Post by Erfan Ullah Babar PhD

The 100 Most Influential Painters & Sculptors of the Renaissance 30. Ercole de' Roberti (c. 1451 – 1496) He was an Italian artist of the Early Renaissance and the School of Ferrara. He was profiled in Vasari's Le Vite delle più eccellenti pittori, scultori, ed architettori. The son of the doorkeeper at the Este castle, Ercole later held the position of court artist for the Este family in Ferrara. According to Vasari: Ercole had an extraordinary love of wine, and his frequent drunkenness did much to shorten his life, which he had enjoyed without any accident up to the age of forty, when he was smitten one day by apoplexy, which made an end of him in a short time. Paintings by Ercole are rare. His life was short and many of his works have been destroyed. Ercole de' Roberti is known to have collaborated in the frescoes of Palazzo Schifanoia. In 1480, Ercole created a large altarpiece with a Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints for Santa Maria in Porto in Ravenna, which is now in the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan. Portraits of Giovanni II Bentivoglio and Ginevra Bentivoglio attributed to Ercole de' Roberti (c. 1480) are in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.