Stradanus, Johannes Stradanus, Jan van der Straet or Giovanni Stradano (1523 – 2 November 1605) was a Flemish artist active mainly in 16th-century Florence, Italy. He was a wide-ranging talent who worked as an easel and fresco painter, designer of tapestries, draughtsman, designer of prints and pottery decorator. His subject range was varied and included history subjects, mythological scenes, allegories, landscapes, genre scenes, portraits, architectural scenes and animals. After training in his native Flanders, he left his home country and ultimately settled down in Florence, Italy. He became a prominent court artist to the Medici during the second half of the 16th century and worked on the many decorative projects of the court. Stradanus also produced large altarpieces for the most important churches in Florence.
He was a prolific designer of prints which were circulated widely throughout Europe for many centuries. Through his knowledge of Florentine and Italian art and his international contacts with engravers and editors in Antwerp, Stradanus contributed to the development of printmaking. He was one of the earliest members of the prominent Accademia e Compagnia delle Arti del Disegno established in Florence in 1563. Stradanus also worked on various commissions in Rome, and resided in Naples from 1576 until about 1580. Thereafter he returned to Florence, dying there in 1605.
Life
Born in Bruges, he began his training in the shop of his father. He subsequently continued his training in the workshop of the otherwise unknown Bruges master Maximiliaen Francken (from 1535 to 1537). He later moved to Antwerp, where he studied from 1537 to 1540 in the workshop of Pieter Aertsen, a Dutch genre painter active in that city. There he mastered the visual language of the Renaissance and the ability to depict complex compositions. In 1545 he was registered under the name Hans vander Straten as a master painter in the Antwerp guild of Saint Luke. In Antwerp he moved in the circle of the Romanists, i.e. Northern artists who had traveled to Italy and upon their return to their home country created a Renaissance style, which assimilated Italian formal language.
As was common at the time, he left his home country to travel to Italy to complete his studies. He traveled first to Lyon where he may have worked with the Dutch painter Corneille de la Haye. He then moved on to Venice where he spent a few months. In Venice he met the Flemish carpet weaver Jan Rost who headed up the newly established Arazzeria Medicea, the personal weaving workshop in Florence of the Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo I de' Medici. Rost encouraged Stradanus to travel to Florence for work. He followed the advice and reached Florence in 1550, where he entered in the service of the Medici Grand Dukes. He became one of the principal assistants of Giorgio Vasari, a painter, architect and the principal advisor of the Medici on art issues. Stradanus carried out his first commissions as a designer of tapestries in the Arazzeria Medicea. He designed a number of scenes for tapestries and frescoes to decorate the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence and the Medici Villa at Poggio a Caiano, projects that were under the general direction of Vasari and executed by the about 20 assistants in Vasari's workshop.
During the period from 1550 to 1553, he spent time in Rome to work on commissions. Here he assisted Francesco Salviati and also worked with Daniele da Volterra on the decoration of the Vatican Belvedere. Some time between 1550 and 1555 Stradanus married Lucrezia di Lorenzo Guardieri. Two children from this marriage were Lucrezia (before 1556) and Scipione (1556-1612). Scipione became an artist and collaborated with his father on some projects. Stradanus became financially successful and he was able to acquire a house and other possessions as well as donate substantial sums to religious institutions. One of these was the Sant'Agata Monastery, where his daughter Lucrezia became a nun in 1569.