|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Baroque and Rococo
|
|
Baroque and Rococo
Art Map |
|
Gregorio de Ferrari
Stefano Maria Legnani - Legnanino
Lorenzo
Tiepolo
see collection:
Sebastiano Ricci
Giuseppe Maria Crespi
Gian Battista
Piazzetta
Alessandro Magnasco
Pompeo
Batoni
Giandomenico
Tiepolo
Rosalba Carriera
Nicolas de Largilliere
Anton Raphael Mengs
Jean-Etienne Liotard
Pietro Longhi
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Italian Painting
The inclination towards the High Baroque style was first visible in
Italy in the early 18th century in the gradual departure from sombre
colours and adoption of a light, airy palette. The paintings of
Luca
Giordano (1634-1705) in Naples represent a definite, but not
complete, step away from the intense sentimentalism of the
Neapolitan school and towards a less explicit and more enjoyable
art. In Naples. Giordano decorated the inside of the Treasury dome
in the charterhouse of St Martin. He travelled frequently, for work
or simply for artistic curiosity, to see the output of other artists
in Florence, Venice, and Spain.
Gregorio de Ferrari (1647-1726) in Genoa introduced a new and
radiant fluency in his work, reinterpreting old themes and subjects
from the preceding century with a fresh and original touch. This is
evident in the series of frescos executed for the palaces of the
Genoese aristocracy, especially in the allegorical paintings for the
Palazzo Rosso. In Lombardy,
Stefano Maria Legnani, known as Legnanino (1660-1715). moved away
from the academic style of the Roman artists, towards the High
Baroque, investing his paintings with an expressive sentimentalism
that echoed the style of Borromini. Besides numerous altarpieces,
Legnanino is known for the luminous frescos in the Palazzo Carignano
in Turin, and those in the central nave of Monza Cathedral. Another
influential painter was Sebastiano Ricci (1659—1734). responsible
for the superb ceiling fresco in Palazzo Colonna, Rome. Like de
Ferrari, he gave a freer and more varied interpretation of the style
of Correggio in order to keep in line with contemporary stylistic
trends. Ricci also made use of his profound knowledge of the
techniques used by Venetian colourists during the 16th century, and
he was one of the early leading figures in the revival of Venetian
decorative painting. His work was much in demand in many cities,
both for easel and fresco paintings. While in London and Paris.
Ricci was instrumental in the dissemination of the new style.
The Venetian school, which included only artists working in the city
itself, was slower in embracing the Rococo style. However, a few
decades later, following the rise of
Ricci.
Tiepolo and a group of
painters known as redutisti, a new Venetian style came about. This
was characterized by unprecedented force of movement and brilliant colour schemes. Other Italian painters tended to retain strong
chiaroscuro contrasts with distant echoes of
Caravaggio. The
Bolognese painter Giuseppe Maria Crespi (1665-1747) was an artist of
renowned originality, drawing his inspiration from the great
Venetians -Correggio and Baroccio in particular, and also from the
early "Caravaggesque" works of
Guercino. His works, often derived
from genre subjects and mythologies, are invested with an uncanny
naturalism, inspiring such newcomers as Gian Battista Piazzetta.
In their varied interpretations, compositional originality and
choice of iconography these painters showed how susceptible they
were to the new taste in art. Thus, their ingenuity lies in their
fresh response and progressive approach to painting. The Genoese
painter Alessandro Magnasco (1667-1749) is considered to have been
ahead of his time, given his choice of unusual and provocative
subjects, his use of quickly applied brushstrokes, and his sharp,
angular forms. In Rome, where academicism survived longest,
Pompeo
Batoni (1708-87) was one of the first to reintroduce the classical
style, which heralded the end of Rococo, from the middle of the
century onwards. Tiepolo was eager to learn from the great past
masters and from those with whom he worked. He had a genius for
composition, an appealing theatricality, and an unshakable
conviction that the artist should be able to communicate even the
most dramatic-subjects in a beautiful, grandiose manner. After his
early successes, which led to the commission for the biblical
frescos in the Archbishop's Palace in Udine (1724-25), he was always
in demand. He employed the assistance of quadraturisti or Irompe I 'oeil
specialists when the commission called for architectural
perspectives.
From the mid-18th century onwards, his sons Lorenzo and
Giandomenico
worked alongside him. Commissions were plentiful for
Tiepolo's easel
paintings, often of religious subjects, and for frescos, mainly in
the ceremonial reception rooms of royal and aristocratic palaces.
During the period when the Hapsburgs were consolidating their hold
on Venice and Lombardy, the nobility in these regions sought to
uphold its prestige by building lavish new palaces.
Tiepolo went
from Milan (where he painted frescos in the palaces of
Casati-Dugnani and the Clerici) to Venice to execute the History of
Anthony and Cleopatra in the Palazzo Labia with architectural
perspectives by the virtuoso Bolognese quadraturista Gerolamo
Mengozzi-Colonna. From there Tiepolo moved to the Palace of
Wurzburg, then on to Madrid to paint the Glory of Spain fresco on
the ceiling in the throne room of the royal palace.
Tiepolo's
prolific output spans almost the entire course of the century. By
the time of his death in Spain in 1770. new trends, such as
Neoclassicism together with the first stirrings of Romanticism, had
started to push his work out of fashion.
It was at about this time
that a young admirer of Tiepolo was establishing himself -
Francisco Gova.
|
|
|
__________________
__________________
|
|
Gregorio de Ferrari
(1647-1726)
|
|
|
Gregorio de Ferrari
Hercules and Antaeus
1690s
Oil on canvas, 217 x 147,5 cm
Palazzo Cattaneo, Genoa
|
Gregorio de Ferrari
Summer
1680s
Fresco
Palazzo Brignole-Sale (Rosso), Genoa
|
|
Gregorio de Ferrari
Autumn
|
|
|
Gregorio de Ferrari
Junon et Argus
|
|
__________________
__________________
|
|
|
Stefano Maria Legnani, known as
Legnanino
(1660-1715)
|
|
|
Legnanino
La Maddalena
|
|
|
 Legnanino
Penitent saint
praying
|
|
|
Legnanino
Apparizione miracolosa ad
Agostino della Sacra Fascia
|
| |
__________________
__________________
|
|
see collection:
Gian Battista
Piazzetta |
GIAN BATTISTA PIAZZETTA
A former pupil of the Bolognese painter
Crespi,
Gian Battista
Piazzetta (1683-1754) set up his own very successful workshop in
Venice in 1711. A respected teacher, he later founded a school that
formed the basis of the Accademia. His religious paintings, although
under-pinned by the virtuoso technique of the Romano-Emilian Baroque
schools, have a warmth of gesture and chromatic elegance that give
them a distinctive immediacy of feeling and sculptural form. In his
oil paintings of half-length portraits, figures, and genre scenes,
Piazzetta creates a world that seems to evolve spontaneously, full
of grace and sensuality, charm and lively elegance. The artist is
also known for his illustrations of popular books.
|
| |
Gian Battista Piazzetta
The Fortune Teller
1704
|
|
Gian Battista Piazzetta
Rebecca at the Well
c. 1740
Oil on canvas, 102 x 137 cm
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan
|
|
__________________
__________________
|
| |
Lorenzo
Tiepolo
(b Venice, 8 Aug 1736; d Madrid, Aug 1776).
Son of Giambattista Tiepolo. In 1750, aged 14, he
travelled to Würzburg with his father and brother, where he
worked alongside them on the decorative fresco cycle in the
Kaisersaal of the Residenz at Würzburg. Knox (1980) has
attributed to him a number of drawings (Würzburg, Wagner-Mus.)
from these apprentice years. In 1753 the family returned to
Venice.
|
Lorenzo Tiepolo
An Elegant Couple from Madrid
1770
|
Lorenzo Tiepolo
The Lemonade Seller
|
|
|
__________________
__________________
|
|
Jean-Etienne Liotard
La Belle Chocolatiere
1745
|
SOCIETY PORTRAITURE
Rosalba Carriera (1675-1757), a hugely successful interpreter of
Venetian Rococo, displayed an unequalled ability to capture the
delicacy of her era. The exquisite refinement of her portraiture
epitomized the ideals of fashionable society, and her spontaneity
and grace earned her countless commissions from members of the
European elite. Camera's predilection for pastels was shared by
La
Tour, Largilliere,
Nattier, and, later, by
Mengs and the Swiss
painter Liotard, all of whom successfully exploited the "splendour,
fragility, and transparency" that breathed new life into
portraiture. According to the Encyclopedie (the French encyclopedia
published under the direction of Diderot), this was unique to the
medium. In portrait paintings, sitters no longer adopted solemn and
ceremonial poses; instead, they sought to convey a certain cultural
distinction, a personal.
Pietro Longhi (1702-85) painted some lively and somewhat
superficially light-hearted compositions, along the line of the
Dutch genre, depicting Venetian domesticity and the often comic
activities of high society. His good-humoured pictures are known for
their luminosity, the use of delicate hues, and the thin and
well-blended application of paint. Although reminiscent of
Carriera's
work, the paintings share certain features with contemporary English
pieces.
see collection:
Jean-Etienne Liotard
|
|
__________________
__________________
|
|
see collection:
Alessandro Magnasco |
THE STRANGE WORLD OF ALESSANDRO MAGNASCO
Despite recent re-evaluation and research.
Alessandro Magnasco
(1667—1749) remains a largely enigmatic figure. Seeking to appeal to
a market that was highly cultured and sophisticated, he combined a
very expressive and bold narrative style, using violent, rapid
brushstrokes revealing flecks of white paint, to illustrate
nonconformist themes that can be linked to the literature of the
time. Magnasco was born in Genoa but moved to Milan when young,
where he was swayed by the strong moralistic inclinations of the
late 17th-century Lombard school and its leanings towards Realism.
As a result, he rejected superficial subjects that delighted rather
than instructed and in keeping with the philosophy of Realism,
abandoned the "grand manner" of painting. He preferred to paint
"minor" subjects, featuring characters castigated by society, such
as paupers, gypsies, rogues, and vagabonds. His use of sharp,
angular lines is known to have influenced later painters. Some of
the most unusual subjects depicted in
Magnasco's paintings are the
poor and humble figures of the Trappist orders and Capuchin friars:
stranger still are his scenes of witchcraft. He completed many
versions of paintings of Quaker meetings, and of Jewish worshippers
in synagogues. These themes reflect the artist's long-standing
interest in spiritualism, and his participation in lively, albeit
clandestine, debates about the nature of religion that were popular
among free thinkers at the beginning of the Age of Enlightenment.
|
Alessandro Magnasco
Refectory of Franciscan Friary
c.1740
Museo
Biblioteca e Archivio Civico, Bassano del Grappa, Italy
|
|
see collection:
Sebastiano Ricci
Giuseppe Maria Crespi
Gian Battista
Piazzetta
Alessandro Magnasco
Pompeo
Batoni
Giandomenico
Tiepolo
Rosalba Carriera
Nicolas de Largilliere
Anton Raphael Mengs
Jean-Etienne Liotard
Pietro Longhi
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
