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| Pier Francesco Mola Echo and Narcissus ca. 1633-41 oil on canvas Ashmolean Museum, Oxford |
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| Pier Francesco Mola Flora and the Infant Bacchus in a Wooded Landscape ca. 1635-45 oil on canvas private collection |
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| Pier Francesco Mola Rocky Landscape with two Carthusian Monks ca. 1635-45 oil on canvas Temple Newsam House, Leeds |
"An architect's son, Pier Francesco Mola developed his mature style after leaving Rome and traveling in Bologna and Venice between 1633 and 1647. He studied Francesco Albani and was profoundly influenced by Guercino's soft modeling. In 1657 Mola moved back to the family residence in Rome, where he painted romantic works in chiaroscuro. In Rome he received public commissions for frescoes and altarpieces, fusing the Roman High Renaissance grandeur of Raphael and Michelangelo with the North Italian color of Titian and Guercino. His most characteristic works were idyllic scenes with biblical figures or saints in luxuriant, dramatic landscapes that combine the golden light and painterly handling of Venetian art with figures inspired by Roman High Renaissance masters. . . . In his last years Mola's fortunes declined rapidly and his paintings became increasingly dramatic. When a drawn-out lawsuit over payment for a fresco was finally settled against him in 1664, his health and finances were drained."
– from curator's notes at the Getty Museum
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| Pier Francesco Mola Expulsion from Paradise 1638 oil on canvas National Museum, Warsaw |
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| Pier Francesco Mola Pan playing his Pipes in a Wooded Clearing ca. 1640-50 oil on canvas National Trust, Hatchlands, Surrey |
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| Pier Francesco Mola Rest on the Flight into Egypt ca. 1640-50 oil on copper Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Pier Francesco Mola Landscape with Figures ca. 1645-47 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Pier Francesco Mola Joseph reveals himself to his Brothers 1657 fresco Palazzo del Quirinale, Rome |
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| Pier Francesco Mola Narcissus ca. 1645-47 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
"In the warm, brownish tonality of Mola's paintings one recognizes the influence of the Venetian school; the sensitive treatment of landscape and of aerial perspective also point in the same direction. His few altarpieces and frescoes lack the compositional and dramatic energy that was expected in Rome; the total aspect is usually overshadowed by an almost solemn and melancholy gravity which, along with the muted color tones so characteristic of his style, harmonizes into an effect of noble elegance. Mola finds himself in his proper element in the field of small gallery paintings; in these, by means of his understanding of the art of composition and of the use of chiaroscuro, he was able to achieve an often compelling combination of landscape and figural elements."
– Hermann Voss, from Baroque Painting in Rome (1925), revised and translated by Thomas Pelzel (San Francisco: Alan Wofsy, 1997)
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| Pier Francesco Mola Bacchus overseeing Satyrs crushing Grapes 1648-49 oil on canvas private collection |
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| Pier Francesco Mola Oriental Warrior 1650 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
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| Pier Francesco Mola Mercury and Argus ca. 1650-55 oil on canvas Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, Ohio |
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| Pier Francesco Mola Vision of St Bruno ca. 1660 oil on canvas Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
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| Pier Francesco Mola David with the Head of Goliath ca. 1660-63 oil on canvas private collection |
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| Pier Francesco Mola St John the Baptist preaching before 1666 oil on canvas Museo del Prado, Madrid |