Monday, January 18, 2016

BARBERINI PALACE - NATIONAL ART GALLERY (ninth part)

FIRST FLOOR
Room X - Fiorentines

Vault: “Flood” about 1612 by Antonio Viviani aka il Sordo (1560/1620) pupil of Federico Fiori aka Barocci
The painting refers to the 1612 wedding between Mario Sforza and Renée of Lorraine, who lived on this side of the building when it used to be the main body of Villa Sforza
In the frame there are the symbols of the two families in stucco: the dolphin for Lorraine and the lion for Sforza
These rooms on the first floor are the apartment built in 1597 for Ludovico Sforza
“Mary Magdalene” about 1501 by Piero di Cosimo (1462/1521) a pupil of Cosimo Rosselli, from whom he got his name and with whom he also worked in the Sistine Chapel
“Madonna with Child” by Domenico Puligo (1492/1527)
“Madonna of the girdle” maybe by Giovanni Lorenzo Larciani, formerly known as the Master of Kress Landscapes (1484/1527)
St. Thomas had a vision of the Virgin Mary who gave him the girdle as evidence which he had invoked of her Assumption to Heaven, to which he hadn't attended along with the other apostles
The story is told in an apocryphal text of the fifth or sixth century and the girdle is preserved in the Cathedral of Prato near Florence
“Madonna and Child with Sts. Joseph and Peter Martyr” and “Holy Family” about 1529 by Andrea d'Agnolo aka Andrea Del Sarto (1486/1531)
His art is a synthesis of compositions inspired by Raphael and technique which adopts the atmospheric chiaroscuro of Leonardo da Vinci
“The famous chiaroscuro of Andrea del Sarto with its smooth shades happily mitigates the hard chromatic Florentine style (...). Andrea is infinitely superior to most of his fellow Florentines for the sake of pleasing color and for pictorial harmony, even though his works, compared to those of the Venetians, however, have a look arbitrarily polychrome and coloristic. Nor should we wonder why in his compositions deep shadows give way to sudden light: Andrea is still a drawing-oriented Tuscan, who with these means seeks to increase the plasticity conquered by Michelangelo and, in the spirit of the new age, supports his efforts with contrasts of every kind” (Hermann Voss)
“Madonna and Child with St. John” by Tommaso di Stefano Lunetti (1490/1564)
This painting was inspired by a lost work by Raphael
“The fundamental matrix of his work is the manner of Lorenzo di Credi, his teacher, from whom Lunetti, according to Vasari, was able to imitate the clarity in the rendering of surfaces, polished and molded, evidenced by his widespread use of light. From the master he also took his extreme attention to detail, especially the faces, and the symmetry in placing the main figures” (Valerio Da Gai - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)

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