the marriage of her daughter, and the fashion for hugely
expensive and spectacular shows of this nature continued
in the reigns of Henry IV (1589–1610) and Louis XIII
(1610–43). Costume designs surviving from the early
17th century, especially those by Daniel Rabel (1578–
1637), indicate the grotesque and humorous, as well as
the opulent, aspects of these ballets. The ballet de cour had
developed into the ballet as we know it by the end of the
17th century.
See also: MASQUE
Bandello, Matteo (1485–1561) Italian writer, cleric,
diplomat, and soldier
Bandello was born at Castelnuovo Scrivia, near Tortona,
and educated in Milan and at Pavia university. Among
other appointments in Lombardy, he was tutor to Lucrezia
GONZAGA. After the Spanish attack on Milan following the
battle of PAVIA(1525), in which he lost his house and
many documents, he fled to France. In 1550 he was made
bishop of Agen, where he spent the rest of his life.
His works include a collection of Petrarchan verse (Il
Canzoniere, 1544) and an Italian version of Euripides’
Hecuba, but it was his prose Novelle (1554, 1573) con-
taining 214 stories, which made him famous and initiated
a new phase in narrative literature. Bandello did not aim
at classical dignity in his writing, but he did help promote
the vernacular as the literary language of Italy. Containing
a extraordinary variety of tales, the collection was also an
important source for later Renaissance playwrights who
drew on it either directly or in translation (SHAKESPEARE,
for instance, utilized Bandello’s “Giulietta e Romeo”).
Bandinelli, Baccio (Bartolommeo Bandinelli) (1488–
1560) Italian sculptor in marble and bronze
He was born in Florence and after training under his gold-
smith father, worked with RUSTICI, the sculptural associate
of LEONARDO DA VINCI. His career was dedicated to trying
in vain to equal the sculpture of MICHELANGELO, in a series
of commissions from the MEDICI FAMILY, both in Florence
and Rome; many of these remained unfinished. Much of
his original monumental statuary can be criticized: for ex-
ample, the Hercules and Cacus (1534; Piazza della Signo-
ria, Florence), which he pretentiously carved as a pair of
Michelangelo’s David. His best work is either closely based
on classical statuary, like the Laocöon in the Uffizi, Flo-
rence (1525), or is in low relief, like the Prophets in the
choir of Florence cathedral (1555). As court sculptor to
Duke Cosimo I, he was a rival of CELLINI, who attacked
him in his autobiography. He also produced portraits,
bronze statuettes, paintings, and drawings, most of which
are still in Florence.
banking Renaissance banking was basically the same as
medieval banking, with a few great houses offering mer-
chant banking services (particularly long-distance money
transfer and the provision of loans). The first such organi-
zation was that of the KNIGHTS TEMPLAR, who by 1200
were in effect bankers to the kings of England and France.
The 13th century saw the rise of the great Italian houses—
the ACCIAIUOLI, BARDI, and Peruzzi of Florence, the Fres-
cobaldi of Lucca, and others—who used the capital
amassed in trade to move into banking. With kings always
short of cash for major enterprises, especially wars, these
bankers quickly became immensely wealthy and influen-
tial. However, this had its risks: the default of Edward III
of England (1341) bankrupted the Peruzzi (1343), Ac-
ciaiuoli (1345), and Bardi (1346). Later bankers, such as
the MEDICIand Spinelli, adopted a more decentralized or-
ganization, so the failure of one branch could not ruin the
whole company, and in general took fewer risks.
Italian dominance continued until the end of the 15th
century, when economic and political changes shifted the
focus northwards. After 1494, when Charles VIII of
France captured Florence, the Medici bank ceased to func-
tion. The great bankers of the 16th century were the FUG-bbaannkkiinngg 4433Baccio BandinelliHercules and Cacus (1534). The sculpture
records the exploit of Hercules in which he killed the giant
Cacus, who had stolen some of the hero’s cattle. It stands in
the Piazza della Signoria, Florence.
The Bridgeman Art Library