1

Drawn to Excellence: Renaissance to Romantic Drawings from a Private Collection Artist Biographies (listed alphabetically by artist last name or most commonly used name) Compiled by Kendyll Gross, Emory University class of 2014, Brown SIAMS Fellow, 2012 Some European nations that we know today, such as Italy, were not in existence during the centuries represented in this exhibition. Thus, it is inaccurate to refer to artists active prior to the nineteenth century, for example, as “Italian.” Such designations also do not reflect the sometimes profound artistic differences between areas that are geographically fairly close, such as Venice and Florence, Italy. In order to better reflect the context in which each artist developed, the city of their birth and death is recorded in these biographies and on the object label. Niccolò dell' Abate. Modena c. 1512–1571 Fontainebleau (?) Niccolò’s early career was centered in Northern Italy. Influenced by the work of Correggio and Parmigianino, Niccolò earned his first major success in 1546, with twelve frescoes of the Aeneid for a castle near Modena. In 1552, Niccolò was invited to the court of Henri II of France at Fontainebleau as Primaticcio’s assistant. He is considered to be one of the preeminent artists of the first School of Fontainebleau. He remained in France until his death. Il Baciccio (Giovanni Battista Gaulli). Genoa 1639–1709 Rome Baciccio (a nickname for Giovanni Battista) was known as a brilliant colorist and a master of Baroque theatricality. He moved to Rome to study under the sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini, who helped the younger artist advance his career and supported him in obtaining his most important commission, the decoration of the ceiling in the church of the Gesú, the mother church of the Jesuit Order (1676-1670). During his career, Baciccio carried out several notable commissions, mainly religious works, but he also created portraits, mostly of popes, cardinals, and other prominent figures, as well as mythological paintings. Baccio Bandinelli (Bartolommeo Brandini). Florence 1488 or 1493–1560 Florence Bandinelli's father, Michelangelo di Viviani de’ Bandini, a prominent Florentine goldsmith, was his most influential teacher, exposing his young son to the work of Leonardo da Vinci. Bandinelli studied ancient and contemporary sculpture. His powerful studies executed with confident strokes of the pen and bold hatching share similarities with the drawing style of his rival, Michelangelo. Bandinelli actively sought out prestigious commissions and patronage. Federico Barocci. Urbino c. 1535–1612 Urbino Barocci trained with Battista Franco in his native Urbino then traveled to Rome in the mid-1550s and again in 1560. There, he worked with Mannerist masters Taddeo and Federico Zuccaro on the decoration of the Casino of Pius IV in the Vatican gardens, where he created a fresco of the Holy Family. Barocci returned to Urbino in 1563 and spent most of his remaining career fulfilling commissions for religious paintings. Many of these large-scale works were conceived as altarpieces, which are still in situ today in churches in and around Urbino. Fra Bartolommeo (Baccio della Porta). Florence 1472–1517 Florence Influenced by the teachings of the religious and political reformer Girolamo Savonarola, Bartolommeo entered the friary of San Domenico at Prato in 1500. His art bridges the detailed realism of the fifteenth century to the idealized grandeur of the High Renaissance styles of the sixteenth century. Bartolommeo was also a pioneer in the study of landscape. His many drawings of the Tuscan countryside are by far the largest group of landscape drawings by any Italian Renaissance artist.

2

Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Naples 1598–1680 Rome As the leading sculptor and foremost architect of his time, Bernini produced some of the most memorable monuments associated with the Roman Baroque. He studied with his father, Pietro, and through him developed relationships with powerful patrons, such as the Borghese and Barberini families. His work is distinguished by his ability to blend the effects of different media: his sculptures are very painterly, and his architecture functions equally well as sculpture. Bernini’s many talents gained him many important commissions, such as his work as the principle architect for St. Peter’s (1629) for which he designed the Baldacchino, the Throne of St. Peter, an oval colonnade, and the tomb of Pope Urban VIII. Il Bertoia (Jacopo Zanguidi). Parma 1544–1574 Parma Bertoia is first documented in Rome in 1568. His earliest known works, the banner of the Madonna della Misericordia and a fresco fragment from the Coronation of the Virgin from the Palazzo Communale, reveal the influence of Parmigianino. Although best known for his Mannerist style, Bertoia, like Parmigianino, was also a keen observer of the natural world. From 1568 to 1573, he is recorded as working on the interior decoration of the oratory of Santa Lucia del Gonaflone. From 1569 to 1572, he was engaged with creating biblical fresco scenes in the villa of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. Jean-Jacques de Boissieu. Lyon 1736–1810 Lyon Boissieu travelled throughout Europe as a self-taught artist, developing a particular interest in landscape painting; he later settled in Lyon, where other artists and dignitaries often visited his studio. He achieved great commercial and critical success during his lifetime. For Boissieu, atmospheric and tonal effects took precedence over sharp lines and absolute clarity. His engraved landscapes are bathed in light and shadow and populated with the rural figures and architectural forms characteristic of Dutch landscape painting. Il Bolognese (Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi). Cento 1591–1666 Bologna Grimaldi was trained in Bologna in the circle of the Carracci. He came to Rome in 1627 and demonstrated his talent as a painter and decorator, fulfilling commissions for prominent families. Grimaldi’s landscape drawings, organized around a clear sequence of planes leading into the distance punctuated by people and buildings, remained based in the Carracci tradition. His many etchings and drawings spread the influence of the Central Italian landscape tradition throughout Europe. He was among the first Roman Baroque artists to specialize in landscape and the first to enjoy considerable success in the genre. Andrea Boscoli. Florence c. 1560–1607 Florence Boscoli trained under painter Santi di Tito and joined the Florentine Accademia del Disegno in 1583. His training there took place during the reform of the Mannerist style toward greater naturalism. However, Boscoli developed his own style, emphasizing detail in lively representations of his subjects. He painted many public frescoes and altarpieces throughout Italy, in addition to private commissions. Before his death, Boscoli was still highly active in painting frescoes and altarpieces. These works led to a revival of Mannerist style in his art. François Boucher. Paris 1703–1770 Paris François Boucher is associated with the formulation of the mature Rococo style and its dissemination throughout Europe. Boucher made his mark not only as a painter and draftsman, but also as a designer of book illustrations, fountains, tapestries, porcelains, and a variety of other decorative art objects. He preferred lighthearted subjects, including pastorals, fêtes galantes, domestic scenes, and scenes of the amorous adventures of the gods. He became known as “le peintre des graces” (painter of the graces) for his many paintings of female nudes.

3

Agnolo Bronzino. Monticelli 1503–1572 Florence Bronzino was a Florentine Mannerist painter and the pupil and adopted son of Jacopo Pontormo. Bronzino’s work differed from the emotional intensity that characterized Pontormo’s oeuvre; he excelled as a portraitist rather than a religious painter. He was the foremost artist at the court of Cosimo de’ Medici in Florence, distinguishing himself as a painter of Medici family portraits, from 1539 until around 1555, when his fame was overshadowed by Giorgio Vasari. The artist’s paintings are characterized by a refined elegance, attention to surface detail, and a polished brilliance of coloring. Denys Calvaert. Antwerp 1540–1619 Bologna Calvaert settled in Bologna as a young man, where he became a pupil of Prospero Fontana in 1570. He then studied with Lorenzo Sabbatini, whom he accompanied to Rome in 1572, remaining there for two years to assist his teacher with paintings in the Vatican. On his return to Bologna, Calvaert established a celebrated school, which produced a number of notable artists. Domenico Campagnola. Venice 1500 (?)–1564 Padua Domenico was adopted by Guilio Campagnola, a Venetian draftsman and engraver who instructed him in painting, drawing, engraving, and making woodcuts. After Guilio’s death around 1516, Domenico became Venice's foremost printmaker, preferring to cut his own woodblocks rather than employing a professional. Around 1520, Campagnola settled in Padua where he painted frescoes and altarpieces, and became the city’s most prominent painter. Nevertheless, he remained most celebrated for his woodcuts and landscape drawings, which he sold as finished compositions. Carlo Innocenzo Carlone. Scaria (Val d’Intelvi) 1686–1775 Scaria Carlone spent five formative years in Francesco Trevisani’s workshop in Rome. While there he was influenced by the work of Pietro da Cortona, Luca Giordano, and Francesco Solimena. He left Rome around 1711 and quickly made his name in Vienna and throughout the Hapsburg territories. About 1720, his style changed, and his compositions became more open and elegant. Despite his extensive work across central Europe, Carlone returned annually to northern Italy, working on commissions there until he was eighty years old. Particularly influenced by the work of Giambattista Tiepolo, he made many oil sketches and was known for his sophisticated use of color. Agostino Carracci. Bologna 1557–1602 Parma Agostino was one of a trio of celebrated Bolognese artists, all from the same family, who played a key role in setting the foundations of the Baroque style. Together with his brother Annibale and his cousin Ludovico, Agostino rejected the elegant deformations and exaggerations of Mannerism, taking inspiration from antiquity, the masters of the High Renaissance, and the natural world. The Carracci also embraced the study of nature as an important foundation of art. Annibale Carracci. Bologna 1560–1609 Rome Annibale Carracci was a vital force in the creation of Baroque style. Together with his cousin Ludovico and his brother Agostino, Annibale rejected the exaggeration of Mannerist painting. He supported a return to nature and the study of great northern Italian painters of the Renaissance. Annibale also created a new, broken brushwork technique to capture movement and the effects of light on form. During the 1590s, Annibale travelled to Rome where he encountered works of classical antiquity and the art of Michelangelo and Raphael. Annibale’s work combines northern Italian naturalism with the idealism of Roman painting.

4

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione. Genoa 1609–1666 Mantua Castiglione’s art bears a close relationship with that of Sinibaldo Scroza, known for his rustic scenes, and that of the Antwerp painter Jan Roos, who specialized in painting scenes with animals and compositions that combined figures and still lifes. Neither a pure landscape painter nor primarily an animal painter, Castiglione became known for his pastoral views, scenes from the life of Noah, and mythological and poetic subjects. His art often dealt with philosophical themes such as man’s place within nature and the cycle of life and death. Pietro da Cortona. Cortona 1597–1669 Rome Pietro was a quintessential practitioner of the High Baroque style in architecture, painting, and sculpture. Born in Cortona, he studied in Florence and then Rome. He was influenced by the frescoes of Domenichino and Annibale Carracci and the illusionism of Giovanni Lanfranco and Guercino. His dignified yet festive combination of paint and stucco became Europe’s official decorative style for aristocratic dwellings. Bartolomeo Cesi. Bologna 1556–1629 Bologna Cesi is said to have studied under Il Nosadella (Giovanni Francesco Bezzi, 1549-1571) and received his first commission at eighteen. He soon became one of Bologna’s leading religious painters, participating in the decoration of many of the city’s churches and painting numerous devotional images for private patrons. His earliest works in the 1570s reflect the prevailing taste for Mannerism. However, Cesi’s work in the 1580s reflects his acceptance of the new naturalism advocated by the Carracci. Cesi drew extensively from live models in preparation for his paintings. Il Cigoli (Ludovico Cardi). Castelvecchio di Cigoli 1559–1613 Rome Cigoli was just thirteen when he first entered the Florentine studio of painter Alessandro Allori, where he began to study anatomy. In the 1580s, he studied with architect Bernardo Buontalenti and with the painter Santi di Tito, who was leading Florentine art away from Mannerist complexity to naturalism and visual clarity. Cigoli’s work with these artists put him in contact with the ruling Medici family and other important patrons. His diligence in the study of anatomy and perspective, and his dedication to drawing as a means of preparing for painting were remarked on by his early biographers. Claude Lorrain (Claude Gellée). Champagne 1600–1682 Rome Claude was the foremost French landscape painter of the seventeenth century. The young artist began his career in Rome around 1617, and for the most part remained there until his death. He studied the art of Northern European landscapists working in Italy, trained under Rome’s landscape painters, and briefly studied in Naples. By 1633, Claude had found his definitive landscape style and joined Rome’s Accademia di San Luca. His paintings focused on refined and ordered landscapes, often peopled with biblical or mythological characters. To stimulate his imagination to devise images more beautiful and better ordered than nature itself, he drew outdoors daily. John Constable. East Bergholt, Suffolk 1776–1837 Hampstead John Constable is known principally for his landscape paintings of Dedham Vale, the area surrounding his home in Suffolk, England. He relied on drawings and oil sketches as quick, direct records of nature, often using them as the basis for his oils. Although his paintings are now considered masterworks of British Romantic art, he was never financially successful and did not become a member of the establishment until he was elected to the Royal Academy at the age of 52. He sold more paintings in France than in his native England.

5

Correggio (Antonio Allegri). Corregio c. 1489–1534 Corregio Little is known about Correggio’s formative training. His early paintings reflect the influence of Andrea Mantegna, with whom Correggio may have studied in Mantua. His paintings and drawings also suggest Leonardo’s influence, especially in the use of soft shading. The Camera di San Paolo at Parma, painted in 1519, is Correggio’s first important work. This project initiated a sequence of commissions in the decades that followed. Correggio went on to complete several important works, such as the frescoes in San Giovanni Evangelista and a series of mythological paintings for Federico Gonzaga. Francesco Curia. Naples 1560/65–c. 1610 Naples Little is known about Curia’s life. The Neapolitan artist was said to have been active in his father’s workshop from 1588 to 1594; all his documented works were created between 1588 and 1608. The Neapolitan painter Marco Pino and the late Roman and Tuscan Mannerists represented by Taddeo Zuccaro were strong influences on Curia’s work. Eugène Delacroix. Charenton-Saint-Maurice 1798–1863 Paris In 1822, Delacroix took the French Salon by storm. Although the French artistic establishment considered him a rebel, the French government bought his paintings and commissioned murals throughout Paris. Delacroix attempted to balance Classicism and Romanticism, declaring that art should be created out of sincerity and should express the artist’s true feelings and convictions. Contrary to the prevailing custom of nineteenth-century French artists, Delacroix never studied in Italy, preferring to gain inspiration from the more exotic locale of North Africa. His choice of dramatic themes and expressive painting style are characteristic of French Romantic painting. Michel-Martin Droelling. Paris 1786–1851 Paris After training with Jacques-Louis David for four years, Droelling won the Prix de Rome in 1810 for his painting The Anger of Achilles. While in Italy he pursued a career as a history painter in the neoclassical manner, also taking an interest in the landscape. When Droelling returned to Paris in 1816, he established himself as a painter of portraits and history subjects in the grand manner and exhibited at the Salon from 1817 to 1850. He continued to make portrait drawings, which he typically signed and dated, throughout his career. Francesco Fontebasso. Venice 1707–1769 Venice Early in his training, Fontebasso studied Giovanni Battista Tiepolo’s frescoes and eventually came in contact with the artist. Settling in Venice, Fontebasso increasingly emulated Tiepolo’s palette and compositional designs. By the 1740s, he had established himself as a leading artist in Venice. Mainly active as a decorator of churches and palaces, he worked both in fresco and on canvas. Like Tiepolo, Fontebasso also produced pen-and-wash drawings and numerous book illustrations. In 1768, he was elected president of the Académie Royale. Jean-Honoré Fragonard. Grasse 1732–1806 Paris Fragonard trained in the studios of Jean-Baptiste Chardin and François Boucher. He continued his studies in Paris at the École des Élèves Protégés until 1756, when he moved to Rome to study at the French Academy. The director was Charles-Joseph Natoire, who promoted an ambitious drawing program that included sketching from nature. Also in Rome was Hubert Robert, who specialized in painting and drawing ancient ruins. Both greatly influenced Fragonard’s early progress as a draftsman and a landscapist. Upon his return to France the young painter determined that he was not suited to paint academic subjects, and he embarked on a long and successful career as a painter of courtly and erotic genre scenes in the Rococo style.

6

Caspar David Friedrich. Greifswald 1774–1840 Dresden German Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich studied in Copenhagen until 1798 before settling in Dresden. He is best known for allegorical landscapes, featuring often melancholy scenes of cemeteries or dark landscapes with figures in vast spaces. He sought to infuse both the landscape and light with emotional and symbolic content. According to the artist: “Art stands as the mediator between nature and humanity. The original is too great and too sublime for the multitude to grasp.” Thomas Gainsborough. Sudbury, Suffolk 1727–1788 London In his early years, Gainsborough primarily painted landscapes and worked as a restorer for art dealers. He was influenced by seventeenth-century Dutch landscape painting and portraits by Anthony Van Dyck. Although he preferred to paint landscapes, portraits were in much greater demand in eighteenth-century England. As a portraitist, he was highly acclaimed and sought after by the English aristocracy for his elegant, flattering portrayals. In his late 40s, Gainsborough settled permanently in London and became a founding member of the Royal Academy. Gaetano Gandolfi. San Matteo della Decima 1734–1802 Bologna The work of the brothers Ubaldo and Gaetano Gandolfi and of the latter’s son, Mauro Gandolfi, reflects the transition from late Bolognese Baroque through Neo-classicism and into early Italian Romanticism. During their period of their collective productivity, from 1760 to 1820, the Gandolfi produced paintings, frescoes, drawings, sculptures, and prints. Their drawings made an outstanding contribution to the great figurative tradition of Bolognese draughtsmanship that had begun with the Carracci. Gaetano specialized in painting mythological and historical subjects, and received major commissions in Bologna and from places as far afield as St. Petersburg. Ubaldo Gandolfi. San Matteo della Decima 1728–1781 Ravenna Ubaldo and his brother Gaetano were heirs to the Bolognese tradition of the Carracci: careful studies of the human figure set in religious and mythological scenes. By the age of seventeen, Ubaldo was enrolled at the Accademia Clementina in Bologna. As a teenager, he won medals for his figure drawing. After election to the Accademia Clementina in 1750, he became director of drawing. He primarily produced religious paintings, but he occasionally received commissions for decorative frescoes from the Bolognese aristocracy. Théodore Géricault. Rouen 1791–1824 Paris Géricault was largely self-taught despite three years of studio training. He copied paintings in the Louvre and traveled to Rome, where he was influenced by the work of Michelangelo and Peter Paul Rubens. Gericault’s paintings exhibit qualities that set him apart from other neoclassical painters, including violent action, dramatic color, and bold compositions that evoke powerful emotion. In his famed canvas Raft of the Medusa (1818-1819) Géricault mixed Realism and Romanticism, raising a contemporary event—a shipwreck with few survivors—to the level of history painting. The wreck was attributed to governmental negligence, and the resulting controversy, along with the painting’s intensity, brought Géricault widespread attention. Girolamo da Treviso. Treviso c. 1497–1544 Boulogne Girolamo first studied in Treviso and Venice, where he may have come into contact with Titian and Pordenone. In 1523, he travelled to Bologna, where he acquired a Raphaelesque style added to the Venetian foundations of his earlier training. In 1538, Girolamo moved to England, where he worked as a military engineer for King Henry VIII. He was killed six years later by a cannon ball as English forces laid siege to the French port of Boulogne.

7

François-Marius Granet. Aix-en-Provence 1775–1849 Aix-en-Provence Granet began his career depicting medieval and royalist subjects before traveling to Rome in 1802. There, he was enthralled by the picturesque beauty of ancient ruins in the Italian countryside. While abroad, Granet exhibited regularly at the Paris Salon, where he established a reputation for scenes of Catholic rituals set in the monumental interiors of churches or monasteries. The artist remained in Rome until 1830, where he assumed a post as curator at the Musée du Louvre in Paris; three years later, he became the first curator of the Musée Historique, Versailles. Jean-Baptiste Greuze. Tournus 1725–1805 Paris Greuze is primarily known as the great moralizing painter of the eighteenth century. He introduced a Dutch-influenced realism into French genre painting and portraiture while retaining the bright colors and lighter attitude characteristic of Roccoco art. In 1769, the Academy refused Greuze membership as a history painter, accepting him in the lower category of genre. Humiliated, he completely withdrew from public exhibitions. During the 1770s he enjoyed a widespread reputation, and engravings after his paintings were widely distributed. By the 1780s, the rise of Neoclassicism curtailed the popularity of his work. Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri). Cento 1591–1666 Bologna Guercino (“the squinter,” so called because he was cross-eyed) was among the most prolific draftsmen in Italy during the seventeenth century. Although he did not actually attend the Carracci Academy, he absorbed the naturalistic and expressive style of the school through careful study of the Carracci’s paintings, drawings, and prints. After a period of study in Venice Guercino traveled to Rome at the behest of one of his key patrons, Cardinal Alessandro Ludovisi, who had just been elected Pope as Gregory XV. During his three years in Rome he executed some of his most important paintings, although his time there was cut short by the Pope’s premature death in 1623. Returning to his native Cento, he operated an active studio there until he moved to Bologna in 1642, and after the death of Guido Reni became the leading artist of that city. Guercino was a keen observer of the world around him and often used the medium of drawing as a means of recording common people. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. Montauban 1780–1868 Paris Ingres was one of the most important artists to emerge during the Napoleonic era in France. After a period in the studio of the famed history painter Jacques-Louis David, Ingres won the Prix de Rome, which allowed him to live and study at the French Academy in Rome, considered the ideal opportunity to study Classical and Renaissance art. After suffering several failures at the Salons, Ingres vowed to remain in Italy until he could return to Paris as a success. To earn his living, he made portrait drawings and paintings of foreign visitors to Rome and of French civil servants who streamed to Italy as part of Napoleon’s government. Upon his return to France he gained recognition as a history painter, although he continued to make portraits. Louis Lafitte. Paris 1777–1828 Paris Lafitte had a lengthy, successful career that spanned the reigns of Napoleon, Louis XVIII, and Charles X, all of whom were patrons of the artist. On the eve of the Revolution in Paris, he won the Prix de Rome and was the last student sent to the French Academy in Rome under the ancien régime. Lafitte embraced the emerging Neoclassical style. The artist fled to Rome in 1793 when the Academy was invaded by an anti-Republic mob, briefly working as a drawing instructor in Florence. He returned to Paris in 1796, continuing his work as a painter, draftsman, and designer.

8

Nicolas Lancret. Paris 1690–1743 Paris Lancret initially trained as a history painter, but soon discovered an affinity for genre painting. He was especially drawn to fêtes galantes, scenes of aristocratic frivolity and courtship which had only been recently popularized by Antoine Watteau. Lancret entered the studio of Watteau’s teacher and was mentored for a time by Watteau himself. By 1719, he was a member of the Académie Royale. His commercial success exploded in the early 1720s, after Watteau’s death made him the leading source for genre paintings. Under Louis XV’s patronage, Lancret’s paintings adorned the walls of numerous royal residences, including Versailles. Francesco Londonio. Milan 1723–1783 Milan Londonio was a prolific printer and etcher who spent the majority of his career in Milan. His works found eager collectors among the city’s aristocracy and wealthy merchant class. He studied painting with Ferdinando Porta and learned printmaking from Benigno Bossi. Londonio’s subject matter consists primarily of pastoral scenes with domestic animals, farmers, and shepherds set among rural landscapes and buildings. He made many keenly observed drawings from life and also painted countless oil sketches on paper. Lorenzo Lotto. Venice c. 1480–1556 Loreto According to biographer Giorgio Vasari, Lotto trained in Giovanni Bellini’s studio along with Giorgione and Titian. Lotto, however, always remained somewhat apart from the dominant Venetian artistic traditions. Lotto’s highly individual Mannerist style conveys an interest in emotion and psychology as well as capturing the appearance of things, which was considered old-fashioned at the time. He assimilated the styles of Northern Italian artists like Titian and Northern European artists like Albrecht Dürer and Hans Holbein, as well as Raphael, with whom he worked in Rome on the Vatican apartments in 1508. Carlo Maratta. Camerano 1625–1713 Rome Maratta worked in a grandiloquent and decorative late Baroque style, creating a synthesis of the ideal beauty of antique sculpture and the compositions and colors of Raphael with the practice of drawing from life. In 1637, he became a pupil of Andrea Sacchi. In 1662, he directed his own workshop and received a steady flow of important commissions for altarpieces and frescoes from high dignitaries of the Roman church and the local aristocracy. Maratta was also an active printmaker, recognizing the value of prints as an effective means of disseminating his own compositions and increasing his fame. John Martin. Haydon Bridge, Northumberland 1789–1854 Douglas, Isle of Man Martin was first apprenticed to a heraldic coach painter in Newcastle and then to a china painter with whom he came to London in 1806. He exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts from 1811, and at the British Institution, where he won prizes in 1817 and 1821. He designed various urban improvements for London, and painted some landscapes of the Thames Valley. Martin is best known as a painter of religious subjects and fantastic compositions. His paintings often illustrated vast landscapes and cityscapes peopled with tiny figures. These works enjoyed great success, as did the engravings made from them. Pier Francesco Mola. Coldrerio 1612–1666 Rome Mola studied under a former assistant of Annibale Carracci and was influenced by Guercino’s soft modeling. In 1647, he moved back to Rome where he received public commissions for frescoes and altarpieces, fusing Roman High Renaissance grandeur with Northern Italian color. His most characteristic works were idyllic scenes with biblical figures or saints in luxurious, dramatic landscapes that combined the golden light and painterly handling of Venetian art with figures inspired by Roman High Renaissance masters. Mola was also a versatile draftsman and a witty caricaturist.

9

Giovanni Battista Naldini. Fiesole 1537–1591 Florence Naldini received his early training in Florence with the Mannerist painter and draftsman Jacopo da Pontormo. After Pontormo’s death, Naldini left Rome to study antiquity and contemporary art. He returned to Florence around 1526 where Giorgio Vasari recruited him to assist with decorations for the Palazzo Vecchio. From then on, although he had numerous patrons throughout Tuscany, Naldini worked largely for the Medici under Vasari’s supervision. In 1563, he helped to found the Accademia del Disegno, in which he remained active for life. Naldini’s work bears the hallmark features of Florentine Mannerism: vibrant colors, crowded compositions, and contorted poses. Charles-Joseph Natoire. Nîmes 1700–1777 Castel Gandolfo Trained as a history painter, Natoire was also a talented landscapist. After studying in Paris, Natoire won the Prix de Rome in 1721. During his stay in Italy from 1723 to1730, he was encouraged by the director of the French Academy to draw views of Rome and to study the surrounding countryside. He continued to make landscape drawings after his return to Paris while he pursued a successful career as a history painter. When Natoire was named director of the French Academy in Rome in 1751, he ensured that sketching from nature would be an integral part of the students’ curriculum. Il Parmigianino (Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola). Parma 1503–1540 Casalmaggiore Parmigianino’s work is characterized by a Mannerist elongation of figures, graceful line, and refined elegance. He left Parma for Rome in 1524, where he produced several works as gifts for Pope Clement VII and was exposed to the art of Raphael and Michelangelo. After several years in Rome and a subsequent stay of three years in Bologna, Parmigianino returned to Parma in 1530, where he was entrusted with one of his most important commissions: the decoration of the vault and apse of the church of S. Maria della Steccata. Perino del Vaga. Florence 1501–1547 Rome Perino’s art epitomizes Mannerism with its emphasis on grace, artifice, and effortless complexity. Around 1516, he trained with Raphael in Rome, becoming the preeminent fresco painter in the city. In 1527 he relocated to Genoa, where he worked as a court artist to Admiral-Prince Andrea Doria. By 1537 Perino was back in Rome. Within a few years, he had become court artist to Pope Paul III, a role that Raphael had filled decades earlier for Pope Leo X. Like Raphael, Perino oversaw a large, industrious workshop, devising monumental compositions for the Vatican and elsewhere. Giovanni Battista Piazzetta. Venice 1682–1754 Venice Piazzetta worked slowly in an almost monochromatic palette, creating religious canvases and enigmatic genre pictures. He studied in Bologna with Giuseppe Maria Crespi, whom he emulated by taking common people as his models. By the 1740s, he owned an active studio concentrating on church commissions and genre scenes. Piazzetta’s renowned drawings of heads and half-length figures documented the people of Venice. Traditionally, Venetian painters did not consider drawings as independent works of art, but Piazzetta created a new art form, giving drawing a status equal to painting in importance and quality. Giovanni Battista Pittoni. Venice 1687–1767 Venice Pittoni helped to spread the international success of the Venetian Rococo style. Most of his religious, mythological, and historical paintings were created for German, Polish, and Russian patrons. He first trained with his uncle, the Venetian painter Francesco Pittoni, and then joined the guild in Venice in 1716. In the 1720s and 1730s, Pittoni produced Rococo paintings that reveal an influence from Sebastiano Ricci and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. A brilliant colorist, he imbued his pictures with an Arcadian mood close in feeling to the French Rococo. Later, Pittoni’s palette lightened and his compositions became more sedate, probably because of the prevailing trend towards Neoclassicism.

10

Il Poccetti (Bernardino Barbutelli). Florence 1548–1612 Florence Poccetti is known as one of the leaders in the development from Mannerism to the early Baroque in late sixteenth-century Florentine art. His art reflects the ideals of the Counter-Reformation in religious art that sought visual truth, clarity, and piety and a more direct imitation of nature. He had numerous commissions for altarpieces and fresco cycles in Florence and throughout Tuscany, and he executed drawings of all types—sketches, composition drawings, architectural studies, preparatory figure studies, and studies from life. He is one of the best-documented and perhaps most prolific draftsmen of his school. Il Pomaranico (Crisofani Roncalli). Pomarance 1552–1626 Rome Pomaranico was trained in Florence and obtained his first major commissions in Siena. By the early 1580s, he had procured the patronage of Pope Clement VIII and was nominated to oversee decorative works in St. Peter’s Basilica. His work throughout this period retained the influences of Florentine Mannerism, but by the mid-1590s a new realism and more dramatic contrasts between light and shade appeared in his work. In 1607, he was promoted to Cavaliere di Cristo, the highest designation for an artist in the church. Mattia Preti. Taverna 1613–1699 La Valletta Preti began his career as a member of the Accademia di San Luca in 1633. His early experiences were of realist painters working in Naples and Rome, and he first made his living by selling small subjects of card players, gamblers, and singers. In his maturity, Preti’s style became increasingly dramatic as he united a Caravaggesque realism and chiaroscuro with the theatricality of Venetian artists. In 1661, Preti went to the island of Malta, where he remained for the rest of his life. While receiving most of the island’s church commissions, he also worked for patrons from across Europe. Marco Ricci. Belluno 1676–1730 Venice Marco Ricci’s style was built from a number of experiences outside his native Venice, including trips to Dalmatia, Florence, Rome, and England. He also spent time in the Netherlands, studying Dutch landscape painting. He returned to Venice in 1716. Ricci united the simplicity and realism of Dutch and Flemish art with the fantasies of the Baroque stage, a key development in Venetian landscape art. He was also one of the first etchers in eighteenth-century Venice. Niccoló Ricciolini. Rome 1687–1763 Rome Ricciolini worked primarily in Rome and was influenced by Carlo Maratta and the late Baroque style. He was trained by his father and assisted him on the ceiling of the gallery of the Palazzo Orsini-Barberini at Monterotondo. He worked for many years for the workshop of St. Peter’s, creating cartoons for the dome mosaics in the chapel of San Michele, Santa Maria degli Angeli, and the Colonna family. Among his mature works for Roman churches is his masterpiece, The Virgin Appearing to Saint Bernard, signed and dated 1751, for Santissimo Nome dei Maria. Hubert Robert. Paris 1733–1808 Paris Throughout his career, Robert displayed a preference for depicting ancient ruins and architectural subjects and soon became one of the great French masters in the genre of architectural fantasies. He spent eleven years in Rome, from 1754 to 1765, studying at the French academy. Instruction from masters of architectural fantasies such as Giovanni Battista Piranesi and Gian Paolo Panini inspired him while daily contact with the grand monuments of ancient and modern Italy provided him with material. With his success, Robert branched off into garden design and furnishings and also created decorative ensembles of paintings for royalty and the wealthy.

11

Salvator Rosa. Naples 1615–1673 Rome Rosa studied in Naples, where he was influenced by the realism of Giuseppe Ribera. Encouraged by Giovanni Lanfranco, Rosa went to Rome in 1635. After insulting Gian Lorenzo Bernini during a theatrical performance, he left Rome for Florence around 1640. While in Florence he enjoyed Medici patronage and founded the Accademia dei Percossi, a school of literature and art. Rosa considered his innovative landscapes as mere recreation; in his mind, only religious or historical subjects constituted “high art.” In 1649, he settled in Rome to work as a history painter. Gabriel de Saint-Aubin. Paris 1724–1780 Paris Saint-Aubin had aspired to become a history painter, but when he failed three times to win the Prix de Rome, he turned away from serious painting and focused his efforts instead on drawing and printmaking. His subjects ranged from current events and street scenes to allegories and book illustrations. Saint-Aubin is best known for his illustrations and tiny drawings in the margins of sales catalogues and his own Salon livrets, or guidebooks. He often gave his works a moral tone, alluding to fleeting time and the vanity of worldly pleasures. Jacques-Philippe Joseph de Saint-Quentin. Paris 1738–after 1780 Paris Although Saint-Quentin won the Prix de Rome at the French Academy in 1762, he remained in Paris at the École des Élèves Protégés for more than two years before venturing to Italy in 1765. In Rome, he studied at the French Academy under Charles-Joseph Natoire, whose outdoor drawing classes inspired a generation of artists, including Hubert Robert and Jean-Honoré Fragonard. After returning to Paris in 1769, Saint-Quentin joined the Académie de Saint-Luc and was active as a designer of book illustrations. Santi di Tito. Borgo San Sepulcro 1536–1603 Florence In 1564, Santi di Tito joined the Accademia del Disegno, whose members regularly worked with Giorgio Vasari. Vasari favored Mannerism’s complexity and exaggeration, so Santi di Tito suppressed his own simple, naturalistic style, to which he returned after Vasari’s death in 1574. He then established an influential workshop that successfully trained artists in a reformist style that challenged the excesses of earlier Mannerist painters. His oeuvre includes altarpieces and frescoes for the Church and devotional paintings, mythological scenes, and portraits for private patrons. Sinibaldo Scorza. Voltaggio 1589–1631 Genoa In 1604, Scorza moved to Genoa, then a wealthy international crossroads. He became a pupil of the Mannerist painter Giovanni Battista Paggi, who taught him to paint animals, flowers, and landscapes. Close commercial links brought Flemish painters to Genoa and Flemish genre paintings into Genoese collections. Scorza was one of the earliest Italian painters to respond to Flemish influence in Genoa as much of his work addresses themes popular with northern European artists. During his last years, Scorza experimented with etching and produced paintings that deeply influenced Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione. Il Semolei (Giovanni Battista Franco). Venice c. 1510–1561 Venice Painter, draftsman, and engraver Il Semolei spent his formative years in Rome and Florence, where he associated with several of Michelangelo’s followers. After returning to Venice, the artist was quickly recognized by the city’s intellectual elite and he enjoyed uninterrupted employment until his death in 1561. Known for his portraits of the Medici family as well as his etchings, Il Semolei was a highly skilled draftsman whose work was defined by a polished calligraphic style.

12

Il Sodoma (Giovanni Antonio Brazzi). Vercelli 1477–1549 Siena Il Sodoma initially trained as an apprentice in the workshop of the Piedmontese painter Giovanni Martino Spanzotti. He then transferred to Tuscany, where he is recorded as working on frescoes in the convent of Santa Anna in Camprena, Pienza, in 1503 and at Monteoliveto Maggiore from 1505 until 1508. He contributed frescoes to the decoration of the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican before becoming the most prominent painter in Siena. Il Sodoma was an excellent draftsman, gaining reluctant praise from Giorgio Vasari: “Giovanni Antonio was very well grounded in drawing.” Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. Venice 1696–1770 Madrid Giovanni Battista Tiepolo was recognized throughout Europe as the greatest painter of large-scale decorative frescoes during the eighteenth century. He was admired for having brought fresco painting to new heights of technical virtuosity, illumination, and dramatic effect. Tiepolo painted walls and ceilings with large, expansive mythological and religious scenes. His commissions came from the old established families of Italy, religious orders, and the royal houses of Spain, Germany, Sweden, and Russia. His artistic legacy consists of some eight hundred paintings, 2,400 drawings, etchings, and numerous frescoes. Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo. Venice 1727–1804 Venice Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo trained in the studio of his father, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, while also accepting independent commissions. He continued to work with his father until his Giovanni Battista’s death in 1770. His subjects, both religious and secular, reveal that he developed a more straightforward approach to composition than that of his father. In the 1790s, Tiepolo painted frescoes of Punchinello, a character from the commedia dell’arte, in his Venetian family villa and created a series of 104 drawings as Entertainments for the Children. Francesco Vanni. Siena 1563–1610 Siena After training with his stepfather, Vanni is said to have spent time in Rome where he became acquainted with Federico Zuccaro’s increasingly naturalistic Mannerist style. By 1585, the influence of Federico Barocci becomes apparent in Vanni’s work, especially in the colors and iridescent tones of his paintings and in the soft modeling of his drawings. By the 1590s, Vanni was the leading artistic figure in Siena, where he created paintings and frescoes for religious orders and confraternities. Following Counter-Reformation precepts, Vanni imbued his work with a new sense of realism, emphasizing the naturalistic representation of the human form. Giorgio Vasari. Arezzo 1511–1574 Florence Vasari was an influential Mannerist painter who trained with Andrea del Sarto and Baccio Bandinelli and was active in the workshop of Francesco Salviati. In the early 1530s, he enjoyed the patronage of the Medici, working for Duke Alessandro de’ Medici and Duke Cosimo I. However, much of Vasari’s fame derives from his book Lives of the Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, the first extensive compilation of artist’s biographies and a critical history of artistic style. Although sometimes inaccurate, owing to the writer’s bias against certain painters, it is an important text in the study of European art history. François-André Vincent. Paris 1746–1816 Paris Vincent most likely learned the rudiments of drawing from his father, who was a miniaturist. He entered the Paris studio of Joseph-Marie Vien in 1760 and remained there until 1768, when he won the prestigious Prix de Rome at the age of 21. After studying for three years at the École des Élèves Protégés in Paris, Vincent went to Rome in 1771 and spent four years there at the French Academy. His stylistic sources were the art of Classical antiquity and works by such masters as Raphael and Charles Le Brun.

13

Antoine Watteau. Valenciennes 1684–1721 Nogent-sur-Marne In Paris, Watteau entered the studio of Claude Audran III, the most renowned decorator in Paris, and met Claude Gillot, a decorator of theatrical scenery. The theatrical qualities of Watteau’s paintings and drawings reflect Gillot’s influence, and his subjects reflect his constant observation of the theater and the studies he often drew during performances. Watteau popularized the style of painting known as the fête galante. These paintings allowed him to showcase his talent for conveying the delights and enchantments of nature and led to repeat commissions. Federico Zuccaro. Sant’Angelo in Vado 1540–1609 Ancona Zuccaro learned the Mannerist style in Rome under his older brother Taddeo. When Taddeo died in 1566, Federico took over his brother’s practice while continuing to travel. Zuccaro worked in the Netherlands, England, Spain, and throughout the Italian lands for prominent patrons such as Queen Elizabeth and the Vatican. Zuccaro faced hostile reactions to his work as well. In 1583, he was temporarily banished from Rome by the pope because of a scandal ensuing from a painting caricaturing the artist’s detractors. Ten years later, Zuccaro helped to found the Accademia di San Luca, becoming its director in 1598 and publishing a treatise on art theory.