On 10 June 1918, Milan lost one of the most singular figures in Italian cultural life — Arrigo Boito. He was a composer who nearly destroyed his relationship with the country’s greatest opera composer, then went on to make him immortal.
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On 8 June 1290, Beatrice Portinari, a young woman whose brief life would shape one of the greatest works in the history of literature, died.
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Born on 7th June 1422 in Gubbio, Federico da Montefeltro was the most celebrated condottiere of his age. He was a mercenary commander of formidable military skill who used the profits of war to create one of the finest courts of the Italian Renaissance at Urbino.
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Lorenzo di Pietro di Giovanni — known to posterity as Vecchietta, ‘the little old one’ — died in Siena on 6th June 1480. He left behind a legacy in paint, bronze and stone that remains inseparable from the identity of one of Italy’s most artistically rich cities.
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One of the greatest masterpieces of Etruscan painting returns to public ownership after more than 160 years in private hands. The François Tomb goes on display at Rome’s Villa Giulia from 25 June.
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29 May 1415: Baldassare Cossa, reigning as Pope John XXIII, is formally deposed by the Council of Constance after fleeing the city in disguise. The Council’s decision brought one of the most colourful and scandalous careers in Church history to an end.
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On 17th May 1510, Florence lost the painter who gave the Renaissance its most enduring face. Sandro Botticelli was a man whose genius was forgotten almost as soon as he died, and whose rediscovery centuries later would reshape how the world understood Italian art.
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As Italy’s film industry gathers each year to honour its finest work, the prize it awards carries the name of one of the greatest sculptors in the history of Western art. Donatello was a Florentine whose mastery of the human form changed what art could be.
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On 6 May 1527, an imperial army breached the walls of Rome, triggering one of the most catastrophic episodes in the history of the city. Known as the Sack of Rome, it brought the Renaissance papacy to its knees.
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The Swiss Guards, the world’s smallest army, will swear in its latest recruits today (6th May). The ceremony marks one of the most dramatic episodes in the history of the papacy.
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