Quartiere Pianello
Save San Pietro Montalcino Tuscany
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Quartiere Pianello Save San Pietro Montalcino Tuscany |
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Late Renaissance artist Ventura Salimbeni |
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Ventura
Salimbeni Pittor
Senenis Fecit Anno
Ivbilei 1600
In the year 1600, a Jubilee year, Ventura Salimbeni was commissioned to paint three important works in the Church of San Pietro, Quartiere Pianello, in the village of Montalcino, Tuscany. Each is an altar piece installed above each of the three altars in the church. These important works of art are in grave danger. The roof is in danger of collapse and if the roof collapses, we lose forever the art of Ventura Salimbeni. Our mission is to save the church of San Pietro, including the art of Ventura Salimbeni. We need and ask for your help.
High
Altar – Delivery of the Keys to Saint Peter Right
Lateral Altar – ***Glorification of the Eucharist
- a strange depiction which continues to create international
controversy, publication and examination. Left
Lateral Altar – The Crucifixion. More
about Ventura Salimbeni Baptised Bonaventura Salimbeni by his parents, shortened to Ventura, Salimbeni was born in Siena in1568.
His father, Arcangelo, and his half brother, Francesco, were both artists, but Ventura is the most valid and prolific of this Sienese family of artists working in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Salimbeni was a cheerful man of rather gregarious character and indications are that, quite the opposite of his half brother, he showed little inclination to hold dear things of a sacred nature.
Placing Salimbeni in the historical chronicle of artists working at the time, the renaissance has filtered to the cities in Europe. Man has travelled to the farthest corners of the earth, exploring and learning about the world. He now lifts his eyes to the heavens taking great interest in science and astrological happenings, prominently with the research Galilei Galileo.
Christianity as a religion is in crisis. The Inquisition, Reformation and Counter Reformation follow one upon the other. In this era of dissemination of new ideas about humanity and at a time of religious crisis, the drawn-out Council of Trent resolves little. Martin Luther demands change as the great schism develops. The greatest of the renaissance artists, Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, Fra Angelico, Paolo Uccello, Luca Signorelli, Raffaello, Piero della Francesca, Michelangelo, Vasari, Bellini, Tintoretto and Titian are all dead and a new world is opening – or being forced into the open as the 1600’s arrive. This is when Salimbeni is working, above all in fresco painting, much in demand in the whole of Italy.
Salimbeni lived in Rome between 1588 and 1593 coming under the influence of Federigo Barocci. He was particularly active in and readily accepted the innovative work of a developing School in Rome which we now call Mannerism. Well schooled in the use of chroma and colour, and possibly because in Siena his work had been influenced by the somewhat affected imagination of Becafumi, in Rome he was able better than many of his contemporaries to assimilate Sienese style with the developing techniques of mannerism, especially those of Barocci.
Among many commissions in Rome he painted in Saint John Lateran, Sant’ Agostino, Santa Maria Maggiore and in salons of the Vatican he also left his hand.
After Rome he worked in Perugia at the service of Cardinal Bevilacqua. This Cardinal bestowed various honours upon Salimbeni and in the year 1600 nominated him with the title Cavaliere of the Golden Spur. Cardinal Bevilacqua gave him the valuable concession of using his own name as a surname. Salimbeni was thereafter known as Cavalier Bevilacqua.
Many of Salimbeni’s works were executed in his home town of Siena between 1595 and 1602 where he demonstrated his fresco skill in the Oratory of San Bernardino, the church of Santo Spirito and in the Church of the Carmines. He also left memorable traces of frescoes he painted in 1605 – 1608 in the great Church of the Annunciation in Florence.
A tireless artist, Salimbeni painted in many small towns and villages, leaving fascinating work in Montalcino. As a gifted artist of great talent he developed his own light refined style, managing to reconcile the great Sienese traditions of the time, particularly that of Beccafumi, with developing Mannerism. |
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