Uomini illustri , uomini famosi, viri illustres, great people, famous men - the Renaissance theme of frescoes, popular in the Renaissance, depicting the great men of antiquity
The topic is related to the habit of Renaissance humanists to reinforce any reasoning with examples from ancient history. They liked to compare contemporaries with the outstanding “men of antiquity,” while the Florentines preferred the philosophers and politicians of republican Rome, and the feudal circles preferred commanders and caesars.
Literary texts
- Petrarch , De viris illustribus - 24 biographies of ancient Roman illustrious men from Romulus to Titus
- Lombardo della Seta supplemented the text of his teacher with 12 more biographies, bringing to Trajan .
Fresco cycles
- Hall of famous people of the palace of Francesco Carrara (1367-79)
- Frescoes of Villa Carduccio ( Andrea del Castagno )
Pippo Spano
Farinata degli Uberti
Boccaccio
Sibyl Kumskaya
To the same genre of “famous people” belongs a cycle of 28 half-figures written by the Dutchman Justus van Gent in 1474 for the Urban Duke Federigo da Montefeltro (half of the cycle remained there, the second today in the Louvre ). Previously, they adorned the upper parts of the walls of the duke's study ( studiolo ), being in 2 tiers over wooden decorative paneling with illusionistic intarsia. In addition to the fictional “portraits” of philosophers, scholars, etc. of antiquity and the Middle Ages, Church Fathers and theologians, portraits of Popes Pius II, Sixtus IV, Cardinal Vissarion and Vittorino da Feltro are included here (obviously, at the request of the customer, the cycle also included his portrait).
Pius II
Sixtus IV
Vissarion of Nicaea
Dante
Petrarch
Vittorino da Feltre
Pietro d'Abano