Beccafumi

Domenico di Giacomo di Pace Beccafumi, better known as Domenico Beccafumi (Montaperti, Asciano, province of Siena 1486-Siena, May 18, 1551) was a painter, Italian sculptor and versatile engraver, outstanding representative of the first mannerism, one of the most valuable of the so-called School of Siena. He was called "El Mecarino ", "Il Mecherino " and "Mecucio ".

Life and work

Childhood and artistic beginnings

His father, Giacomo di Pace, was a farmer in the service of a feudal lord named Lorenzo Beccafumi. The latter, upon noticing the abilities of the precocious Domenico, became his patron in order to obtain works of art. Thus, Domenico di Pace was sent to study painting in the city of Siena, where he received the nickname «Il Mecherino», since one of his first teachers was the painter Giovanni Mecheri. Other names proposed as teachers of the young Domenico are those of Giovanni di Sandro, about whom practically nothing is known, and the fresco painter Capanna.

In this first stage of his studies, he received the influences of Signorelli, Pinturicchio and Perugino, as well as strong influences of contemporary Florentine painting which had as its main exponents Fray Bartolomeo, Mariotto Albertinelli and, above all, Piero di Cosimo.

Between 1508-1509 Beccafumi went to Rome for the first time in order to perfect his studies. This first trip may have been sponsored by other illustrious Sienese who were already working in the Eternal City, such as his friend Baldassare Peruzzi or Agostino Chigi. On that first trip he acquired a taste for Leonardesque luminism, which Giovanni Antonio Bazzi (Il Sodoma) had already introduced in Siena. Vasari mentions a façade made in Rome with the coat of arms of Pope Julius II by the young artist, proof that he had already achieved a certain recognition. In 1512 Beccafumi returned to Siena, achieving good contracts and fame, being surpassed in this only by the recently mentioned Sodom.

Already in his homeland, his first important commission consisted of the fresco decoration of the Chapel of the Virgin of the Mantle in Santa Maria della Scala (1513), paintings of which hardly any trace remains.

The first important work of Beccafumi that has come down to us is the Triptych of the Trinity in the hospital of Santa María della Scala. From this first period are The Stigmata of Saint Catherine (1514-1515), Saint Paul in the Chair (1516-1517, in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo (Siena) and the friezes made together with Il Sodoma and Girolamo del Pacchia for the oratory of the church of San Bernardo (1518).

Maturity stage

In 1519 he made his second and perhaps last trip to Rome, where he deepened his study of the classics that were in the Vatican; It is on this trip that he observes in detail and appreciates the Sistine Chapel, which will deeply inspire him for his second, more resolutely Mannerist stage.

In his second stage he made the works that would launch his fame: the paintings in the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena, the frescoes called Allegory of Justice and Decapitation of Cassiusin the Town Hall. However, one of the works for which Beccafumi is best known are the 35 pavement mosaics in the Duomo of Siena, a pavement that he created between 1517-1546. For almost two centuries, the best Italian artists were summoned to create such a pavement, and Beccafumi was the most outstanding here. On this pavement you can see how Beccafumi makes technical innovations, for example in the figurations dedicated to Elijah, Moses, Ahab and Melchizedek.

In 1542 he perhaps returned to Rome, since it seems he attended the first meeting of the Accademia dei Virtuosi of the Pantheon, which was held on January 1, 1543. In any case, he returned to be in Siena in 1544.

Other of his great works are the tondo of The Holy Family (Pitti Palace in Florence), the altarpiece and the frescoes of the Communal Palace of Siena, the triptych of The Trinity i>, The Nativity of the Virgin, The Descent into Limbo and Saint Michael the Archangel (all currently in the National Pinacoteca of Siena), < i>Tanaquil (National Gallery of London) and Saint Bernardine of Siena praying (Louvre).

The well-deserved fame acquired by Beccafumi caused Charles I of England to unsuccessfully send emissaries to acquire the cartoons with the sketches of the pavement of the Duomo of Siena; Currently some of these sketches are in the Siena Art Institute.

For Charles V's visit to Siena, Beccafumi built a large triumphal arch and a mechanical horse.

His last important works are bronze sculptures, for example the little angels made around 1548, which adorn the columns near the main altar of the Duomo of Siena. These figures were the indirect cause of his death, according to Vasari, since the high temperatures and the effort invested in their manufacture prostrated the artist, who died shortly after completing the work. He was buried with honors in the Duomo, where his body was carried in procession by all the city's craftsmen.

Personal profile

Most of the information we have about Beccafumi's life comes from the Vite of Giorgio Vasari, who was a contemporary and friend of the artist, who personally transmitted to him much of the information contained in his biography. The writer from Aretino remembers it fondly:

...very polite and man of good, and living Christianly, spent most of the lonely time... He was accustomed to a restful life, and he was content with what was sufficient for his needs, and nothing more... he was used to living in freedom... Awesome of God and a scholar of his art, but a lonely superman...

Giorgio Vasari, Life of Domenico Beccafumi

Thus, he leaves us a vivid portrait of a man far from the splendor of official life, always focused on his work. Of a shy and elusive character, despite this he seems to have been a noble person, loved by his fellow citizens and admired by his colleagues.

Critical rating

A genuine mannerist, Beccafumi took advantage of the effects of light and subtle deformations or absorbed expressions to convey strong drama. He thus designed and painted almost ethereal, spectral figurations, involved in fantastic scenarios; For example, in his painting Santa Clara he resolves perspective in several planes. Thus he can seem like a surrealist « avant-la-lettre ».

Beccafumi's mannerism in his representations of The Last Judgment does not offer "hope", which coincides with the later Prisons by Piranesi. In Beccafumi, the sense of heroism that the Renaissance had obtained from Michelangelo falls.

Although Beccafumi is considered the «trait-d'union» between Michelangelo and Caravaggio's tenebrism, Beccafumi is one of the first to break with traditional iconography, and he done through daring experimentalism. In addition to the aforementioned use of light games, he uses colors that are not found in everyday life. He uses a characteristic incandescent red color to infuse pathos into his paintings, called "Beccafumi red".

Certain similarities between the character and pictorial treatment of this Italian painter and the nineteenth-century English painter William Blake are striking.

Contact with various cultures allowed him to innovate and this in turn allowed him a kind of expressionism that is very much his own. He looks for the unusual: for example in elongated figures that stand out with contrasting or - on the contrary - diffused lights and shadows, or with tensions and impulses that surpass the vigor and rigor of Michelangelo. Thus Beccafumi achieves expressions that reveal a deep inner life, for this he paints with great detail although without the extreme detail of Bronzino.

Likewise, the influences of El Greco are very evident in Beccafumi, we can see this in the coloring and folding of clothes or in the expressions of the eyes. On the other hand, its peculiar representations of female faces draw attention, characteristically delicate, subtle, graceful, like a foretaste of the baroque, although without the languor and superfluities found in the baroque.

Featured works

• Trinity and saints (1513, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena)
• Meeting of Joaquín and Ana at the Golden Gate (1513, Hospital de Santa Maria della Scala, Siena)
• Penelope (1514, Patriarchate Seminary, Venice)
• Mystical Spondents of Saint Catherine (1515, Chigi Saracini Collection, Siena)
• Saint Paul (1515, Museo dell'Opera, Siena)
• Miraculous Communion of Saint Catherine (1513-1515, John Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles)
• Estigmatization of Saint Catherine (1513-1515, John Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles)
• St. Catherine of Siena (1515, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena)
  • Communion of Saint CatherinePredela.
  • Mystical Spondents of Saint CatherinePredela.
  • Saint Catherine receives the habitsPredela.
• Frescos del Oratorio de San Bernardino (1518, Siena)
  • Esponsales de la Virgen
  • Death of the Virgin
• Tanaquil (1519, National Gallery, London)
• Marcia (1519, National Gallery, London)
• Saint Lucia (1521, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena)
• Mystical Spondents of Saint Catherine (1521, Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg)
  • San Bernardino preaching in the Campo de Siena (1521, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge), predela.
• Angel holding a tondo with the Ebriedad de Noé (1522-1523, Fondazione Horne, Florence)
• Sagrada Familia with San Juanito (1523-1524, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid)
• Nativity (1523-1524, San Martino, Siena)
• Frescos del Palazzo Bindi Sergardi (1524, Siena)
• Fall of the rebellious angels (1524, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena)
• Charity surrounded by children playing (1525, Victoria and Albert Museum, London)
• Hercules at the crossroads (1525, Bardini Museum, Florence)
• Continence of Scipion (1525, Museo Nazionale di Palazzo Mansi, Lucca)
• History of Daddy (1525, National Gallery, London)
• St. Ignatius of Antioch is gutted by Trajanes (1525-1527, Art Institute, Chicago)
• Deucalion and Pirra (1525-1530, Fondazione Horne, Florence)
• Venus and Cupid with Vulcan (1530) NOMA, New Orleans Museum of Art New Orleans.
• Authorport (1525-1530, Uffizi, Florence)
• Fall of the rebellious angels (1528, San Niccolo al Carmine, Siena)
  • Apparition of Saint Michael Archangel in Castel Sant'Angelo to Pope Gregory the Great (Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh), predela.
  • Miracle of San Miguel Archangel on Mount Gargano (Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh), predela.
• Vision of Saint Catherine of Siena (1528, Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa)
• Frescos del Palazzo Pubblico de Siena (1529-1535)
  • Reconciliation of Fulvio Flacco and Marco Emilio Lépido
• Youth profile head (1529-1535, Louvre Museum, Paris)
• Sagrada Familia with San Juanito (1530, Uffizi, Florence)
• Christ in the Limbo (1530-1535, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena)
• Mystical Spouses of Saint Catherine with Saint John and Saints (1533-1535, Doria-Pamphilj Gallery, Rome)
• Moses breaks the Tablets of the Law (The Golden Beer). (1536-1537, Cathedral of Pisa)
• Chastisement of Korah, Dathan and Abiron (1536-1537, Cathedral of Pisa)
• Virgin with the Child and Saints (1537, Confraternity of Saint Bernardine, Siena)
• Virgin with Child and San Juanito (1540, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome)
• The Four Evangelists (1540, Cathedral of Pisa)
• San Cristobal (1540, Monna Agnese Institute, Siena)
• Coronation of the Virgin (1540, Holy Spirit, Siena)
• Birth of the Virgin (1543, Accademia, Siena)
• Frescos del abside de la Catedral de Siena (1544)
  • Glory with angels
  • Ascension of the Virgin
  • Virgin with Saint Peter and Saint John
  • Apostles
• Announcement (1545, San Martino and Vittorio, Sarteano)
• Adoration of the Pastors (1545-1550, Allentown Art Museum)
• Holy Family with Angels (1545-1550, National Gallery of Art, Washington)