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ARETINO, PIETRO (1492-1556)
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See also:ARETINO, PIETRO (1492-1556) , See also:Italian author, was See also:born in 1492 at See also:Arezzo in See also:Tuscany, from which See also:place he took his name. He is said to have been the natural son of See also:Luigi Bacci, a :See also:gentle-See also:man of the See also:town. He received little See also:education, and lived for some years poor and neglected, picking up such scraps of See also:information as he could. When very See also:young he was banished from Arezzo on See also:account of a satirical See also:sonnet which he composed against indulgences. He went to See also:Perugia, where for some See also:time he worked as a bookbinder, and continued to distinguish himself by his daring attacks upon See also:religion. After some years' wandering through parts of See also:Italy he reached See also:Rome, where his talents, wit and impudence commended him to the papal See also:court. This-AREZZO favour, however, he lost in 1523 by See also:writing a set of obscene sonnets, to accompany an equally immoral See also:series of drawings by the See also:great painter, Giulio Romano. He See also:left Rome and was received by Giovanni de' See also:Medici, who introduced him at See also:Milan to See also:Francis I. of See also:France. He gained the See also:good See also:graces of that monarch, and received handsome presents from him. Shortly after this Aretino attempted to regain the favour of the See also:pope, but, having come to Rome, he composed a sonnet against a See also:rival in some See also:low amour, and in return was assaulted and severely, wounded. He could obtain no redress from the pope, and returned to Giovanni de' Medici. On the See also:death of the latter in See also:December 1526, he withdrew to See also:Venice, where he afterwards continued to reside. He spent his time here in writing comedies, sonnets, licentious dialogues, and a few devotional and religious See also:works. He led a profligate See also:life, and procured funds to satisfy his needs by writing sycophantish letters to all the nobles and princes with whom he was acquainted, This See also:plan proved eminently successful, for large sums were given him, apparently from fear of his See also:satire. So great did Aretino's See also:pride grow, that he styled himself the " divine," and the " See also:scourge of. princes." He died in 1556, according to some accounts by falling from his See also:chair in a See also:fit of See also:laughter caused by See also:hearing some indecent See also:story of his sisters. The reputation of Aretino in his own time rested chiefly on his satirical sonnets or burlesques; but his comedies, five in number, are now considered the best of his works. His letters, of which a great number have been printed, are also commended for their See also:style. The dialogues and the licentious sonnets have been translated into See also:French, under the See also:title Academie See also:des Dames. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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