The son of Latino Condivi and Vitangela de' Ricci, Ascanio Condivi was a nobleman born in the town of
Ripatransone in the
Marche. He moved to
Rome in , where he became an acquaintance of Michelangelo. In 1553 he published
Vita di Michelagnolo Buonarroti, an authorised account of Michelangelo's life over which his subject had complete control. The
Vita was partly a rebuttal of hostile rumours that were being perpetuated about the artist, namely that he was arrogant, avaricious, jealous of other artists, and reluctant to take on pupils. It also served to correct inaccuracies Michelangelo found in the fawning biography of him in
Giorgio Vasari's ''
Vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori, ed architettori'' ("Lives of the most excellent painters, sculptors and architects"), which was later revised considerably by Vasari in the wake of Condivi's biography. Condivi's
Vita denies that Michelangelo was indebted to any other artist and claims that he was self-taught (he was in fact a pupil of
Domenico Ghirlandaio). Also, much is made of his supposed descent from the
Counts of Canossa, although this belief of Michelangelo's was utterly unfounded. Due to its literary qualities some scholars believe that the poet
Annibale Caro had a hand in the writing of the
Vita. After the publication of the
Vita Condivi returned to Ripatransone, where he undertook civic duties, married, and devoted himself to painting religious subjects. One of these paintings, the unfinished and ambiguously themed
Holy Family and other figures (now in the
Casa Buonarroti,
Florence), relied completely for its composition on a
cartoon provided by Michelangelo. The cartoon, known as the
Epifania as it was once erroneously believed to depict the
Epiphany, is now housed in the
British Museum,
London. Condivi died on 10 December 1574, because of a sudden flood while fording the
torrent , down the valley north of his birth town. ==References==