Room
XVI - Portraits
Vault: “Triumph of Divine Wisdom” surrounded by nine figures
personifications of her virtuous attributes: Eternity, Sweetness, Divinity,
Justice, Fortitude, Charity, Holiness, Purity, Beauty and Insight 1629/33
masterpiece by Andrea Sacchi (1599/1661) for
Prince Taddeo Barberini
The small stars
represent the positon of the sky on the very night of the election of Urban
VIII, August 6, 1623
The
position of the sun on the breast of the Divine Wisdom in the center of the
composition and of the great globe decentralized and almost handled by the
scepter in the hands of the allegorical figure seem to leave no doubt about the
awareness by Sacchi of the recent heliocentric theories of Copernicus and
Galileo
“Unlike
Pietro da Cortona, who conceived the allegorical fresco like a historical epic,
with a main subject and many episodes, and therefore animated by groups of
figures, Sacchi proposed compositions with fewer figures comparing the painting
to tragedy of which structural foundations are unity and simplicity.
Privileging compositions with fewer figures Sacchi followed the classical
theory that considered the historical painting as a representation of human
emotions, gestures, expressions: in fact, only focusing on the essential
characters the artist would have a better chance of making them come alive”
(Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)
“The
Parnassus by Raphael was his model. He gave up illusionism and painted the
scenes as if they were framed pictures, an easel painting. But he did not
return to the position of Bolognese classicism, because his painting has no
frame and the whole ceiling is its background. As the affinity with Domenichino
cannot be neglected, his free running touch is much closer to Lanfranco's”
(Rudolf Wittkower)
His style
in portraits explores the psychology of the characters much more than Albrecht
Dürer or Hans Holbein did, who were anyway an inspiration for his art
The
psychological research is alive in this stunning portrait of his friend Erasmus
of Rotterdam as he is translating the letter of St. Paul to the Romans
“In the
portrait, which espouses the physiognomy, however, there is no place for the
psychological insight of the monarch, represented as a living icon of power”
(Official website of the Barberini Gallery - www.galleriabarberini.beniculturali.it)
“With the
same selective rigor that inspires the haughty reserve of the characters he
portrays, Bronzino lets filter in a formal and very accurate sieve distillation
only the more terse colors, the most polished linear ductus, the most
crystalline light. His painting is at the same time clearly allusive and
anti-naturalistic, because it uses a subtly metaphoric stylistic formula. He
doesn't mimic reality as it happens but a version already ennobled by artifice
of an exquisite technique and the subtle evocation of rare and shiny materials.
As in poetry of Pietro Bembo, the metaphor has a subliminal purpose: it locks
the image in the stillness of a world perpetually pristine, it takes it away
from the corrosion of time and from promiscuity with the banal mediocrity of
everyday life, sealing it under the glass bell of a very high exercise in style”
(Antonio Pinelli)
“An isolated
figure, with that sharp look that distinguishes it from all others, observed
and reproduced pictorially with rare poignancy, speaks to the audience with
unprecedented strength and immediacy” (Hermann Voss)
“Portrait
of Cardinal Giovanni Ricci” about 1574 by Scipione
Pulzone (about 1550/98)
Clelia
Farnese was the daughter of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese and the mistress of
Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici
“Portrait of Francesco II Colonna” by Girolamo Siciolante da Sermoneta (1521/80)
It is an
exceptional portrait of a character remaining mysterious but perhaps linked to
the Gonzaga court for the motto on the medal
“Portrait
of young twenty year old” by Niccolò dell'Abate
(about 1510/71)
“One of the
most brilliant representatives of the Emilian Mannerism, he was educated
looking at the art of Dossi, Correggio and Parmigianino. With personal and
refined language and vivid sense of color, he tackled themes from literature
and from reality, favoring love and landscape genres” (Enciclopedia Treccani)
“Portrait
of Cesare Cavalcabò” beginning of 1600s by Giovanni
Ambrogio Figino (1553/1608) a painter who was a big influence for
Caravaggio
“Portrait
of a Gentleman” by Federico Zuccari (about
1542/1609)
“Portrait
of Sulpizia Petrucci” by Andrea del Brescianino
(about 1485/1525)
“Portrait
of a Gentleman” by Girolamo da Carpi (1501/56)
