such as the frescoes in the Audience Room in Palazzo Vecchio as well as religious commissions.

The Charity is perhaps the most impressive independent painting of Salviati’s Florentine period, and an accurate marker of the abilities of this generally quite uneven easel painter. In this panel he filled the space with bodies set fairly close to the picture plane while allowing the figures sufficient room for complex movements. The formal sophistication achieved by Salviati is exceedingly elaborate in its treatment of volumes.

This much copied devotional painting, produced in Florence for an unknown patron, reflects the influence of Sebastiano del Piombo.

The Madonna is shown as a half-length figure rising above the clouds. Her gaze goes to the viewer, and her right hand is stretched out in a gesture of blessing. She is surrounded by nine angels. Two small nude and winged putti fly cautiously to the left and right of her head, delicately balancing a jewel-studded crown above her. Five small heads of cherubim, each with two wings, decorate the band of clouds at the bottom of the painting.

Salviati’s main artistic achievement is the two angels standing to the left and right of the Madonna. They are shown in the act of opening the drapery of a small baldachin, under which the Madonna appears. They open the heavy drapery by stretching its panels apart and away from the center; at the same time they bend inward to look in pious veneration at the Virgin. These figures create an angelic frame around her.

The painting came from the Roman church of S. Lorenzo in Damaso.

This design for a window ‘basamento’ with Time Exposing Truth was produced for the fresco cycle in the Oratorio di San Giovanni Decollato, Rome. Vasari points out that Salviati, in addition to his work on the narrative frescoes, also executed some of the decorative details - the window framing between his two scenes, but also the illusionistic window to the right of the Birth of St John the Baptist scene. The picture shows a surviving drawing for the window ‘basamento.’

Cecchino del Salviati was entrusted by Cardinal Giovanni Ricci (1497-1574) to paint the hall in his newly acquired palace in the Via Giulia in Rome in 1552. In ten of the eleven rooms frescoed, mostly by little-known artists, the painting consists only of narrow wall friezes, some with themes from antiquity, some with themes from the Old Testament. By contrast, the hall, now known as the Sala dei Mappamundi and previously as the Sala dell’Udienza Invernale, received a significantly more elaborate decoration by the best available painter, Salviati.

The general subject - the story of David as told in the first and second books of Samuel - was assigned to Salviati by Ricci, but in the choice of the individual scenes Salviati seems to have had great freedom.

Salviati designed an original decorative system which dealt with the existing features of the room whose walls were irregularly divided by windows and doors. Above a high ‘basamento’ he painted an illusionistic high-columned hall on three of the walls which forms the supporting scaffold for a series of differently framed, large ‘quadri riportati’. The decorative system gives the impression of being in a room in which an art lover is putting his treasures on display. The decoration is intended to show the wealth and fortune of its patron.

The fifteen scenes of the story of David are not arranged in a chronological order, rather they are organized according to criteria of formal symmetry and thematic correspondences.

Cecchino del Salviati was entrusted by Cardinal Giovanni Ricci (1497-1574) to paint the hall in his newly acquired palace in the Via Giulia in Rome in 1552. In ten of the eleven rooms frescoed, mostly by little-known artists, the painting consists only of narrow wall friezes, some with themes from antiquity, some with themes from the Old Testament. By contrast, the hall, now known as the Sala dei Mappamundi and previously as the Sala dell’Udienza Invernale, received a significantly more elaborate decoration by the best available painter, Salviati.

The general subject - the story of David as told in the first and second books of Samuel - was assigned to Salviati by Ricci, but in the choice of the individual scenes Salviati seems to have had great freedom.

Salviati designed an original decorative system which dealt with the existing features of the room whose walls were irregularly divided by windows and doors. Above a high ‘basamento’ he painted an illusionistic high-columned hall on three of the walls which forms the supporting scaffold for a series of differently framed, large ‘quadri riportati’. The decorative system gives the impression of being in a room in which an art lover is putting his treasures on display. The decoration is intended to show the wealth and fortune of its patron.

The fifteen scenes of the story of David are not arranged in a chronological order, rather they are organized according to criteria of formal symmetry and thematic correspondences.

At almost exactly the same time as the Medici cycles in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, the family cycles of the Farnese were painted in Rome and Latium. Vasari’s fresco of the deeds of Paul III in the Sala dei Cento Giorni of the Palazzo della Cancellaria, Rome, is the first large Farnese cycle. However, the dynastic themes of the Farnese are not unfolded in full until Salviati’s later frescoes in the Palazzo Farnese, which juxtapose the deeds of the older Farnese with those of Paul III.

The decoration of large halls with the deeds of the nobility and their ancestors was intended to inspire the viewer’s admiration. The depiction of such events from the recent past has a long tradition. Most such cycles in the first half of the sixteenth century, however, are dedicated to a single person or event. By contrast, from the middle of the century onward this genre was increasingly devoted to the representation of dynasties.

Salviati’s decoration of the Salotto Dipinto in the Palazzo Farnese demonstrates a refined use of the tapestry motif: between the various paintings depicting scenes with the deeds of the Farnese family, Salviati placed painted tapestries.

Vasari points out that Salviati, in addition to his work on the narrative frescoes, also executed some of the decorative details - the window framing between his two scenes, but also the illusionistic window to the right of the Birth of St John the Baptist scene. These window framings, with their nude youths atop festoons of fruit, are primarily decorative displays of artistic virtuosity; at the same time they contain elements - for example the tondo with the chiaroscuro depiction of Time revealing Truth - that can likewise easily be seen as referring to the theological content of the frescoes as well as to the work of the confraternity.

Salviati (Francesco de’ Rossi), together with Bronzino and Vasari, belonged to the second generation of Mannerist painters in Florence. He was in the Sarto workshop about 1529 and later Vasari and he were together in Rome where the influence of Raphael and of sophisticated Raphael followers affected him deeply. He also gathered ideas from his travels through north Italy, in Mantua, Venice and probably Parma.

This large canvas comes from the church of Corpus Domini in Venice. It shows the influence of both Raphael and the Florentine Mannerism.

Salviati was a successful and very prolific portrait painter. This portrait depicting an unidentified gentleman, three-quarter length, dressed in black and seated against a green background, shows the influence of both Parmigianino and Bronzino.

This painting, dating from Salviati’s second Roman period, after 1548, manifests the essential characteristics of Mannerism. The language of Mannerism is revealed in a new, elongated ideal figure and an inclination towards emphatic and often slightly artificial gestures. Salviati’s painting shows the influence of Parmigianino.

The identity of the sitter is not known, perhaps he is Cosimo I de’ Medici. The painting shows the influence of Bronzino.

Salviati brought Roman artistic models to Florence without significant modifications, an example being the Raising of Lazarus. This work clarifies how Salviati displayed up-to-date Roman artistic values in a sophisticated Florentine context on the small scale of the vertical easel painting. It is basically dominated by the muscular nude of Lazarus whose detached index finger indicates recent death. The crowded composition is punctuated by a vertical caesura in the centre. There are obvious quotations from Michelangelo (the Libyan Sibyl from the Sistine Chapel ceiling is used for one of the bystanders near Christ), from Raphael) the woman in the lower left foreground from the Vatican Transfiguration), and there are also quotations from Sebastiano del Piombo and Polidoro.

The Sala dell’Udienza is a large room in a corner of the Palazzo della Signoria (Palazzo Vecchio) overlooking the Piazza del Signoria. It was prepared for painting by 1543 but the project to decorate it lasted for several years. Salviati worked there until the autumn of 1545.

The main narrative frescoes are drawn from Plutarch and by Livy of the legend of Furius Camillus, a Roman Republican general of the fourth century, earlier represented in a solitary standing pose by Ghirlandaio in the adjacent Sala dei Gigli. The principal subjects of Salviati’s work on the dominant east wall consist of Camillus’s triumphal entry after the siege of Veii, including the captured statue of Juno, and his battle with the Gauls to save the capitol. The narrative is organized and travels in painted relief from left to right, with the figures painted behind a massive fictive Corinthian order. On the overdoor in the centre of the east wall there is a grisaille representing the Allegory of Peace Burning Arms.

The Palazzo della Signoria decorations are a credit to Salviati’s nearly unrivalled excellence in the medium of fresco so venerated by Tuscans.

The Sala dell’Udienza is a large room in a corner of the Palazzo della Signoria (Palazzo Vecchio) overlooking the Piazza del Signoria. It was prepared for painting by 1543 but the project to decorate it lasted for several years. Salviati worked there until the autumn of 1545.

This sketch was produced for the fresco cycle in the Oratorio di San Giovanni Decollato, Rome. However, it was not realized, the scene was awarded to Jacopino del Conte, who, following a sketch by Perino del Vaga, executed the fresco in 1541.

Salviati decided to depict just one scene each in the large wall expanses between the windows in the Oratorio di San Giovanni Decollato in Rome. In accordance with this he modified Perino del Vaga’s composition in his Visitation fresco, and made a new drawing, shown in the present picture, for the Birth of St John the Baptist. This drawing took into account the changed format.

This sketch was produced during the initial stage of planning, it has the same, roughly square format of Perino del Vaga’s sketches for the cycle in the Oratorio di San Giovanni Decollato, Rome.

Salviati painted the figure of St Andrew to the left of Jacopino del Conte’s altarpiece in the oratory. At the time he painted the two figures flanking the altarpiece, Salviati was above all interested in bulky individual figures reflecting his admiration for Michelangelo.

Salviati painted the figure of St Bartholomew to the right of Jacopino del Conte’s altarpiece in the oratory. At the time he painted the two figures flanking the altarpiece, Salviati was above all interested in bulky individual figures reflecting his admiration for Michelangelo.

This scene is located on the right wall, close to the entrance wall. Salviati executed this scene 13 years later than the Visitation scene in the centre of the same wall. This fresco reveals that he was no longer concerned with including as many figures as could possibly fit in such a scene. Instead, Salviati concentrated on fewer forms - Elizabeth and Zachariah, as well as the dove-bearing maid at the left and the women bathing the child at the right - and even dispensed with the important subject of Zachariah naming John, a subject that he had still included in his early drawing. In the figure of the newborn child, Salviati quotes Michelangelo’s Jonah.

Absalom balances in a strangely hovering way on a root of the oak tree, while his locks blow behind him in the breeze. Salviati evokes with this figure the description in the Bible that characterizes Absalom as the handsomest man in all Israel. Salviati quotes here the classical model of male beauty, the Apollo Belvedere.

The theme of this altarpiece is connected with the identity of its commissioner, Tommaso Guadani, Florentine advisor to Fran�ois I. The painting was commissioned for the funerary chapel of the Guadani family in the church of Notre-Dame de Confort in Lyon.

On the other shorter wall (the window wall) there are three other scenes. In the centre David Dances before the Ark of the Covenant. We can see the figure of Michal, gazing out of the window, who sees David dancing and despises him for it, because he had thereby uncovered himself before the handmaids of his servants as only fools uncover themselves.

The scene above the centre image represents David Spares the Sleeping Saul. The third scene at the top left corner depicts Michal Rescues David from Saul’s Persecution.

To the left and right of the picture of David dancing, we find, on the picture frame, two naked or only very lightly clothed youths. They belong not to the depicted scene but rather to the world of paired figures who hold chiaroscuro images on the other walls above the scenes. The remarkable third naked youth, with wings on his shoulders and feet balancing a scale on a razor blade, is the god Kairos, the personification of Opportunity.

The great battle scene on one of the long walls (the chimney wall) is devoted to the death of Saul. According to one version in the Bible, at the end of his reign Saul throws himself upon his sword. According to another version, Saul, leaning on a spear asks a passing Amalekite to kill him. Salviati brings both together in the fresco and shows Saul, pierced by the sword and lying on the ground, as well as the Amalekite, who is pulling out his weapon.

In the small image above the battle scene, Salviati depicts Samuel Anoints David. Not shown in the present picture are two further scenes on this wall, Saul with the Witch of Endor, and Saul Tries to Slay David, to the right and left of the battle scene, respectively.

On one of the shorter walls the Bathsheba stories are narrated in three scenes. The central image shows Bathsheba Bathing, in which David gazes at an exposed Bathsheba in her bath. At left is the Death of Uriah, and at right Bathsheba Goes to David. In the centre above is the fourth scene, David Slays Goliath, in a marginal representation.

The large scene on the long wall opposite to the battle scene depicts the Death of David’s son, Absalom. The Bible characterizes Absalom as the handsomest man in all Israel, and Salviati quotes here the classical model of male beauty, the Apollo Belvedere.

In the small image above the scene, Salviati depicts David Plays the Harp. Not shown in the present picture are two further scenes on this wall, David Speaks to the Army, and David Learns Absalom’s Death, to the left and to the right of the main scene, respectively.

The remarkable naked youth, with wings on his shoulders and feet balancing a scale on a razor blade, is the god Kairos, the personification of Opportunity. Here Salviati paraphrases an antique bas-relief, preserved in several copies, that he presumably studied in Florence.

This naked youth is depicted at the right of the scene of David Dances before the Ark of the Covenant.

Salviati’s draftsmanship is most evident in the articulation of the hands of the Fates, and the texture of the wool on their spindle. The masklike face in the background relates the figures to their classical sources.

This scene is located in the centre of the right wall, between Jacopino’s The Annunciation to Zachariah and Salviati’s Birth of St John the Baptist.

Salviati’s four frescoes are the outstanding works of the cycle in the oratory. Among these his contemporaries already considered the Visitation to be of the highest order, as noted by Vasari and confirmed by the numerous copies and printed reproductions made of this scene. Depictions of the visit made by the pregnant Mary to Elizabeth had a long tradition in Florence, whether it was in cycles of John the Baptist or of Mary. Examples are Domenico Ghirlandaio’ fresco in the Tornabuoni Chapel in Santa Maria Novella, and Pontormo’s fresco in the Santissima Annunziata.

This is a quintessential work of second generation Mannerism. It effectively demonstrates the key role that Salviati played in the evolution of the style in Rome. The oratory was decorated at various times by many other artists who were important in the second quarter of the sixteenth century. Salviati’s painting can be viewed as a vast repertory of motifs not only in regard to the architectural backgrounds but (and above all) for the poses of the individual figures. He glacially interprets subjects and characters taken from classical antiquity. He also used judicious quotations from Raphael, especially his later works such as the Stanza dell’Incendio at Borgo. Salviati’s draughtsmanship was impeccably perfect. He could conjure up new spaces merely by painting two characters entering a scene. Overall, however, the greatest impression he leaves is that of intellectual control over image and result. There is a strong overall sense of unreality connected particularly to the coldness of his colours.

The picture shows the left part of the fresco.

The picture shows the right part of the fresco.

The picture shows the left part of the fresco on the east wall of the Sala dell’Udienza in the Palazzo della Signoria (Palazzo Vecchio) in Florence.

The Oratorio di San Giovanni Decollato in Rome houses the most important fresco cycle executed in the difficult decades after he Sack of Rome. It was commissioned by the Florentine confraternity of the Misericordia, founded in 1488, whose members had set themselves the task of helping those sentenced to death by providing them with spiritual support. Shortly after its founding the confraternity began the construction of the church and oratory next door. The completion of the church was delayed until 1553. By around 1536, on the other hand, the oratory had been completed to the extent that the painted decoration of the room could begin.

The subject chosen for the fresco cycle, which covers the upper half of all four walls, was the story of the patron saint of the brotherhood, John the Baptist. For the execution of the cycle they selected Florentine (or Tuscan) artists working in Rome at the time. The most renowned Florentine painter active in Rome was Perino del Vaga, and several preparatory drawings for the frescoes by him have been preserved. Perino’s designs were executed by younger Florentine artists, Jacopino del Conte and Cecchino (Francesco) del Salviati.

Jacopino del Ponte painted on the entrance wall St John the Baptist Preaching (1538, on the left) and the Baptism of Christ (1541, on the right), on the right wall The Annunciation to Zachariah (1536-38). Salviati painted the Visitation (1538), the Birth of St John the Baptist (1551, on the right wall). The sixth fresco, the Arrest of St John the Baptist (c. 1543, on the left wall) was executed by Battista Franco, who came from Venice but worked in Florence. Pirro Ligorio painted the Feast of Herod with the Dance of Salome (1544-53, on the left wall). Starting in 1550, Salviati painted two apostles on the altar wall, Andrew (to the left of the altar) and Bartholomew (to the right). The altarpiece, an excellent panel with the Descent from the Cross was painted by Jacopino (1550-53). The fresco cycle was completed in 1553 with the Beheading of St John the Baptist. This was carried out by an assistant who reused some of Salviati’s older drawings for several figures but whose overall composition did not come close to approximating the achievements of his master.

The rivalry between Jacopino and Salviati, reported by Vasari, led to interruptions in the realization of the decorative program.

The picture shows the view of the oratory towards the altar.

The picture shows the altar wall at the Oratory of San Giovanni Decollato, Rome. The altarpiece of The Deposition by Jacopino del Conte is flanked by Salviati’s St Andrew (left) and St Bartholomew (right).

Francesco Salviati intervened in the oratory decoration around the fervent years of the Jubilee of 1550, prepared by pope Paulo III Farnese but celebrated by pope Giulio III. The Florentine painter was the protagonist around the mid-16th century in Rome and worked for prestigious patrons. Paying his most sincere tribute to Michelangelo’s plasticity, in 1550 Salviati painted the powerful figures on both sides of Jacopino del Conte’s altarpiece.

Probably representing the havoc wrought by the Arc of the Lord when carried off by the Philistines, the frescoes simulate wall paintings of different proportions and deliberately do not harmonize with the shapes of the windows. All are enclosed in fantastic painted frames, all different, intertwined with a jumble of garlands and sculptured figures.

Nothing more contrary to the principles of Renaissance harmony could be imagined, yet all is done with exquisitely refined colours and draftsmanly skill.