Cecchino dei Bracci

Cecchino Bracci.

Cecchino Bracci (real name Francesco de Zanobi Bracci) was a pupil of Michelangelo. He died at the age of sixteen at Rome on the 8th of January 1544 and is buried in Santa Maria in Aracoeli.

Legacy

After Cecchino's death, his uncle Luigi del Riccio felt the blow severely. On 12 January del Riccio wrote to his friend Donato Gionnoti, at Vicenza: "Alas, my friend Donato! Our Cecchio is dead. All Rome weeps. Michelangelo is making for me the design of a decent sepulture in marble; and I pray you to write me the epitaph, and to send it to me with a consolatory letter, if time permits, for my grief has distraught me. Patience! I live with a thousand and a thousand deaths each hour. O God! How has Fortune changed his aspect!"

As a response to Luigi, Michelangelo composed more than forty-two epigrams for four lines each. The family Bracci had moved to Florence in 1395 from Vinci In the XVI° century they were among the rich bankers families friends of the Medici. They had acquired palazzo Neroni in via de' Ginori and a chapel in Santa Maria Novella. Filippo, brother of Cecchino married Costanza Soderini. The family, related to the famous Fortebraccio da Montone, hosted him, in 1418. "Fortebraccio stayed with his relatives". The Pope Martino V° had invited Fortebraccio to Florence to remove the excomunication moved against him. Cecchino went to Rome with his uncle Luigi del Riccio, to be introduced to the papal court. During his staying he met some of the major Florentine artists working in the city.

Pope Paulus III° had spent a long time in Florence hosted by the Medici and was introduced to the great Florentine art world Cechino's beauty and manners made him soon to be loved in the papal court. When he died in 1544, his uncle Luigi del Riccio, was devastated and begged his friend Michelangelo, to design the tomb and to write some verses as epitaph. He was buried in the church of the Ara Coeli the most ancient and sacred church in Rome.

References in Michelangelo's Poetry

Bracci is seen in Michelangelo's poem G.193 where he laments that he never got to really know him. He states:

Scarce had I seen for the first time his eyes,

Which to your living eyes were life and light,

When, closed at last in death's injurious night,

He opened then on God in Paradise.

The tomb

References

Michelangelo

List of works
Key: *Attributed, †Lost

Sculptures

Florence, c. 1488–1492	†Head of a Faun Madonna of the Stairs Battle of the Centaurs Crucifix

Bologna, 1494–1495	Additions to the Arca di San Domenico (St Petronius, St Proclus, Angel)

Rome, 1496–1500	†Sleeping Cupid Bacchus †Standing Cupid Pietà

Florence, 1501–1505	David Madonna of Bruges Additions to the Piccolomini Altarpiece (Saints Peter, Paul, Pius and Gregory) Pitti Tondo Taddei Tondo St. Matthew

Tomb of Pope Julius II, 1505–1545	Moses Rebellious Slave Dying Slave Young Slave Bearded Slave Atlas Slave Awakening Slave The Genius of Victory Rachel Leah

Florence, 1516–1534	Christ Carrying the Cross Medici Chapel Giuliano de' Medici Night Day Lorenzo de' Medici Dusk Dawn Medici Madonna Apollo Crouching Boy

Rome, 1534–1564	Brutus Florentine Pietà Palestrina Pietà Rondanini Pietà

Paintings

Panel paintings	The Torment of Saint Anthony Manchester Madonna The Entombment Doni Tondo †Leda and the Swan

Salone dei Cinquecento	†Battle of Cascina

Sistine Chapel	Ceiling The Last Judgment

Cappella Paolina	The Martyrdom of St Peter

Architecture

Florence	New Sacristy and Laurentian Library in the Basilica of San Lorenzo

Rome	Piazza del Campidoglio Palazzo Farnese St. Peter's Basilica San Giovanni dei Fiorentini Porta Pia Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri

Works on paper	Study of a Kneeling Nude Girl for The Entombment Epifania

Milieu	Cecchino dei Bracci Tommaso dei Cavalieri Vittoria Colonna Ascanio Condivi Gherardo Perini Sebastiano del Piombo Febo di Poggio Luigi del Riccio

Related topics	Art patronage of Julius II Casa Buonarroti Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects Replicas of David Replicas of the Pietà

Wikimedia	Michelangelo at Wikimedia Commons Michelangelo at Wikiquote