Luca Fancelli (c. 1430 – after 1494) was an
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
architectAn architect is trained and licensed in planning and designing buildings, and participates in supervising the construction of a building. Etymologically, architect derives from the Latin architectus, itself derived from the Greek arkhitekton , i.e. chief builder...
and
sculptorSculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard and/or plastic material, sound, and/or text and or light, commonly stone , metal, glass, or wood. Some sculptures are created directly by finding or carving; others are assembled, built together and fired, welded, molded,...
.
Fancelli was born in
SettignanoSettignano is a picturesque frazione ranged on a hillside northeast of Florence, Italy, with spectacular views that have attracted American expatriates for generations...
, a fraction of
FlorenceFlorence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence...
. Much of his life and work is an enigma, what is known for sure is that he trained as a stonecutter and mason and studied under Brunelleschi.
Giorgio VasariGiorgio Vasari was an Italian painter and architect, who is today famous for his biographies of Italian artists, considered the ideological foundation of art-historical writing.-Biography:Vasari was born in Arezzo, Tuscany...
, the prominent 16th century Florentine artist and biographer of the artists, is responsible for many doubts pertaining to the authenticity of works attributed to Fancelli.
Luca Fancelli (c. 1430 – after 1494) was an
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
architectAn architect is trained and licensed in planning and designing buildings, and participates in supervising the construction of a building. Etymologically, architect derives from the Latin architectus, itself derived from the Greek arkhitekton , i.e. chief builder...
and
sculptorSculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard and/or plastic material, sound, and/or text and or light, commonly stone , metal, glass, or wood. Some sculptures are created directly by finding or carving; others are assembled, built together and fired, welded, molded,...
.
Biography
Fancelli was born in
SettignanoSettignano is a picturesque frazione ranged on a hillside northeast of Florence, Italy, with spectacular views that have attracted American expatriates for generations...
, a fraction of
FlorenceFlorence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence...
. Much of his life and work is an enigma, what is known for sure is that he trained as a stonecutter and mason and studied under Brunelleschi.
Giorgio VasariGiorgio Vasari was an Italian painter and architect, who is today famous for his biographies of Italian artists, considered the ideological foundation of art-historical writing.-Biography:Vasari was born in Arezzo, Tuscany...
, the prominent 16th century Florentine artist and biographer of the artists, is responsible for many doubts pertaining to the authenticity of works attributed to Fancelli. While Fancelli likely designed the
Palazzo PittiThe Palazzo Pitti , in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast mainly Renaissance palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio...
, the
FlorentineFlorence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence...
residence of the
MediciThe House of Medici was a political dynasty, banking family and later royal house who first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici in the Republic of Florence during the late 14th century. The family originated in the Mugello region of the Tuscan countryside, gradually rising until...
's friend, and supposed rival,
Luca PittiLuca Pitti was a Florentine banker during the period of the republic presided over by Cosimo de' Medici. He was a loyal friend and servant to the Medici and the republic...
; Vasari attributes the design to Brunelleschi, who had died several years before work began. The
palazzoPalazzo may refer to:*Palazzo, an Italian type of building*part of a commune name, for example:**Palazzo Adriano, a commune in the province of Palermo, in Sicily, Italy**Palazzo Canavese, a commune in the province of Turin, in Piemonte, Italy...
is not in Brunelleschi's style, and considered by many to be by a lesser hand. Fancelli has also been credited also with the design of the
tribuneTribune is an ambiguous often misused architectural term which can have several meanings.The word stems from medieval Latin tribuna, from classical Latin tribunal, the elevated placing of a Tribune or other Roman magistrate's seat for official functions such as throne.In architecture, the term...
of SS. Annunziata in Florence, but this too is disputed.
In 1450 Fancelli moved to
MantuaMantua is a city in Lombardy, Italy and capital of the province of the same name.Mantua is surrounded on three sides by artificial lakes created during the 12th century. These receive the waters from the Mincio, which descend from Lake Garda...
where he was employed in the court of Marquis
Ludovico IILudovico II of Gonzaga, also spelled Lodovico was the ruler of the Italian city of Mantua from 1444 to his death in 1478.-Parents:Ludovico was the son of Gianfrancesco Gonzaga and Paola Malatesta...
. Mantua under the
GonzagaThe Gonzaga family ruled Mantua in Northern Italy from 1328 to 1708. See Duchy of Mantua for a list of rulers.In 1433, Gianfrancesco I assumed the title of Marquis of Mantua, and in 1530 Federico II received the title of Duke of Mantua. In 1531, the family acquired the Duchy of Monferrato through...
s was artistic center, employing
PisanelloPisanello , known professionally as Antonio di Puccio Pisano or Antonio di Puccio da Cereto, also erroneously called Vittore Pisano by Giorgio Vasari, was one of the most distinguished painters of the early Italian Renaissance and Quattrocento...
, Mantegna, Perugino,
CorreggioAntonio Allegri da Correggio, usually known simply as Correggio, was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the Italian Renaissance, who was responsible for some of the most vigorous and sensuous works of the 16th century...
, Leon Battista Alberti,
Giulio RomanoGiulio Romano was an Italian painter and architect. A prominent pupil of Raphael, his stylistic deviations from high Renaissance classicism help define the 16th-century style known as Mannerism...
, and
RubensSir Peter Paul Rubens was a prolific seventeenth-century Flemish Baroque painter, and a proponent of an exuberant Baroque style that emphasized movement, color, and sensuality...
.
At Mantua, Fancelli became clerk of works and supervisory architect for the churches of San Sebastiano (1460), and Sant'Andrea (1472) while the plans for both churches were drawn by Alberti himself, Fancelli's input was large, especially at the church of Sant'Andrea which was begun only shortly before Alberti's death.
The Marquess of Mantua Federico I began work on a new royal palace in the city, and Fancelli received the commission to design a complex of rooms for new palace centred on its
clock towerA clock tower is a tower built with one or more clock faces. The clock tower is usually part of a church or municipal building such as a town hall, but many clock towers are free-standing....
, this wing known as the "
Domus Nova", Fancelli worked on from 1478 to 1484, but the palace itself remained incomplete until the 17th century.
The final years of Fancelli's life are characteristically enigmatic, he disappears from all written references from 1494.