Friday, October 16, 2015

Pictures from Italy

Nicolas Poussin
Hunt of Meleager & Atalanta
c. 1634-39
Prado

Nicolas Poussin
Feast of Priapus
c. 1634-39

A Palace for a King by Jonathan Brown and J.H. Elliott describes in some detail the scramble for paintings that went on in 1630s Madrid for the purpose of decorating the new royal palace of Buen Retiro. Nicolas Poussin's pair of frieze-style classical fantasies (above) were acquired in Rome at this time by the Marquis of Castel Rodrigo who was the Spanish King's Ambassador to the Vatican. Meleager & Atalanta remains at the Prado to this day, but the Feast of Priapus fell into English hands during the Peninsular Wars at the end of the 18th century. At present it is privately owned by a rich person in Brazil.

A series of scenes from ancient Roman public life as imagined by Giovanni Lanfranco (1583-1647) were purchased for the Spanish King by the Count of Monterrey, Viceroy of Naples.

Giovanni Lanfranco
Oration by Roman Emperor
1638
Prado

Giovanni Lanfranco
Funeral for Roman Emperor
c. 1636
Prado

Giovanni Lanfranco
Gladiators at Roman Banquet 
c. 1638
Prado

Giovanni Lanfranco & Workshop
Battle of Gladiators
1630s
Prado

Giovanni Lanfranco
Water Battle of Gladiators
c. 1635
Prado

Giovanni Lanfranco
Roman Emperor Sacrificing to Gods
c. 1635
Prado

In the same shipment Monterrey was able to include Roman history paintings by Andrea Camassei (1602-1649) and by Domenichino (1581-1641). The latter's Funeral for a Roman Emperor (below) was conceived as an archaeological reconstruction based on literary sources, in contrast to Lanfranco's more impressionistic and emotionally subjective depictions.

Domenichino
Funeral for a Roman Emperor
c. 1634-35
Prado

Andrea Camassei
Lupercalian Scene
c. 1635
Prado

Massimo Stanzione (1586-1656), also working in Naples, contributed a series (partially represented below) from the exemplary life of St. John the Baptist, as elaborated by non-Biblical tradition.

Massimo Stanzione
Birth of St. John the Baptist Announced by an Angel
1635
Prado

Massimo Stanzione
St. John the Baptist Taking Leave of his Family
1635
Prado

Massimo Stanzione
St. John the Baptist Preaching
1635
Prado

Massimo Stanzione
Beheading of St. John the Baptist
1635
Prado

As Brown and Elliott write  "The numerous works sent by Castel Rodrigo from Rome, combined with those acquired by Monterrey in Naples, meant that by 1641 the Retiro contained nine or ten large landscapes by Claude, four major works by Poussin, six by Lanfranco, together with paintings by Sacchi, Domenichino and a host of lesser lights. For a brief moment, Central Italian Baroque painting was represented more fully in Spain than anywhere outside Italy itself."