Thursday, March 31, 2022

Taddeo Zuccaro and Prospero Fontana - Villa Giulia

Taddeo Zuccaro and Prospero Fontana
Classical Scenes
ca. 1552-53
ceiling frescoes
with stucco work by Federico Brandini
Villa Giulia, Rome

Taddeo Zuccaro and Prospero Fontana
Diana and her Nymphs
ca. 1552-53
ceiling fresco
with stucco work by Federico Brandini
Villa Giulia, Rome

Taddeo Zuccaro and Prospero Fontana
Pastoral Scene with Women
ca. 1552-53
ceiling fresco
with stucco work by Federico Brandini
Villa Giulia, Rome

Taddeo Zuccaro and Prospero Fontana
Dance of Diana and Nymphs
ca. 1552-53
ceiling fresco
with stucco work by Federico Brandini
Villa Giulia, Rome

Taddeo Zuccaro and Prospero Fontana
Classical Scenes
ca. 1552-53
ceiling frescoes
with stucco work by Federico Brandini
Villa Giulia, Rome

Taddeo Zuccaro and Prospero Fontana
Banqueting Gods
ca. 1552-53
ceiling fresco
with stucco work by Federico Brandini
Villa Giulia, Rome

Taddeo Zuccaro and Prospero Fontana
Diana Bathing with Nymphs
ca. 1552-53
ceiling fresco
with stucco work by Federico Brandini
Villa Giulia, Rome

Taddeo Zuccaro and Prospero Fontana
Bacchanal
ca. 1552-53
ceiling fresco
with stucco work by Federico Brandini
Villa Giulia, Rome

Taddeo Zuccaro and Prospero Fontana
The Seven Hills of Rome - Caelian Hill with the Colosseum
ca. 1552-53
fresco
Villa Giulia, Rome

Taddeo Zuccaro and Prospero Fontana
The Seven Hills of Rome - Capitoline Hill
ca. 1552-53
fresco
Villa Giulia, Rome

Taddeo Zuccaro and Prospero Fontana
The Four Seasons - Spring
ca. 1552-53
fresco
Villa Giulia, Rome

Taddeo Zuccaro and Prospero Fontana
The Four Seasons - Autumn
ca. 1552-53
fresco
Villa Giulia, Rome

Taddeo Zuccaro and Prospero Fontana
Triumph of Galatea
ca. 1552-53
fresco
Villa Giulia, Rome

Taddeo Zuccaro and Prospero Fontana
Personification of Music
ca. 1552-53
oil on plaster
Villa Giulia, Rome

Taddeo Zuccaro and Prospero Fontana
Personification of Peace
ca. 1552-53
oil on plaster
Villa Giulia, Rome

"When Giovanni Ciocchi del Monte, better known as Pope Julius III, had Villa Giulia built at the beginning of his papacy in 1550, the area just outside the walls of the city was still countryside, covered in vineyards and farms.  The del Monte estate stretched from the Aurelian walls to the Milvian Bridge.   It covered the entire area close to the Tiber and inside Via Flaminia, which crossed it, along the hills in front of Villa Borghese and the Monti Parioli.  In fact what today is called Villa Giulia, a building set amid courtyards, nymphaeums, and gardens, is only one of the three that made up the original complex.  . . .  Pope Julius had [this palazzo] built to his own design.  He had Michelangelo look over the drawing and improve it, and subsequently had Vasari, Vignola, and Ammannati enlarge it and supervise its construction between 1551 and 1555.  . . .  This masterpiece has gradually been despoiled over the centuries and has lost much of its decoration, including the gilded stuccoes and the sculptures that embellished the exterior and interior.  Prospero Fontana's and Taddeo Zuccaro's splendid frescoes that have survived in the rooms next to the entrance hall and in the main hall on the first floor give us an idea of the splendor that has been lost."

– Carlo Cresti and Claudio Rendina, Palazzi of Rome, translated by Janet Angelini (Potsdam: H.F. Ullmann, 2005)

Wednesday, March 30, 2022

Dosso Dossi and Prospero Fontana

Dosso Dossi
Nymph pursued by a Satyr
ca. 1516
oil on canvas
Palazzo Pitti, Florence

Dosso Dossi
Man embracing a Woman
ca. 1524
oil on panel
National Gallery, London

Dosso Dossi
Hercules and Omphale
(Allegory of Witchcraft)
ca. 1535
oil on canvas
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Dosso Dossi
Apollo and Daphne
ca. 1522
oil on canvas
Galleria Borghese, Rome

Dosso Dossi
Portrait of a Court Buffoon
1508-10
oil on canvas
Palazzo dei Musei, Modena

Dosso and Battista Dossi
Virgin of the Assumption
with St Michael Archangel vanquishing Lucifer

ca. 1533-34
oil on panel
Galleria Nazionale di Parma

Dosso Dossi
Virgin and Child enthroned
with St Sebastian and St George

ca. 1517-18
oil on canvas
Palazzo dei Musei, Modena

Dosso Dossi
The Lamentation
ca. 1517
oil on panel
National Gallery, London

"Giovanni Luteri (ca. 1489-1542), called Dosso Dossi, is first recorded working for Federico Gonzaga at Mantua in 1512, but from 1514 was in the service of the Este at Ferrara, for whom he executed religious paintings, portraits, but above all allegorical and mythological subjects and others derived from contemporary poets, especially Ariosto.  Landscape settings play an important part in virtually all his works, painted with great freedom both of the brush and of colour, in rich and unexpected textures and tonalities, which produce a poetic, even romantic, effect.  He was assisted by his younger brother, Battista."

Prospero Fontana
The Deposition
1563
oil on panel
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney


Prospero Fontana
The Entombment (detail)
ca. 1548-49
oil on panel
Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna

Prospero Fontana
Adoration of the Magi
ca. 1569
oil on panel
Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna

Prospero Fontana
Adoration of the Magi (detail)
ca. 1569
oil on panel
Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna

Prospero Fontana
Adoration of the Shepherds
ca. 1550
oil on panel
Palazzo dei Musei, Modena

Prospero Fontana
Holy Family
with St John the Baptist and St Catherine

ca. 1575
oil on panel
Museo di Castelvecchio, Verona

Prospero Fontana
Portrait of a Cardinal
ca. 1540
oil on canvas
Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena

"Prospero Fontana (ca. 1512-1597) was an Italian Mannerist painter from Bologna.  He went as a young man to Genoa, where he was employed as an assistant to Perino del Vaga in the decoration of Palazzo Doria; in 1551 he was active in Rome with Taddeo Zuccaro, and in about 1560 also spent a brief period at Fontainebleau assisting Primaticcio.  He worked longest, however, as a member of Vasari's team in Florence and Rome, and it is Vasari who is the greatest influence on his own paintings.  Only in his fifties did Fontana depart from his dependence on Vasari's maniera, when perhaps under the impact of Venetian and Lombard art he turned to a greater naturalism and expressivity."  

– extracts from the Yale Dictionary of Art and Artists (2000) by Erika Langmuir and Norbert Lynton 

Tuesday, March 29, 2022

Giovanni Antonio Galli and Livio Mehus

attributed to Giovanni Antonio Galli (Lo Spadarino)
Three Boy Martyrs
before 1652
oil on canvas
National Trust, Attingham Park, Shropshire

Giovanni Antonio Galli (Lo Spadarino)
Baptism of Constantine
before 1652
oil on canvas
Fondazione Musei Senesi

Giovanni Antonio Galli (Lo Spadarino)
Christ and the Woman taken in Adultery
before 1652
oil on canvas
Museo di Castelvecchio, Verona

Giovanni Antonio Galli (Lo Spadarino)
Feast of the Gods
before 1652
oil on canvas
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Giovanni Antonio Galli (Lo Spadarino)
Guardian Angel
before 1652
oil on canvas
Chiesa di San Rufo, Rieti

Giovanni Antonio Galli (Lo Spadarino)
Penitent Magdalen
ca. 1625-35
oil on canvas
Walters Art Museum, Baltimore

Giovanni Antonio Galli (Lo Spadarino)
St Frances of Rome with an Angel
before 1652
oil on canvas
Palazzo Rosso, Genoa

Giovanni Antonio Galli (Lo Spadarino)
St Frances of Rome with an Angel
before 1652
oil on canvas
Banco Nazionale del Lavoro, Rome

"Spadarino's most typical and strikingly modern feature is that of human fragility and vulnerability.  It distinguishes him from all of Caravaggio's other followers and from the master himself, who was dramatic and severe, monumental and rigorous, with stronger and more decided feelings."

– Gianni Papi, Between God and Man: Angels in Italian Art (Jackson: Mississippi Museum of Art, 2007)

Livio Mehus
The Annunciation
before 1691
oil on canvas
Pinacoteca Egidio Martini, Ca' Rezzonico, Venice

Livio Mehus
Annunciation to the Shepherds
ca. 1670-80
oil on canvas
Palazzo Pretorio, Prato


Livio Mehus
Annunciation to the Shepherds (detail)
ca. 1670-80
oil on canvas
Palazzo Pretorio, Prato

Livio Mehus
Landscape with Seaside Village
ca. 1670-80
oil on canvas
Palazzo Pretorio, Prato

Livio Mehus
The Genius of Painting
(Self-Portrait)
ca. 1650
oil on canvas
Museo del Prado, Madrid

Livio Mehus
The Genius of Sculpture
(Self-Portrait)
ca. 1650
oil on canvas
Palazzo Pitti, Florence

Livio Mehus
Battle between Greeks and Trojans
ca. 1670
oil on canvas
private collection
 
"At the age of fourteen Livio Mehus, born in Flanders, was already documented in Rome.  The greater part of his career, however, was centered in Florence.  He settled there in the service of the Medici, executing original works for them in fresco and on canvas, as well as undertaking restorations of many earlier masterpieces in their collections."

– from curator's notes at Museo del Prado, Madrid

Monday, March 28, 2022

Francesco Maffei and Alessandro Magnasco

Francesco Maffei
Adoration of the Shepherds
before 1660
oil on canvas
Pinacoteca Egidio Martini, Ca' Rezzonico, Venice

Francesco Maffei
The Continence of Scipio
ca. 1650
oil on canvas
Castello del Buonconsiglio, Trento

Francesco Maffei
Esther before Ahasuerus
ca. 1650
oil on canvas
Castello del Buonconsiglio, Trento

Francesco Maffei
Jacob's Dream
before 1660
oil on canvas
Pinacoteca Egidio Martini, Ca' Rezzonico, Venice

Francesco Maffei
Mucius Scaevola before Lars Porsenna
ca. 1655-60
oil on canvas
Palazzo Pretorio, Prato

Francesco Maffei
Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard
before 1660
oil on canvas
Museo di Castelvecchio, Verona

Francesco Maffei
Perseus beheading Medusa
ca. 1650
oil on canvas
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Francesco Maffei
The Way to Calvary
ca. 1645-50
oil on canvas
Palazzo Pretorio, Prato

"Francesco Maffei's fluid style combined the richness and splendor of the Baroque, the elegance and exaggeration of Mannerism, and his own flair for the visually dramatic.  He probably trained in Vicenza with his father and with a local Mannerist painter.  Active in Vicenza for most of his career, he also left intermittently to work in other Italian cities, including Venice, Rovido, and Brescia.  Maffei specialized in civic allegories, elaborate machines that glorified the region's dignitaries.  He painted religious works as well.  Maffei painted with a nervous and rapid brush in flashes of brilliant color, often achieving a hallucinatory effect.  . . .  Maffei left Vicenza in 1657 and settled in Padua, where he died of the plague."

– from curator's notes at the Getty Museum

Alessandro Magnasco
Ecce Homo
ca. 1710
oil on canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Alessandro Magnasco
Landscape with Gypsies and Washerwomen
ca. 1705-1710
oil on canvas
Indianapolis Museum of Art

Alessandro Magnasco
Landscape with Gypsies and Washerwomen (detail)
ca. 1705-1710
oil on canvas
Indianapolis Museum of Art

Alessandro Magnasco
St Ambrose barring Theodosius from Milan Cathedral
ca. 1700-1710
oil on canvas
Art Institute of Chicago

Alessandro Magnasco
St Ambrose barring Theodosius from Milan Cathedral (detail)
ca. 1700-1710
oil on canvas
Art Institute of Chicago

Alessandro Magnasco
St Augustine and the Child on the Beach
(Allegory of the Mystery of the Holy Trinity)
before 1749
oil on canvas
Palazzo Doria Tursi, Genoa

Alessandro Magnasco
St Augustine and the Child on the Beach (detail)
(Allegory of the Mystery of the Holy Trinity)
before 1749
oil on canvas
Palazzo Doria Tursi, Genoa

Alessandro Magnasco
The Tame Magpie
ca. 1707-1708
oil on canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

"Alessandro Magnasco was born in 1667 in Genoa to the moderately successful painter Stefano Magnasco.  After his father died prematurely, Alessandro was sent to Milan to learn commerce.  Instead, Alessandro induced his Milanese patron to cover the expenses of an apprenticeship with the esteemed painter Filippo Abbiati (1640-1715), probably around 1680.  By the 1690s, the young Magnasco had competed his training and established himself as a portrait painter.  He was known as Lissandrino in his own time. 

This phase of his career must have been short-lived, however, because already by 1695, the date of his first signed work, Magnasco was painting scenes from contemporary life.  His subjects and his lively, almost burlesque figures owe much to the prints of Jacques Callot (1592-1635) and Stefano Della Bella (1610-1664).  Like them, Magnasco began creating scenes that defy easy classification as either history paintings or genre, with smaller figures set in lush landscapes, lavish or spare interiors, as well as in classical ruins."

– from the biographical sketch at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC