Bartolomeo Campi Explained

Bartolomeo Campi (died 1573), was an Italian renaissance artist, goldsmith, armourer, and military engineer from Pesaro, who worked at the courts of Urbino and France.

Career

Pietro Aretino commended his early works.^[1] Bartolomeo Campi worked for Guidobaldo II della Rovere, Duke of Urbino. In 1546, he made the Duke a suit of armour in all'antica, ancient Roman style, now held by the Royal Collection in Madrid. He signed the cuirass "BARTOLOMEUS CAMPI", recording it as a year's worth of work made by continuous labour in two months.^[2] A pair of stirrups in the Victoria and Albert Museum including similar decoration of damascened vine leaf tendrils are thought to have been made by his workshop, although these are signed "ACF" rather than "BC Fecit".^[3]

Bartolomeo Campi designed costume for court festivals in Urbino and for Guidobaldo della Rovere's marriage to Vittoria Farnese in January 1548.^[4] According to Guidobaldo del Monte, Bartolomeo also designed an automaton for the Duke's dinner table, a silver tortoise with a shell that opened to deliver toothpicks to the guests.^[5]

An innovative cannon

In April 1554, the Duke of Urbino recommended Bartolomeo's skills to Ercole II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara and Henry II of France for his innovations in artillery.^[6] After a short period in Siena, where he was wounded, and Venice, Bartolomeo worked at the French court from 1557 to 1562.^[7]

In January 1555, Bartolomeo, or his brother Giacomo di Bernardino Campi, demonstrated a novel cannon in Paris for Henry II that could be easily dismantled in sections for transport.^[8] Campi's gun was described by the English diplomat, Nicholas Wotton. Sent from the "duke of Urbin", it had a longer range and greater power than a conventional brass cannon of the same size.^[9]

Wedding of Mary, Queen of Scots and the Dauphin

According to Julio Alvarotto, an envoy of Duke of Ferrara, Bartolomeo Campi designed pageant ships with sails of silver cloth to carry dancers at a masque in the hall of the Palais de la Cité following the wedding of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Francis, Dauphin of France on 24 April 1558.^[10] The ships had sails of silver tinsel. They appeared to be moved by wind and wave, and danced in time to a passamezzo. The wedding entertainments also included a dozen mechanical horses.^{[11] [12]} Alvarotto wrote that Charles III, Duke of Lorraine had paid six thousand ducats for the pageant of ships,^[13] In the same year, Bartolomeo served Francis, Duke of Guise at Calais and the siege of Guînes.^[14]

He made a will in Paris in December 1567.^{[15] [16]} Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba employed Bartolomeo Campi and his son Scipio from 1568. His proposals for improvements to the fortifications at Antwerp, designed by Francesco Paciotto, were not carried out. Bartolomeo Campi was killed by an arquebus shot on 3 March 1573 at the siege of Haarlem.^[17]

External links

• Armour of Guiobaldo della Rovere, by Bartolomeo Campi, 1546, Real Armería, Madrid
• Biography of Bartolommeo Campi (died 1573), in Spanish, Real Academia de la Historia
• Pair of Stirrups, attribruted to Bartolomeo Campi, Victoria and Albert Museum

Notes and References

1. James G. Mann, 'An Embossed Visor of Guidobaldo II, Duke of Urbino', Burlington Magazine, 82:478 (January 1943), p. 15: Lettere di M. Pietro Aretino, 4 (Paris, 1609), p. 7.
2. Stuart W. Pyhrr & José-A. Godoy, Heroic Armor of the Italian Renaissance: Filippo Negroli and His Contemporaries (Metropolitan Museum, 1998), p. 283.
3. Angus Patterson, Fashion and Armour in Renaissance Europe: Proud Lookes and Brave Attire (London: V&A, 2009), p. 96.
4. Carolyn Springer, Armour and Masculinity in the Italian Renaissance (University of Toronto, 2010), p. 87.
5. Courtney Ann Roby, The Mechanical Tradition of Hero of Alexandria (Cambridge, 2023), p. 232: Courtney Roby, 'Moving Wood, Man Immobile: Hero's Automata at the Urbino Court', Guy Hedreen, Material World (Brill, 2021), pp. 108–132. : Fermo Giovanni Motta, Villa Caprile: il tempio dei quattro elementi (Electa, 1998), p. 165.
6. Angelo Angelucci, Documenti inediti per la storia delle armi da fuoco italiane, 1:1 (Turin, 1869), pp. 330–333 no. 61.
7. James G. Mann, 'An Embossed Visor of Guidobaldo II, Duke of Urbino', Burlington Magazine, 82:478 (January 1943), p. 16.
8. Marina Belozerskaya, Luxury Arts of the Renaissance (Getty, 2005), p. 160: William Barclay Turnbull, Calendar of State Papers, Foreign, Mary (London, 1861), p. 151
9. Sheila R. Richards, Secret Writing in the Public Records (London: HMSO, 1974), p. 11: James G. Mann, 'An Embossed Visor of Guidobaldo II, Duke of Urbino', Burlington Magazine, 82:478 (January 1943), p. 16.
10. Herbert Van Scoy, Bernerd C. Weber, 'The Marriage of Mary Queen of Scots and the Dauphin', Scottish Historical Review, 31:111, Part 1 (April 1952), pp. 44, 47–8.
11. Alphonse de Ruble, La première jeunesse de Marie Stuart (Paris, 1891), p. 157: Discours du grand et magnifique triumphe faict au mariage (Rouen, 1558).
12. Armand Eudel du Gord, Recueil de fragments historiques sur les derniers Valois (Paris, 1869), p. 68
13. Herbert Van Scoy, Bernerd C. Weber, 'The Marriage of Mary Queen of Scots and the Dauphin', Scottish Historical Review, 31:111, Part 1 (April 1952), pp. 44, 47.
14. Angelo Angelucci, Documenti inediti per la storia delle armi da fuoco italiane, 1:1 (Turin, 1869), p. 331 fn.
15. Guy-Michel Leproux & Jean-Pierre Reverseau, 'Bartolomeo Campi à l'hôtel de Nesle', Documents d'histoire parisienne, 17 (2015), 17-30.
16. https://francearchives.gouv.fr/fr/facomponent/931171649965c373f4ef9fb5b93127a7b993255a Testament de Bartolomeo Campi, de Pesaro (Italie), ingénieur du roi: FranceArchives
17. Charles van den Heuvel, 'Bartolomeo Campi: A different method of designing citadels: Groningen and Flushing', Architetti e ingegneri militari italiani all'estero dal XV al XVIII secolo (Livorno, 1994), 153–67.