BARBARO, Daniele

(1514-1570)

An influential Italian humanist, Daniele Barbaro had an important impact on the culture, art, and architecture of northern Italy in the sixteenth century through his publications, designs for decorative programs, and patronage of the arts. Born in Venice, Italy, into a distinguished patriciate family, Daniele pursued education at the University of Padua, receiving his degree in 1540. While there, he met Benedetto Varchi and Sperone Speroni,* with whom he founded the Accademia degli Infiammati. During this period he wrote his Dialogo della eloquenza (Dialogue on Eloquence) and finished his great-uncle Ermolao's com­mentaries on the Ethics of Aristotle. Between 1548 and 1550 he became the Venetian ambassador to England, and in 1550 he was elected patriarch elect of Aquileia and attended the Council of Trent. In 1556 Daniele published his own translated and commented edition of Vitruvius's De architectura (On Architec­ture). Using his experience with Aristotelian analysis and Platonic view of the elements, order, and universal harmony, Daniele showed his mastery of the disciplines Vitruvius felt a true architect should possess, including music, math­ematics, philosophy, history, and rhetoric, as he interrelated the scientific and humanistic disciplines. This translation of the very popular ancient architectural treatise made the work available even to those without a formal education. At about the same time, Daniele and his brother Marcantonio commissioned the Villa Barbaro at Maser, designed by the architect Andrea Palladio* and deco­rated with frescoes by Paolo Veronese.* The fresco program, authored by Bar-baro, reflected his intellectual interests as it simultaneously related the family, state, and church to the universal harmony of the cosmos. Barbaro's skill in devising iconographical schemes was also called upon for decorative programs in the ducal palace. Regarded as a great intellectual through his scholarly en­deavors and influential publications, Barbaro was held in high esteem by Venetian statesmen, and in recognition of this he was named official historian to the Republic of Venice in 1560.

Bibliography

O. Logan, Culture and Society in Venice, 1470-1790, 1972.

Mary Pixley