Melozzo da Forlì

Melozzo da Forlì
Melozzo da Forlì
	Forlì painting school
Known for	Painting, architecture
Notable work	Frescoes of the Basilica dei Santi Apostoli (Rome), Basilica della Santa Casa (Loreto)
Movement	Italian Renaissance
Patron(s)	Ansuino da Forlì

Melozzo da Forlì (c. 1438 – 8 November 1494) was an

Forlì painting school

.

Biography

Melozzo was supposedly from a wealthy family named Ambrosi from

studiolo of the city's famous Ducal Palace

.

Around 1472-74, Melozzo transferred to

Academy of St Luke

, founded by Sixtus IV to unite the chief painters working in the city.

In about 1472-74, Melozzo was commissioned by

St Peter's. A hall in the Vatican Museums, with designs of angels and apostles by Melozzo, was taken from the same fresco. Another work of the Roman period is an Annunciation that can still be seen in the Pantheon

.

Melozzo's last work in Rome was a chapel, now destroyed, in the church of

Loreto. There he painted the fresco in the cupola of the sacristy of San Marco in the Basilica della Santa Casa, commissioned by cardinal Girolamo Basso della Rovere. It is one of the first examples of a cupola decorated both with architecture and figures; it greatly influenced the Camera degli Sposi by Mantegna

.

In 1489 Melozzo returned to Rome. During this period he probably drew some cartoons for the mosaics of Jesus blessing in the Chapel of St Helena of the basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme.

Melozzo also painted the cupola of the Capuchin church at Forlì, which was destroyed in 1651. It has been said that he executed at

Dante, Sixtus IV, et al) which are now divided between the Barberini Palace and the Campana collection in Paris. In 1493 he worked on some ceilings, now lost, of the Palazzo Comunale of Ancona. Eventually Melozzo returned to Forlì, where, together with his pupil Marco Palmezzano, he decorated the Feo Chapel in the church of San Biagio, which was destroyed during World War II. The Pinacoteca of Forlì

houses a fresco by Melozzo, known as the "Pestapepe," or Pepper-grinder, now much damaged. Originally painted as a grocer's sign, it is an energetic example of rather coarse realism and is Melozzo's only secular subject.

Melozzo died in November 1494 in Forlì and is buried in the Church of the Santissima Trinita (Most Holy Trinity).

Legacy

While few of Melozzo's works are still preserved, critics agree that he contributed to the progress of pictorial art. Without being remarkable as a colorist, he painted with care and finish, creating fine and dignified figures. His use of perspective influenced other painters. Melozzo's works bear a certain resemblance to those of his contemporary Andrea Mantegna. Marco Palmezzano was a pupil of Melozzo. The signature "Marcus de Melotius" on some of Palmezzano's works, along with a general affinity of style, has led to their being ascribed to Melozzo and to the latter being incorrectly named "Marco Melozzo". The paintings of Melozzo strongly influenced Michelangelo, Raphael and Donato Bramante.

References

^ The theory is credited to Luigi Lanzi. See Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Melozzo da Forlí" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

Sources

Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Melozzo da Forlí" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Bryan, Michael (1886), Robert Edmund Graves (ed.), Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, Biographical and Critical, London: George Bell and Sons, p. 505
Clark, Nicholas (1990), Melozzo Da Forli, London: Sotheby's Publications,
ISBN 978-0-85667-371-9

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Melozzo da Forlì". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

[1] The theory is credited to Luigi Lanzi. See Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Melozzo da Forlí" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

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