Background
He was born and died in Forlì.
He was born and died in Forlì.
Following the assassination in 1488 of Caterina Sforza"s first husband, Count Girolamo Riario, lord of Imola and Forlì, she appointed Giacomo Feo, a handsome stable groom in her household, to be the castellan of the fortress Ravaldino in Forlì. These fears led to two failed conspiracies to assassinate Feo and Sforza. The third conspiracy, organized by Giovanni Antonio Ghetti, finally succeeded in killing Feo on 27 August 1495 when he and Sforza and their entourage were returning to Forlì from a hunting trip.
As they approached the Schiavonia gate into Forlì, Feo was cut off from the others by the conspirators, stabbed and beaten to death.
Sforza escaped to the safety of Ravaldino. Giovanni Antonio Ghetti thought he would be regarded as a liberator of the city, but Caterina Sforza responded swiftly to avenge Feo"s murder.
Giacomo Feo was laid to rest in the Church of San Girolamo in Forlì. His portrait was prominently featured in a fresco painted by Marco Palmezzano, The Miracle of Saint James the Elder, in the Feo Chapel, the Church of San Biagio, Forlì.
The fresco was destroyed during the Second World War.