Francesco Zucco – artist

Esteemed painter left his mark on Bergamo and its province

Francesco Zucco, who was a prolific painter in the Baroque style in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, died on this day in 1627 in Bergamo.

Zucco painted both secular and religious subjects after he had trained as an artist and learnt about technique from other Bergamo painters, such as Giovanni Paolo Cavagna and Enea Salmeggia. Art critics have compared the quality and style of his portrait painting with that of Veronese, whose real name was Paolo Caliari, and the portrait painter Giovan Battista Moroni.

Francesco Zucco was born at some time between 1570 and 1575 in Bergamo. He is known to have studied art at the workshop of the Campi brothers in Cremona and afterwards returned to live in his native city, where he associated with other painters working in Bergamo at the time.

Even if he was never a pupil of the Bergamo portrait painter Giovan Battista Moroni, art experts believe Zucco must have studied Moroni’s works closely. He also formed strong personal links with Cavagna and Salmeggia. They all lived close to each other in Borgo San Leonardo, in the Città Bassa.

As he matured, Zucco began to dominate the artistic scene in Bergamo and painted many religious works of art. His success began in 1592 with his painting, La circoncisione di Gesù, the Circumcision of Jesus, for a church in Stezzano in the province of Bergamo. It was a work that revealed signs of the training he had received from the Campi brothers at their workshop in Cremona.

The following year, Zucco painted Vergine con bambino e santi, Virgin with baby and saints, and L’adorazione dei Magi, the adoration of the Magi, for the Church of Santi Pietro e Paolo, in Levate in the province of Bergamo. The painting of the Magi was signed Franciscus Zucchis 1593, indicating that he had already achieved some artistic fame. His style was similar to that of Moroni, while maintaining the strength of design reminiscent of the Campi brothers.

Zucco then received numerous commissions that gave him the chance to perfect his own style. Among the many works he executed towards the end of the 16th century is a Vergine con bambino, Virgin with child, for the church at Orio al Serio, a comune of Bergamo that is well known to millions of  visitors to Italy because of its airport.

In subsequent years, there were many paintings for other churches in the province but, in Bergamo itself, Zucco painted for the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore and the Monastero di Astino.

For his own local church, Sant’Alessandro in Colonna in Via Sant’Alessandro, which is named after Bergamo’s patron saint and was  near where he lived in Bergamo, Zucco painted a Cycle of the life of Sant’Alessandro. The church also has his last known painting, Sant’Alessandro si presenta ad un Vescovo, Saint Alexander is presented to a Bishop, which was dated 1627.

A Roman column in front of Sant’Alessandro in Colonna is believed to mark the exact spot where Bergamo’s patron saint was martyred by the Romans for refusing to renounce his Christian faith. The column in Via Sant’Alessandro was constructed in the 17th century from Roman fragments and every year on 26 August, the city of Bergamo remembers their saint’s decapitation there in 303. Sant’Alessandro in Colonna was rebuilt in the 18th century on the site of an earlier church and its ornate campanile was completed at the beginning of the 20th century.

The church houses work by Francesco Zucco, as well as a work depicting the martyrdom of Sant’Alessandro by Enea Salmeggia, and one showing the transporting of Sant’Alessandro’s corpse by Gian Paolo Cavagna. It also contains paintings by Lorenzo Lotto and Romanino.

Zucco married Aurelia Chiesa and they had three children, Bartolomeo Carlo, born in 1617, and Margherita and Giovanni Battista, who were born in 1623. Sadly, Zucco did not live long enough to see his children grow up. He died on 3 May 1627 at his home in Bergamo.

Examples of his religious paintings can still be seen in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in the Città Alta in Bergamo and in many other churches throughout the province of Bergamo. The Accademia Cararra in Bergamo have some of his portraits on display, such as the acclaimed Ritratto del gentildonna gravida, Portrait of an expectant gentlewoman.

The Accademia Carrara, a palace filled with art treasures, is just outside the Città Alta in Piazza Giacomo Cararra. The palace was built in the 18th century to house one of the richest private collections of art in Italy and now houses some of the portraits painted by Francesco Zucco. It is the only Italian museum to be entirely stocked with donations and bequests from private collectors.

 

It was established in Bergamo in 1794 as a combined Pinacoteca and School of Painting, on the initiative of Bergamo aristocrat Count Giacomo Carrara. In addition to his collection of paintings, he left his entire estate to the Accademia to secure its future. The number and quality of works on display in the gallery has steadily increased over the years, thanks to donations and bequests from private collectors.

 

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Antonio Locatelli - Bergamo war hero

Brave airman tried to circumnavigate the globe

Today marks the 130th anniversary of the birth in Bergamo of the pioneering aviator Antonio Locatelli. Recognised for his valour during World War I, Locatelli also attempted to make the first aerial circumnavigation of the globe.

The pilot was celebrated for performing solo reconnaissance flights over Zeppelin yards in Austria and for being daring enough to fly over Vienna, before he was shot down and captured and sent to a prisoner of war camp. He tried unsuccessfully to escape twice, but was successful on his third attempt and was able to rejoin the Italian troops.

After the war, he was awarded three Gold medals and a Silver medal for military valour and made a Knight of the Military Order of Savoy.

Born into a Bergamo family in 1895, Locatelli studied at the Istituto Industriale Pietro Paleocapa in Bergamo and then became chief technician at a local company.

After World War I broke out, Locatelli joined a flying unit and was granted his pilot’s licence in 1915. He then served in the poet and patriot Gabriele D’Annunzio’s air squadron.

He flew 513 sorties during the war, starting with reconnaissance missions, but then flying fighters and bombers.

In 1924, Locatelli led Italy’s attempt to achieve the first aerial circumnavigation of the globe. With a crew of three, he flew a German-made flying boat, a metal-hulled Dornier Do J Wal - whale - powered by two Rolls Royce engines. He left Pisa on 25 July heading west, but his attempt came to an end on 21 August when heavy fog forced him to touch down in the sea 120 miles short of Greenland. The plane’s engine carriers were damaged and so the flight could not be resumed.

A Dornier flying boat similar to the one in which
which Locatelli attempted to fly around the globe

Fortunately, four days earlier he had met up in Reykjavik with the American team who were attempting the same feat and this meeting was to save the lives of Locatelli and his crew.

When the Italians failed to arrive in Greenland, the Americans raised the alarm and Locatelli and his crew were picked up by a US naval ship that had been sent to search the area.

Locatelli later became a National Fascist party legislator and was elected as a deputy to parliament. In 1933 he was nominated as podestà - mayor - of Bergamo, a role in which he served for a year. 

In 1936, at the age of 41, Locatelli was killed in Lechemeti in Ethiopia during the second Italo-Ethiopian war. He was buried in the Cimitero Monumentale di Bergamo.

In Bergamo, Via Antonio Locatelli in the Città Bassa is named after him and he is also commemorated by the Antonio Locatelli Primary School in Cavernago, a comune - municipality - situated about 11 km (7 miles) southeast of Bergamo.

Locatelli had been a keen mountaineer in his youth and had climbed the Adamello in Trentino with his brother, Carlo. Therefore, the Antonio Locatelli Hut, a refuge in the Tre Cime Natural Park in Alto Adige-South Tyrol is named after him. 

To honour Locatelli’s memory, a statue of the Virgin of Loreto, the patron saint of airmen, is housed inside the refuge. From the refuge, visitors have panoramic views of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo, three distinctive mountain peaks that look like battlements.

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Giovanni Legrenzi – composer

Bergamo maestro’s Baroque music is still played today by enthusiasts

Giovanni Legrenzi was the organist at
the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore

Organist and composer Giovanni Legrenzi, who was influential in the development of late Baroque music in Italy, was baptised on August 12, 1626 at Clusone, in Val Seriana near Bergamo, which was at the time part of the Republic of Venice.

Legrenzi was to become one of the most prominent  composers of opera, vocal, and instrumental music working in Venice in the late 17th century.

His father, Giovanni Maria Legrenzi, had been a professional violinist and composer. One of his brothers, Marco, was also a talented musician. The brothers are believed to have been taught music at home and they became used to performing in their local church.

Giovanni Legrenzi became organist at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo and was ordained as a priest in 1651. He became resident chaplain at the church, but continued to be involved in music and was given the title of first organist in 1653. The music he composed for Mass and Vespers was published in 1654.

Legrenzi is believed to have been involved in a gambling scandal and his appointment as organist was not reconfirmed the following year, but the offence was not considered to be serious and he had been reinstated by February 1655.

However, towards the end of that year, Legrenzi had resigned from his position in Bergamo and in 1656 he became maestro di cappella  at the Academy of the Holy Spirit in Ferrara. The Academy was founded by a fraternity of laymen who presented services with music for members of aristocratic circles in Ferrara.

Legrenzi’s position at the Academy gave him time to compose his own music and by the early 1660s he had published eight volumes of his work and had broken into the world of opera.

The Via Arena entrance to the
Santa Maria Maggiore basilica

He ended his association with the Academy and supported himself with the proceeds of his published music and with his income from the land he owned in his native Clusone.

He had settled in Venice by 1670, where he took up a position as a music teacher at Santa Maria dei Derelitti, more commonly known as the Ospedaletto, where he received commissions to compose oratorios.

He was a finalist for the appointment of maestro di cappella The Basilica of San Marco in 1676, losing by one vote, but later in the year he became maestro di coro at the Ospedale dei Mendicanti.

He became vice maestro at San Marco in 1682 and, by this time, he was one of the leading opera composers of his day. Among his students were Francesco Gasparini and Tomaso Albinoni.

Legrenzi finally became maestro di cappella at San Marco in 1685 but by this time his health was beginning to fail. He died in 1690, probably due to kidney stones, which caused him a lot of pain in his last few months.

His great nephew inherited his music and his books and produced four publications of Legrenzi’s work posthumously. Some of the composer’s unpublished work still survives in manuscript form.

Legrenzi composed 19 operas between 1662 and 1685, which were very popular in their day, but only a few have survived. Early music groups still perform his instrumental music and some of his surviving operas are performed at festivals.

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Birthday of Bergamo poet Pietro Ruggeri da Stabello

Talented writer produced verses in local dialect

Ruggeri da Stabello's mounted bust under a
portico in Piazza Pontida in the Città Bassa

Pietro Ruggeri da Stabello, who became famous after his death for the poetry he had written in his local dialect, was born on this day, 15 July, in 1797 in Stabello, a hamlet near Zogno in Lombardy.

Ruggeri da Stabello wrote a valuable account of events that occurred in the north of Italy during revolts against the Austrian occupying army, which were later collected in a volume entitled Bergamo Revolution of the Year 1848.

He was the second son of a Bergamo couple, Santo Ruggeri, and Diana Stella Ceribelli, who had gone to live in Val Brembana to escape the riots that followed the fall of the Republic of Venice in 1797.

When Pietro Ruggeri became an adult, he added the words da Stabello to his name, to honour the small village where he had grown up, just outside the municipality of Zogno in Val Brembana, to which it belongs.

After Pietro Ruggeri moved to live in Bergamo to study for a diploma in accountancy, he began to compose verses, inspired by his contact with local people and what he had seen of their daily lives in the city.

He wrote his work, Letter of Pietro Ruggeri da Stabello against the widespread misery of 1816, in the Italian language, more for his own pleasure than as a literary exercise. He went on to write four more works in Italian between 1820 and 1822 that were never published.

Ruggeri's bust is mounted on a
plinth within a fountain

Ruggeri da Stabello started to wrote poetry in the Bergamo dialect from about 1822. As his fame spread, he was portrayed in a painting by Bergamo painter, Enrico Scuri, and invited to social gatherings to meet other learned people in the area, while he  continued to do a variety of jobs to earn his living.

He founded and became president of The Philarmonic Academy in Bergamo and he was painted on the occasion by Luigi Deleidi, a Bergamo artist, who was also known as Nebbia.

Ruggeri da Stabello wrote sonnets dedicated to his friends and some well-known people, such as the painter Francesco Coghetti. He started to compile, but never finished, a Bergamo-Italian vocabulary.

During 1848, he wrote his volume about the revolts against the Austrians while he was being forced to take refuge in the safer territory of Zogno, because of verses he had written in honour of Pope Pius IX and of Italy, when the Austrians returned to occupy the country.

Pietro Ruggeri da Stabello died in Bergamo in 1878. He was buried in the cemetery of San Maurizio in the Città Bassa, but his tomb was lost after the cemetery was closed.

However, his writing was evaluated after his death and he was recognised as the greatest writer in the Bergamo dialect ever known. In appreciation of his talent, his native city named a street after him and erected a mounted bust of him in Piazza Pontida, an historic square in the Città Bassa.

In 1933, another Bergamo citizen, Bortolo Belotti, published some of his poetry in the volume, Pietro Ruggeri, poet from Bergamo.

Modern Italian is now the most widely spoken language in Bergamo, but the Bergamo dialect, dialetto Bergamasco, is still seen on menus, street signs and often reproduced in popular Bergamo sayings. Linguistically it is closer to French and Catalan, than to Italian. It is still spoken in some of the small villages out in the province of Bergamo and the area around Crema, another city in Lombardy.

Because of migration in the 19th and 20th centuries, Bergamo dialect is still spoken in some communities in southern Brazil.

 

  

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Death in the High City

A successful decade for Bergamo’s first British crime novel

Via Colleoni is pictured on 
the cover of the new edition

Death in the High City, the first detective novel written in English to be set in Bergamo, was published ten years ago this summer.

To mark the tenth anniversary, East Wind Publishing have issued a new edition of the mystery with a front cover showing Bergamo’s Via Colleoni at night. The historic street in the Città Alta, Bergamo’s upper town, features as a key location in the novel.

Referred to as un romanzo giallo in Italian, Death in the High City centres on the investigation into the death of an English woman staying in Bergamo while working on a biography of the opera composer Gaetano Donizetti, who was born and died in the city.

The dead woman had been living in an apartment in Bergamo’s Città Alta and much of the action takes place within the walls of the upper town.

The novel was the first in a series to feature the characters of Kate Butler, a freelance journalist, and Steve Bartorelli, a retired Detective Chief Inspector, who is of partly Italian descent.

At first the local police do not believe there is enough evidence to open a murder enquiry and so journalist Kate Butler, the victim’s cousin, arrives in Bergamo to try to get some answers about her relative’s death, on behalf of her elderly aunt, who is too frail to make the journey herself.

Kate visits many of the places in Bergamo with Donizetti connections and her enquiries also take her out to Lago d’Iseo and into the countryside around San Pellegrino Terme.

But after her own life is threatened and there has been another death in the Città Alta, her partner, Steve Bartorelli, joins her in Bergamo to help unravel the mystery and trap the killer.

Bergamo's mayor, Giorgio Gori,
was given a copy of the book

The reader can enjoy Bergamo’s wonderful architecture and scenery from the comfort of their own armchair, while savouring the many descriptions in the novel of local food and wine.

Author Val Culley has been delighted with the level of interest shown in what was her first novel, both in the UK and in Italy.

She was invited to present Death in the High City to an audience in San Pellegrino Terme and sign copies of the book, as a guest at the fifth anniversary celebrations of Bergamo Su e Giù, a group of independent tour guides based in the city. During the evening, she was presented with a book about San Pellegrino Terme by the town’s mayor.

She also made two appearances on Bergamo TV to talk about the novel with presenter Teo Mangione during his daily breakfast programme. During one of her visits to the studios, she presented a copy of the book to the Mayor of Bergamo, Giorgio Gori, who took office the year the novel was published.

Val was invited to Bergamo for a further visit by the Cambridge Institute to give a talk about Death in The High City to a group of 80 Italian teachers of English and to sign copies for them.

She has also formally presented a copy of Death in the High City to the Biblioteca Civica (Civic Library), a beautiful 16th century building in white marble, designed by Vincenzo Scamozzi, situated in Piazza Vecchia, a location that features frequently in the novel.

She was later invited to give a talk about Death in the High City at a sixth form college in Zogno, a comune in Valle Brembana set in beautiful countryside in the hills above Bergamo.

Another highlight was when the New York Times referred to Death in the High City in a travel feature they were running about Bergamo.

The novel came out in Kindle format in May 2014 and a paperback version was released in July 2014. It has since sold copies in the UK, Italy, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Germany, America, Australia, Canada, and Mexico.

Death in the High City will interest readers who enjoy the ‘cosy’ crime fiction genre, or like detective stories with an Italian setting.

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Glory night for Atalanta

La Dea put Bergamo on football map

Fans of Atalanta celebrated victory in Piazza 
Vittorio Veneto in the centre of the Città Bassa

Bergamo’s football club Atalanta made history last night by winning the first European trophy in their 116-year history.

They beat hot favourites Bayer Leverkusen - the newly-crowned Bundesliga champions - in emphatic style to become Europa League champions, winning 3-0 in the final at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland.

It was the German team’s first defeat in 52 matches, ending an unbeaten run that began in May, 2023 and was the longest by a top-level team in European football history.

Although Atalanta - known by their nickname La Dea (the Goddess) - have played in Serie A - the top division of Italian football - for much of their history, their only trophy success before last night was winning the Coppa Italia in 1963.

Their hero in Dublin was their 26-year-old English-born winger Ademola Lookman, who scored all three goals, two in the first half and a third with 15 minutes remaining in the second half, which killed off any hope of a comeback by Leverkusen.

Lookman is embraced by a member of
Atalanta's coaching staff at the final whistle

As well as those who travelled to Dublin to support the nerazzurri, thousands more gathered in the centre of Bergamo, where the match was shown on giant TV screens and celebrations continued long into the night.

Ademola, who joined Atalanta from a German team, RB Leipzig, in 2022, is enjoying the most successful period of his career, having started out as a teenager with the English team Charlton Athletic.

This season has seen him score 15 goals for Atalanta, as well as three in the Africa Cup of Nations, where his team, Nigeria - his parents' homeland - reached the semi-finals.

Italian journalists joked with the London-born player that he might see a street named after him in Bergamo to recognise his achievement and Lookman spoke of his affection for the place he has made his home for the last two years.

"I feel the support from the fans from the first minute I was in Bergamo," he said. "The city of Bergamo gives me a sense of calmness. It's a very calm, relaxed city and that has helped me a lot with my living style.”

Atalanta achieved notable wins over Liverpool and Olympique Marseille in reaching the final. 

Gian Piero Gasperini has been
with Atalanta since 2016

The victory is also a vindication of the club’s faith in their head coach. Gian Piero Gasperini, who hails from just outside Turin, has been in charge since 2016. This is his first trophy too.

Italian coaches rarely stay in post for more than a couple of seasons but under Gasperini Atalanta have reached the Coppa Italia final three times and played in European competitions in six of the last seven seasons, including three in the UEFA Champions League.

Winning the Europa League earns them a place in next season’s Champions League and, with two matches remaining, they could still finish as high as third in Serie A.

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Bergamo’s Atalanta reach first European final

La Dea make history with win over Marseille

Bergamo’s top football team, Atalanta, achieved a piece of club history at the Gewiss Stadium on Thursday evening (May 9) when a comfortable win over the French team Olympique Marseille secured their first appearance in a European final.

La Dea beat Marseille 3-0 in the second leg for a 4-1 aggregate victory in the semi-final of the Europa League competition.

A crowd of around 15,000 in the Gewiss Stadium, which can be found near the centre of the Città Bassa, in the Borgo Santa Caterina area, watched the match, with the capacity currently reduced because of redevelopment.

They saw the English-born Nigerian international winger Ademola Lookman score Atalanta’s opening goal in the first half, before Matteo Ruggeri, the locally-born Italian Under-21 defender, and the Mali forward El Bilal Toure added further goals in the second half.

Gian Piero Gasperini
is Atalanta's manager

Atalanta will meet the German team Bayer Leverkusen in the final at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on May 22.  It promises to be a tough task for La Dea: Leverkusen, already crowned Bundesliga champions, are unbeaten in 49 matches in all competitions.

Managed by Gian Piero Gasperini, who has been in charge since 2016, the closest Atalanta have previously been to a European final was in 1988, when, as a second-division side, they made it to the semi-finals of the now-defunct European Cup-Winners’ Cup.

Securing their place in the Europa League final continues a run of success under Gasperini that has seen the team qualify for the UEFA Champions League three times, reaching the quarter-finals in 2020, as well as finishing runners-up in the Coppa Italia twice.

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