Antonio Vassilacchi
Encyclopedia
Antonio Vassilacchi, (Greek
: Αντώνιος Βασιλάκης, Antonios Vasilakis, Italian
: Antonio Vassilacchi) also called L'Aliense, was a Greek
painter, who was active mostly in Venice
and the Veneto
.
, Greece
in 1556. He left very young to settle in Venice
. In 1572 Vassilacchi became a pupil of Paolo Veronese
and began working on the fresco
es in the episcopal palace at Treviso
, in the church of Sant'Agata in Padua
(Padova), and various churches in Venice. His opportunity came with the great conflagration that nearly devoured the Doge's Palace in Venice in December 1577. Aliense, a compatriot and just a little younger than El Greco
, was one of the painters commissioned to decorate the restored Palace.
Vassilacchi became a member of 'The Brotherhood of Saint Nicolas of the Greek Nation', one of the liveliest 'foreign' communities in Venice, in 1600. In its book of members, the secretary inscribed, between a Cephallonian and a Cypriot
, "Ant. Vassilachi: 1600:". He was also a member of the Brotherhood of Venetian Painters from 1584 and had acquired a sobriquet
, 'Aliense'. The name derives from the Latin
alienus, meaning stranger, alien, foreign, and was presumably given to Vassilacchi because of his completely alien, that is non-Italian (and not simply non-Venetian), origin.
Vassilacchi married three times. The name of his first wife, who bore him his son, Stefano, is not known. Stefano followed in his father's footsteps as a painter and is said to have helped him on the Coronation of Baldwin of Flanders.
He died young, however, before having established a career. Vassilacchi also had two daughters who entered the Nunnery of Santa Chiara
(for which Vassilacchi had painted an Annunciation), though it is not known whether they were from his first or second marriage. His second wife, Giacomina, made her will on November 2, 1609 and died six days later. Vassilacchi's last marriage was his most unfortunate. Carlo Ridolfi
, his biographer, describes a painting by the artist in which he portrays himself carrying his wife, her nurse, her uncle and her son by her previous marriage, on his back. Vassilacchi used to show this picture to his friends and say "This is the burden I'll bear till I die".
Aliense died on Easter's eve, 1629, in his seventy-third year. He was buried with honours in the church of San Vitale two days later. San Vitale is the church on the same square as Vassilacchi's house and it must be noted that he had painted there, a few years earlier (and both aptly named), a Resurrection' and an Ascension.
His entry in the official Venetian register reads: 1629, 15 April. Sire Antonio Aliense, painter, aged about 73 years, sick of fever and catarrh
these twelve days past. Among his pupils was Tomasso Dollobella.
In 1586, Vassilacchi was asked to paint one of his largest pictures, the 'Resurrection', in the chancel of San Marziale
. He gave the preliminary sketch, in chiaroscuro
, to Domenico Cresti, the painter of the Crucifixion in the same church. The paintings, restored in 1958, still hang in the same place, across from each other above the marble high altar of the church.
In 1591 Vassilacchi was engaged by the Brotherhood of Merchants (Scuola dei Mercanti), and some time later he was working in the church of San Giovanni Elemosinario
, just a few metres from the commercial centre of Venice, the Rialto
. He painted the Plague of Serpents (1588) in the Church of the Angelo San Raffaele. Behind the facade of the church of San Zaccaria, at least four large works by Aliense are preserved.
In 1559 the Benedictine
monks of San Giorgio Maggiore
decided to renovate their church. They commissioned Palladio to execute the work but at the time of his death, twenty one years later, it was still unfinished. The abbot then summoned Vassilacchi to select the best, in his opinion, preliminary design for the central altar of the church.
Naturally modest and polite, Aliense had a good word to say about all the sketches, which complicated rather than simplified matters. In the end, the up to then judge was asked to design something himself. His sketch was immediately accepted and from it was created the large bronze group of the Four Evangelists Supporting the World and God.
In 1594, Aliense, recommended by the Benedictines of San Giorgio Maggiore, undertook to paint the circle of pictures that consist the Life of Christ for the church of San Pietro in Perugia
, which belonged to the same Order. The ten paintings still survive in their original setting, together with his monumental "Apotheosis of the Benedictine Order" which, at 88 square metres (947 square feet), is the second biggest painting in Italy.
In 1602 Antonio Vassilacchi began painting in the cathedral church at Salò
, while his surviving work—mainly decorative—in the villa of the senator Giovanni Barbarigo at Noventa Vicentina, near Montagnana
, is impressive.
His last, in all probability, works are those painted in Santa Maria in Vanzo, in Padua (Padova).
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
: Αντώνιος Βασιλάκης, Antonios Vasilakis, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
: Antonio Vassilacchi) also called L'Aliense, was a Greek
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
painter, who was active mostly in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
and the Veneto
Veneto
Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...
.
Biography
Antonio Vassilacchi was born of Greek descent on the island of MilosMilos
Milos , is a volcanic Greek island in the Aegean Sea, just north of the Sea of Crete...
, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
in 1556. He left very young to settle in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
. In 1572 Vassilacchi became a pupil of Paolo Veronese
Paolo Veronese
Paolo Veronese was an Italian painter of the Renaissance in Venice, famous for paintings such as The Wedding at Cana and The Feast in the House of Levi...
and began working on the fresco
Fresco
Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...
es in the episcopal palace at Treviso
Treviso
Treviso is a city and comune in Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 82,854 inhabitants : some 3,000 live within the Venetian walls or in the historical and monumental center, some 80,000 live in the urban center proper, while the city...
, in the church of Sant'Agata in Padua
Padua
Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...
(Padova), and various churches in Venice. His opportunity came with the great conflagration that nearly devoured the Doge's Palace in Venice in December 1577. Aliense, a compatriot and just a little younger than El Greco
El Greco
El Greco was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El Greco" was a nickname, a reference to his ethnic Greek origin, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος .El Greco was born on Crete, which was at...
, was one of the painters commissioned to decorate the restored Palace.
Vassilacchi became a member of 'The Brotherhood of Saint Nicolas of the Greek Nation', one of the liveliest 'foreign' communities in Venice, in 1600. In its book of members, the secretary inscribed, between a Cephallonian and a Cypriot
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
, "Ant. Vassilachi: 1600:". He was also a member of the Brotherhood of Venetian Painters from 1584 and had acquired a sobriquet
Sobriquet
A sobriquet is a nickname, sometimes assumed, but often given by another. It is usually a familiar name, distinct from a pseudonym assumed as a disguise, but a nickname which is familiar enough such that it can be used in place of a real name without the need of explanation...
, 'Aliense'. The name derives from the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
alienus, meaning stranger, alien, foreign, and was presumably given to Vassilacchi because of his completely alien, that is non-Italian (and not simply non-Venetian), origin.
Vassilacchi married three times. The name of his first wife, who bore him his son, Stefano, is not known. Stefano followed in his father's footsteps as a painter and is said to have helped him on the Coronation of Baldwin of Flanders.
He died young, however, before having established a career. Vassilacchi also had two daughters who entered the Nunnery of Santa Chiara
Santa Chiara
Santa Chiara is Italian for Saint Clare.Santa Chiara may refer to:*Santa Chiara , several churches with this name*Basilica di Santa Chiara, in Assisi*St. Clare of Assisi, founder of the Poor Clares and companion of St. Francis...
(for which Vassilacchi had painted an Annunciation), though it is not known whether they were from his first or second marriage. His second wife, Giacomina, made her will on November 2, 1609 and died six days later. Vassilacchi's last marriage was his most unfortunate. Carlo Ridolfi
Carlo Ridolfi
Carlo Ridolfi was an Italian art biographer and painter of the Baroque period.-Painter:He was born in Lonigo near Vicenza, and died in Venice. He was a pupil of the painter Antonio Vassilacchi . He painted a Visitation for the Ognissanti and an Adoration of the Magi for San Giovanni Elemosinario...
, his biographer, describes a painting by the artist in which he portrays himself carrying his wife, her nurse, her uncle and her son by her previous marriage, on his back. Vassilacchi used to show this picture to his friends and say "This is the burden I'll bear till I die".
Aliense died on Easter's eve, 1629, in his seventy-third year. He was buried with honours in the church of San Vitale two days later. San Vitale is the church on the same square as Vassilacchi's house and it must be noted that he had painted there, a few years earlier (and both aptly named), a Resurrection' and an Ascension.
His entry in the official Venetian register reads: 1629, 15 April. Sire Antonio Aliense, painter, aged about 73 years, sick of fever and catarrh
Catarrh
Catarrh is a disorder of inflammation of the mucous membranes in one of the airways or cavities of the body. It can result in a thick exudate of mucus and white blood cells caused by the swelling of the mucous membranes in the head in response to an infection...
these twelve days past. Among his pupils was Tomasso Dollobella.
Works
His works in the Doges' Palace likely outnumber those by any other single artist, since he painted in all the major halls of the Palace, such as the Hall of the Grand Council (Sala del Maggior Consiglio), the Voting Hall (Sala dello Scrutinio), the Hall of the Senate (Sala del Senato), the Hall of the Council of Ten (Sala del Consiglio dei Dieci), the Hall of the Compass (Sala della Bussola).In 1586, Vassilacchi was asked to paint one of his largest pictures, the 'Resurrection', in the chancel of San Marziale
San Marziale
San Marziale is a church building in the sestiere or neighborhood of Cannaregio in Venice.The church dates to 1133. The present church was rebuilt in 1693-1714 and reconsecrated in 1721. It contains works by Antonio Vassilacchi , Domenico Cresti ; Tintoretto, and Giulia Lama...
. He gave the preliminary sketch, in chiaroscuro
Chiaroscuro
Chiaroscuro in art is "an Italian term which literally means 'light-dark'. In paintings the description refers to clear tonal contrasts which are often used to suggest the volume and modelling of the subjects depicted"....
, to Domenico Cresti, the painter of the Crucifixion in the same church. The paintings, restored in 1958, still hang in the same place, across from each other above the marble high altar of the church.
In 1591 Vassilacchi was engaged by the Brotherhood of Merchants (Scuola dei Mercanti), and some time later he was working in the church of San Giovanni Elemosinario
San Giovanni Elemosinario
San Giovanni Elemosinario is a church of Venice, northern Italy, dedicated to Saint John the Almsgiver.This church was founded in 1071, and was completely destroyed by the disastrous Rialto fire in 1514. The church was rebuilt by Antonio Abbondi called Scarpagnino. The painter Antonio Vassilacchi...
, just a few metres from the commercial centre of Venice, the Rialto
Rialto
The Rialto is and has been for many centuries the financial and commercial centre of Venice. It is an area of the San Polo sestiere of Venice, Italy, also known for its markets and for the Rialto Bridge across the Grand Canal....
. He painted the Plague of Serpents (1588) in the Church of the Angelo San Raffaele. Behind the facade of the church of San Zaccaria, at least four large works by Aliense are preserved.
In 1559 the Benedictine
Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
monks of San Giorgio Maggiore
San Giorgio Maggiore
San Giorgio Maggiore is one of the islands of Venice, northern Italy, lying east of the Giudecca and south of the main island group. The isle is surrounded by Canale della Grazia, Canale della Giudecca, Saint Mark Basin, Canale di San Marco and the southern lagoon...
decided to renovate their church. They commissioned Palladio to execute the work but at the time of his death, twenty one years later, it was still unfinished. The abbot then summoned Vassilacchi to select the best, in his opinion, preliminary design for the central altar of the church.
Naturally modest and polite, Aliense had a good word to say about all the sketches, which complicated rather than simplified matters. In the end, the up to then judge was asked to design something himself. His sketch was immediately accepted and from it was created the large bronze group of the Four Evangelists Supporting the World and God.
In 1594, Aliense, recommended by the Benedictines of San Giorgio Maggiore, undertook to paint the circle of pictures that consist the Life of Christ for the church of San Pietro in Perugia
Perugia
Perugia is the capital city of the region of Umbria in central Italy, near the River Tiber, and the capital of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area....
, which belonged to the same Order. The ten paintings still survive in their original setting, together with his monumental "Apotheosis of the Benedictine Order" which, at 88 square metres (947 square feet), is the second biggest painting in Italy.
In 1602 Antonio Vassilacchi began painting in the cathedral church at Salò
Salò
Salò is a town and commune in the Province of Brescia in the region of Lombardy on the banks of Lake Garda. The city was the capital of Italian Social Republic from 1943 to 1945, with the ISR often being called the "Republic of Salò" .-History:Salò was founded in the Roman period as Pagus...
, while his surviving work—mainly decorative—in the villa of the senator Giovanni Barbarigo at Noventa Vicentina, near Montagnana
Montagnana
Montagnana is a town and comune in the province of Padova, in Veneto . It is bounded by other communes of Saletto, Megliadino San Fidenzio, Casale di Scodosia, Urbana, Bevilacqua, Pojana Maggiore and Noventa Vicentina...
, is impressive.
His last, in all probability, works are those painted in Santa Maria in Vanzo, in Padua (Padova).