Giovanni Santi

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Giovanni Santi (c. 1435–August 1, 1494), was an Italian painter and poet, father of Raphael. He was born at Colbordolo in the Duchy of Urbino, was a petty merchant for a time, then studied under Piero della Francesca, was influenced by Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, and seems to have been an assistant and friend of Melozzo da Forli. He was court painter to the Duke of Urbino and painted several altarpieces, two now in the Berlin Museum, a Madonna in the church of San Francesco in Urbino, one at Santa Croce on Fano, one in the National Gallery at London, and another in the gallery at Urbino; an Annunciation at the Brera in Milan; and a Jerome in the Lateran. His work is pleasing, though mediocre.

[edit] Santi's Poetry and List of 15th Century Painters

His poetry includes an epic in honor of one of his patrons, Federigo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, followed a discourse on painting. The event conmemorates a visit to Mantua, where the Duke marveled at the skill of Andrea Mantegna, he then goes on to comment that: nela cui arte splendida e gentile/nel secul nostro tanti chiar son stati/ che ciescuno altro far paren por vile (Translation) In this splendid and gentle age/ so many have been famous in our century/ that it make others seem destitute

Sancti then goes on to list famous names in painting, as known to him, this constitutes a remarkable concise list of 27 prominent painters of the late 15th century Italy and Belgium, as one painter would have known. Sancti's list reproduced in no order:

• 1) Fra Angelico
• 2) Ghirlandaio
• 3) Piero and Antonio Pollaiuolo
• 4) Sandro Botticelli
• 5) Leonardo da Vinci
• 6) Filippino Lippi
• 7) Pietro Perugino
• 8) Luca Signorelli
• 9) Gentile Bellini
• 10) Giovanni Bellini
• 11) Andrea Mantegna
• 12) Andrea del Castagno
• 13) Cosimo Tura
• 14) Piero della Francesca
• 15) Ercole de' Roberti
• 16) Francesco di Pesello or Pesellino
• 17) Masaccio
• 18) Paolo Uccello
• 19) Pisanello
• 20) Domenico Veneziano
• 21) Melozzo da Forli
• 22) Gentile da Fabriano
• 23) Antonello da Messina
• 25) Jan van Eyck
• 26) Rogier van der Weyden

[edit] Publications

• Schmarsow, Giovanni Santi (Berlin, 1887)
• Poetry and list derived from Painting and Experience in Fifteenth Century Italy. Michael Baxandall. Oxford University Press 1980.

• This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.