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| Pietro Novelli (il Monrealese) Archangel Gabriel sent by the Holy Trinity with a message to the Virgin Mary ca. 1635-36 oil on canvas Museo di Capodimonte, Naples |
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| Pietro Novelli (il Monrealese) The Virgin crowning St Casimir 1636 oil on canvas Palazzo Abatellis, Palermo |
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| Pietro Novelli (il Monrealese) Lot and his Family fleeing Sodom ca. 1640 oil on canvas Monasterio El Escorial |
Pietro Novelli, il Monrealese (1603-1647) – Monrealese trained first with his father, Pietro Antonio Novelli, and subsequently with Vito Carrera in Palermo. Works throughout Monrealese's career show the influence of Anthony van Dyck, who had visited Sicily in 1624. At the beginning of the 1630s Monrealese visited Rome and Naples, where he was exposed to further influences: he studied in Rome the works of Raphael and Michelangelo, and, most particularly, Caravaggio. While in Naples he enjoyed contact with Jusepe de Ribera. Monrealese returned to Sicily in 1637, remaining there until his early death ten years later.
– adapted from biographical notes at Museo del Prado
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| Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (il Grechetto) The Journey of Rebecca 1637 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Houston |
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, il Grechetto (1609-1664) – The seemingly incessant peripatetic travels of this Genoese artist throughout the peninsula of Italy provides the perfect parallel to his insatiable quest for assimilating a variety of artistic sources throughout his career. His emergence as one of the most important Genoese artists of the Seicento was recognition that he was more than just an animal specialist or a painter of patriarchal journeys. He was also known for his portraits, altarpieces, and allegorical works, and he received many plaudits for his drawings, etchings, and monotypes. Initially attracted to the works of Flemish (or Flemish-inspired) contemporaries in Genoa, he later was influenced by the works of the Bassano, Titian, Correggio, and Parmigianino from the Cinquecento, and, among his contemporaries, Ribera, Rembrandt, Bernini, and particularly Poussin.
– from biographical notes issued by Matthiesen Fine Art, London
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| Simone Cantarini St Jerome reading ca. 1637 oil on canvas Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna |
Simone Cantarini, il Pesarese (1612-1648) – Cantarini was born in Pesaro, in the Marches, a region which was a crossroads for artists from many parts of Italy. He began training as an adolescent in the local studio of Giovanni Giacomo Pandolfi, who combined the local naturalism with the Mannerist style of the late sixteenth century, and then worked under Claudio Ridolfi, a student of Paolo Veronese and Federico Barocci. After Ridolfi's departure in 1629, Cantarini came under the influence of Caravaggism, especially as expressed by Orazio Gentileschi and Giovanni Francesco Guerrieri. By the mid-1630s Cantarini was working under Guido Reni in Bologna. Their relationship was stormy, and Cantarini departed in 1637, painting independently for the last decade of his short life.
– adapted from biographical notes at National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
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| Jusepe de Ribera Apollo and Marsyas 1637 oil on canvas Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels |
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| Jusepe de Ribera Apollo and Marsyas (detail) 1637 oil on canvas Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels |
Jusepe de Ribera (1591-1652) – The "young Spaniard working in the manner of Caravaggio" was causing the Bolognese artists concern, Ludovico Carracci wrote admiringly of Ribera in 1618. After working in Parma and Rome, Ribera settled in Naples, where he spent his career. His art combined knowledge of the Carracci and Caravaggio with Spanish realism and vigorous, scratchy brushwork. After 1632 the artist's painting became softer in tone and more classical in feeling. His palette lightened, perhaps through Venetian or Flemish influence. By the 1640s Ribera was wealthy and operated a large workshop.
– adapted from biographical notes at Getty Museum
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| Guido Reni The Crucifixion 1636 oil on canvas Palazzo dei Musei, Modena |
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| Guido Reni Angel appearing to St Jerome 1638 oil on canvas Detroit Institute of Arts |
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| Guido Reni St Andrea Corsini ca. 1639 oil on canvas Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna |
Guido Reni (1575-1642) – Reni was trained by Denys Calvaert, and then probably in the Carracci workshop. He spent 1602-1613 in Rome, where Domenichino had also arrived. Reni is reputed to have met (and quarrelled with) Caravaggio there. Many of Reni's best known works were painted in Rome, but by 1613 Reni had returned to Bologna. He was largely active there, running a busy studio for the remainder of his career.
– adapted from biographical notes at National Gallery, London
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| Cavaliere d'Arpino (Giuseppe Cesari) The Lamentation ca. 1638-40 oil on canvas Fondazione Cavallini Sgarbi, Ferrara |
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| Domenico Pugliani Winged Putti with Roses, Wreath and Palm ca. 1639-40 fresco Oratorio dei Vanchetoni, Florence |
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| Andrea Vaccaro Martyrdom of St Sebastian 1640 oil on canvas private collection |
Andrea Vaccaro (1604-1670) – Born in Naples, Vaccaro trained under Girolamo Imparato. The art of Caravaggio and of Guido Reni influenced the artist's style most strongly. A prolific painter of religious works, Vaccaro was a dominant figure in Naples until the advent of Luca Giordano, who eclipsed him.
– adapted from biographical notes at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
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| Bernardo Strozzi Portrait of Cardinal Federico Cornaro ca. 1640 oil on canvas Pinacoteca Egidio Martini, Ca' Rezzonico, Venice |
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| Bernardo Strozzi Portrait of Cavaliere Giovanni Grimani ca. 1640 oil on canvas Gallerie dell' Accademia, Venice |
Bernardo Strozzi (1581-1644) – Strozzi was one of the most influential Italian painters of the early 1600s, especially in Genoa and Venice. He studied briefly with a painter and antiquarian before his mother sent him to work with a Sienese painter in Genoa. Although he drew on the great variety of styles available in this busy cosmopolitan center, Strozzi was perhaps most profoundly influenced by Caravaggio and the work of Caravaggio's students.
– adapted from biographical notes at Getty Museum