Francesco Trevisani Madonna and Child ca. 1708-1710 oil on canvas Museo del Prado, Madrid |
Francesco Trevisani Madonna and Child ca. 1700 oil on canvas National Trust, Stourhead, Wiltshire |
Francesco Trevisani Infant Christ Sleeping 1706 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
"Born in 1656 in Capodistria, Trevisani became a pupil of Antonio Zanchi in Venice, but after moving to Rome he was far more decisively influenced by the major masters of that local school. After the gradual decline of the tradition of Carlo Maratti, Trevisani became the leading representative of the Roman school. In keeping with the general trend of the period, he established the direction, in respect to both concept and technical handling, toward the charming and the elegant, the courtly and the nonchalant. Although he also engaged in altar painting in the grand style, his true field lay in small easel painting and cabinet pictures. In such paintings – in the pleasant, gentle colors and the unusually intense chiaroscuro contrasts, facilely rendered by means of a soft, almost cottony modeling of form – Trevisani seemed to provide a welcome counterweight to the increasingly static conventions of the followers of Maratti. He was of course not able to provide a significant impetus to monumental painting, since by dint of his Venetian nature he was not inclined in that direction. It is revealing that he made virtually no attempts at fresco painting. Trevisani's chief activities were centered in Rome and the Papal States. The numerous copies after his work, especially of his Holy Families, his Madonnas, and his penitent Magdalenes, attest to the extraordinary popularity of his art. Even today one cannot remain immune to the genial charm of many of his works, even though their porcelain smoothness and their stereotyped formal language hold little appeal for modern taste; the ease, moreover, with which he was able to adapt himself to the most various stylistic trends makes his artistic integrity suspect. He died in Rome in 1746, after a very long career."
– Hermann Voss, from Baroque Painting in Rome (1925), revised and translated by Thomas Pelzel (San Francisco: Alan Wofsy, 1997)
Francesco Trevisani Dead Christ supported by Angels ca. 1710 oil on canvas Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Francesco Trevisani Dead Christ supported by Angels ca. 1720 oil on canvas Bristol Museum and Art Gallery |
follower of Francesco Trevisani Dead Christ supported by Angels (copy) ca. 1720 oil on panel (grisaille) Philadelphia Museum of Art |
attributed to Francesco Trevisani Dead Christ supported by Angels before 1746 pigment on ivory (cabinet miniature) private collection |
Francesco Trevisani Angels bearing the Cross ca. 1705 fresco Chiesa di San Silvestro in Capite, Rome |
Francesco Trevisani Angels bearing the Cross ca. 1705 fresco (detail) Chiesa di San Silvestro in Capite, Rome |
"S. Silvestro in Capite: painted decoration in the Cappella della Passione, with altarpiece (The Crucifixion); lateral paintings (The Scourging of Christ and Christ Carrying the Cross, both quite brutal) . . . Painted in fresco: the four pendentives, figures of putti with the instruments of the Passion; on the flat surface of the cupola is an angel bearing the Cross. This was Trevisani's first major commission for church paintings in Rome, executed about 1705."
– Hermann Voss, from Baroque Painting in Rome (1925), revised and translated by Thomas Pelzel (San Francisco: Alan Wofsy, 1997)
follower of Francesco Trevisani Scourging of Christ (copy) after 1705 oil on canvas Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
Francesco Trevisani Study for Crucifixion with the Virgin and St John the Evangelist ca. 1705 drawing British Museum |
Francesco Trevisani Agony in the Garden 1740 oil on copper Glasgow Museums |
Francesco Trevisani Christ before Caiaphas ca. 1705-1710 oil on copper Princeton University Art Museum |
Francesco Trevisani Pietà ca. 1720 oil on copper Los Angeles County Museum of Art |