Giulio Mancini

Giulio Mancini ( born February 21, 1559 Siena; † August 22, 1630 in Rome ) was an Italian physician, art theorist and biographer, primarily of Italian artists. His main work set the Considerazioni sulla pittura represent that have been edited only in the 20th century, but already in the early Seicento circulated in manuscript and were received. The writing is particularly a major source for the biographies of the painter Caravaggio and Annibale Carracci.

Life

Giulio Mancini was born in 1559 as son of the physician Bartolomeo di Niccolò and Camilla di Francesco Mucci. His schooling in Siena he receives from the Jesuits and he probably takes 1576 still in the same city to study on. During these years he should have already been in contact with the art collector Ippolito Agostini, several works of art sent to Mancini after his study-related relocation to Padua to Siena. A aufbewahrtes in Siena bundle of lecture notes comes with a high probability of Mancini's time in Padua. In addition to the correspondence with his older brother Deifebo especially close contacts with the Paduan professor of medicine Girolamo Mercuriale are handed documentary, for Mancini 1585 also takes on the editorial board of the print edition of De ratione deco.

1584 Mancini changes to Bologna, where he is in regular contact with, among others, Gaspare and Ulisse Aldrovandi Tagliacozzi, the latter he is a ( lost) treatise plants. 1586 he returned back to Siena first, but in the following year again in Bologna detectable. On January 31, 1587 he defended his doctoral dissertation, on June 8 this year, he was appointed physician in the Sienese convent of Santo Spirito and appointed in the same year to a newly created chair at the University of Siena. From this period numerous medical writings, which, however, only in manuscript form - have received - partly also in transcripts or copies.

Between 1590 and 1591 Mancini is incarcerated. Probably because of the - unexplained by the research - background to the prison, but also due to the gradients of the plague, it can be dried first in Viterbo, and later in Rome down. End of 1592, he received the post of physician in the Roman hospital of Santo Spirito in Sassia. In Rome he made ​​friends quickly with numerous cardinals Francesco Maria Del Monte, which are known for their art patronage; Giulio Mancini is particularly interested in the works of Caravaggio. In his years in Rome Mancini builds itself on a not insignificant collection of art: In his gallery includes paintings by Federico Barocci, Giuseppe Cesari, Annibale Carracci and Antonio, Domenichino, Giovanni Lanfranco and Guido Reni addition to works by Caravaggio occupied. With many of these artists Mancini was in direct contact, as well as with other famous collectors of his time as Cassiano dal Pozzo Vincenzo Giustiniani or.

Numerous writings Mancini to medicine, but also to politics, astrology, of honor, of love, or the nature of Cortegianos are obtained from the years in Rome or at least title or the article of the occupied. However, his most important treatise form the Considerazioni sulla pittura ( reflections on painting) which, although edited only in 1956 and 1957, but are already rezipiert of contemporaries such as Giovanni Pietro Bellori, Carlo Cesare Malvasia and Filippo Baldinucci. The first phase of the minutes form the years 1617 to 1619 (still under the title Discorso di pittura ), then revised Mancini even the text several times ( at least until the year 1628), so that the Considerazioni are today preserved in various editorial, which have again obtained in numerous copies and copies. Besides the numerous factual information contained in this treatise, the importance of Considerazioni lies in its text design. It differs from the predecessors of the art literature of the Cinque Cento, as they targeted dilettantes and art collector responds and these layers gives readers the tools to assess and classify art, in order to build an art collection in this way.

On August 9, 1623 Giulio Mancini was appointed physician to the newly elected Pope Urban VIII, in the following years he also receives numerous ecclesiastical dignity title and benefice. He died on August 22, 1630 and was buried the next day in the church of Santi Vincenzo e Anastasio, in April 1633, his body, the testamentary wishes of the deceased is following, transferred to Siena and buried there in the family chapel in San Martino.

Securities (in selection)

• Viaggio per Roma. Edited by Ludwig Schudt. Klinkhardt & Biermann, Leipzig 1923.
• Considerazioni sulla pittura. Edited by Adriana Marucchi with comment by Luigi Salerno. Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rome from 1956 to 1957.