The most curious painting and also my favourite by Pietro Longhi is The Rhinoceros, painted in 1751. There are two versions of this painting - one that is in Museo del Settecento Veneziano, Ca’ Rezzonico, Venice and the other in The National Gallery in London. They both depict the same historical event : the exhibition of a rhinoceros Clara. Clara was brought to Europe in 1740s, one of the very few rhinoceros seen in Europe in more than two centuries.
Clara arrived in Rotterdam in 1741 and became a star touring for 17 years around Europe. After the hunters had killed her mother she was adopted by the director of the Dutch East India Company, who brought her up and even allowed her to roam around his mansion freely. Two years later however he either sold her or gave her away to the Dutch Captain who brought her to Europe, left the sea life and started touring Clara through European cities with enormous success. She arrived in Venice in 1751 during the carnival and was a huge attraction. By then her horn was either removed for safety reasons, or she rubbed it off, as can be seen in Longhi’s painting.
She died in London, aged about 20 after 17 years long career.
Probably born on November 5th 1701 was one Pietro Longhi - a Venetian painter of every day life. He was the son of a goldsmith who tried without much success to paint in grand manner of 18th century Venetian painters, and eventually had turned to genre scenes, domestic and mundane. For this reason he is sometimes compared to William Hogarth.
He worked for local patrons and collectors including many Venetian noble families. Interestingly, many depicted characters wear Venetian masks - it is estimated that half of the figures on his paintings have their faces covered.
Here are some, painted from 1740s to 1760s. - a Venetian painter of every day life. He was the son of a goldsmith who tried without much success to paint in grand manner of 18th century Venetian painters, and eventually had turned to genre scenes, domestic and mundane. For this reason he is sometimes compared to William Hogarth.
He worked for local patrons and collectors including many Venetian noble families. Interestingly, many depicted characters wear Venetian masks - it is estimated that half of the figures on his paintings have their faces covered.
Here are some, painted from 1740s to 1760s.
The youngest of the three that had birthdays this weekend was Guido Reni - another Baroque master and another from Bologna. Together with Domenichino he joined Carracci Academy, and later did work with Anibale in Rome. However he returned to his hometown Bologna and established a successful studio of his own there.
This is my favourite painting by Guido Reni - The Triumph of Samson
painted in 1611-12, from Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna. It is used to be a chimney cover, so therefore its unusual shape :)
What I would personally say was the most important achievement by Anibale Carracci - other than that of establishing an art academy - was the fact that he was one of the first painters in Italy to paint landscapes that were almost independent and taking over the figures almost entirely. A tradition that will achieve its peak perhaps later with Claude Lorrain.
River Landscape, 1589-90
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Giovanni Bellori, who was what we would call a 17th century art critic, or an art historian, preferred the art of Anibale Carracci to that of Caravaggio : he thought that Anibale was the model of Italian painter, who worked in admirable tradition of Raphael and Michelangelo; Caravaggio and Caravaggisti were a bit suspicious to him ;)
The best way to compare is to go to Rome and see the two side by side in the Cerasi Chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo, like we did, or at least tried to do : it’s not very easy to look at them ;) The chapel is very narrow, making it almost impossible to enjoy.
Anibale painted Assumption of the Virgin; left and right to it are Caravaggios paintings flanking it : The Crucifixion of Saint Peter and The Conversion of Saint Paul on the Road to Damascus.
Usually overshadowed by the great Caravaggio, today Anibale Carracci is barely known outside art historical circles; however he is extremely important, or rather - the whole Carracci family was : it was them, brothers Anibale and Agostino, and their cousin Ludovico Carracci, that opened artistic studio called Academy of the Desiderosi - those desirous of fame and learning, that will define most of what is referred to as Bolognese School of painting.
Known for the frescoes in Palazzo Farnese, Anibale also painted landscapes portraits and genre paintings; here is his Self-portrait on an Easel in a Workshop, 1604.
It is usually Caravaggio that is referred to as an artist-rascal of the 16th century Italy; however, no matter how impossible Michelangelo Merisi was, there was one that is in my opinion an even greater rascal among the artists, if for no other reason than because he took it upon him to write it all down as well ;)
Benvenuto Cellini was a polymath - goldsmith, sculptor, painter, musician and writer; but also he was the one who killed a man in cold blood to revenge a brother that was, to his own admission, the aggressor in the matter and was even accused and imprisoned for embezzling gems for the Pope’s tiara ! There are many stories of Benvenuto, some that seem to testify of his bravery, some that tell of his nasty character and all of then seem to come from his own person.
The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini is well worth reading. He started it when he was 58, and ended it when he was 63. I recommend it for even though it’s full of self praise it is still a fascinating and direct peak into the 16th century Italy :)
#ArtBooks
Benvenuto Cellini also made a bust of Bindo Altoviti, a wealthy banker from Florence that you might remember from Raphael’s gorgeous portrait from years 1512-15. Cellini’s portrait was made some forty years later, in 1550.
About Cellini’s bust read here http://goo.gl/nsgfn
Project and Study for the Accademia del Disegno seal by Benvenuto Cellini. 1560s
I assert that the art of sculpture, among all the arts connected with design, is at least seven times greater than any other, for the following reason: why, sir, a statue of true sculpture ought to have seven points of view, which ought all to boast equal excellence. — Benvenuto Cellini, Letter to Benedetto Varchi, January 28, 1546
Perseus, 1545-54, Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence
detail
Last weekend we had no less than three very significant birthdays and those are that of Benvenuto Cellini, Annibale Carracci and Guido Reni; Cellini and Carracci were both born on November 3rd, in 1500 and 1560 respectively, while Guido Reni was born on November 4th, 1575, four years after Cellini had died.
Portrait of Cellini by Vasari and Self portraits by Anibale Caracci and Guido Reni. .
To end for now with Umberto Boccioni’s birthday posting, here is one more of my very favourites by him : the Portrait of Ferruccio Busoni, Italian composer, pianist and conductor, best known for transcriptions of Bach’s music to piano. And, since it is Emil Gilels birthday as well today - here is his rendition of these transcriptions to accompany the painting :-) Not the best video but, well, it was 1969 after all, when this was filmed ;)
Gilels - Bach-Busoni - Prelude & Fugue in D major, BWV 532 - Prelude (1/2)
Gilels - Bach-Busoni - Prelude & Fugue in D major, BWV 532 - Fugue (2/2)
Among my favourites by Umberto Boccioni are the three paintings of the so-called Farewell series or The States of Mind, depicting passengers getting on trains. These are : States of Mind I: The Farewells, States of Mind II: Those who go and States of Mind III: Those who stay, painted in 1911.
More about it here http://goo.gl/dlJzz
The progression of Umberto’s style can be seen quite clearly from these two paintings he did of his mother, the first one from 1909 and the second 1912, also called Materia.
While the impressionists make a table to give one particular moment and subordinate the life of the table to its resemblance to this moment, we synthesize every moment (time, place, form, color-tone) and thus build the table. — Umberto Boccioni, Pittura e scultura futuriste (dinamismo plastico)
For Futurism the most important term is dynamism; A rushing motor car is more beautiful than the Nike of Samothrace they believed and by dynamism they wanted to describe object’s motion. Here are a three of Umberto’s paintings that illustrate that, the first two from 1913, and the last from 1914 : Dynamism of a Cyclist, and Dynamism of man’s and woman’s head :)
