(b Ripatransone, nr Ascoli Piceno, 1525; d nr Ripatransone, 10 Dec 1574).
Italian painter and writer. His work, unanimously considered mediocre, is now known through a few surviving religious paintings. He is known principally for his biography of Michelangelo. He moved to Rome c. 1545, where he established contact with Michelangelo and, in the early 1550s, wrote his Vita di Michelagnolo Buonarroti (1553). He probably wrote it directly under Michelangelo’s influence. Everyday details abound, and Condivi’s friendship with Michelangelo is stressed in order to contest certain aspects of Vasari’s biography (1550) and to defend Michelangelo from hostile allegations of his indifference to teaching, his arrogance, professional jealousy, avarice and homosexuality.
François Quiviger