Background
He was born in Perugia and died in Rome.
He was born in Perugia and died in Rome.
Little is known about his life. After the death of the cardinal, Ripa worked for his relatives. He was knighted after his highly successful Iconologia, which he wrote in his free time, was published.
Iconologia di Cesare Ripa Perugino..: divisa in tre libri, by Cesare Ripa, Cristoforo Tomassini publisher, Venice, 1645.
The first edition of his Iconologia was published without illustrations in 1593 and dedicated to Anton Maria Salviati. A second edition was published in Rome in 1603 this time with 684 concepts and 151 woodcuts, dedicated to Lorenzo Salviati.
The book was extremely influential in the 17th and 18th centuries and was quoted extensively in various art forms. Also Dutch painters like Gerard de Lairesse, Willem van Mieris based work on Ripa"s emblems.
Vermeer used the emblem for the muse Clio for his The Art of Painting, and several others in his The Allegory of Faith.
A large part of Vondel"s work cannot be understood without this allegorical source, and ornamentation of the Amsterdam townhall by Artus Quellinus, a sculptor, is totally dependent on Ripa. An English translation appeared in 1709 by Pierce Tempest. The baroque painter Antonio Cavallucci drew inspiration for his painting Origin of Music from the book
In 1779, the Scottish architect George Richardson"s Iconology.
Or a Collection of Emblematical Figures. Containing four hundred and twenty-four remarkable subjects, moral and instructive.
In which are displayed the beauty of Virtue and deformity of Vice was published in London. The drawings were by William Hamilton.
In 1819, Filippo Pitrucci, a London-based artist, published his version of Iconologia.