Pellegrino Tibaldi in Bologna and the Marches

This dissertation discusses Pellegrino Tibaldi's career from 1553 to 1561 in Loreto, Bologna and Ancona. The artist's stylistic development is presented chronologically with particular emphasis given to large scale fresco decoration. In certain cases iconography is studied as well. Pellegrino Tibaldi left Rome in 1553 for Loreto to begin his first independent project--the decoration of a chapel in the Santa Casa. Only two lateral frescoes remain. This project probably occupied him for two years; he subsequently went to Bologna. There Tibaldi decorated several rooms for Cardinal Poggi in the family's recently constructed palace. Tibaldi's two salons, which display themes from the Odyssey, were the first Maniera decorations in Bologna. These ensembles are complex, impressive and of very high quality. The use of the theme of the Odyssey in sixteenth century Italy and its particular association with the patron, Cardinal Poggi, is discussed and examined. Tibaldi also designed a chapel in the nearby San Giacomo Maggiore which was to serve as the Cardinal's funerary monument. Although Tibaldi executed the two lateral frescoes, he left before the chapel was completed. Several minor works in Bologna are also discussed. In 1558 Tibaldi went to Ancona where he spent three years working on a great variety of projects. The ceiling of the Loggia dei Mercanti, as well as several decorative ensembles in the Palazzo Ferretti, show that Tibaldi's style stagnated after he left Bologna, settling into a turgid expression of Roman Maniera. The work of a minor Bolognese artist, Nosadella, has often been confused with that of Tibaldi. A chapter with a proposed chronology and corpus of paintings and drawings has been devoted to Nosadella. Within the larger context of Italian painting of the mid-sixteenth century, Pellegrino Tibaldi occupies a place of limited importance; his role as propagator of the Roman Maniera in Bologna and the Marches is nonetheless significant, particularly in light of the following generation of Bolognese painters.