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32-421: Matteo Bandello was born at Castelnuovo Scrivia , near Tortona (current Piedmont ), c. 1480. He received a good education, and entered the church, but does not seem to have been very interested in theology . For many years he lived at Mantua and Castel Goffredo , and superintended the education of the celebrated Lucrezia Gonzaga , in whose honour he composed a long poem. The decisive Battle of Pavia , as

64-456: A Carmelite priest. He was an early Renaissance master of a painting workshop, who taught many painters. Sandro Botticelli and Francesco di Pesello (called Pesellino) were among his most distinguished pupils. His son, Filippino Lippi , also studied under him and assisted in some late works. Lippi was born in Florence in 1406 to Tommaso, a butcher, and his wife. He was orphaned when he

96-442: A chorus of pigs (part 2, story 23), an adulterous lover buried alive and then saved (part 3, story 1), a merchant's murder of another (part 4, story 1), a case of double adultery whereby each husband cuckolds the other (part 4, story 11), and two women yelling at each other after being falsely told they are hard of hearing (part 4, story 21). Four Bandello stories were adapted by Shakespeare, including Cymbeline (part 1, story 19),

128-560: A distortion of Challand, a northwest region of Italy. The only nearly complete translation of Bandello's tales into English is "The novels of Matteo Bandello", translated by John Payne in 6 volumes, 1890. This edition is separated into 4 parts, containing 51, 43, 51, and 21 stories, respectively, for a total of 166, minus two (part 2, story 35 and part 4, story 6), omitted because of their being almost identical to those of Marguerite de Navarre 's Heptameron (stories 30 and 17, respectively), though keeping Bandello's dedicatory preface. There

160-652: A fief of the Marini family and, after their extinction in 1778, of the Centurione family. This article on a location in the Province of Alessandria is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Filippo Lippi Filippo Lippi O.Carm. ( c.  1406 – 8 October 1469), also known as Lippo Lippi , was an Italian Renaissance painter of the Quattrocento (fifteenth century) and

192-629: A painting for the monastery chapel of Santa Margherita in that city, where he met Lucrezia Buti , a beautiful boarder or novice of the Order and the daughter of the Florentines Caterina Ciacchi and Francesco Buti. Lippi asked that she might be permitted to sit for the figure of the Madonna (or perhaps Saint Margaret). Lippi engaged in sexual relations with her and abducted her to his own house. She remained there despite efforts by

224-664: A portrait of the benefactor who commissioned the painting. The painting was celebrated in Robert Browning 's poem " Fra Lippo Lippi " (1855). In 1452, Lippi was appointed chaplain to the nuns at the Monastery of Santa Maria Maddalena in Florence . Fra Filippo is recorded as living in Prato (near Florence) in June 1456 to paint frescoes in the choir of the cathedral. In 1458, while engaged in this work, he set about creating

256-602: A result of which Lombardy was taken by the emperor, compelled Bandello to flee; his house at Milan was burnt and his property confiscated. He took refuge with Cesare Fregoso , an Italian general in the French service, whom he accompanied into France. He was later raised to the bishopric of Agen , a town in which he resided for many years before his death in 1562. Bandello wrote a number of poems, but his fame rests entirely on his extensive collection of Novelle, or tales (1554, 1573), which have been extremely popular. They belong to

288-741: A romance". With Lippi's return to Florence in 1432, his paintings had become popular, warranting the support of the Medici family, who commissioned the Annunciation and the Seven Saints . Cosimo de' Medici had to imprison him in order to compel him to work, and even then the painter escaped by a rope made of his sheets. His escapades threw him into financial difficulties from which he did not hesitate to extricate himself by forgery. His life included many similar tales of lawsuits, complaints, broken promises, and scandal. In 1441, Lippi painted

320-409: Is a matter of dispute. It has been said that the pope granted Lippi a dispensation to marry Lucrezia, but before the permission arrived Lippi had been poisoned by indignant relatives of Lucrezia or, in another version, by relatives of someone who had replaced her in the painter's affections. The frescoes in the choir of the cathedral of Prato , which depict the stories of Saint Stephen and Saint John

352-469: Is a second book of Bandello in an English translation (1892) by Percy Edward Pinkerton and containing twelve tales. This translation uses more modern modes of expression than Payne's translation. In 2023 Michael Curtotti published a translation of Bandello’s Romeo and Juliet story into modern English: Romeo and Juliet: A New English Translation . There is critical apparatus on the similarities between Bandello’s and Shakespeare’s versions; and Bandello’s text

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384-869: Is disputed. Filippo Lippi died in 1469 while working on the frescoes of scenes from the Life of the Virgin (1467–1469) in the apse of Spoleto Cathedral . The frescoes show the Annunciation, the Funeral of the Virgin, the Adoration of the Christ Child, and the Coronation of the Virgin. A group of bystanders depicted at the funeral includes a self-portrait of Lippi and his helpers, Fra Diamante and Pier Matteo d'Amelia , together with his son Filippino. Lippi

416-536: Is divided into paragraphs for ease of comparison with the translation on facing pages. The vast majority of the stories derive from those Bandello heard from contemporaries, reported as real life events. Far more rarely, some stories are based on literary or historical sources, such as book 5 of Dante's Purgatory (part 1, story 11), the Lucretia and Tarquin episode in Livy's History of Rome (part 2, story 15), story #23 of

448-512: Is the exact figure. The figure of the dancing Salome in the scene of the Feast of Herod is believed to be a portrait of Lucrezia. On the end wall of the choir are Saint John Gualbert and Saint Alberto, while the vault has monumental representations of the four evangelists. For Germiniano Inghirami of Prato he painted the Death of Saint Bernard . His principal altarpiece in this city is a Nativity in

480-498: The Baptist on the two main facing walls, are considered Fra Filippo's most important and monumental works, particularly the figure of Salome dancing, which has clear affinities with later works by Sandro Botticelli , his pupil, and Filippino Lippi , his son, as well as the scene showing the ceremonial mourning over Stephen's corpse. This latter is believed to contain a portrait of the painter, but there are various opinions as to which

512-546: The Claudio subplot of Much Ado about Nothing (part 1, story 22), Romeo and Juliet (part 2, story 6), and Twelfth Night (part 2, story 28), plus one from the Shakespeare Apocrypha , Edward III (part 2, story 29). Bandello stories have also been adapted by other dramatists, including John Webster , The Duchess of Malfi (part 1, story 24), Philip Massinger , The Picture (part 1, story 19),

544-530: The Heptameron (part 2, story 17), and Francesco Petrarch's Triumph of Love from Triumphs (part 2, story 41). Some derive from English history, such as the chronicle of Mary Douglas, niece to King Henry VIII of England (part 3, story 44) and Henry VIII's six wives (part 3, story 45), some from Spanish history, such as Alfonso X (part 4, story 10). All of them were told to him by men, but a minority of dedicatory prefaces are offered to women. Bandello writes that

576-680: The Order the following year, at the age of sixteen. He was ordained as a priest in approximately 1425 and remained in residence at the priory until 1432. Giorgio Vasari , the first art historian of the Renaissance, writes in his Lives of the Artists that Lippi was inspired to become a painter by watching Masaccio at work in the Carmine church. Lippi's early work, notably the Tarquinia Madonna (Galleria Nazionale, Rome) shows

608-621: The Ostrogoths, and in 722 it was enlarged by the Lombard king Liutprand . An ally of Frederick Barbarossa in his war against the Lombardy communes, it took part in the destruction of Tortona in 1115, obtaining certain privileges in exchange. Around 1300 Castelnuovo became part of the Duchy of Milan . In 1570 it changed name from Castelnuovo di Tortona to Castelnuovo Scrivia, and become

640-575: The Virgin is Lucrezia. A sometime lecturer at the gallery, the art historian Rocky Ruggiero identifies the painting as "one of the most beautiful paintings of the Italian Renaissance" and asserts that arguably, Lippi "is the first Italian painter with a true sensibility for feminine beauty". The painting of the Virgin and Child with an Angel also in the Uffizi is ascribed to Lippi, but that

672-464: The altarpiece of the Coronation of the Virgin for the nuns of Sant'Ambrogio . The painting shows the Virgin being crowned among angels and saints, including many Bernardine monks. One of these, placed to the right, is a half-length figure originally thought to be a self-portrait of Lippi, pointed out by the inscription is perfecit opus upon an angel's scroll. Later, it was believed instead to be

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704-553: The dedicatory prefaces to the nobility or to worthy persons are useful to him as a shield in case someone becomes offended by one of the stories and is tempted to attack him (part 2, story 32). He shows psychological insight into jealousy, in particular the description of two types of jealous men, the first from feelings of inadequacy and the second from feelings of the fickleness of women (part 3, story 47). The most striking stories include two whores seeking to win their husbands back (part 1, story 17), two brother thieves in cahoots to rob

736-426: The influence of Masaccio. Vasari writes of Lippi: "Instead of studying, he spent all his time scrawling pictures on his own books and those of others." Due to Lippi's interest, the prior decided to give him the opportunity to learn painting. In 1432, Filippo Lippi quit the monastery, although he was not released from his vows. In a letter dated 1439 he describes himself as the poorest friar of Florence, charged with

768-477: The maintenance of six marriageable nieces. According to Vasari, Lippi then went on to visit Ancona and Naples , where he was captured by Barbary pirates and kept as a slave. Reportedly, his skill in portrait-sketching helped to eventually release him. Louis Gillet, writing for the Catholic Encyclopedia , considers this account and other details reported about Lippi, as "assuredly nothing but

800-689: The nuns to reclaim her. This relationship resulted in their son Filippino Lippi in 1457, who became a famous painter following his father, as well as a daughter, Alessandra, in 1465. Lucrezia is thought to be the model for many of Filippo Lippi's paintings of the Madonna, as well as for Salome in one of his monumental works. In 1457, he was appointed commendatory Rector ( Rettore commendatario ) of San Quirico  [ it ] in Legnaia , from which institutions he occasionally made considerable profits. Despite these profits, Lippi struggled to escape poverty throughout his life. The close of Lippi's life

832-538: The refectory of San Domenico: the Christ child on the ground adored by the Virgin and Joseph, between Saints George and Dominic, in a rocky landscape, with the shepherds playing and six angels in the sky. A Vision of Saint Bernard is held in the National Gallery , London. In the Uffizi is a fine painting of the Virgin, also called "Lippina" , adoring the infant Christ, who is held by two angels. The model for

864-579: The same famous story of Romeo and Juliet (part 2, story 9). Castelnuovo Scrivia Castelnuovo Scrivia is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Alessandria in the Italian region Piedmont , located about 90 kilometres (56 mi) east of Turin and about 20 kilometres (12 mi) northeast of Alessandria . The city was fortified around 500 CE by order of Theoderic the Great , king of

896-887: The same genre as Boccaccio ’s Decameron and Marguerite de Navarre ’s Heptameron . The common origin of them all is to be found in the old French fabliaux , though some well-known tales are evidently Eastern, and others classical. Bandello’s novellas are thought the best of those written in imitation of the Decameron, though Italian critics find fault with them for negligence and inelegance of style. The stories on which William Shakespeare based several of his plays ( Much Ado about Nothing , Romeo and Juliet and Twelfth Night in particular) were supplied by Bandello, probably through Belleforest and Pierre Boaistuau whose stories were later translated into English by William Paynter and included in his The Palace of Pleasure . Another of his stories includes "The countess of Cellant",

928-544: The same source as that of Cymbeline, John Marston and Jean Mairet , Sophonisba (part 1, story 35), John Fletcher , The Maid in the Inn (part 2, story 11), the anonymous 17th century French author of The Cruel Moor (1618) (part 3, story 17), Giuseppe Giacosa , La Signora di Challant , The Lady of Challand (part 1, story 4) and more than 15 plays by Spanish Lope de Vega , among which Castelvines y Monteses (published in 1647 and written between 1604 and 1618) follows

960-527: The treasures of the king of Egypt (part 1, story 23), a disdained lover voluntarily choosing to live inside a cave (part 1, story 25), a woman killing herself only out of fear that her good fortune will turn bad (part 1, story 48), Filippo Lippi , released from slavery in Africa because of his talent as a celebrated painter (part 1, story 50), a woman disdaining a man and then killing herself when he no longer pursues her (part 2, story 16), an abbot making music from

992-637: Was spent at Spoleto , where he had been commissioned to paint scenes from the Life of the Virgin for the apse of the cathedral . His son, Filippino, served as workshop adjuvant in the construction. In the semidome of the apse is the Coronation of the Virgin , with angels, sibyls, and prophets . This series, which is not wholly equal to the one at Prato, was completed after Lippi's death by assistants under his fellow Carmelite, Fra Diamante . Lippi died in Spoleto, on or about 8 October 1469. The mode of his death

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1024-699: Was two years old and sent to live with his aunt, Mona Lapaccia. Because she was too poor to rear him, she placed him in the neighboring Carmelite convent when he was eight years old. There, he started his education. In 1420, he was admitted to the novitiate of the Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, known commonly as the Carmelites , at the priory of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence, taking religious vows in

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