Berlinghiero berlinghieri major works
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Lesser-known to American visitors to Tuscany is the beautiful and historic town of Lucca located only some 10 miles northeast of Pisa. The more famous cities of Siena and Florence generally attract large numbers of art students and tourists. However, omitting Lucca on a visit to the region of Tuscany would be a mistake. It is less congested in summer and is graceful with its winding streets, historic churches and beautiful gardens. It is protected by a ring of massively-thick Renaissance walls dating to the 16th century. The heyday of Lucca lasted from the 11th-14th centuries, a time when the silk trade brought fortune and, for a time, political power. Lucca lost its independence to neighboring Pisa in 1314. Lucca was one of the most important artistic centers in Tuscany before the rise of Siena and Florence and Berlighiero one of her most prominent artists.
Within the Cleveland Museum of Art is a small painting that links us to this Italian gem of Lucca. It is a small devotional altarpiece, painted during the 1230s and likely intended for a domestic interior or private chapel. I
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Madonna and Child
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Title:Madonna and Child
Artist:Berlinghiero (Italian, Lucca, active by 1228–died by 1236)
Date:possibly 1230s
Medium:Tempera on wood, gold ground
Dimensions:Overall 31 5/8 x 21 1/8 in. (80.3 x 53.7 cm); painted surface 30 x 19 1/2 in. (76.2 x 49.5 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Gift of Irma N. Straus, 1960
Object Number:60.173
This is one of a very few works that may be attributed to Berlinghiero based on analogies of style with a Crucifix in the Museo di Villa Guinigi, Lucca, that is signed "Berlingherius me pinxit." The painter—a key figure in the history of Tuscan painting—was from Volterra and is first documented in 1228 together with his two sons Barone and Bonaventura, both of whom, together with a third son, Marco, also became painters. They were primarily active in Lucca, where Berlinghiero painted in a style much indebted to the example of Byzantine art, which became newly available to Italian painters as a consequence of the dispersal of
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Berlinghieri
Family of Italian painters active in Lucca during the 13th century. BerlinghieroBerlinghieri (dc.1235) was the founder of the family and had three painter sons, Barone, Bonaventura (dc.1274), and Marco. A painted Crucifix (Mus. Naz. di Villa Guinigi, Lucca) signed ‘Berlingeri’ without Christian name is generally attributed to Berlinghiero, and several other works have been given to him on the basis of it. Bonaventura, evidently the most talented of his sons, is known chiefly for his signed and dated altarpiece of St Francis and Scenes from his Life (1235) in the church of S. Francesco at Pescia. It is one of the earliest pictorial representations of Franciscan ideas, produced only nine years after the saint's death. There are no other signed or documented works by Bonaventura, but several have been attributed to him on stylistic evidence.
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