Tuesday, February 9, 2016

BARBERINI PALACE - NATIONAL ART GALLERY (seventeenth part)

Room XXI - Earliest Caravaggisti

“The Holy Family with Angel and Sts. Elizabeth, Anna and John” about 1609 by Orazio Borgianni (1578/1616)
“The compositional structure of the painting depends, as it has been repeatedly pointed out, from Raphael prototypes (...), but the close viewpoint, the source of strong and definitely identified light, the thickening of the shadows and, above all, the extraordinary optical rendition of the basket of clothes in the bottom left corner, defined by Roberto Longhi, the most beautiful still-life of Italian 1600s and one of the most beautiful of the European 1600s, leaves no doubt on the exact Borgianni's adhesion to the naturalistic style” (Rossella Vodret)
“Madonna and Child with St. Anne” 1610 and “St. Cecilia and the Angel” about 1610 by Carlo Saraceni (1579/1620)
In the Madonna and Child with St. Anna the dove and the pillow have an accuracy that could be described as photographic. A true virtuosity
The painting was originally the altarpiece of the chapel of the Lancellotti family in the church of S. Simeon Prophet in Via dei Coronari, now no longer existing
“The Madonna and Child with St. Anne is the meeting point between the Venetian color choice, especially the dark green awning that recalls the prototypes of the first period of the sixteenth century, the perfect colors, and the composition inspired by Caravaggio with only three figures focused in a dialogue with gestures and theological meanings in the figure of St. Anne, with garments resembling those of the prophetess of the same name who attends the Presentation of the Lord in the Gospel” (Maria Giulia Aurigemma)
“In St. Cecilia and the Angel, the brilliant idea of the enormous wings of the divine messenger dominates the composition. The representation of St. Cecilia as patron saint of music is enjoying renewed success in 1599 after the body of this Roman martyr was found. Saraceni proved adept at combining the sacred theme of the patron saint of music with the most profane theme of the concert very common in genre painting among the followers of Caravaggio” (Official website of the Barberini Gallery - www.galleriabarberini.beniculturali.it)
“The good fortune” about 1618 by Simon Vouet (1590/1649)
The gypsy on the left distracts the traveler by reading his hand while the gypsy on the right robs him as she makes a gesture of scorn with her right hand
Room XXII - Devout Paintings between 1500s and 1600s

“Christ and Mary Magdalene” by the Florentine Agostino Ciampelli (1565/1630)
“Washing of the Feet” by Giovanni Baglione (1566/1643) study for the lost altarpiece for the Gregorian Chapel of the Basilica of St. Peter, the one that was derided by Caravaggio
“St. Francis in prayer” by Ludovico Cardi aka Cigoli (1559/1613)
“Cigoli was praised in his century as the great reformer who led the artists to abandon the exaggerated imitation of Michelangelo to adopt a more realistic style based on the tradition of fine Tuscan design (...). Modern criticism has focused its attention on Cigoli's stylistic sources, especially noting the prevalence of influences from Northern Italy or Tuscany and its contribution to the Florentine Baroque” (Miles Chappell - Biographical Dictionary of Italian Treccani)
“St. Francis in Prayer” about 1620 maybe by Carlo Saraceni (1579/1620) and assistants
“This St. Francis of Assisi in prayer, with bleak emphases, (original, according to Roberto Longhi, 1943, but, according to Alfred Moir, copy of a lost painting) was submitted for the exhibition of 2013 at Palazzo Venezia, to diagnostic tests that have highlighted the signs of repentance of a typical original painting, and therefore Rossella Vodret is now inclined to regard it as begun by the master, but completed by the assistants in the second decade of the seventeenth century” (Maria Giulia Aurigemma)
“Christ and the Samaritan woman” by G.B. Crespi aka Cerano (1567/1632)

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