Berlinghieri
Italian family of painters. All three sons of Berlinghiero
Berlinghieri became painters. Besides those for the best known,
Bonaventura Berlinghieri, records survive concerning Barone di
Berlinghiero ( fl 1228–82), probably the oldest of the
brothers, and Marco di Berlinghiero ( fl 1232–55), and a
detailed document of 1266 records Bonaventura’s stepson and
apprentice, Lupardo di Benincasa (d Kingdom of Sicily, before
1258), who from c. 1249 worked independently and later moved
to Sardinia. Barone is already mentioned in 1228, together with
Berlinghiero and Bonaventura, in a list of Lucchese citizens. In
1243 he painted a panel for the Archdeacon of Lucca, by 1256 he had
delivered a painted Crucifix to the parish church of
Casabasciana, near Lucca, and in 1282 he undertook to paint a
Crucifix, a Virgin and a St Andrew for the prior
of S Andrea, Lucca. More is known of Marco, from records in Lucca
from the 1230s. Probably the youngest of the brothers since he is
not mentioned in the document of 1228, according to Garrison (1957)
he is the ‘Marcus Pictor’ who in 1240 decorated a Sacramentary
(London, BL, Egerton MS. 3036) for the monastery at Camaldoli, near
Arezzo. Two documents of 1250 concern the decoration of a Bible (Lucca,
Bib. Capitolare, MS. 1) for Alamanno, rector of the hospital of S
Martino at Lucca. Marco has also been identified with the ‘Marcus
pictor de Luca’ who in 1255 was paid for a painting (untraced) in
the chapel of the Palazzo del Podestà in Bologna, and he is ascribed
a fresco representing the Massacre of the Innocents (Bologna,
S Sepolcro). These works reveal an artist closer to Bonaventura than
to Berlinghiero.
Bonaventura
Berlinghieri
Italian painter, Lucchese school
( fl 1228–74).
Son of Berlinghiero Berlinghieri. His presence at Lucca from 1232 to 1274 is
confirmed by a long series of documents, of which one (1244) records that he
undertook the entire decoration (untraced) of the deceased Archdeacon’s room. It
was to include bird and other ornamental motifs, according to the wishes of
Lombardo, master of works at Lucca Cathedral.
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(Encyclopaedia Britannica)
Bonaventura
Berlinghieri
flourished 1235, –44
Italian painter from Lucca, Italy, known for his poignant and detailed
scenes from the life of St. Francis on the predella (base of the
altarpiece) of the Church of San Francesco at Pescia.
Bonaventura was the son of the painter Berlinghiero of the Berlinghieri
family of Lombardian painters. The Pescia work is one of the earliest
known pictorial narratives of the saint of Assisi. Consisting of a
central panel and subsidiary scenes, it shows evidence of Byzantine
influence. Another work of rare charm is his “St. Francis Receiving the
Stigmata,” to be found in the Academy at Florence. Other works
attributed to Bonaventura are not well documented.
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