“S. Pius V Ghislieri (1566/72) blesses in St. Peter's
Square a relic of the soil of Rome before sending it to the King of Poland” by Benedetto
Luti (1666/1724)
“Luti
painted scenes of great miracles, as was then customary, but he underlined the
nicely narrative tone, almost a historical document. The monumentality of the
scene is scaled down by the soft and clear paint, typical of the rococo grace”
(Official Web Site Barberini Gallery - www.galleriabarberini.beniculturali.it)
Four
paintings “Allegory of the four parts of the world: Europe, Asia, Africa and America“ about 1709
Models for
the mosaics in the spandrels of the vestibule of the Baptistry
Chapel in the Basilica of St. Peter eventually executed only in
the years 1724/26
The
presence in the Baptistry Chapel of the representation of the four continents
known at the time is symbolic of the desire on the part of the Catholic Church
to spread throughout the world the saving power of the Sacrament of Baptism
“Portrait of Cardinal Ottoboni” about 1700/05
“The
Venetian Pietro Ottoboni (1667/1740) was a patron of artists, musicians and
writers. (...) Despite the wealth of his office, his munificence was such to
find himself burdened with debts incurred for his patronage. (...) He was also
the chief patron and client of Trevisani, so much so that in 1698 he gave him
accommodation in the Palace of the Chancellery and appointed him as his Primo
Pittore (First Painter)” (Lorenza Mochi Onori)
Beautiful
and sensual “Mary Magdalene” about 1725, represented here with almost
theatrical flamboyance by Francesco Trevisani
(1656/1746) from Istria
“Strong
charge of monumentality, enhanced by the quite unusual framing, almost three
quarters, which sheds light on both the face and the nude and sensual body of
the saint, emerging from the shadows of the rocky background. (...) Pathetic
yearning of theatrical taste, much appreciated by Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni,
Trevisani patron and protector of the Arcadia” (Anna Lo Bianco)
“The large
portrait of the Quarantotti family, signed and dated 1756 on the pillar on the
left, celebrated their son preacher in distant lands, surrounded by family
members dressed in exotic way, in an atmosphere eccentric and suspended. The
picture, in addition to expressing the spreading of passion for the Orient, is
a polished piece of realism, anticipating Goya. But it's good to know that it
was Goya himself, in his sojourn in Rome in 1770, to copy a Benefial work in
his notebook, the Expulsion from Garden of Eden - shown here - clearly aware of
the innovative power of the paintings by this artist” (Official website of the
Barberini Gallery - www.galleriabarberini.beniculturali.it)
“The stories
of Hercules and Omphale and of Pyramus and Thisbe are united by a reference to
love as a passion that goes beyond human reason. They depict, in fact, Hercules
ranking as a maid and giving his club, a symbol of virility, to the queen
Omphale of Lydia, enslaved by love, and Thisbe who kills herself in front of
the body of the beloved Pyramus, who, in turn, committed suicide believing that
she had been torn by a wild beast” (Lorenza Mochi Onori)
Sketch for “St. Margaret of Cortona finds the corpse of her lover” in the Church
of S. Maria in Aracoeli, all works by the great Roman painter Marco Benefial (1684/1764)
“The
freshness of the sketch summarizes in a more immediate way than the finished
painting the scene of the discovery (...) with the contrast between the
pathetic attitude of the saint, the humorous note of the dog and the raw
description of the corpse, boldly foreshortened and placed in foreground,
featuring a detailed study of the nude, which in the final canvas will be
hidden by the branches and not so obvious. The figures placed in relief with
the use of light testify, among the numerous sources used by Benefial, even a
study of the Caravaggio's followers” (Lorenza Mochi Onori)
“Miracle of St. Joseph of Copertino” by Placido
Costanzi (1702/59)
In this
curious scene the patron saint of test takers, accustomed to levitate during
his ecstasies, heals the young nobleman Baldassarre Rossi who had gone crazy
all of a sudden, grabbing him by the hair and lifting him off the ground with
him
The
philological accuracy in representing the clothes of the previous century is
remarkable
Sketch of “Madonna
and Child with S. Filippo Neri (known as St. Philip Neri in English)” by Francesco
Mancini (1679/1758)
“The sketch
shows a remarkable fluidity and virtuosity of touch as evidence of a
development process of the finished work, leading Mancini to give precedence to
formal discipline over the urgency of pictorial expression, in a work of mental
construction of the work that is to be found in other cases, of which the most
famous is Canova, in the proto-neoclassical and neoclassical culture” (Lorenza
Mochi Onori)
“Madonna reading” by the Frenchman Pierre
Subleyras (1699/1749)
“Intimately
engaged in the widespread movement of return to nature and antiquity, his noble
but lively classicism was undoubtedly the most worthy of that label. Alien to
the exaggerated gestures of Baroque characters, or to the excessive affectation
of late Maratta taste, he was all aimed at a balanced composition and a conciseness
of volumes, favoring the opposition of masses of color, always based on a few
essential tones, with a predominance of large and picturesque expanses of white”
(Giancarlo Sestieri)
“Prophet Jeremiah with an Angel” and “Prophet Jeremiah with a Cherub” by Sebastiano
Conca (1680/1764)
Sketches
for the oval commissioned by Pope Clement XI Albani (1700/21) in 1718 for the central
nave of the Basilica of St. John Lateran
He
commissioned eleven more ovals, all with prophets, to the leading painters in
Rome at that time. Sebastiano Conca chose the version with the angel points to
the cross
“Portrait of Sir Robert Clive, Baron of Plassey” 1766 by Anton
von Maron (1733/1808)
“It wants to
be a celebration of the high position of the English nobleman, governor of
Bengal from 1757 to 1760, and is set in the tradition of the courtly portrait,
but it also becomes a representation, of outstanding effect and unique in its
kind, of British power in the colonies. The subjugation of the indigenous with
turban, caught while the Governor is issuing rules, wants to allude to the
civilizing role of the colonial power, while the curtains in the background
hint at the military role of the governor. (...) He had a bitter fate: after
his return to England he was subjected to a parliamentary inquiry into his
conduct in the colonies. He managed to be acquitted of the charge of
corruption, but he took his own life in 1774 for a depression caused by his
opium's vice” (Lorenza Mochi Onori)
“Portrait of Count Niccolò Soderini” by the great Pompeo Batoni from Lucca (1708/87)
Count
Soderini was the Tuscan consul in Rome and the dedicated patron of the Roman
painter Marco Benefial
No comments:
Post a Comment