Valerio Belli in the Vicenza culture of the 1500s Valerio Belli was born in Vicenza in 1468 to a rich Milanese family; he learned the art by joining the goldsmiths' brotherhood, specializing in the cutting and engraving of gems and rock crystal in Vicenza and Venice. He had important friendships in the Veneto. Palladio frequented his house being a friend of his son Elio, an Olympic physician and academic, and was able to study the rich collection of ancient coins and medals collected by Valerio without spared any expense.
The great contemporary painter and historian Vasari dedicates a chapter of his LIVES to Belli Vicentino, judging him to be the best, fastest and most precise carver in existence, comparable only to the great ancient Greek and Latin engravers. Vasari judges that Belli did not have great inventiveness and therefore engraved his works inspired by drawings provided to him by painters who were friends of him; and who were these friends? Michelangelo and Raphael. To confirm this partnership there are letters between Belli and the great Florentine artist; there is a portrait of Belli by Raphael, who gave it to him. He worked a lot for the Popes of the Medici family (Clement VII and Leo X); he was in Rome, followed and supported by Cardinal Bembo, a Paduan and man of letters. His masterpiece is a casket (for the safekeeping of consecrated hosts on Good Friday) decorated with 24 rock crystal engraved panels depicting scenes from the life of Christ. The work took two years and the Pope paid him 2000 gold crowns; remember that Palladio received 60 scudi a year as the director of the works of the Basilica! From 1530 he was almost always in his house in Corso (where now there is the Odeon cinema) and he died there in 1546. The Vicentini passers by who look up see a plaque on the facade that remembers him as the "prince of engravers" next to a bronze bust representing him; the bronze is inspired by the portrait painted by Raphael (now in an American collection).
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