Sunday, February 10, 2019

Orazio Borgianni (1574-1616) - Rome and Madrid

attributed to Orazio Borgianni
Self-portrait
before 1616
oil on canvas
Museo del Prado, Madrid

Orazio Borgianni
Vision of St Jerome
ca. 1600
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Orazio Borgianni
St Christopher carrying the infant Christ
ca. 1598-1602
oil on canvas
Museo del Prado, Madrid

Orazio Borgianni
St Christopher carrying the infant Christ
ca. 1615
oil on canvas
National Galleries of Scotland

"An Italian painter and etcher, Orazio Borgianni is best known for his paintings reflecting the influence of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610).  According to the most recent scholarship he was born on April 16, 1574 in Rome, the son of a carpenter from Florence.  He received his artistic training from his stepbrother, Giulio Lasso, a sculptor and architect.  Borgianni accompanied Lasso on a trip to Sicily sometime around 1591, a painting by him dated to 1593 remains on that island.  He went to Spain in 1598, apparently lured by the prospect of royal patronage, and stayed until 1603, when he signed a petition supporting the creation of a painting academy in Madrid.  He enjoyed great artistic success, several paintings by him from this period remain in Spain.  Scholars believe Borgianni returned to Rome in 1603.  . . .  He continued to enjoy the patronage of Spanish aristocrats after returning to Rome, as well as that of the Spanish ambassador to the Vatican.  . . .  Borgianni was buried in Rome on January 15, 1616, presumably having died a few days earlier."

– from curator's notes at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

Orazio Borgianni
Head of an Old Woman
after 1610
oil on canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Orazio Borgianni
Head of the Magdalen
before 1616
oil on canvas
private collection

Orazio Borgianni
Christ among the Doctors 
ca. 1609
oil on canvas
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Orazio Borgianni
Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane
ca. 1610
oil on panel
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Orazio Borgianni
Crucifixion
ca. 1600
oil on canvas
Museo di Cadice, Spain

Orazio Borgianni
Martyrdom of St Lawrence
ca. 1610-1612
oil on canvas
Museo de la Real Colegiata, Roncisvalle, Navarra, Spain

"Of all the followers of Caravaggio, Borgianni is perhaps the most problematic figure, but he is certainly the one who possessed the most elemental artistic talent.  Too independent to be termed a true disciple of Caravaggio, his style, which strove for enchanting effects of chiaroscuro and for refinement of surface and tactile quality, might best be described as a parallel historic phenomenon to Caravaggio.  It is very probable that while in Spain he saw the works of El Greco and was influenced by that artist's demonic personality.  He was by nature above all else a virtuoso of draftsmanship who was intrigued by especially difficult problems of perspective and bold foreshortening.  Borgianni created a few works in which the painterly lustre and emotional intensity rival, in their own way, the best paintings of Caravaggio.  Perhaps his aims were too ambitious, or perhaps his talent was hindered by contradictions within himself, since a visual imagination such as his, so strongly focused upon the sensual and the painterly, is difficult to balance harmoniously with the inherited idea of plastic-linear precision."

– Hermann Voss, from Baroque Painting in Rome (1925), revised and translated by Thomas Pelzel (San Francisco: Alan Wofsy, 1997)

Orazio Borgianni
Martyrdom of St Erasmus
ca. 1610
oil on canvas
private collection

Orazio Borgianni
David beheading Goliath
ca. 1609-1610
oil on canvas
Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid

Orazio Borgianni
Lamentation over the Body of Christ
ca. 1615
oil on canvas
Galleria Spada, Rome

Orazio Borgianni
Lamentation over the Body of Christ
1615
etching
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York