Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Baroque Italian Paintings at the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Bernardino Mei
Allegory of Justice
1656
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Felice Ficherelli
St Lawrence
before 1660
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Love Lifts to God

From thy fair face I learn, O my loved lord,
that which no mortal tongue can rightly say;
the soul, imprisoned in her house of clay,
holpen by thee to God hath often soared:

and though the vulgar, vain, malignant horde
attribute what their grosser wills obey,
yet shall this fervent homage that I pay,
this love, this faith, pure joys for us afford.

Lo, all the lovely things we find on earth,
resemble for the soul that rightly sees,
that source of bliss divine which gave us birth:

nor have we first-fruits or remembrances
of heaven elsewhere. Thus, loving loyally,
I rise to God and make death sweet by thee.

– sonnet by Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564), as translated by John Addington Symonds (1840-1893)

Scarsellino
St Catherine among the Philosophers
before 1620
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Ottavio Viviani
Architectural Fantasy in a Landscape
before 1641
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Alberto Carlieri
Classical Ruins with Columns
before 1720
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Alberto Carlieri
Classical Ruins with Columns
before 1720
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Bernardo Cavallino
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
ca. 1650-55
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Light and Darkness

He who ordained, when first the world began,
time, that was not before creation's hour,
divided it, and gave the sun's high power
to rule the one, the moon the other span:

thence fate and changeful chance and fortune's ban
did in one moment down on mortals shower:
to me they portioned darkness for a dower;
dark hath my lot been since I was a man.

Myself am ever mine own counterfeit;
and as deep night grows still more dim and dun,
so still of more misdoing must I rue:

meanwhile this solace to my soul is sweet,
that my black night doth make more clear the sun
which at your birth was given to wait on you.

– sonnet by Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564), as translated by John Addington Symonds (1840-1893)

attributed to Giuseppe Caletti
Caterina Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus receiving a letter from the Council
before 1660
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Giacinto Brandi
Christ entombed by Joseph of Arimathea
before 1691
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Francesco Albani
Landscape with Venus and Cupids
before 1660
oil on copper
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Guercino
Landscape by Moonlight
1616
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

attributed to Giovanni Francesco Romanelli
Allegory of Poetry
before 1662
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Heaven-Born Beauty

As one who will reseek her home of light,
thy form immortal to this prison-house
descended, like an angel piteous,
to heal all hearts and make the whole world bright.

'Tis this that thralls my soul in love's delight,
not thy clear face of beauty glorious;
for he who harbours virtue, still will choose
to love what neither years nor death can blight.

So fares it ever with things high and rare
wrought in the sweat of nature; heaven above
showers on their birth the blessings of her prime:

nor hath God deigned to show Himself elsewhere
more clearly than in human forms sublime;
which, since they image Him, alone I love.

– sonnet by Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564), as translated by John Addington Symonds (1840-1893)

Giovanni Francesco Romanelli
Bacchus
before 1662
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Giovanni Francesco Romanelli
Mars
before 1662
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm