“Triptych”
with, on the front, “Pietà with Sts. Ermenegildo and Cecilia” and, on the back, “Michael the Archangel and Guardian Angel” about 1604 for Cardinal Odoardo
Farnese, and, perhaps, “Portrait of a Young Man” about 1592 by Annibale Carracci (1560/1609)
“In contact
with the work of Raphael and ancient art, Carracci developed the great
compositions with classic simplicity and inventive freedom, pursuing a
harmonious blend of the natural empirical world and classical tradition. (...)
It was too firmly emphasized the contrast between the eclectic classicism of
Annibale and rigorous anticlassicism of Caravaggio: in reality both are flatly
opposed to the Mannerist style, the first proposing to restore the sixteenth
century classicism, the second aiming at a total renewal of the contents and
forms of art. Huge was his influence in Italy and outside” (Enciclopedia
Treccani)
“Cupid Asleep” about 162 and “Magdalene” about 1632 by Guido
Reni (1575/1642) to whom is tentatively attributed also the portrait of “Beatrice Cenci”
The Cupid
Asleep was painted by Guido Reni on a wall of the palace in the presence of
Cardinal Francesco Barberini, to show his skills
“Guido
helped to create to a very considerable extent that second form of classicism
that, once exhausted the direct impulse of Raphael, was looking for a new
'perfect form', the Ideal in which incarnate” (Maria Antonietta De Angelis)
“Beatrice
Cenci, daughter of the rich and powerful Francesco Cenci, violent and dissolute
man, suffered the tortures of the father and was confined, along with her
stepmother, in the fortress of Petrella Salto, near Rieti. Exasperated by
constant ill-treatment and in accordance with the stepmother and two brothers,
also victims of their bullying father, she meditated her father's murder which
took place in 1598. Found out, after a trial followed by the entire citizenry,
she was sentenced to death by order of Clement VIII Aldobrandini (1592/1605),
who perhaps longed to seize the assets confiscated from the family. Beatrice
was decapitated on the square of Ponte Sant'Angelo in September 1599 in the
presence of a huge crowd of Romans and she immediately became a symbol of
oppressed innocence” (Rossella Vodret)
“Mary Magdalene” about 1625 and “Allegory of Peace” maybe by Simon Vouet (1590/1649)
“The
interpretation that he develops from his famous models met during his Italian
stay (Caravaggio and the great masters from Emilia) had the consent of Louis
XIII, of whom he became the official painter. At the head of a large group of
artists, Vouet executed many decorative projects in the residences of the
French nobility, with great success between the third and fourth decade of 1600”
(Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)
“St. Ursula with the Virgin Martyrs” about 1623 and “Venus plays the harp (Music)” about 1632 by Giovanni Lanfranco (1582/1647)
He was a
pupil of Agostino and Annibale Carracci and affirmed his genius in Rome with a
spectacular and daring painting style
Among the
Emilia painters he was the most at odds with the current classical painting and
championed freedom, becoming the most representative painter of the Roman
Baroque
“Penitent Mary
Magdalene” by Guido Cagnacci (1601/63) pupil of
Guido Reni, but influenced by Caravaggio
Among the
many Mary Magdalene in this museum this is undoubtedly the most blatantly
erotic
“Painting and Sculpture”, “St. Jerome sealing a letter”
1617, “Saul against David” and “Flagellation” about 1658 by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri aka Guercino (1591/1666)
“The stor
of the evolution of Guercino's style (...) is somewhat troubled. The works of
the early period (1615/20) are carried out with a bold, dramatic pictorially
('prima maniera gagliarda', early assertive style, it was later described by
the artist himself in a letter) and place him in the forefront among those
artists who in the second and third decades of the century were exploring
possibilities and defining the character of the style now known as 'baroque'.
On the other hand the experiences of his stay in Rome - especially the
classical influence of Domenichino and Guido Reni and his friendship with the
influential art theorist monsignore Agucchi, secretary of Gregory XV - prompted
in Guercino's style a definite deviation in the classical direction. The
vigorous dynamism of forms in space of his 'first manner' left room to a more
planimetric organization. The constant and independent movement of light on the
forms is converted into a gradation of warmer light that defines them” (Dwight
C. Miller - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)
“Self
Portrait” about 1615 by Orazio Borgianni (1578/1616)
“St. John
the Baptist points to Christ” and “Portrait of a Woman” by Pier Francesco Mola (1612/66)
“Portrait
of a Woman” by Ludovico Carracci (1555/1619)
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