Pier Francesco Mola (1612-1666) - Drawings - I

attributed to Pier Francesco Mola
Figure of Draped Man
before 1666
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

attributed to Pier Francesco Mola
Sheet of Sketches (recto and verso)
before 1666
drawing
Princeton University Art Museum

Pier Francesco Mola
Harpist playing to a Woman in a Park
ca. 1648-60
drawing
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

"A Bolognese ingredient to Mola's work undoubtedly exists, including the influence of Guercino (1591-1666).  This latter is perhaps most evident in Mola's drawing – in his frequent use of emphatic chiaroscuro, indicated with dark, fluid washes, as well as in his liking for caricature."

– from curator's notes at the British Museum

Pier Francesco Mola
Head of a Bearded Man
before 1666
drawing
Royal Collection, Great Britain

Pier Francesco Mola
Seated Pope blessing
before 1666
drawing
Harvard Art Museums

attributed to Pier Francesco Mola
Angels with Papal Tiara on an Altar
before 1666
drawing
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Pier Francesco Mola
Study of Head
before 1666
drawing
Art Institute of Chicago

Pier Francesco Mola
Two Studies for the Figure of Joseph
1655
drawing
Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf

Pier Francesco Mola
Viola da Gamba Player
ca. 1645-50
drawing
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Pier Francesco Mola
Viola da Gamba Player
ca. 1645-50
drawing
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Pier Francesco Mola
Woman with Unicorn
ca. 1650-55
drawing
Royal Collection, Great Britain

Pier Francesco Mola
Putti in Clouds
(study for fresco)
ca. 1651-52
drawing
British Museum

attributed to Pier Francesco Mola
Joseph in Prison interpreting Dreams
before 1666
drawing
Princeton University Art Museum

Pier Francesco Mola
Sketch from the back of Pier Francesco Mola
and the Roman art patron Niccolò Simonelli
1649
drawing
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Johann Liss, also called Giovanni Lys (1597-1631) - I

Johann Liss
Bacchanalian Feast
ca. 1617
oil on panel
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Johann Liss
Village Wedding
ca. 1616-19
oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

Johann Liss
Fable of the Satyr and the Peasant
ca. 1623-26
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Johann Liss
Vision of St Jerome
ca. 1628
oil on canvas
Kroměříž Archdiocesan Museum, Czech Republic

"As befits his peripatetic career, the artist is known variously as Johann Liss (or Lis), Jan Lys, or Giovanni Lys.  . . .  Sandrart states that Johann Liss was from the north German city of Oldenburg, a region not known for its artists, and from there he emigrated to Amsterdam, where he painted in the manner of Hendrick Goltzius.   Liss then went to Paris, Venice (around or shortly after 1620) and Rome (c. 1623-c. 1626) before returning to Venice, where his name appeared on the list of the painters' guild in 1629.  Sandrart was acquainted with Liss in Venice and comments on both his love of Venetian painting and his irregular work habits, long absences, probably spent in riotous living, followed by days and nights of uninterrupted painting.  It is now documented that Liss died not in Venice in the plague of 1629/30 [as formerly believed], but in Verona on 5 December 1631.  Establishing an exact chronology of the artist's extant works has proved to be a difficult task.  His works remained unknown until relatively recently and were often attributed to other artists.  His paintings and drawings, produced in a little over a decade, underwent numerous stylistic transformations, and there are few fixed points of reference. There are, for example, no works that can securely be given to the early years in the Netherlands.  There is no evidence for his activity in Paris, but works exist from the first trips to Venice, Rome, and the final Venetian years."

– from the Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Johann Liss
Nymph and Shepherd
ca. 1625
oil on canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Johann Liss
David with the Head of Goliath
before 1631
oil on canvas
private collection

Johann Liss
Agony in the Garden
before 1631
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Johann Liss
Man playing a Lute
before 1631
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

attributed to Johann Liss
Lady playing a Spinet, with other Musicians
before 1631
drawing
Princeton University Art Museum

Johann Liss
Cephalus and Procris
before 1631
etching
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Johann Liss
Study of a Young Woman
ca. 1616-19
drawing
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Johann Liss
Old Man and Young Man in a Tavern
before 1631
etching
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Johann Liss
Interior with Two Pairs of Lovers and a Fool (Brothel Scene)
ca. 1625-29
etching
Art Institute of Chicago

attributed to Johann Liss
Five Drinkers
before 1631
etching
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Bernardo Cavallini (1616-1656) - Naples

Bernardo Cavallino
Drunkenness of Noah
ca. 1640-45
oil on panel
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Bernardo Cavallino
Lot and his Daughters
ca. 1640-45
oil on panel
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Bernardo Cavallino
Lot and his Daughters
ca. 1644-45
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Bernardo Cavallino
The Flagellation
before 1656
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

"Bernardo Cavallino melded a strikingly original individuality from a variety of sources – Spanish, French, Netherlandish, and native Italian – transforming them so completely that it is impossible to know who actually influenced him.  Despite his easily recognized individual style, little is known about Cavallino himself.  Born in Naples, he probably died there during the plague of 1656.  He worked for art dealers and private patrons whose records no longer exist.  Only eight signed or initialed paintings are extant; four drawings have been attributed to him.  During his lifetime his pictures may have been sold outside Naples, often under other artists' names.  Cavallino specialized in relatively small paintings of saints and subjects from the Old Testament, New Testament, and Roman mythology, on canvas and copper.  He was probably trained in Naples, in an academic tradition emphasizing figure drawing, architecture, perspective, and literary sources.  His paintings can be theatrical, with subtle, intense coloring; a naturalistic rendering of surfaces; mannered elegance and grace; and an emotional tenderness unparalleled in his Neapolitan peers."

– from curator's notes at the Getty Museum

Bernardo Cavallino
The Shade of Samuel invoked by Saul
ca. 1650-56
oil on copper
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

"Bernardo Cavallino depicts an episode from the Bible in which King Saul, about to enter battle with the Philistines, asked the Witch of Endor to summon the spirit of the recently deceased prophet Samuel, the last Judge of the Israelites.  Silhouetted against a bright light emanating from a nearby doorway, Samuel's skin appears suitably ashen and gray.  He engages the kneeling king with a penetrating stare, and delivers news that the next day the Philistines will defeat Israel and that Saul and his sons will die in battle.  . . .  This painting is said to be one of a group of four copper panels which were perhaps commissioned for a single recipient, which includes Cavallino's Mucius Scaevola confronting King Porsenna in the Kimbell Museum, Fort Worth."

– from curator's notes at the Getty Museum

Bernardo Cavallino
Mucius Scaevola confronting King Porsenna
ca. 1650
oil on copper
Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

Bernardo Cavallino
St Cecilia
ca. 1645
oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

"Cavallino painted about twenty single-figure religious and allegorical 'portraits.'  Music was a favorite subject: five of these works depict musicians, including three of Cecilia, their patron saint.  In the Boston picture, Cavallino's clever depiction of Cecilia's crimson gown unfurling into the background provides a lyrical, visual interpretation of the tune ushering forth from her violin."

– from curator's notes at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Bernardo Cavallino
St Cecilia in Ecstasy
ca. 1640
oil on canvas
Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan

Bernardo Cavallino
Vision of St Dominic
ca. 1640-45
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Canada

Bernardo Cavallino
Martyrdom of St Stephen
ca. 1645
oil on canvas
Museo del Prado, Madrid

Bernardo Cavallino
Three Standing Saints
before 1656
oil on panel
private collection

Bernardo Cavallino
Immaculate Conception
1647
oil on canvas
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan

"A Caravaggista strongly influenced by Artemisia Gentileschi, Cavallino gave his best in cabinet pictures.  His work is in a category of its own; a great colourist, his tenderness, elegance, gracefulness, and delicacy are without parallel at this moment."

– Rudolf Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy 1600-1750, originally published in 1958, revised by Joseph Connors and Jennifer Montagu and reissued by Yale University Press in 1999

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

Bernardo Cavallino
Hercules and Omphale
ca. 1640
oil on canvas
National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo

Bernardo Cavallino
Pietà
ca. 1649
oil on canvas
Museo Diocesano di Malfetta

Francesco Buoneri, called Cecco del Caravaggio - Rome

Cecco del Caravaggio
Resurrection
ca. 1619-20
oil on canvas
Art Institute of Chicago

Cecco del Caravaggio
Resurrection (detail)
ca. 1619-20
oil on canvas
Art Institute of Chicago

Cecco del Caravaggio
Resurrection (detail)
ca. 1619-20
oil on canvas
Art Institute of Chicago

"To this day Cecco del Caravaggio remains an enigmatic figure, despite Gianni Papi's recent research on the artist.  He was identified as Francesco Buoneri through documents related to the decoration of the Guicciardini chapel in the church of Santa Felicita in Florence.  In fact, the ambassador of Grand Duke Cosimo in Rome, Piero Guicciardini, commissioned from 'Francesco Buonero pittore' a painting of The Resurrection.  He received payments totaling 200 scudi between September 1619 and June 1620.  . . .  Cecco's painting was rejected by the patron and sold in Rome for 160 scudi.  The canvas was likely purchased by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, as evidenced by its presence in the seventeenth-century inventories." 

– from the exhibition catalogue, Caravaggio & His Followers in Rome, curated by David Franklin and Sebastian Schütze (Yale University Press, 2011)


"The Resurrection exaggerates the bold contrast of light and dark and the realistic treatment of sacred figures that Caravaggio had introduced into Roman painting.  Buoneri was apparently one of Caravaggio's closest followers.  He may have been the 'boy Francesco' who assisted the painter during his last years in Rome, a personal connection suggested by his contemporary nickname Cecco (for Francesco) del Caravaggio."

– curator's notes from the Art Institute of Chicago

Cecco del Caravaggio
Christ expelling the Money-changers from the Temple
ca. 1610-20
oil on canvas
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

Cecco del Caravaggio
Road to Calvary
ca. 1610
oil on canvas
Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava

Cecco del Caravaggio
Martyrdom of St Sebastian
ca. 1611-13
oil on canvas
National Museum, Warsaw

Cecco del Caravaggio
Penitent Magdalen
before 1620
oil on canvas
private collection

Cecco del Caravaggio
Penitent Magdalen
before 1620
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Cecco del Caravaggio
Guardian Angel with St Ursula and St Thomas
ca. 1615
oil on canvas
Museo del Prado, Madrid

Cecco del Caravaggio
Woman with a Dove
ca. 1610-20
oil on canvas
Museo del Prado, Madrid

Cecco del Caravaggio
Musician
ca. 1610
oil on canvas
Wellington Collection, Apsley House, London

Cecco del Caravaggio
Flute-player
ca. 1610-20
oil on canvas
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Cecco del Caravaggio
St Lawrence
ca. 1615
oil on canvas
Chiesa Nuova, Rome

Cecco del Caravaggio
Eritrean Sibyl
ca. 1610-20
oil on canvas
private collection

Cecco del Caravaggio
Salome with the Head of John the Baptist
ca. 1610-20
oil on canvas
Collezione Koelliker, Milan