STRADANUS, Johannes

Francesco I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1541-1587), the son of Cosimo I de’ Medici and Eleonora di Toledo, was given to a practice on the cusp between chemistry and mysticism. Alchemy had emerged in the thirteenth century, when certain courts in western Europe were enjoying a degree of exchange among Christian, Muslims, and Jewish scholars. Some of the grand duke’s private investigations had practical goals, for example, to discover commercial processes, such as seeking the secret of making porcelain, or melting rock crystal, that could revive Florence’s tepid economy. In his rooms in Palazzo Vecchio, Francesco engaged in more arcane experiments.

This painting, depicting an alchemist’s laboratory, is in Francesco’s ‘studiolo’ in the Palazzo Vecchio.

In the alchemists’ workshop Francesco de’ Medici also appears intent on mixing a potion in a pan over heat.

Stradanus executed this ceiling painting in the Sala di Ester in Palazzo Vecchio after a cartoon by Giorgio Vasari. It shows a baldachin supported by four spiral columns demonstrating an awareness of how the twisting movement causes a vortex in the surrounding space creating the impression of spatial dynamics.

This drawing depicts a night assault on a city; soldiers, some on horseback, arriving with weapons, canons and ammunition in the foreground, a fortified city beyond.

The subject of the drawing is the capture of the fortifications of Siena in a night assault by the Florentine forces under the Marquis of Marignano. It corresponds to a fresco painted by Vasari in the Sala Grande in the Palazzo Vecchio in 1570. The finished work does not correspond with the drawing, and the latter must be a rejected idea for the work.

The study is attributed to one of Vasari’s assistants and collaborators who worked in his studio. Johannes Stradanus and Jacopo Zucchi are the possible authors of the drawing.

The detail shows the taking of the fortress at Siena.

During the Renaissance Italy was the main centre of the production and manufacture of silk in Europe. The cultivation of mulberry and silkworms is dependent on climatic conditions and a type of soil that are difficult to find north of the Alps. It developed first in southern Italy but then gradually shifted to the central and northern parts of the peninsula, where the fabric was also worked and manufactured, in particular at Lucca, Florence and Venice.

The engravings of Johannes Stradanus (Giovanni Stradano) are the most interesting contemporary visual documents of the production and manufacture of silk.

During the Renaissance Italy was the main centre of the production and manufacture of silk in Europe. The cultivation of mulberry and silkworms is dependent on climatic conditions and a type of soil that are difficult to find north of the Alps. It developed first in southern Italy but then gradually shifted to the central and northern parts of the peninsula, where the fabric was also worked and manufactured, in particular at Lucca, Florence and Venice.

The engravings of Johannes Stradanus (Giovanni Stradano) are the most interesting contemporary visual documents of the production and manufacture of silk.

During the Renaissance Italy was the main centre of the production and manufacture of silk in Europe. The cultivation of mulberry and silkworms is dependent on climatic conditions and a type of soil that are difficult to find north of the Alps. It developed first in southern Italy but then gradually shifted to the central and northern parts of the peninsula, where the fabric was also worked and manufactured, in particular at Lucca, Florence and Venice.

The engravings of Johannes Stradanus (Giovanni Stradano) are the most interesting contemporary visual documents of the production and manufacture of silk.

This allegory displays the painter’s thorough assimilation of Mannerist history painting and notably that of Vasari.