Cardinal (Catholic Church)  

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-'''Pietro Aretino''' ([[April 20]], [[1492]] – [[October 21]], [[1556]]) was an [[Italian Renaissance|Italian]] [[Renaissance literature|Renaissance author]], [[art critic]] and [[satirist]] who wielded immense [[influence]] on [[16th century Italian art]] and politics and is generally cited as the earliest example of [[European erotica]] and [[hack writer|hack writing]]. Today, he is best known for his poetry ''[[Sonetti lussuriosi]]'' and his [[whore dialogue]]s ''[[Ragionamenti]]''. He also wrote a hypocritical [[letter of Aretino to Michelangelo on the Last Judgement]]. 
-His work was an inspiration to [[Pierre Corneille]], [[Lope de Vega]] and [[Molière]]. +A '''cardinal''' is a senior [[Ecclesiology|ecclesiastical]] official, usually a [[Bishop (Catholic Church)|bishop]], of the [[Catholic Church]]. They are collectively known as the [[College of Cardinals]], which as a body elects a new [[pope]]. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and making themselves available individually or collectively to the pope if he requests their counsel. Most cardinals have additional duties, such as leading a [[diocese]] or [[archdiocese]] or running a [[Dicastery|department]] of the [[Roman Curia]].
-== Life ==+
-[[Born out of wedlock]] in [[Arezzo]] (''Aretino'', "from Arezzo"), very casually educated then banished from his native city, Aretino spent a formative decade in Perugia, before being sent, highly recommended, to Rome. There [[Agostino Chigi]], the rich banker and patron of [[Raphael]], took him under his wing.  
- 
-When [[Hanno the elephant]], pet of [[Pope Leo X]], died in 1516, Aretino penned a satirical pamphlet entitled "The Last Will and Testament of the Elephant Hanno." The fictitious will cleverly mocked the leading political and religious figures of [[Rome]] at the time, including [[Pope Leo X]] himself. The pamphlet was such a success that it started Aretino's career and established him as a famous satirist, ultimately known as "the Scourge of Princes." 
- 
-Aretino prospered, [[living from hand to mouth]] as a [[hanger-on]] in the literate circle of his patron, sharpening his satirical talents on the gossip of politics and the [[Roman Curia|Papal Curia]], and turning the coarse Roman [[pasquinade]] into a rapier weapon of satire, until his sixteen ribald ''[[Sonetti Lussuriosi]]'' written to accompany [[Giulio Romano]]'s exquisitely beautiful but utterly pornographic series drawings engraved by [[Marcantonio Raimondi]] under the title ''[[I Modi]]'' finally caused such outrage that he had to temporarily flee Rome.  
- 
-After Leo's death in 1521, his patron was [[Cardinal Giulio de' Medici]], whose competitors for the papal throne felt the sting of Aretino's scurrilous lash. The installation of the prudish Fleming [[Adrian VI]] ("la tedesca tigna" in Pietro's words) instead encouraged Aretino to seek new patrons away from Rome, mainly with [[Federico II Gonzaga]] in [[Mantua]], and with the [[condottieri|condottiero]] [[Giovanni dalle Bande Nere|Giovanni de' Medici]] ("Giovanni delle Bande Nere"). The election of his old Medici patron as [[Pope Clement VII]] sent him briefly back to [[Rome]], but death threats and an attempted assassination from one of the victims of his pen, Bishop Giovanni Giberti, in July 1525, set him wandering through northern Italy in the service of various noblemen, distinguished by his wit, audacity and brilliant and facile talents, until he settled permanently in 1527, in [[Venice]], ''the'' anti-Papal city of Italy, "seat of all vices" Aretino noted with gusto.  
- 
-:"In a letter to Giovanni de Medici written in 1524 Aretino encloses a satirical poem saying that due to a sudden aberration he has fallen in love with a female cook and temporarily switched from boys to girls..." (''My Dear Boy'') 
- 
-From the security of Venice Aretino "kept all that was famous in Italy in a kind of state of siege," in [[Jakob Burckhardt]]'s estimation. [[Francis I of France]] and [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]] pensioned him at the same time, each hoping for some damage to the other. "The rest of his relations with the great is mere beggary and vulgar extortion," was Burckhardt's assessment of a man the 19th century found utterly unprincipled, an abject flatterer, the object of judgmental disgust and yet the father of modern [[journalism]]: 
-:''"His literary talent, his clear and sparkling style, his varied observation of men and things, would have made him a considerable writer under any circumstances, destitute as he was of the power of conceiving a genuine work of art, such as a true dramatic comedy; and to the coarsest as well as the most refined malice he added a grotesque wit so brilliant that in some cases it does not fall short of that of Rabelais."'' 
-::—Jacob Burckhardt, ''The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy'', 1855.  
- 
-Apart from both [[sacred and profane]] texts— a satire of high-flown [[Renaissance]] [[neo-Platonic]] [[dialog]]ues is set in a [[brothel]]— and [[comedies]] such as ''[[La cortigiana]]'' and ''La talenta'', Aretino is remembered above all for his letters, full of literary flattery that could turn to [[blackmail]]. They circulated widely in manuscript and he collected them and published them at intervals winning as many enemies as it did fame, and earned him the dangerous nickname [[Ariosto]] gave him: ''flagello dei principi'' ("scourge of princes"). The first [[English language|English]] translations of some of Aretino's racier material have been coming onto the market recently.  
- 
-''La cortigiana'' is a brilliant parody of [[Baldassare Castiglione|Castiglione’s]] ''[[The Book of the Courtier|Il Cortegiano]]'', and features the adventures of a Sienese gentleman, Messer Maco, who travels to Rome to become a [[cardinal (Catholicism)|cardinal]]. He would also like to win himself a mistress, but when he falls in love with a girl he sees in a window, he realizes that only as a courtier would he be able to win her. In mockery of Castiglione's advice on how to become the perfect courtier, a charlatan proceeds to teach Messer Maco how to behave as a courtier: he must learn how to deceive and flatter, and sit hours in front of the mirror.  
- 
-Aretino was a close friend of [[Titian]], who painted his [[portrait]] (''illustrations'') at least three times. The early portrait is a psychological study of alarming modernity. Clement VII made Aretino a [[Knight of Rhodes]], and [[Julius III]] named him a Knight of St. Peter, but the chain he wears for his 1545 portrait may have merely been jewelry. In his strictly-for-publication letters to patrons Aretino would often add a verbal portrait to Titian's painted one. 
- 
-He is said to have died of suffocation from "[[Death from laughter|laughing too much]]." 
- 
-== Major works == 
- 
-*''[[Sonetti lussuriosi]]'' 
-*''[[Dubbi amorosi]]'' 
-* ''[[Lettere]]'' 
-* ''[[Ragionamenti]]'' 
-* ''[[Orlandino]]'' 
- 
-Commedie: 
-*''[[Fraza]]'' 
-*''[[La cortigiana]]'' 
-*''[[Il marescalco]]'' 
-*''[[La talanta]]'' 
-*''[[Lo ipocrito]]'' 
-*''[[Il filosofo]]'' 
- 
-Tragedie: 
-*''[[Orazia]]'' 
- 
-== Biography == 
- 
-[[Born out of wedlock]] in [[Arezzo]] (''Aretino'', "from Arezzo"), very casually educated then banished from his native city, Aretino spent a formative decade in Perugia, before being sent, highly recommended, to Rome. There [[Agostino Chigi]], the rich banker and patron of [[Raphael]], took him under his wing.  
- 
-When [[Hanno the elephant]], pet of [[Pope Leo X]], died in [[1514]], Aretino penned a satirical pamphlet entitled "The Last Will and Testament of the Elephant Hanno." The fictitious will cleverly mocked the leading political and religious figures of [[Rome]] at the time, including [[Pope Leo X]] himself. The pamphlet was such a success that it kickstarted Aretino's career and established him as a famous satirist, ultimately known as "the Scourge of Princes." 
- 
-Aretino prospered, living from hand to mouth as a hanger-on in the literate circle of his patron, sharpening his satirical talents on the gossip of politics and the papal [[Curia (Roman Catholic Church|curia]], and turning the coarse Roman [[pasquinade]] into a rapier weapon of satire, until his sixteen ribald ''Sonetti Lussuriosi'' written to accompany [[Giulio Romano]]'s exquisitely beautiful but utterly pornographic series drawings engraved by [[Marcantonio Raimondi]] under the title ''[[I Modi]]'' finally lost him the public [[patronage]] of [[Pope Leo X]].  
- 
-After Leo's death in [[1521]], his [[patron]] was [[Cardinal Giulio de' Medici]], whose competitors for the papal throne felt the sting of Aretino's scurrilous lash. The installation of the prudish Fleming [[Adrian VI]] ("la tedesca tigna" in Pietro's words) instead encouraged Aretino to seek new patrons away from Rome, mainly with [[Federico II Gonzaga]] in [[Mantua]], and with the [[condottieri|condottiero]] [[Giovanni dalle Bande Nere|Giovanni de' Medici]] ("Giovanni delle Bande Nere"). The election of his old Medici patron as [[Pope Clement VII]] sent him briefly back to [[Rome]], but death threats and an attempted assassination from one of the victims of his pen, Bishop Giovanni Giberti, in July [[1525]], set him wandering through northern Italy in the service of various noblemen, distinguished by his wit, audacity and brilliant and facile talents, until he settled permanently in [[1527]], in [[Venice]], ''the'' anti-Papal city of Italy, "seat of all vices" Aretino noted with gusto.  
- 
-:"In a letter to Giovanni de Medici written in [[1524]] Aretino encloses a satirical poem saying that due to a sudden aberration he has fallen in love with a female cook and temporarily switched from boys to girls..." (''My Dear Boy'') 
- 
-From the security of Venice Aretino "kept all that was famous in Italy in a kind of state of siege," in [[Jakob Burckhardt]]'s estimation. [[Francis I of France]] and [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]] pensioned him at the same time, each hoping for some damage to the other. "The rest of his relations with the great is mere beggary and vulgar extortion," was Burckhardt's assessment of a man the 19th century found utterly unprincipled, an abject flatterer, the object of judgmental disgust and yet the father of modern [[journalism]]: 
-:''"His literary talent, his clear and sparkling style, his varied observation of men and things, would have made him a considerable writer under any circumstances, destitute as he was of the power of conceiving a genuine work of art, such as a true dramatic comedy; and to the coarsest as well as the most refined malice he added a grotesque wit so brilliant that in some cases it does not fall short of that of Rabelais."'' 
-::—Jacob Burckhardt, ''The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy'', 1855.  
- 
-Apart from both sacred and profane texts— a satire of high-flown [[Renaissance]] [[neo-Platonic]] [[dialog]]ues is set in a [[brothel]]— and [[comedies]] such as ''La cortigiana'' and ''La talenta'', Aretino is remembered above all for his letters, full of literary flattery that could turn to [[blackmail]]. They circulated widely in manuscript and he collected them and published them at intervals winning as many enemies as it did fame, and earned him the dangerous nickname [[Ariosto]] gave him: ''flagello dei principi'' ("scourge of princes"). The first [[English language|English]] translations of some of Aretino's racier material have been coming onto the market recently.  
- 
-''La cortigiana'' is a brilliant parody of [[Baldassare Castiglione|Castiglione’s]] ''[[The Book of the Courtier|Il Cortegiano]]'', and features the adventures of a Sienese gentleman, Messer Maco, who travels to Rome to become a [[cardinal (Catholicism)|cardinal]]. He would also like to win himself a mistress, but when he falls in love with a girl he sees in a window, he realizes that only as a courtier would he be able to win her. In mockery of Castiglione's advice on how to become the perfect courtier, a charlatan proceeds to teach Messer Maco how to behave as a courtier: he must learn how to deceive and flatter, and sit hours in front of the mirror.  
- 
-Aretino was a close friend of [[Titian]], who painted his [[portrait]] (''illustrations'') at least three times. The early portrait is a psychological study of alarming modernity. Clement VII made Aretino a [[Knight of Rhodes]], and [[Julius III]] named him a Knight of St. Peter, but the chain he wears for his [[1545]] portrait may have merely been jewelry. In his strictly-for-publication letters to patrons Aretino would often add a verbal portrait to Titian's painted one. 
- 
-== External links== 
-*[http://www.exploitz.com/book/History/Italian_Renaissance/53-Pietro-Aretino.php Jakob Burckhardt's severe assessment of Pietro Aretino] in ''Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy,'' 18 
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A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually a bishop, of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and making themselves available individually or collectively to the pope if he requests their counsel. Most cardinals have additional duties, such as leading a diocese or archdiocese or running a department of the Roman Curia.




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Cardinal (Catholicism)" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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