Showing posts with label Pier Leone Ghezzi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pier Leone Ghezzi. Show all posts

Sunday, May 24, 2020

TRICLINIUM OF POPE LEO

TRICLINIO LEONIANO
Piazza di S. Giovanni in Laterano

1743 Ferdinando Fuga (1699/1782) for Benedict XIV Lambertini (1740/58)
Partial reconstruction of the ancient triclinium erected by St. Leo III (795/816) as the dining room of the Patriarchìo (Patriarchate palace)

MOSAIC
“Jesus and eleven apostles” with on the left “Jesus gives the keys to St. Peter and the banner to Constantine” and on the right “St. Peter offers the bishops’ pallium to Leo III and the banner to Charlemagne” 1743 by Pier Leone Ghezzi (1674/1755)

Ghezzi used very few original elements but executed it as a copy of the original, prudently documented by Pier Paolo Cristofari before being destroyed. He had tried to move it of 180 degrees without success
It was originally executed at the time of the institution of the Holy Roman Empire by Charlemagne on the year 800

Friday, August 12, 2016

CORSINI PALACE - CORSINI GALLERY (ninth part)

Room VIII - Room of paintings for canonizations
“The room houses a large group of paintings executed for the solemn ceremony of beatification and canonization which took place in 1737 in the Basilica of St. John Lateran under Pope Clement XII. This is a unique in Roman collectibles that demonstrates the willingness of Neri Maria Corsini to group paintings in a dedicated room for this specific function and celebrate the role of 'procurator fidei' he played during that ceremony” (Official Website of the Galleria Corsini - galleriacorsini.beniculturali.it)
At the center of the room “Fragment of red amber” that may have come from the Baltic Sea
“Ecstasy of S. Caterina de' Ricci” 1737 or 1746 by Agostino Masucci (1691/1758) who also painted “S. Andrea Corsini” 1733/34 copy of an original by Guido Reni which was also copied as a mosaic by Pietro Paul Cristofari in the Corsini Chapel in the Basilica of St. John Lateran
“The staging of the miraculous event highlights a compelling desire to historicize the sacred drama, ahead of French paintings of the second half of the century. (...) (In the S. Andrea Corsini) Masucci reached a high level of extraordinary mimetic virtuosity, but not giving up in his own interpretation of the seventeenth-century model in his absolute clarity of design and cool color tones” (Valerio Da Gai - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)
“Preaching of S. Vincenzo de' Paolis” 1737 by Giacomo Zoboli (1681/1767)
“Vision of S. Caterina Fieschi” by Marco Benefial 1737 (1684/1764)
“Everything is polished, thoughtful and tangible in the sacred appearance. The serious heaviness of Christ walking under the weight of the Cross, trampling his own blood, is opposed to the stylish sophistication of the dress of the woman, an antithesis that perfectly captures the node of the story (the conversion of the frivolous lady from Genoa) outside of any formal flattery, playing only with the obvious concreteness of things shown. A compositional rigor unique in Rome at the time” (Angela Negro)
“Death of S. Giuliana Falconieri” by Pier Leone Ghezzi (1674/1755)
Mosaic with “Portrait of Pope Clement XII Corsini and Cardinal Neri Maria Corsini” about 1731 by Pietro Paolo Cristofari (1685/1743) who in 1727 founded the institution known as Studio del mosaico al Vaticano (Vatican Mosaic Studio) still operating today
“The prototype of the mosaic also executed by Masucci is kept in the Corsiniana Library. With the easy comparison between the two works it is possible to admire the technical capacity of Cristofari, able to reproduce with great fidelity the model even in the colors” (Sivigliano Alloisi)
Some of the Works Kept in Storage
“Portrait of Bernardo Clesio” by Joos Van Cleve (about 1485/1540)
“Portrait of a Man” about 1540 by Pier Francesco Foschi (about 1502/67)
“Hunters” by the Dutch Philips Wouwerman (1619/68)
“St. John and Angels” and “Flight into Egypt” by Carlo Maratta (1625/1713)
“St. Agnes” by the Florentine Carlo Dolci (1616/86)
“Portrait of James III Stuart, pretender to the English throne” by the French François De Troy (1679/1752)
“St. Francis resurrects a dead man” by Andrea Sacchi (1599/1661)
“St. Joseph” by Guido Reni (1575/1642)
“Lamentation over the Dead Christ” by Sisto Badalocchio (1585/1645)
“Jupiter sends Mercury to Apollo” maybe by Francesco Albani (1578/1660)
“Nymphs and Satyrs” by Francesco Trevisani (1656/1746)
“Country” by Paolo Anesi (1697/1773)

Monday, April 11, 2016

BRASCHI PALACE - MUSEUM OF ROME (third part)

FIRST FLOOR
The Popes

ROOM 1
Pius VI: The ancient city and the major works
“Portrait of Pope Pius VI” by the great painter from Lucca 1775 Pompeo Batoni (1708/87)
“Batoni, going back to the Roman tradition of the early eighteenth century, but not forgetting the new impulses from French and English schools, creates a new way to portray: the perfect physiognomic rendering combines psychological analysis of the character, often depicted in a setting that, in objects and in the landscape, reminds of his intellectual interests” (Anna Maria De Strobel)
Large “Portrait of Pius VI” about 1776 by Giovanni Domenico Porta (1722/80)
Marble bust “Pius VI” after 1788 by Giuseppe Ceracchi (1751/1801)
Paintings “The abduction of Helen” 1784 and “The Death of Achilles” 1785 by the Scottish Gavin Hamilton (1723/98)
ROOM 2
Pius VI: The ancient city and the major works
“Allegory of the Museum Pius Clementine in the Vatican” about 1788 by Bernardino Nocchi (1741/1812)
Tempera on canvas model for the decoration of the ceiling of the Sala del Cantone in the Palazzo della Consulta. Painting, Architecture and Sculpture are invited by the Genius of the Arts to visit the Museum Pius Clementine
“Pius VI visiting the Pontine Marshes” 1786 by Abraham Louis Rodolphe Ducros
ROOM 3
The papal court
“Terracotta bust of Cardinal Maurizio of Savoy” 1635 by François Duquesnoy (1597/1643)
“Profile portraits of Innocent XIII Conti (1721/24) and of Cardinal Ludovico Sergardi” after 1724 by Pietro Bracci (1700/73) or Filippo Della Valle (1698/1768)
“Terracotta bust of Innocent XII Pignatelli (1691/1700)” 1694/96 maybe by Domenico Guidi (1625/1701)
“Busto in marmo di Clemente XII Corsini (1730/40)” di Filippo Della Valle (1698/1768)
“The bust, which reveals the sculptor's ability to capture the facial features within the limits of an idealizing style, was placed in 1818 on the Marforio Fountain in Piazza del Campidoglio, under the inscription for the inauguration of the Museum of Sculpture in the Palazzo Nuovo, opened in 1734 by Clement XII” (Sign posted in the museum by the work)
“Marble bust of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni” 1670/80 maybe by Domenico Guidi (1625/1701)
He was pope for a year and a half with the name of Alexander VIII (1689/91)
“Terracotta Bust of Cardinal Paluzzo Paluzzi degli Albertoni” about 1698 by the Florentine Lorenzo Merlini (1666/1745)
“A stylistic language rich in refined eclecticism, borrowed mainly from the Tuscan and Roman schools. If typical of G.B. Foggini (his Florentine teacher) are, in fact, the shape and the anatomical definition of the figure, typical of Lorenzo Ottoni, leading figure of the Roman sculptural portraiture in the late Baroque age, appear to be the strong expressive characterization of the face, deferential, markedly, to the style common in Rome between Bernini’s death (1680) and the eighteenth century” (Sandro Bellesi - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)
ROOM 4
The papal court
“Corpus Christi procession in St. Peter's Square” about 1646 by an anonymous artist of the seventeenth-century before the construction of the colonnade of Bernini with the bell tower still on the façade

ROOM 5
The papal court
“The portrait of Clement XI is considered one of the most significant examples of the portraits of the artist, based on intensive physiognomic characterization, almost caricatured traits, and a search for immediacy of gestures and expressions, accentuated by the rapid treatment of the subject and by the fringed painting” (Brief Guide to the Museum of Rome)
“Portrait of Cardinal Giacomo Rospigliosi” about 1669 maybe by Carlo Maratta (1625/1713)
“Portrait of Cardinal Giovan Francesco Ginetti” about 1681 maybe by G.B. Gaulli aka Baciccio (1639/1709)

Monday, March 7, 2016

BARBERINI PALACE - NATIONAL ART GALLERY (twenty-sixth part)

Room XXXIII - Fabrizio and Fiammetta Lemme Donation. Designing Great Art

Preparatory sketches for paintings on canvas in the nave of St. Clement executed in the years 1711/16 including “Glory of St. Clement” by Giuseppe Chiari (1654/1727) for the ceiling of the church
“As it has been pointed out, the central figure is derived from the assumption of Annibale Carracci in S. Maria del Popolo, but the reference point is the Allegory of Mercy painted by Carlo Maratta in Palazzo Altieri in 1676. Fidelity to the text of his teacher borders here on plagiarism, or perhaps indicates the use of the original cartoons, in the group of two putti supporting the anchor down” (Lorenza Mochi Onori)
“Stories of St. Clement and St. Ignatius of Antioch” for the walls of the church by some of the best painters in Rome in the second decade of 1700s:
“Death of S. Servolo” by Tommaso Chiari (1665/1773) brother of Giuseppe
“Among the works of this cycle it is one of those that show 'more intensely maratta-like' features. With a composition of light classical approach proposing 'in decidedly eighteenth century tone, the golden language of Raphael'. The peculiar character of this sketch that marks also other works by De Pietri (for example, the Madonna and Child with Saints in S. Maria in Via Lata) is this intimate aspect, and it is one of the most original outcomes of Maratta's period' (Casale)” (Lorenza Mochi Onori)

“Martyrdom of St. Clement” by Giovanni Antonio Grecolini (1675/1725)
“Translation of the body of St. Clement” by Giovanni Odazzi (1663/1731)
“The sketch shows less freshness than the final version as a fresco. Some indecisions show up affecting mainly the faces of St. Clement and the prelate behind. The prelate knelt before the body of St. Clement recalls a figure of G.B. Gaulli, the St. Nicholas, in the altarpiece in St. Mary Magdalene, which inspired Odazzi some other times as well” (Lorenza Mochi Onori)
“Trajan condemning St. Ignatius of Antioch” by Giovanni Domenico Piastrini (1678/1740)
“St. Ignatius of Antioch meets St. Polycarp in Smyrna” by Giacomo Triga (1674/1746) pupil of Benedetto Luti
“Giacomo Triga, little-known pupil of Benedetto Luti, a virtuoso of the Pantheon, worked for the Patrizi and the Theodoli families, and in some Roman churches such as the Basilica of Sts. John and Paul, St. Francis of Paola and S. Marcello al Corso” (Lorenza Mochi Onori)
“Martyrdom of St. Ignatius of Antioch” by Pier Leone Ghezzi (1674/1755)
“As Casale mentioned, this painting by Ghezzi in the Clementine series is presented as 'the less academic and more whimsical of the group' and 'hard to the limits of unpleasantness. But original' due 'to an compositional vehemence impatient of conventions and rules of composition” (Lorenza Mochi Onori)
“Miracle of St. Clement in the Crimea” by Sebastiano Conca (1680/1764)
“It has been emphasized the differentiation of this sketch from the rest of the series for both the bright colors with respect to the general preference for crayon-like colors, and for the adoption of a small size that allows the presence of several figures without creating a scrum. ( ...) It as also noted by Casale (1998) that it is the masterpiece of the clementine series, a work in which the author reconciles the update on Maratti's reforms with a style that 'shows an early Rococo expression' (Sestieri)” (Francesca Mochi Onori)
The “Abandonment of Moses” and the “Sacrifice of Isaac” by Domenico Corvi (1721/1803) from Viterbo
They are models for the paintings in the side chapel of the Virgin of Seven Sorrows in S. Marcello al Corso, showing with their bright colors the influence of Corrado Giaquinto's painting
Extraordinary “Assumption of the Virgin” by Ludovico Mazzanti (1686/1775) a Gaulli's student, sketch for the 1720 fresco on the ceiling of the left transept of S. Ignatius
“Death of S. Joseph” 1712 by Francesco Trevisani (1656/1746) from Istria
It is a study for the altarpiece of the second chapel on the right in the church of St. Ignatius
Sketch of “Last meeting of Sts. Peter and Paul” for the 1766 canvas in the church of S. Lucia al Gonfalone, and preparatory sketch of '“Adoration of the Magi”, a work in S. Giuseppe alla Lungara, by the Sicilian Mariano Rossi (1731/1807)
“In the Last meeting of Sts. Peter and Paul mix, in a studied intersection of levels that follow the development of the action, relations with the work of Corrado Giaquinto but, as Giancarlo Sestieri pointed out, in an 'extreme simplification of form, based on an essentially linear conciseness' and 'developed especially in the footsteps of Marco Benefial and Francesco Mancini'“ (Lorenza Mochi Onori)
“Allegories of the four elements: water, air, fire and earth” 1767/68 by the Roman Stefano Pozzi (1699/1768) for the lunettes of the vault of a Cabinet in the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj