Artists: Giorgio Vasari, Carlo Maratta, Gioacchino Martorana, Paolo Caliari/Veronese, Ventura di Archangelo Salimbeni, Luca Cambiasi/Cangiagio, Guido Reni, Francesco Solimena, Doménikos Theotokopoulos, Francisco Rizi, Domenico Campagnola, Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, Lazzaro Baldi
Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574)
The Coronation of the Virgin
Pen and brown ink
7 x 23 cm. (2 3/4 x 9 in)
Giorgio Vasari (30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian painter, architect, writer and historian, most famous for his "Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects", considered the ideological foundation of art-historical writing.
Often called "the first art historian", Vasari invented the genre of the encyclopedia of artistic biographies, which was first published in 1550. He was the first to use the term "Renaissance" (rinascita) in print, and he was responsible for our use of the term Gothic Art, though he only used the word Goth which he associated with the "barbaric" German style. The book was partly rewritten and enlarged in 1568, with the addition of woodcut portraits of artists (some conjectural).
The work has a consistent and notorious bias in favour of Florentines and tends to attribute to them all the developments in Renaissance art...
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Circle of Carlo Maratta (1625-1713)
Study of Christ Child, with left arm outstretched grasping an apple, supported by the hand of another
Black chalk on laid paper
24 x 17.5 cm. (9 1/2 x 6 7/8 in)
Carlo Maratta or Maratti (13 May 1625 – 15 December 1713) was an Italian painter, active mostly in Rome, and known principally for his classicizing paintings executed in a Late Baroque Classical manner. Although he is part of the classical tradition stemming from Raphael, he was not exempt from the influence of Baroque painting and particularly in his use of colour.
Circle of Gioacchino Martorana (c.1735-1779)
David La unta va da Samueli
Samuel anointing David, who kneels surrounded by figures
Pen and brown ink, with grey wash, over graphite
left 17 x 14 cm. (6 3/4 x 5 1/2 in)
Gioacchino Martorana ( Palermo , 1735 - 1779 ) was a painter Italian .
Son of the painter Pietro, from whom he received his the first art lessons. In 1749 he went to Rome for an apprenticeship from "the Conca", directed by Vasi, a disciple of his father.
Then Martorana was a student of Benefial, which was an Academic of San Luca, again thanks to recommendations of Vasi, whose daughter Caterina he married. In 1759 he returned to Rome to remain there until the early sixties. From 1764 he was active in the capital island Palero where he had art work commissions for churches and aristocratic palace.
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Follower of Paolo Veronese (1528-1588)
Adoration of the Shepherds, with St Jerome.
Pen and black ink, brown wash, heightened with white, on paper support laid onto canvas
Bears inscription P Veronese
41 x 26.5 cm. (16 x 10 1/2 in)
Saint Jerome ( c. 347 – 30 September 420) was an Illyrian Latin Christian priest, confessor, theologian and historian, who also became a Doctor of the Church. He was the son of Eusebius, born at Stridon, a village on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia. He is best known for his translation of most of the Bible into Latin, and his commentaries on the Gospels. His list of writings is extensive. Known as the “protégé” of Pope Damasus I, who died in December of 384, Jerome became well known for outlining the type of lifestyle that was acceptable for Christians living in cosmopolitan centers like Rome. In many cases, he focused his attention to the lives of women and identified how a woman devoted to Jesus Christ should live her life. This concentration stemmed from his close patron relationships with several prominent female ascetics who were members of affluent Roman “senatorial families”.
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Paolo Caliari/Veronese (1528 – 19 April 1588) was an Italian Renaissance painter based in Venice, most famous for large historical paintings of both religious and mythological subjects. With Titian, who was at least a generation older, and Tintoretto, ten years older, he was one of the "great trio that dominated Venetian painting of the cinquecento" or 16th-century late Renaissance.
He has always been appreciated for "the chromatic brilliance of his palette, the splendor and sensibility of his brushwork, the aristocratic elegance of his figures, and the magnificence of his spectacle", but his work has been felt "not to permit expression of the profound, the human, or the sublime", and of the "great trio" he has often been the least appreciated by modern criticism.
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Follower of Ventura Salimbeni (1568-1613)
The Marriage of the Virgin
Black chalk, touches of brown wash, on laid paper, with ruled border Inscribed West in black ink by a later hand
19.5 x 14 cm. (7 3/4 x 5 1/2 in)
The present composition directly relates to an etching of the same subject by Salimbeni, printed circa 1590
The Marriage of the Virgin is the subject in Christian art depicting the marriage of the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. The marriage is not mentioned in the canonical Gospels but is covered in several apocryphal sources, and later redactions, notably the 14th century compilation the Golden Legend. Unlike many other scenes in Life of the Virgin cycles (like the Nativity of Mary and Presentation of Mary), it is not a feast in the church calendar.
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Ventura di Archangelo Salimbeni (also later called Bevilacqua; 20 January 1568 – 1613) was an Italian Mannerist painter and printmaker and among the last representatives of a style influenced by the earlier Sienese School of Quattrocento-Renaissance.He was born in Siena. and studied painting, under his father, Arcangelo Salimbeni.
He moved to Rome in 1588 to work, together with others, on the fresco painting of the Vatican Library under pope Sixtus V.
He got a commission for paintings in the Roman Jesuit Church of the Gesù and the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. These paintings show the influence of the Mannerist Cavalier D'Arpino and Andrea Lillio.
Salimbeni returned to Siena in 1595. He was influenced by Federico Barocci as can be seen in the draperies, highlighted with abrupt changes of light and flickering surfaces, of his painting "Birth of a Virgin" in the San Domenico church in Ferrara (1607–1608).
He is known for detailed preparatory drawings, most of which are now in the Uffizi in Florence. At around 1600, he began painting the "Life of St Hyacinth" for the Sienese church of Santo Spirito. He continued to create paintings for churches throughout Italy, including Florence. At the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata di Firenze, he frescoed lunettes (1605–1608) illustrating events in the history of the Servite Order. In the Duomo di San Salvatore, he executed a magnificent John the Baptist.
Around 1600, he got an assignment in Assisi for a fresco of the "Resurrection of Christ" and the "Dying Saint Clare is visited by the pope" in the vault of chapel of San Massimo in the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli.
At the same time he was painting the "Vision of Gregory the Great" and the "Punishment of David" in the Basilica of San Pietro in Perugia. He invested with the Order of the Golden Spur, a very selective papal order.
His last work of art was the oil painting the
"Marriage of the Virgin" for the Seminario Diocesano in Foligno in 1613.
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Luca Cambiaso (1527-1585)
St Mark with an open book, and lion at his side
Pen and brown ink, with brown wash, over touches of black chalk, on laid paper
37 x 27.5 cm. (14 1/2 x 10 3/4 in)
About this work: A large and dramatic drawing that captures both the pace and distinctive draughtsmanship of Cambiaso. The scale and controlled handling of the ink is reminiscent of Cambiaso's Hercules shooting his bow (Ercole tirando il suo arco), 1544-50. The inclusion of the bed of clouds that St Jerome sits upon in the present composition, and which engulfs the lower right corner of the work. The drawing was possibly one of several preliminary studies that Cambiaso would have executed before reaching the final design, which includes two lions, amongst other differences.
Luca Cambiasi/Cangiagio (18 November 1527 – 6 September 1585) was an Italian painter and draftsman, familiarly known as Lucchetto da Genova. He was born at Moneglia, the Republic of Genoa, the son of a painter named Giovanni Cambiasi.
Cambiasi was precocious, and painting at the age of fifteen. In 1544, at the age of seventeen, he was involved in the decoration of the Palazzo Doria, now the Prefettura. He aided in the vault decoration of the church of San Matteo.
The 1911 Britannica states that Cambiasi by his thirties began to decline in skill, though not at once in reputation, owing to the vexations brought upon him by a passion which he conceived for his sister-in-law. His wife having died, and the sister-in-law had taken charge of his house and children, he failed to procure a papal dispensation for marrying her.
In 1583 he accepted an invitation from Philip II, the principal reason for traveling to Spain was that he hoped royal influence would gain favor with the Vatican for his marriage plans, but this failed.
His son Orazio Cambiasi became a painter.
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Circle of Guido Reni (1575-1642)
St Mary Magdalene looking upwards, with cross and putti behind
Pen and brownish black ink, over red chalk, incised for transfer, with ruled border
13.5 x 10.5 cm. (5 1/4 x 4 1/8 in)
Guido Reni (4 November 1575 – 18 August 1642) was an Italian painter of high-Baroque style. Born in Bologna into a family of musicians, At the age of nine, he was apprenticed under the Bolognese studio of Denis Calvaert. He may also have trained with a painter by the name of Ferrantini. When Reni was about twenty years old, he migrated to the rising rival studio, named Accademia degli Incamminati (Academy of the "newly embarked", or progressives), led by Lodovico Carracci. He went on to form the nucleus of a prolific and successful school of Bolognese painters who followed Annibale Carracci to Rome. Like many other Bolognese painters, Reni's painting was thematic and eclectic in style.
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Francesco Solimena (1657-1747)
Study for Fall of the Rebel Angels d.1747
Black chalk, on thick laid paper Bears old pen and brown ink
25.5 x 19 cm. (10 x 7 1/2 in)
The composition of the present drawing relates to several known paintings by Francesco Solimena. The recumbent figure also appears as a type that Solimena employed in a number of commissions.
The Book of Revelation describes a "war in heaven" between angels led by the archangel Michael versus those led by "Satan", who is defeated and thrown down to the earth. Revelation's "war in heaven" has been compared to the idea of fallen angels, and possible parallels have been proposed in the Hebrew Bible and Dead Sea Scrolls.
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Francesco Solimena (October 4, 1657 – April 3, 1747) was a prolific Italian painter of the Baroque era, one of an established family of painters and draughtsmen. He was born in Canale di Serino, near Avellino.
He received early training from his father, Angelo Solimena. He settled in Naples in 1674, there he worked in the studio of Francesco di Maria and later Giacomo del Po. He apparently had taken the clerical orders, but was patronized early on, and encouraged to become an artist by Cardinal Vincenzo Orsini (later Pope Benedict XIII). By the 1680s, he had independent fresco commissions, and his active studio came to dominate Neapolitan painting from the 1690s through the first four decades of the 18th century. He was a highly conventional painter—after the Roman Baroque masters, whose technique of warm brownish shadowing Solimena emulated. Solimena painted many frescoes in Naples, altarpieces, celebrations of weddings and courtly occasions, mythological subjects, characteristically chosen for their theatrical drama, and portraits. His numerous preparatory drawings often mix media, combining pen-and-ink, chalk and watercolor washes.
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Attributed to Doménikos Theotokopoulos, called El Greco
CANDÍA, CRETE 1541 – 1614 TOLEDO
PIETÀ
Pen and brown ink and different shades of brown wash, over traces of black chalk
244 by 167 mm
The Pietà (Italian) is a subject in Christian art depicting the Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Jesus, most often found in sculpture. As such, it is a particular form of the Lamentation of Christ, a scene from the Passion of Christ found in cycles of the Life of Christ. When Christ and the Virgin are surrounded by other figures from the New Testament, the subject is strictly called a Lamentation in English, although Pietà is often used for this as well, and is the normal term in Italian. More
El Greco, born Doménikos Theotokópoulos (1541 – 7 April 1614), was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El Greco" ("The Greek") was a nickname, a reference to his Greek origin, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letter.
El Greco was born in Crete, which was at that time part of the Republic of Venice, and the center of Post-Byzantine art. He became a master and at age 26 travelled to Venice.] In 1570 he moved to Romes. During his stay in Italy, El Greco enriched his style with elements of Mannerism and of the Venetian Renaissance. In 1577, he moved to Toledo, Spain, where he lived and worked until his death.
El Greco's dramatic and expressionistic style was met with puzzlement by his contemporaries but found appreciation in the 20th century.] He is best known for tortuously elongated figures and often fantastic or phantasmagorical pigmentation, marrying Byzantine traditions with those of Western painting. More
Francisco Rizi - MADRID 1608 - 1685 ESCORIAL
THE MARTYRDOM OF ST. ANDREW
Pen and brown ink with red-brown wash, squared for transfer in black chalk, arched top
596 by 297 mm
Andrew the Apostle, also known as Saint Andrew, was a Christian Apostle and the brother of Saint Peter.
Arms thrown wide, Saint Andrew implores the heavens above while soldiers tie him to a cross in the shape of an X. His executioner, the Roman governor Egeas, watches from a classical porch above, and confusion reigns as soldiers try to push back the surging crowd.
Francisco Rizi (1608–1685) was a Spanish painter born at Madrid. Rizi was first trained by Vincencio Carducho. He became painter to Philip IV in 1656, and held the office under Charles II, who added to it the deputy-keepership of the royal keys. A few years prior, he was appointed painter to the Cathedral of Toledo. Rizi died at El Escorial. More
Domenico Campagnola - PADUA 1484 - 1550 (?)
THE FLAGELLATION
Pen and brown ink over black chalk
220 by 378 mm
The Flagellation of Christ, sometimes known as Christ at the Column or the Scourging at the Pillar, is a scene from the Passion of Christ very frequently shown in Christian art, in cycles of the Passion or the larger subject of the Life of Christ. It is the fourth station of the modern alternate Stations of the Cross, and a Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary. The column to which Christ is normally tied, and the rope, scourge, whip or birch are elements in the Arma Christi. The Basilica di Santa Prassede in Rome, claimed to possess the original column. More
Domenico Campagnola (c. 1500 – 1564) was an Italian painter and printmaker in engraving and woodcut of the Venetian Renaissance. Born in Venice, he was the pupil of his father, the leading engraver and painter Giulio Campagnola. He was presumably trained initially by his father, and may also have been a pupil of Titian. Much of his early painting may be of landscape backgrounds in Titians. In his lifetime he was a successful painter, mostly in Padua (Giulio's home town), where he was based from the early 1520s onwards. Mostly he painted on walls, including decorative schemes, but portraits and landscapes are also attributed to him. His works as a painter are not highly regarded by modern art historians though some landscapes are of high quality. More
Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called il Guercino
CENTO 1591 - 1666 BOLOGNA
A FEMALE NUDE LOOKING TO THE RIGHT, HALF LENGTH, RESTING HER RIGHT ARM ON A CUSHION - Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife
Red chalk
247 by 220 mm
Potiphar is a person known only from the Book of Genesis's account of Joseph. Potiphar is the captain of the palace guard and is referred to without name in the Quran. Joseph, sold into slavery by his brothers, is taken to Egypt where he is sold to Potiphar as a household slave. Potiphar makes Joseph the head of his household, but Potiphar's wife, who is not named in the Bible or in Christian tradition, is furious at Joseph for resisting her attempts to seduce him, and falsely accuses him of attempted rape. Potiphar casts Joseph into prison, from where he later comes to the notice of Pharaoh through his ability to interpret the dreams of other prisoners. More
Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (February 8, 1591 – December 22, 1666), best known as Guercino, was an Italian Baroque painter and draftsman from the region of Emilia, and active in Rome and Bologna. The vigorous naturalism of his early manner is in contrast to the classical equilibrium of his later works. His many drawings are noted for their luminosity and lively style. More
Lazzaro Baldi - PISTOIA 1624 - 1703 ROME
THE ANNUNCIATION TO JOACHIM AND ANNA
Point of the brush and black and brown wash heightened with white, with some indentations, on grey prepared paper;
a cut-out and made up pentimento for the entire figure of Joachim
304 by 219 mm
By tradition Joachim and Anne are considered to be the names of the parents of Mary, the Mother of God. We have no historical evidence, however, of any elements of their lives, including their names. Any stories about Mary's father and mother come to us through legend and tradition. More
Lazzaro Baldi (c. 1624 – 30 March 1703) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in Rome. He was born in Pistoia and died in Rome. He moved to Rome to form part of the large studio directed by Pietro da Cortona, where Baldi became adept at fresco technique. He painted a David and Goliath for Alexander VII in the Palazzo Quirinale, as well as frescoes (1658) for the church of San Giovanni in Oleo and a San Giovanni in Patmos(1660–1665) for San Giovanni in Laterano... More
