Timoteo Viti Muse Thalia (painted for Palazzo Ducale, Urbino) ca. 1495 tempera on panel Palazzo Corsini al Parione, Florence |
attributed to Timoteo Viti Agony in the Garden ca. 1490-1500 tempera on vellum (manuscript illumination) Cleveland Museum of Art (Ohio) |
attributed to Timoteo Viti Agony in the Garden ca. 1510 oil on panel Bristol Museum and Art Gallery |
Timoteo Viti after Raphael (designer) Prophet Hosea and St John the Evangelist ca. 1514 fresco Chiesa di Santa Maria della Pace, Rome |
Timoteo Viti after Raphael (designer) King David and the Prophet Daniel ca. 1514 fresco Chiesa di Santa Maria della Pace, Rome |
"Timoteo, a painter of Urbino, was the son of Bartolommeo della Vite, a citizen of good position, and Calliope, the daughter of Maestro Antonio Alberto of Ferrara, a passing good painter in his day, as is shown by his works at Urbino and elsewhere. While Timoteo was still a child, his father dying, he was left to the care of his mother Calliope, with good and happy augury, from the circumstance that Calliope is one of the Nine Muses, and the conformity that exists between poetry and painting. Then, after he had been brought discreetly through his boyhood by his wise mother, and initiated by her into the studies of the simpler arts and likewise of drawing, the young man came into his first knowledge of the world at the very time when the divine Raffaello Sanzio was flourishing. . . . The name and fame of Timoteo spread abroad, and he was invited with great insistence by Raffaello to Rome; whither having gone with the greatest willingness, he was received with that loving kindness that was as peculiar to Raffaello as was his excellence in art. Working, then, with Raffaello, in little more than a year he made a great advance, not only in art, but also in prosperity, for in that time he sent home a good sum of money. . . . Now, although Timoteo was well and honourably placed in Rome, yet not being able to endure, as many do, the separation from his own country, and also being invited and urged every moment to come home by the counsels of his friends and by the prayers of his mother, now an old woman, he returned to Urbino, much to the displeasure of Raffaello, who loved him dearly for his good qualities. And not long after, having taken a wife in Urbino at the suggestion of his family, and having become enamoured of his country, in which he saw that he was highly honoured, besides the circumstance, even more important, that he had begun to have children, Timoteo made up his mind firmly never again to consent to go abroad, notwithstanding, as may still be seen from some letters, that he was invited back to Rome by Raffaello. But he did not cease to work, and he made many works in Urbino and in the neighbouring cities."
– from Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects by Giorgio Vasari (1568), translated by Gaston du C. de Vere (1912)
Timoteo Viti Virgin of the Annunciation with St John the Baptist and St Sebastian (altarpiece) ca. 1512-20 oil on panel Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan |
Timoteo Viti Youth with Arm Raised (study for St Sebastian in Virgin of the Annunciation altarpiece) ca. 1515 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Timoteo Viti Noli me tangere, with St Michael Archangel and St Anthony Abbot (altarpiece) ca. 1512-14 oil on panel Chiesa di Sant' Angelo Minore, Cagli |
Timoteo Viti Orpheus before 1523 drawing British Museum |
Timoteo Viti Woman leaning against Door-post before 1523 drawing British Museum |
Timoteo Viti Study of Standing Model before 1523 drawing British Museum |
Timoteo Viti Head of a Woman before 1523 drawing British Museum |
Timoteo Viti Study of Seated Model before 1523 drawing Morgan Library, New York |
Timoteo Viti Study of Standing Model with Staff before 1523 drawing British Museum |
Timoteo Viti Figure Studies for The Finding of Moses before 1523 drawing British Museum |