Page:Bryan's dictionary of painters and engravers, volume 5.djvu/41

 painter Francesco Vaniii, and daughter of Giuliano Morelli, the Sienese goldsmith, so well known as the friend of Vasari and Beccafumi. Tlje most jonspicnous works of this master are the ' Death of St. Peter M;irt}-r,' in the church of S. Domenico at Siena, painted in 1579, and a ' Crucifixion, with SS. JIary ilagdalen, Koch, and Francis,' in the parish church of Liicignano at Val d'Arbia. A lunette over the door of the suppressed con%'ent of Monagnese, and a painting in the ante-room of the chapel of SS. Giovanni and Gennaro at Siena are also by him. He died in 1580. K. H. H. C.

SALIMBEXI, SiMOKDio di Ventura, was horn in 1597, and studied under his father until the deatli of the latter, which occurred wjien he was sixteen years of age. He then entered the studio of Rutiiio llanetli, whose icfluence was strong enouah to eti'ace his earlier training, and to become so marked that tlie pupil's work has not infrequently been attributed to the master. A contemporary with Stefano Volpi, Ilario Casolani, Astolfo Pe- trazzi. Stefano Folli, and others of the late Sienese School, he was employed in company and in rivalry with them in decorating many of the churches and chapels of Siena. In 1619 he married Teodora. daugliter of Ascanio Vettori, who brougiit him a dowry of 700 florins, and by whom he had two children : Isabella, who on .June 14, 1646, married in tlie church of S. Pietro Ovile — with a dowry of 350 florins — Giovaii Maria Sarti ; and Ventura, concerning whom but one document- ary notice, dated 1G50, is extant, and with whom apparently this branch of the Salinibeni family died out. Simondio appears to have resided from August 1622 — 1625 in a house, for which he paid 254 lire rent, near the Fonte di S. Francesco, in the parish of S. Pietro Ovile, and it was for this church that he painted a ' Death of St. Joseph,' still ill the sacristy there. Documentary notices exist with reference to him in the years 1G26, 1627, 1629, and 1634. In 1632, dissatisfaction arising with regard to a commission executed by him in the lower chapel of Sta. Caterina-in-Fontebranda (Contrada del Oca), he was involved in a lawsuit which lasted until 1642. This was finally decided against him, and his work was ordered to be painted out. He died suddenly in 1643, and was buried on September 8 in his parish church above mentioned. He appears also to have borne the additional name of BEViLACCJtiA, with which he signs one of the five frescoes by him in the church of S. Rocco (Contrada della Lupa), in Via Vallerozzi, Siena. R. H. H. C.

SALIMi3EXI, Ventura di Arcangelo, son of Arcanu'elo Salimbeni bj' Battista ilurelli, widow of Eugenio Vanni, was born in January or February 1568, christened under the names of Alessandro Ventura, and confirmed at the age of eight on June 12, 1676. Together with his half-brother, Francesco Vanni, he learnt the principles of painting under his father. At his father's death he travelled to Lomb irdy, and studied there the work of Correggio. In 1585 he executed for the fa§ade of the church of S. Giorgio at Siena, from the design of his half-brother, the striking figure of the p.itron saint, now preserved in the sacristy. In that same and the following years he was at Rome, painting various works. In 1591 he married at Rome Antonia Focari, and in the next year painted some scenes from the ' Life of the Virgin ' in Sta. Maria Maggiore, and other works in Sta. Maria della Pace. In 1595 he returned to Siena, and in 1597 was employed to restore Sano di Pietro's beautiful ' Coronation of the Virgin ' in the Palazzo Pubblico. In 1599 he was working at Montalcino in the church of S. Pietro, and in 1600 — 1601 he was invited by Cardinal Bonifazio Bevil- acqua, of Ferrara, papal legate, to Perugia to execute certain works in the church of S. Pietro in Cassinense. These works so pleased His Eminence that he conferred upon the artist the title of Knight of the Golden Spur, and permitted him to assume his own surname ; wherefore he not infrequently 8t les himself Ventura Bevil-WQUA Sahmbeni. At this time lie also carried out some decorative work iti S. ilaria degli Angeli, near Assisi. In 1602 he completed the ceiling of the chapel of the SS. Trinita at Siena, and of the Sala Grande of the Knights of S. Stefano at Pisa. In the following year he painted a figure of ' Pisa Personified ' in the Sala Grande of the Palazzo Communale of that city. From thence he went to Rome and worked in the church of the Gesii, and then returning to Siena carried out a number of commissions in various churches there. In 1605 and 1608 he was at work, in company with Bernardino Poccetti, painting frescoes in the cloister of the church of the Annunziata at Florence, for which works he received 175 scudi. In 1606 he painted a 'Cruci- fixion ' for the Colomhini Chapel in S. Domenico at Siena, and, assisted by his half-brother, com- pleted a ' Nativity ' for the church of the Refugio, left unfinished by Alessandro Casolani, and exe- cuted other work in the same church. In 1607 he was again at Pisa, working in the churches of Sta. Cecilia, S. Francesco, and S. Frediano ; and in 1608, after visiting Florence to complete his work in the cloister of the Annunziata, he returned to Pisa and painted a picture of 'Angels' for the second altar in the left aisle of the Duomo. By October 8 in that same year he was b.:ck in his native city, commissioned to make four frescoes for the choir of the cathedral. In 1610 he was sent for to Rome by Cardinal Girolamo Lancellotti to paint a ' Circumcision ' for the church of S. Simeone Lancellotti, and on th.at occasion, through the in- fluence of Cardinal Francesco Sforza, of S. Flora, was created a Knight of Christ by Pope Paul VIII. (Borghese). That same year he accompanied his friend Agostino Tassi, the landscape painter, tn Genoa, where he decorated the Casa Adomo ai:d several of the churches there. Considering him- self badly treated, however, in that city, he returned home in 1611, and set to work to finish his Duomo frescoes, for which he received 7,000 lire. In 1612 he designed a memorial for the Rectors of the Hospital of S. Maria della Scala, carried out by the sculptor Ascanio di Cortona. After completing other work in his native city, he died, at the early age of 46, in 1613, and, robed in the habit of a Knight of Christ, was buried on Novemlier 23 in his parish church of the Madonna della Rosa. He was an able draughtsman, and a painter of a certain amount of merit, but careless in hi.s work and too fond of amusement. He was also a clever engraver, and many examples of his plates are still extant. His wife appears to have predeceased him. He had bj' her seven children : Simondio (born 1597) ; Isabella (born January 11, 1598 ; died, a nun, September 21, 1616) ; Alessandro and Lucrezia (twins, born March 1,1599; Lucrezia also became a nun under the name of Maria Angelica dell a Concezione); Laurenzio (born August 8, 1601) ; Lucrezio ; and Maddalena (married in