Talk:Fra Giovanni da Verona

He was born in the Venetian city around 1457 and was soon initiated into monastic life in the order of the Benedictines and more precisely in the Olivetan congregation. In 1476 we know this in the abbey of Monte Oliveto Maggiore, near Siena , where he already works as a qualified sculptor.

The life among the Olivetan monks also constituted - according to the Benedictine motto "now and labora" - for Fra Giovanni an apprenticeship in the art of inlaying and woodworking: he learned the fundamentals of this art (the choice of woods, their treatment with impregnating substances, the cutting and fitting of strips, the use of mastics, etc.) by a converso called Fra Sebastiano da Rovigno.

We know that in 1493 he was active as an architect at the monastery of Santa Maria in Organo. The works for the choir stalls, with the magnificent inlaid espaliers - depicting views of ideal cities and Renaissance churches, images of saints, closets with objects of various kinds, etc. - they were executed between 1494 and 1499. In 1500, before going to Rome , for the celebrations of the jubilee, he had time to create the elegant lectern placed at the center of the choir.

The fame of his work - as attested by Vasari - soon did so that his art was sought in many parts of Italy and even by Pope Julius II.

He built between 1503 and 1506 the stalls of the abbey of Monteoliveto Maggiore, in part now placed in the cathedral of Siena. Between 1511 and 1512 he was in Rome, near the Vatican, where he made the benches and inlays for the Stanza della Segnatura. Then he was in Lodi, engaged in the work of the wooden choir of the Cathedral.

In 1519 we find the indefatigable Brother Giovanni again in Verona, where he was engaged until 1523 in the execution of his masterpiece: the back of the wardrobes placed on the right wall in the sacristy. In the large rectangular hall - frescoed by Francesco Morone with portraits of famous people who were received in the Benedictine order - Fra Giovanni realized the superb espalier divided into ten compartments formed by pairs of finely carved columns supporting the same arches in which they show itself inlays that, as usual, constitute an extraordinary collection of subjects of a different nature (landscapes, symbolic objects of the Passion, cabinets with books and polyhedra , poultry, etc.) Yasminekhiri (talk) 16:07, 22 February 2019 (UTC)

Stigmatization of St Catherine of Siena by BECCAFUMI, Domenico, www.wga.hu/bio_m/g/giovanni/verona/biograph.html.