{{short description|Italian painter}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}} {{Infobox artist | name = Matteo Zaccolini | image = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1574|4|12}} | birth_place = Cesena, Papal States | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1630|7|13|1574|4|12}} | death_place = Rome, Papal States | field = {{hlist|Painting|Studies on perspective}} | training = | movement = Mannerism <br/> Baroque | works = | patrons = Cardinal Vincenzo Giustiniani | awards = | module = }} '''Matteo Zaccolini''' (12 April 1574 – 13 July 1630) was an Italian painter, priest and author of the late Mannerist and early Baroque periods. He was a mathematical theorist on perspective. He is also called "Zacolini" and "Zocolino".<ref name="OxfordArtOnline">Bell, Janis C. "Zaccolini, Matteo." ''Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online''. Oxford University Press, accessed 6 April 2014.</ref>
==Life and works== Born in Cesena, he was a pupil of the local painter Francesco Masini. After studying optics and perspective in his hometown with the noted mathematician Scipione Chiaramonti, a pupil of Guidobaldo del Monte, in 1599 he established himself in Rome, where he became a specialist in perspective.{{sfn|Furlotti|2020}} He became a protégé of Cardinal Vincenzo Giustiniani, who was renowned for his patronage of painters, including Caravaggio, Nicolas Poussin and Domenichino.
Zaccolini collaborated with Baldassare Croce with the quadratura frescoes in the church of Santa Susanna, where he painted the ''trompe-l'œil'' columns.<ref name="OxfordArtOnline"/> In collaboration with Giuseppe Agellio and Cristoforo Roncalli,<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=XvhKBgAAQBAJ The Spectacle of Clouds, 1439–1650: Italian Art and Theatre], by Dr Alessandra Buccheri, page 117.</ref> he painted in San Silvestro al Quirinale. In 1603, upon completion of the decoration of the choir at San Silvestro, Zaccolini was apprenticed as a Theatine lay brother at that church. Two years later he took his monastic vows. From then on, he worked solely in Theatine projects, in Naples and Rome. He died on 12 April 1574 in the Theatine house of San Silvestro al Monte Cavallo, now San Silvestro al Quirinale in Rome.
Zaccolini is best known for a four-volume treatise on perspective (1618–22), of which the only surviving copy is in Florence (Bib. Medicea–Laurenziana, MS. Ash. 1212): ''De colori'' treats the theory of color; ''Prospettiva del colore'' discusses practice, emphasizing the use of hue and value gradients to create the illusion of depth; ''Prospettiva lineale'' presents perspective projection and measurement; and ''Della descrittione dell’ombre prodotte da corpi opachi rettilinei'' explains the projection of cast shadows.<ref name="OxfordArtOnline" /> These works, while not in general circulation, gained him renown among eclectic circles in Rome. In 1666, the historian and fellow Theatine Giuseppe Silos described Zaccolini as one of the "Geniuses of our order and most admirable men of his age". Bellori described him as a master of perspective and optics, and as having instructed Domenichino, Gagliardi, Circignani, and Cavaliere d’Arpino among others. Cassiano dal Pozzo disseminated his ideas in Rome, and Nicolas Poussin took a copy of his treatise to France.
Zaccolini was a fervent admirer of Leonardo da Vinci.<ref>Hall, M. B., & Cooper, T. E. (2013). [https://books.google.com/books?id=-AnYifgRz7QC&pg=PA255 ''The sensuous in the Counter-Reformation church'']. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 255. {{ISBN|1107013232}}</ref> According to Zaccolini's early biographer Cassiano dal Pozzo, the earliest version of the manuscript was written in mirror-script which, like the manuscript's content, revealed the influence of the writings of Leonardo.<ref>Bell, Janis C. [https://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/~mhl/Leonardo/ZaccoliniAndLeosMsA.htm "Zaccolini and Leonardo's Manuscript A"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120603183226/http://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/~mhl/Leonardo/ZaccoliniAndLeosMsA.htm |date=3 June 2012 }}, Retrieved 6 April 2014.</ref> Zaccolini's emphasis on the importance of scientific knowledge in the imitation of nature encouraged the development of a rationalist approach associated with classicism in 17th-century art.
== Notes == {{Reflist}}
==References== {{sfn whitelist|CITEREFFurlotti2020}} {{Refbegin|30em|indent=yes}} * {{Cite book| first= James R.|last= Hobbes| year=1849| title= Picture collector's manual adapted to the professional man, and the amateur| pages= 209 | publisher= T&W Boone |location=London | url= https://books.google.com/books?q=intitle:picture+intitle:collector's }} * {{cite journal | last = Bell | first = Janis C. | date = 1993 | title = Zaccolini's Theory of Color Perspective | url = | journal = The Art Bulletin | volume = 75 | issue = 1 | pages = 91–112 | doi = 10.2307/3045933 | jstor = 3045933 | access-date = }} * {{cite journal | last = Giffi | first = Elisabetta | date = 1999 | title = Cristoforo Roncalli, Matteo Zaccolini e Giuseppe Agellio in San Silvestro al Quirinale | url = | journal = Prospettiva | volume = 93 | issue = 9 | pages = 99–108 | jstor = 24432789 | access-date = }} * {{cite journal | last = Bell | first = Janis C. | date = 1988 | title = Cassiano dal Pozzo's Copy of the Zaccolini Manuscripts | url = | journal = Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes | volume = 51 | issue = | pages = 103–125 | doi = 10.2307/751265 | jstor = 751265 | access-date = }} * {{cite journal | last = Danesi Squarzina | first = Silvia | date = | title = The Giustiniani Collection | url = http://www.repubblica.it/repubblicarts/giustiniani/testo.html | journal = La Repubblica of the Arts | volume = | issue = | pages = | doi = | access-date = }} * {{DBI|title=ZACCOLINI, Matteo|url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/matteo-zaccolini_(Dizionario-Biografico)|first=Barbara|last=Furlotti|volume=100}} * {{cite book | last1 = Baglioni | first1 = L. | last2 = Fasolo | first2 = M. | last3 = Mancini | first3 = M.F. | date = 2019 | chapter = A Contribution to the History of Representation. The Unpublished Treatise by Matteo Zaccolini | title = Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Geometry and Graphics | series = Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing | volume = 809 | pages = 1825–1836 | editor-last = Cocchiarella | editor-first = L. | publisher = Springer | location = Cham | doi = 10.1007/978-3-319-95588-9_163 | isbn = 978-3-319-95587-2 }} {{refend}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Zaccolini, Matteo}} Category:1574 births Category:1630 deaths Category:People from Cesena Category:16th-century Italian painters Category:Italian male painters Category:17th-century Italian painters Category:Italian art historians Category:Italian male non-fiction writers Category:Italian Baroque painters Category:Trompe-l'œil artists Category:Theatines