Monday, April 1, 2019

Francesco Mancini (1679-1758) - Romagna and Rome

Francesco Mancini
Legend of Psyche
1733
fresco
Palazzo Colonna, Rome

Francesco Mancini
Assumption of the Virgin
1737
fresco
Basilica della Misericordia, Macerata

Francesco Mancini
Allegory of the Church defeating Paganism
before 1756
oil on canvas
Palazzo Buonaccorsi, Macerata

"Born in Sant' Angelo in Vado (Romagna), Francesco Mancini was at first (ca. 1710) a pupil of Carlo Cignani in Forlì.  After settling in Rome, he was for a short period influenced by Marcantonio Franceschini, of whom Mancini's use of grayish, almost monochromatic color is very reminiscent.  At a later date, Carlo Maratti and his followers seem to have been the dominating influence.  A stylistic affinity with Benedetto Luti is also unmistakable.  Mancini was active in Rome and even more so in the Marches, in Romagna and Umbria, chiefly as a painter of altarpieces and frescoes.  He is among the most significant Roman masters of the first half of the Settecento.  Possessing an unaffected and simple grandeur of invention, expressive in his draftsmanship and individual characterization, and charming as a painter of angels and Madonnas, Mancini rises decisively above the conventional average painting of the later followers of Maratti.  He is distinctive in his coloration, which tends strongly toward a grayish tonality and gives a rather joyless quality to many of his works.  Mancini received the recognition he deserved only in his native region, and seems to have preferred to work there."

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

Francesco Mancini
Rest on the Flight into Egypt
before 1756
oil on canvas
Ferens Art Gallery, Kingston-upon-Hull, Yorkshire

Francesco Mancini
Rest on the Flight into Egypt
before 1756
oil on canvas
Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome

Francesco Mancini
Struggle between Cupid and Pan
before 1756
oil on canvas
private collection

attributed to Francesco Mancini
Sacrifice of Noah
before 1756
drawing
Museo del Prado, Madrid

Francesco Mancini
Saint adoring the Christ Child
ca. 1738
drawing
Philadelphia Museum of Art

attributed to Francesco Mancini
Allegorical Figure with Arms of Alexander VIII (Ottoboni) and Arms of the Papacy
before 1756
drawing
Art Institute of Chicago

after a painting by Francesco Mancini
King David
18th century
engraving by Gasparo Massi
British Museum

after a painting by Francesco Mancini
St Teresa of Avila in Ecstasy
18th century
engraving by Giuseppe Stolz
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
(Achenbach Foundation)