"The Cavalier Ottavio Leoni, the son of Ludovico Leoni, Padovano, was likewise known as Padovano although he was born in Rome. His father desired him to devote to painting and particularly to make portraits "alla macchia", a skill in which Ludovico was practised himself. Ottavio did so but specialized in portraits of reduced dimensions, and …
Category: Italian Artists
The Noble Musician
POMPEO BATONI (1708-1787) John Montagu, Marquess of Monthermer (1758) Oil on canvas (96.5 x 71 cm) The Duke of Buccleuch In my previous post, The Marquess of Monthermer I mentioned that the young Lord Brudenell commissioned portraits from Batoni and Mengs. Whereas the latter chose to portray the English nobleman as a gentleman-scholar Batoni …
A medieval epic
PIER FRANCESCO MOLA (1612-1666) Erminia and Vanfrino tending the wounded Tancred (c.1653) Oil on canvas: 69 x 92 cm The Legion of Honor Museum, San Francisco Born in a small village near Lugano, Pier Francesco Mola moved to cosmopolitan Rome with his family in 1616. His father, a respected architect, was the author of …
The Vision of St Francis
FEDERICO BAROCCI (c. 1530-1612) The Stigmatisation of St Francis (1594-95) Oil on canvas (360 x 245 cm) Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino Throughout his late period, Barocci continued to be much occupied with ecclesiastical commissions. Unlike the whole of the 1580's, during which he did not paint a single altarpiece for his native city, some …
Portrait of a Gardener
CARLO MARATTA (1625-1713) Portrait of Andre Le Notre (1679-80) Oil on canvas (112 x 85 cm) Chateau de Versailles Carlo Maratta was one of the great Italian masters of the Late Baroque who excelled particularly in the genre of portraiture. From a very early age, Maratta showed extraordinary aptitudes for drawing, and at the age …
The French Cardinal
GIOVANNI BATTISTA GAULLI, known as BACICCIO Portrait of Emmanuel Theodose de La Tour d'Auvergne, Cardinal de Bouillon (1670) Oil on canvas (121 x 97 cm) Chateau de Versailles Dramatized by the crimson velvet drapery, this sumptuous composition showing a young prelate rising from a chair superbly decorated with his coat of arms, perfectly matches the …
Portrait of a Knight of Malta
CARAVAGGIO (1571-1610) Portrait of Alof de Wignacourt (c. 1608) Oil on canvas (118 x 95 cm) Palazzo Pitti, Florence The Portrait of a Knight of Malta is one of the works that the Italian scholar Gregori has convincingly identified as belonging to the artist's late period. The painting shows a confidence of modelling that is characteristic of …
Portrait of a Young Knight
LUDOVICO CARDI (known as IL CIGOLI) 1559-1613 Portrait of a Young Knight (1594) Oil on canvas (78 x 62 cm) Palazzo Pitti, Florence The Florentine artist known as Il Cigoli was a pupil of the late Mannerist painter Alessandro Allori (1535-1607) and pf the architect Bernardo Buontalenti (1536-1608) He also studied the work of Correggio and …
The Resurrection
TINTORETTO (1518-1594) The Resurrection (c. 1565-70) Oil on canvas (201 x 139 cm) Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane Few painters have treated the Resurrection of Christ more dramatically than Jacopo Robusti better known as Tintoretto. In the most famous painting of the subject, at the Scuola di San Rocco in his native Venice, he depicted Christ …
The Glory of the Virgin
SEBASTIANO RICCI (1659-1734) A Glory of the Virgin with the Archangel Gabriel and Saints Eusebius, Roch and Sebastian (1724-25) Oil on canvas (113 x 63 cm) Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles Sebastiano Ricci was the leading decorative painter of late 17th and early 18th century Venice, the artist who revive for his own …
Old Masters 