Carlo Urbino

Key facts

Lived

1525–1585^[1]

Wikipedia

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• What is Carlo Urbino known for?+

  Carlo Urbino is known for his paintings, particularly altarpieces and frescoes in Milan and Crema. He also contributed drawings to a treatise on the geometry of fencing.
• What is Carlo Urbino's most famous work?+

  Carlo Urbino is not widely known today. Federico Barocci, born in Urbino around 1535^[1], is a more significant artist from that city. He benefited from the enthusiastic artistic environment fostered by Guidobaldo II della Rovere, who employed the painter and architect Girolamo Genga. Genga's work shaped Urbino, making it a centre of the Raphael school. Barocci also encountered Titian's work through Guidobaldo's patronage; Titian's paintings, along with those of Raphael, were fundamental to Barocci's artistic development. Barocci's most famous picture is The Visitation. Commissioned for the Chiesa Nuova in Rome, the painting's history reveals Barocci's temperament and working methods. Work began around 1582, but the painting was not completed until 1586. When The Visitation arrived in Rome, it was extremely popular; people queued for three days to view it. The painting influenced other artists, including Scipione Pulzone, whose Visitation for the Chapel of the Madonna della Strada shows Barocci's impact. The painting was widely disseminated through engravings and studied by Peter Paul Rubens.
• What should I know about Carlo Urbino's prints?+

  Carlo Urbino was an Italian painter and draughtsman. He was active in Urbino during the mid-16th century. Although not much is known about Urbino's life, some facts can be gleaned from historical records. In 1611, some of his drawings and prints were circulating among the artistic community in Urbino. This suggests he was an active artist with connections to local collectors and other artists. Two albums containing numerous drawings have been attributed to Urbino, though some attributions are disputed by scholars. One album is held at Windsor Castle in the Royal Collection. The first folio describes them as "Piante e disegni di mano di Muzio Oddi di Urbino" ("Plans and drawings by the hand of Muzio Oddi of Urbino"). Another is at the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana in Florence. The albums also contain work by artists such as Francesco di Giorgio. Urbino's drawings likely served as models for his own practice. They may also have been intended to aid in the training of other artists.
• What style or movement did Carlo Urbino belong to?+

  Carlo Urbino's career occurred during the transition from Mannerism to Baroque. Mannerism, prevalent in the late 16th century, was marked by a sense of artificiality. Baroque emerged in the early 17th century, and Italian artists like Caravaggio, Annibale Carracci, and Maderna sought to instil coherence and correct proportions into art, contrasting with Mannerism's perceived anarchy. Baroque's characteristics, such as dynamic movement, did not appear until the 1620s. Rubens, familiar with 16th-century Italian art, pioneered Baroque movement by structuring compositions around a dynamic spiral line, giving vitality to pictures. This dynamism differed from Mannerism's scattered movement. Baroque's energy thread runs through figures, conceiving them in three dimensions. Forms blend, and movement appears in poses, modelling and contours. Bernini, in the 1620s, adopted similar principles in sculpture, resulting in dynamic, organic forms. Therefore, Carlo Urbino can be seen as part of the shift away from Mannerism toward the early Baroque style.
• What techniques or materials did Carlo Urbino use?+

  Carlo Urbino was a painter and draughtsman active in Urbino during the mid-16th century. Details of his techniques are scarce, but some inferences can be made from the practices of his contemporaries and the context of artistic production in Urbino at the time. Urbino was a centre for the production of fine objects, and artists in the region had access to a wide range of materials. Surviving documents list pigments and brushes among ordered materials. Like other artists of the period, Urbino likely made preparatory drawings. These could be transferred to the final surface using techniques such as pouncing (transferring charcoal through small holes). Some artists enlarged smaller-scale drawings using a grid system. The use of cartoons (full-size drawings) to transfer key compositional elements has also been detected in portrait work of the period. Panel paintings would be prepared with a coating of gesso, a mix of plaster and animal glue, to create a smooth surface. Fresco painting, where pigments are applied to wet plaster, was also common for murals.
• What was Carlo Urbino known for?+

  Federico Barocci (c. 1535^[1]-1612^[1]) is considered, along with Caravaggio and the Carracci, an artistic reformer who contributed to the development of Baroque art. Born in Urbino, Barocci was employed by Duke Guidobaldo II della Rovere. The Duke's family possessed a collection of Renaissance art, which Barocci studied. He copied works by Raphael and Titian. In the mid-1550s, Barocci went to Rome to work for Cardinal Giulio della Rovere, Guidobaldo’s son. There, he encountered the Zuccaro brothers and learned the Mannerist style. Barocci's Roman works were not well received. After an illness in 1565, he returned to Urbino. In the 1580s, he moved away from Mannerism and developed his own style. He created appealing works that conformed to the Council of Trent's requirements for religious art. His reputation grew, and he received commissions from across Italy. His painting, The Visitation, was sent from Urbino to Rome in 1586. It was well received; people queued for three days to view it. The work influenced artists in Rome. Barocci's last painting, Last Supper, for the cathedral of Urbino, shows the influence of Justus van Ghent's fifteenth-century altarpiece, Institution of the Eucharist.
• When did Carlo Urbino live and work?+

  Carlo Urbino was born in Sant'Angelo in Vado, in the Marches, in 1529^[1]. By 1543/44, he had moved to Rome. There, he copied antique monuments and works by Polidoro da Caravaggio, Raphael, and Michelangelo. He trained under Danielle Porri da Parma and painted in S. Maria di Alvito in the Abruzzi. In 1548, Urbino painted facade scenes of Furius Camillus for Palazzo Jacopo Mattei, Rome. Between 1548 and about 1551, he executed four scenes from the life of St Ambrose for the Church of S. Ambrogio (since lost), facade paintings of the life of Alexander the Great (also lost) near S. Lucia della Tinta, stories of Mercury on the facade of the Mattiuolo house (lost), and other unidentified facades. In 1550, he made temporary decorations for the coronation of Pope Julius.
• Where can I see Carlo Urbino's work?+

  Carlo Urbino's drawings can be viewed in several locations. These include the Ackland Art Museum (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), the Allen Memorial Art Museum (Oberlin College), and the Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto). You can also find his work at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Museum (Princeton University). Other locations include the Baltimore Museum of Art; the Cleveland Museum of Art; the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, Smithsonian Institution; and the Fogg Art Museum (Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts). Additional museums that hold Urbino's drawings are the J. Paul Getty Museum (Malibu), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), and the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston). His work is also available at the National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.), the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Finally, Urbino's drawings can be viewed at the Pierpont Morgan Library (New York), the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Snite Museum of Art (University of Notre Dame), the University of Michigan Museum of Art (Ann Arbor), the Vatican Museums, the Wallace Collection (London), the Worcester Art Museum, and the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven).
• Where was Carlo Urbino from?+

  Carlo Urbino, despite his surname, is not the artist who was born in Urbino. That artist was Federico Barocci (c. 1535^[1]-1612^[1]). Barocci was a native of Urbino, during the reign of Guidobaldo II della Rovere. Guidobaldo created an environment of enthusiastic support for the arts, reviving the tradition of Federigo da Montefeltro. Guidobaldo employed the painter and architect Girolamo Genga, who conferred on the city those distinguishing features that even today make it a creation of the school of Raphael. Guidobaldo's support allowed Barocci contact with the work of Titian. Titian was favoured by Guidobaldo even more than he had been by Francesco Maria I, who first began collecting works by the Venetian artist that, together with those by Raphael, were fundamental to Barocci's rapid artistic development. Barocci travelled to Rome in the mid-1550s to work for Guidobaldo’s son, Cardinal Giulio della Rovere. There, he came into contact with the Zuccaro brothers and learned from them the Mannerist mode of painting. After an illness in 1565, he returned to Urbino, where in the 1580s he shed his Mannerist tendencies and developed his own personal style.
• Who did Carlo Urbino influence?+

  Carlo Urbino's influence is not directly mentioned in the provided texts. However, the passages discuss the influence of Caravaggio on a wide range of artists across Europe. Caravaggio's impact was felt by Dutch painters such as Hendrick ter Brugghen, Gerrit van Honthorst, Dirck van Baburen, and Rembrandt van Rijn; French artists Simon Vouet, Valentin de Boulogne, and Georges de La Tour; and Spanish painters Francisco Ribalta, Jusepe de Ribera, Diego Velázquez, and others. His dramatic compositions, stark use of light and dark, and raw emotionality resonated with many. Even figures such as Rubens and Pietro da Cortona echoed his compositions or copied his techniques. Entire schools of Caravaggisti emerged in Italy and the Netherlands. Despite attempts to discredit him by classicising critics, Caravaggio's style gradually permeated Western art. French art was particularly affected, perhaps due to the location of the French Academy in Rome, near many of Caravaggio's altarpieces. Later, during the Neoclassical and Romantic periods, there was a resurgence of interest in his art.
• Who was Carlo Urbino?+

  Carlo Urbino was an artist active in Italy during the 16th century. More specifically, he was a contemporary of Federico Barocci (c. 1535^[1]-1612^[1]), who was also from Urbino. Barocci worked for Duke Guidobaldo II della Rovere. The della Rovere family had a superb collection of Renaissance art, which Barocci could study. He copied works by Raphael and Titian. In the mid-1550s, Barocci went to Rome to work for Guidobaldo’s son, Cardinal Giulio della Rovere. There, he encountered the Zuccaro brothers, from whom he learned the Mannerist style of painting. His works were not well received in Rome, and after a serious illness in 1565, he returned to Urbino. In the 1580s, Barocci moved away from Mannerism and developed his own style. This change resulted in attractive works that conformed to the Council of Trent's requirements for depictions of religious subjects. His reputation was established, and Barocci began receiving commissions from all parts of Italy.
• Why are Carlo Urbino's works important today?+

  Carlo Urbino's work is associated with the artistic traditions of Urbino, a city known for its cultural achievements during the Renaissance. Urbino was well known throughout Europe for its craftsmanship. The art of maiolica manufacture had been perfected in the duchy; Francesco Xanto Avelli, its foremost practitioner, lived and worked there. Urbino was also the birthplace of the architect Bramante, and of course Raphael. Mutio Oddi, a later figure, purchased Raphael's birthplace in 1636. He displayed portraits of mathematical forefathers alongside a portrait of the painter Barocci, Urbino’s uomini illustri, linking mathematics and the arts. Oddi celebrated the collaborative nature of the Urbinate mathematical enterprise. The refracting dial (scaphe dial) was devised by Guidobaldo, who understood the complex geometry required to make it function correctly, but it was manufactured by the artisan Barocci. Urbino integrated intellectual attainment and craft skill. Oddi suggested that Urbino’s illustri surpassed the ancients, since he could find no record of it in classical writings.