CORSINI PALACE - CORSINI GALLERY (eight part)

Room VII - Green Room

“Cardinal Andrea Corsini used the room as a new Audience Hall and for this purpose he placed here a series of paintings of great quality and indicative of his aesthetic taste. The current exhibit, unable to reproduce the original layout, includes a selection of works that entered the collection after the death of Neri Maria (1770). The date in mosaic under the window (1858) recalls the reconstruction of the floors in Venetian style” (Official Website of the Galleria Corsini - galleriacorsini.beniculturali.it)

Marble sculpture “Psyche carried by the Zephyrs” by the Welsh pupil of Canova John Gibson (1790/1866)

Marble sculpture “Dancer with Finger on her Chin” by Luigi Bienaimè (1795/1878)

Precious “Corsini Cup” in silver dating back to the first century BC

“St. John the Baptist” 1606 by Michelangelo Merisi aka Caravaggio (1571/1610)

“The figure of three quarters of this precursor dark and handsome dandy turns his head out of the field, observing something, while the intensity of his gaze, felt just below the thick mass of hair, is perhaps the poetically higher moment of the composition” (Vincenzo Pacelli)

“Madonna and Child” by Bartolomè Esteban Murillo (1618/82)

“Undisputed protagonist of the second half of the seventeenth century, he ushers in a new pictorial language. He opposes to the local tradition a conventional narrative representation made with delicate chiaroscuro, far away from the strong contrasts of light of Zurbaran. His appearance on the scene of Seville was in opposition to the current style, showing novelties from his knowledge of contemporary Neapolitan and Genoese production. An anti-rhetorical vein characterizes the production of religious subjects, where the sacred episodes are similar to scenes from everyday life” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)

“Venus and dead Adonis” 1637 by Jusepe de Ribera aka Spagnoletto (1591/1652)

“The original myth told in Ovid's Metamorphoses is enriched from the fourteenth century of new metaphorical meanings, which compare the figure of Adonis that of Jesus. As G.B. Marino, who in his famous poem Adonis (1623) explicitly alludes to the sacrifice of Christ, Ribera representing Adonis with an obvious wound on the side takes up the theme of the Passion” (Official Website of the Galleria Corsini - galleriacorsini.beniculturali.it)

“Entry of Christ in Jerusalem” by Luca Giordano (1634/1705)

“Herodias with the Head of St. John the Baptit” about 1625 by Simon Vouet (1590/1649)

“Particular attention is paid to the material quality of fabric and to the expression of the face of the protagonist, who shows his macabre trophy. Declined in the painting are the many different stimuli and influences in the formation of the French painter: the realism of Caravaggio's matrix on one hand, and the colors, the drapery and the preciousness of the Venetian school on the other “(Official website of the Corsini Gallery - galleriacorsini.beniculturali.it)

“Judith with the Head of Holofernes” by the Flemish painter Gerard Seghers (1591/1651)

“Annunciation” by Marcello Venusti (about 1512/79). It is a copy of a lost original by Michelangelo Buonarroti for the Cesi Chapel in S. Maria della Pace

“Tribute of money” by Mattia Preti (1613/99)

“St. George and the Dragon” by Francesco Raibolini aka Francia (1450/1517)

“Sinite Parvulos” the Frenchman Nicolas Tournier (1590/post 1657)

“Homer” by Pier Francesco Mola (1612/66)

“Mary Magdalene” by Francesco Trevisani (1656/1746)

“In Rome since 1678 he got closer to the circle of Carlo Maratta and of the Arcadia, developing a rococo style composed and refined, with tones graceful and pathetic” (Enciclopedia Treccani)

“Nativity” about 1748 by Pompeo Batoni (1708/87) with a spectacular frame

“Resurrection of Lazarus” by Giuseppe Cesari aka Cavalier d'Arpino (1568/1640)

“Madonna of the Rose” by Massimo Stanzione (1585/1656)

“In Rome, the knowledge of the works by Caravaggio and the Carraccis, as well as Domenichino and Guido Reni (present in those years in Naples) led him to an attempt to mediate between the two modes. Following the sharp naturalism of the early works (...), looking at Simon Vouet and Guido Reni, he developed a style characterized by elegant and refined shapes of color, light and bright tones. Leading personality in Naples, he had a profound influence also in the opening to the baroque, clear in his later works” (Enciclopedia Treccani)

“St. Peter freed by the Angel” by Johann Heinrich Schoenfeld (1609/83)

“The crowning with thorns” copy from Antoon Van Dyck (1599/1641)

Panel “Madonna with Child, Saints and scenes from the life of Christ” an early work by Giovanni di Jacopo di Guido aka Giovanni da Milano (active 1346/69)

Panel with “Coronation of the Virgin Mary” by Andrea di Cione aka Orcagna (active 1343/68)

Two panels long and narrow with “Apostles” by the Venetian Niccolò di Pietro (active 1394/1430)

Triptych “Madonna and Child, Saints and Crucifixion” by the Master of S. Verdiana (active 1370/1400)

“Madonna and Child” and “Madonna and Child with Sts. Jerome and Francis” by an unknown artist of the Florentine school

“Triptych” by an unknown artist of the Florentine school

“Madonna and Child” by an unknown artist of the Viterbo-Umbrian school of the fifteenth century

“Still life with fish and shellfish” by the mysterious Neapolitan Marco de Caro (Eighteenth century)

“Still Life with Peaches” and “Still life with peaches and grapes” by Jan Decker (Eighteenth century)

Above the doors “Flowers and fruit (Autumn and Winter)” and “Flowers and fruit (Spring and Summer)” by the Flemish Abraham Brueghel (1631/97)

Seven beautiful still lives by the German Christian Berentz (1658/1722): “The elegant snack”, “Clock”, “The Fly”, “Roman Vegetables”, “Still life with Mascherone (Big Mask)”, “Fruit”, “Preparations for Dinner” and “Casino dell’Aurora (Aurora Lodge)” where it is possible to recognize the Aurora Casino of the Ludovisi family

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

Other Works in the Museum Storage

“St. Sebastian between Onorato II and Pietro Bernardino Caetani d'Aragona” about 1481 by Antonio Aquili aka Antoniozzo Romano (about 1435-40/1508)

“This painting on board is revealing of the versatility of Antoniazzo in different areas of his artistic production (...): a versatility that is expressed in the production of frescoes as well as in the paintings for private devotion or in the sceneries for religious events, always accommodating the needs of his clients, using an entrepreneurship approach which is probably the main reason for the difficulty of rebuilding the catalog of the artist. (...) The painting in Palazzo Barberini synthesizes, for example, his familiarity with the tradition of icons and his knowledge of classical art, evident in the vivid representation of St. Sebastian, and at the same time suggests the skills of the painter for portraits and landscape compositions. (...) The setting is similar to the plain of Fondi and the mountain in the background was recently recognized as being Monte Sant'Angelo near Terracina” (Daniele Ferrara)

“Juno and Argus” by the so-called Maestro della Betulla (Master of the Birch) (active 1630/40)

“Allegory of Peace” maybe by Simon Vouet (1590/1649)

“Sacrifice of Isaac” about 1625 by Orazio Riminaldi (1593/1630)

“Rest on the Flight into Egypt” about 1640 by Angelo Caroselli (1585/1652)

“The Flight into Egypt” about 1625 by Andrea Ansaldo (1584/1638)

“Judith and Holofernes” about 1636 by the Florentine Francesco Furini (1603/46)

“Influenced by Guido Reni, he produced paintings of soft sensuality. The tones of flesh made with ultramarine blue and shaded to give his pictures a sweet taste, soft, but no one can deny that he had a special gift to play the melodic line of the body women, thus revealing its attachment to the Mannerist tradition” (Rudolf Wittkower)

“Still Life with Tuberous Root” maybe by Luca Forte (about 1600/70)

“Cain and Abel” by Pietro Novelli aka Monrealese (1603/47)

“Samson and Delilah” by the Dutchman Matthias Stom (about 1600/50)

“The doughnut maker” 1630 by the so-called Bamboccio (Puppet) Pieter Van Laer (about 1595/1642)

“Country scene” and “Figures in a tree lined road” about 1640/50 landscapes by Angeluccio (fl. 1640/50) and figures by Michelangelo Cerquozzi (1602/60)

Four gouache on paper for Cardinal Francesco Barberini's tapestries now at the Philadelphia Museum of Art:

“Constantine destroying idols”, “Naval Battle of Crispus against Abate”, “Constantine kills the lion” and “Constantine burns the Decretals” about 1631 by Pietro Berrettini aka Pietro da Cortona (1597/1669)

“The massacre of Niobe” 1638/39 and “The Hunt of Diana” 1638/39 by Andrea Camassei (1602/49)

Four anamorphosis: “Portrait of Louis XIII”, “St. Francis of Paola”, “Scene of Marriage” and “Louis XIII before the crucifix” about 1635 by Jean François Niceron (1613/46)

BARBERINI PALACE - NATIONAL ART GALLERY (nineteenth part)

Room XXIV - Painters from the Emilia Region

“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)

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

“Madonna and Child with Sts. Mary Magdalene, Dominic and Francis” 1633 by Pietro Paolini (1603/81) from Lucca

“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)