By Anne Leader
Melozzo degli Ambrogi da Forlì died on 8 November 1494 in his hometown. Melozzo’s style bridges the early and High Renaissance, and he found success at the courts of Urbino and the Vatican. While at the court of Federico da Montefeltro in Urbino, he came to know Piero della Francesca with whom he shared an interest in linear perspective. Known for his illusionism, Melozzo received numerous commissions from Pope Sixtus IV and members of his family, the Della Rovere, including Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere (the future Pope Julius II), who commissioned Melozzo to decorate the apse of Santi Apostoli in Rome, which today survives only in fragments. Despite their condition, these frescoes show Melozzo’s skill with foreshortening as he shows angels and saints di sotto in sù, as if from below.
Reference: Eunice D. Howe. ” Melozzo da Forlì.” Grove Art Online.
Angels and Saints, fragments, frescoes from Santa Maria degli Angeli, 1480-84, now Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome.
Sixtus IV Founding the Vatican Library, fresco transferred to canvas, c. 1476–7, now Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome.
Entry into Jerusalem, 1477-82, fresco, Basilica of Santa Casa, Loreto.
Triumphant Christ, fragments, frescoes from Santa Maria degli Angeli, 1481-83, now, Palazzo Quirinale, Rome.