Stradanus
Johannes Stradanus (Dutch Jan van der Straet or Italian Giovanni Stradano;[1][2][3] 1523 – 2 November 1605) was a Flemish artist active mainly in 16th-century Florence, Italy.
[4] Through his knowledge of Florentine and Italian art and his international contacts with engravers and editors in Antwerp, Stradanus contributed to the development of printmaking.
[6] He was one of the earliest members of the prominent Accademia e Compagnia delle Arti del Disegno established in Florence in 1563.
He later moved to Antwerp, where he studied from 1537 to 1540 in the workshop of Pieter Aertsen, a Dutch genre painter active in that city.
[3] In Antwerp he moved in the circle of the Romanists, i.e. Northern artists who had traveled to Italy and upon their return to their home country created a Renaissance style, which assimilated Italian formal language.
[10] In Venice he met the Flemish carpet weaver Jan Rost who headed up the newly established Arazzeria Medicea, the personal weaving workshop in Florence of the Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo I de' Medici.
[12] Stradanus became financially successful and he was able to acquire a house and other possessions as well as donate substantial sums to religious institutions.
Stradanus was one of the earliest members together with the aforementioned artists of the Accademia e Compagnia delle Arti del Disegno, after its establishment was approved by the Medici court on 13 January 1563 at the request of Vasari.
He visited around 1578 Antwerp possibly traveling from Naples in the company of John of Austria who had been appointed governor of the Spanish Netherlands.
Following this visit, he began to design engravings for the Antwerp printers, eventually producing a large number of drawings destined to be translated into prints.
[16] Stradanus collaborated with printmakers Hieronymus Cock and the Galle family in Antwerp to produce hundreds of prints on a variety of subjects, most of which were repeatedly reproduced and often bound into volumes.
He worked between 1585 and 1587 on a commission by Alessandro Ottaviano de' Medici (later Pope Leo XI) on frescoes for the chapel of the Palazzo Della Gherardesca in Florence.
[2] He was buried in the Cappella della Compagnia di Santa Barbara of de Santissima Annunziata in Florence.
To this day, his tomb is decorated with a bust of the artist, made after a portrait by his son Scipio, together with an inscription referring to his Flemish roots.
Around 1580 he commissioned a printed self-portrait (engraved by Johannes Wierix) accompanied by the following motto: ASSIDUITATE NIHIL NON ADSEQUITUR (There is nothing that cannot be achieved through perseverance).
[12] He played an important role in the design and execution of the large commissions for the Medici court the overall direction of which was in the hands of Vasari.
[8] His key task was to translate the sketches by Vasari into finished designs, which in turn were used to produce the cartoons for the final painted work.
In recognition of his important contribution his portrait was placed alongside that of Vasari on the ceiling of the Salone dei Cinquecento, the majestic reception room of the Palazzo.
His use of color was also in line with the development of what is later known as Florentine Mannerism: brighter and with greater emphasis on light-dark effects than the previous generations.
There is little evidence of any influence of the Flemish painting traditions during this period, probably also because Giorgio Vasari had a firm grip on the program of the palace's decorations.
In 1559 Stradanus designed the cartoons on the theme of the Life of Man for the Quartiere di Leonora in the Palazzo Vecchio.
The designs were inspired by contemporary sources, the classical literature of Pliny, Homer and Herodotus, as well as the hunting practices at the Florentine court.
Only one of these drawings, depicting Canto 34 of Hell, where Dante and Vergilius look at Lucifer in the center of the Earth, was engraved by Philip Galle.
Other themes that tie in with similar intellectual interest are the Nova reperta, depicting inventions of the modern era ending with a print showing an active printshop and the Americae retectio, a so-called 'picture atlas', issued in leaflet form to commemorate the first centenary of the discovery of the New World.
