italianartsociety:By Anne Leader and Livia Lupi Lodovico Cardi was born on 21 September 1559
italianartsociety: By Anne Leader and Livia Lupi Lodovico Cardi was born on 21 September 1559 in Castello di Cigoli, the source of his nickname, Il Cigoli. A preeminent artist in early seventeenth-century Florence, Cigoli was one of the first to reject Mannerism, preferring sober naturalism and clarity to complicated artifice. Trained by Alessandro Allori, Cigoli found greater kinship with other “anti-mannerist” artists like Federico Barocci and Santi di Tito, proving as a major figure in the development of the Baroque style. Cigoli also worked as a scenic designer, and was involved in organising the festivities for the wedding of Ferdinando I de’ Medici and Maria Christina of Lorraine, sumptuously celebrated in Florence in 1589, and for the wedding of Maria de’ Medici and Henry IV of France, also celebrated in Florence, in 1600. Cigoli was interested in mathematics and astronomy, and was a good friend of Galileo Galilei, whom he met as they were both studying under the mathematician Ostilio Ricci. Cigoli included a reference to Galileo’s endeavours in astronomy in his Assumption of the Virgin in the Pauline Chapel in Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, which features a large moon at the Virgin’s feet: https://www.princeton.edu/~freshman/science/galileo/galileo.html. Reference: Miles L. Chappell. “Cigoli, Lodovico.” Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Further reading: Novella Barbolani di Montauto and Miles Chappell, eds. Colorire naturale e vero: Figline, il Cigoli e i suoi amici (2008) St. Francis, 1597-99. The Hermitage, St. Petersburg Head of Christ, 1559–1613. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Purchase, Mrs. Carl L. Selden Gift, in memory of Carl L. Selden, 1987 The Adoration of the Shepherds with Saint Catherine of Alexandria, 1599. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Gwynne Andrews Fund, 1991 (1991.7) The Sacrifice of Isaac, c. 1607. Galleria Palatina (Palazzo Pitti), Florence Portrait of Il Cigoli Assumption of the Virgin, 1612, Pauline Chapel, Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome. Ibid., detail. -- source link