Thursday, March 28, 2019

Niccolò Berrettoni (1637-1682) - Rome

Niccolò Berrettoni
Holy Family with St John the Baptist and St Elizabeth
before 1682
oil on canvas
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Niccolò Berrettoni
Allegory of the Seasons
1670
fresco
Stanza dell' Estate, Villa Falconieri, Frascati

Niccolò Berrettoni
Virgin Annunciate
before 1687
oil on canvas
private collection

"Berrettoni was born in 1637 in Macerata di Montefeltre (near Urbino).  Beginning in the 1650s he was in Rome and active in the studio of Carlo Maratti, who soon recognized his extraordinary talent and (according to Berrettoni's biographer, Pascoli) was so jealous that he attempted to suppress his advancement.  Despite that, Berrettoni's earliest Roman works, depictions of Sacred and Profane Love, attracted the attention of connoisseurs.  . . .  In the competition for the ceiling frescoes in the nave of S. Silvestro in Capite, preference was given to Giacinto Brandi (on the recommendation of Maratti, according to Pascoli), although Berrettoni's design had been better received.  Berrettoni's disappointment is supposed to have given rise to a physical malady that progressed rapidly to his death in 1682.  . . .  His work, compared to that of his master, has a certain quality of cheerfulness and lightheartedness that at times can reach the level of festive exuberance.  His color is florid with a certain degree of succulence; his use of line is sweeping and energetic.  Berrettoni's art, which is conspicuous in the best sense of the term, makes one regret his early demise." 

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

Niccolò Berrettoni
Study for the head of Mary Magdalene
before 1682
drawing
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Niccolò Berrettoni
Holy Family with St John the Baptist
before 1682
oil on canvas
National Trust, Belton House, Grantham, Lincolnshire

Niccolò Berrettoni
Holy Family with St Anne, reading a Psalm
1679
drawing
Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf

Niccolò Berrettoni
Virgin and Child with St John the Baptist, St Dominic and St Francis
before 1682
oil on copper
private collection

Niccolò Berrettoni
Virgin and Child appearing to a Bishop Saint
before 1682
drawing
private collection

Niccolò Berrettoni
Virgin and Child with St John the Baptist
before 1682
drawing
British Museum

Niccolò Berrettoni
Birth of Venus, with Neptune, Cybele, and the Chariot of the Sun
ca. 1670-80
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Niccolò Berrettoni
Venus lamenting the Death of Adonis
before 1682
drawing
Victoria & Albert Museum

Niccolò Berrettoni
Hercules at the Crossroads
before 1682
drawing
Art Institute of Chicago

Niccolò Berrettoni
Ananias curing Saul's Blindness
before 1682
oil on canvas
private collection

attributed to Niccolò Berrettoni
Infant Christ holding a Cross
ca. 1670-80
oil on canvas
Royal Collection, Great Britain