BÁRBARO, DANIELE

(1513-1570)

   Member of the Venetian nobility and important patron of the arts. Daniele Barbaro was educated in Padua in philosophy, mathematics, and science. He was the founder of the Orto dei Semplici, the most important Padovese botanical garden, acting as its superintendent from 1545. From 1548 until 1550, Barbaro also acted as ambassador to England and, in 1550, he was elected Patriarch of Aquileia, an episcopal see transferred to Venice in 1450. In this capacity, he participated in the Council of Trent. In 1556, he published an edition of Vitruvius' De architectura with his own commentaries. Over a decade later, he also published the Pratica della prospettiva The Practice of Perspective, 1569, which includes a description of the camera obscura, a device used by artists as an aid in rendering three-dimensional scenes. Daniele was the patron of Andrea Palladio and Paolo Veronese, both working in his Villa Barbaro at Maser, the one building the structure and the other decorating it with frescoes. Titian painted his portrait in c. 1545 (Madrid, Prado).