Cecchino dei Bracci

Cecchino Bracci.

Cecchino Bracci (real name Francesco de Zanobi Bracci) (Florence, 1527 – Rome, 8 January 1544) was a pupil of Michelangelo. He died at the age of sixteen and is buried in Santa Maria in Aracoeli, in a tomb designed by Michelangelo.

Life and legacy

The family Bracci had moved to Florence in 1395 from Vinci. In the 16th century they were among the richest of the Florentine banking families, and friends of the Medici. They acquired palazzo Neroni in via de' Ginori and a chapel in Santa Maria Novella.

Around 1540 Cecchino accompanied his uncle, Luigi del Riccio, to Rome where he had links with the Strozzi banking family. Cechino's beauty and manners made him welcome at the papal court. During his staying he met some of the major Florentine artists working in the city, including Michelangelo. It is likely that the two became lovers.

He died in 1544, and his devastated uncle begged Michelangelo to design the tomb and write some verses as an epitaph. On 12 January del Riccio wrote to his friend Donato Gionnoti, at Vicenza: "Alas, my friend Donato! Our Cecchio is dead. All Rome weeps. Michelangelo is making for me the design of a decent sepulture in marble; and I pray you to write me the epitaph, and to send it to me with a consolatory letter, if time permits, for my grief has distraught me. Patience! I live with a thousand and a thousand deaths each hour. O God! How has Fortune changed his aspect!"

Michelangelo composed more than forty-two epigrams of four lines each. In a letter to del Riccio Michelangelo wrote of Cecchino as "the flame who consumes me" and related a dream in which the boy "mocked my senile love"; also alluding to physical consummation in one of his quatrains: "Do yet attest for him how gracious I was in bed/ When he embraced, and in what the soul doth live." This was accompanied by a note advising Riccio to burn the last two lines "in the fire without witness", lest Michelangelo be disgraced.

Cecchino was buried in the church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli, one of the most ancient and sacred churches in Rome.

References in Michelangelo's Poetry

Bracci is seen in Michelangelo's poem G.193 where he laments that he did not get to know him for long enough. He states:

Scarce had I seen for the first time his eyes,

Which to your living eyes were life and light,

When, closed at last in death's injurious night,

He opened then on God in Paradise.

The tomb

References

Michelangelo

List of works
Key: *Attributed, †Lost

Sculptures

Florence, c. 1488–1492	†Head of a Faun Madonna of the Stairs Battle of the Centaurs Crucifix

Bologna, 1494–1495	Additions to the Arca di San Domenico (St Petronius, St Proclus, Angel)

Rome, 1496–1500	†Sleeping Cupid Bacchus †Standing Cupid Pietà

Florence, 1501–1505	David Madonna of Bruges Additions to the Piccolomini Altarpiece (Saints Peter, Paul, Pius and Gregory) Pitti Tondo Taddei Tondo St. Matthew

Tomb of Pope Julius II, 1505–1545	Moses Rebellious Slave Dying Slave Young Slave Bearded Slave Atlas Slave Awakening Slave The Genius of Victory Rachel Leah

Florence, 1516–1534	Christ Carrying the Cross Medici Chapel Giuliano de' Medici Night Day Dusk Dawn Medici Madonna Apollo Crouching Boy

Rome, 1534–1564	Brutus Florentine Pietà *Palestrina Pietà Rondanini Pietà

Paintings

Panel paintings	The Torment of Saint Anthony Manchester Madonna The Entombment Doni Tondo †Leda and the Swan

Salone dei Cinquecento	†Battle of Cascina

Sistine Chapel	Ceiling The Last Judgment

Cappella Paolina	The Martyrdom of St Peter

Architecture

Florence	New Sacristy and Laurentian Library in the Basilica of San Lorenzo

Rome	Piazza del Campidoglio Palazzo Farnese St. Peter's Basilica San Giovanni dei Fiorentini Porta Pia Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri

Works on paper	Study of a Kneeling Nude Girl for The Entombment Epifania

Milieu	Cecchino dei Bracci Tommaso dei Cavalieri Vittoria Colonna Ascanio Condivi Gherardo Perini Sebastiano del Piombo Febo di Poggio Luigi del Riccio

Related	Art patronage of Julius II Casa Buonarroti Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects Replicas of David Replicas of the Pietà Restoration of the Sistine Chapel frescoes

Wikimedia	Michelangelo at Wikimedia Commons Michelangelo at Wikiquote

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