- Source: Raffaele Soprani
Raffaele Soprani (8 January 1612 – 2 January 1672) was an Italian nobleman and scholar, mainly known for his volume of biographies of Genoese artists and foreign artists working in Genoa, published posthumously in 1674.
Biography
Soprani belonged to a prominent aristocratic family and served twice as a senator of the Republic of Genoa. He received a broad humanist education and also dabbled in painting, studying under Giulio Benso and Pellegro Piola. Influenced by Sinibaldo Scorza and Gottfried Wals, he became a good landscape painter. In 1640 he married the daughter of the Doge Leonardo Della Torre. His friendship with Benso, and the popularity of Vasari's biographies, led Soprani to collect informations about Ligurian painters, sculptors, and architects. His first synthesis was complete by about 1657, but he continued to revise the manuscript. Soprani's work was published in 1674, two years after the author’s death, enlarged and revised by Giovanni Nicolò Cavanna and illustrated with engravings by Domenico Piola. A second volume was added by Carlo Giuseppe Ratti.
Soprani also published books on the writers of Liguria and select biographies.
Works
Delle vite de' Pittori, scultori ed Architetti Genovesi. Vol. 1. Genoa: nella stamperia Casamara. 1768.
Li Scrittori della Liguria, e particolarmente della maritima. Genoa: P. G. Calenzani. 1667.
Vita della Venerabile Suor Tomasa Fiesca. Genoa: Benedetto Celle. 1667.
Trattato delle Antiche medaglie
Vita della Venerabile Donna Anna Soprani
Notes
Bibliography
Sanguineti, Daniele (2019). "SOPRANI, Raffaele". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 93: Sisto V–Stammati (in Italian). Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. ISBN 978-8-81200032-6.
Ostrowski, Jan K. (1992). "Studi su Raffaele Soprani". Artibus et Historiae. 13 (26): 177–189. JSTOR 1483438.
Theodoli, Olimpia (2003). "Soprani, Raffaele". Grove Art Online. Retrieved 13 December 2024.