GIOVANNI LANFRANCO
ORAZIO GENTILESCHI
T he son of a goldsmith, Orazio Gen- tileschi moved to Rome as a teenager. He became friends with Caravaggio around 1600, but their relationship was tested when the painter Giovanni Baglione sued them for defamation. Despite this conflict, Gentileschi’s works express careful observa- tion of Caravaggio’s compositions and a predilection for the same themes. His daughter Artemisia, whom he trained from a young age, became one of the most prolific artists of the seventeenth century and also worked in the Caravaggesque style. In this episode from the life of Saint Cecilia, her husband Valeriano (or Valerian) converts to Chris- tianity upon seeing an angel hand his wife a floral wreath of purity. Tiburzio (or Tiburtius), his brother, witnesses the event from the doorway and is also moved to convert. Depictions of Cecilia rose in the seventeenth century in Rome due to the opening of the Academy of Music in 1584 and the discovery of a sarcophagus said to hold her remains in 1599. Orazio was known for his attention to detail, especially in textiles. Intense colors and sharp diagonals guide the viewer’s gaze across the canvas. Another version of this painting is in the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan.
F ollowing his training with Agostino Carracci in Parma, Giovanni Lanfranco arrived in Rome at the beginning of the 1600s. Chief among his accom- plishments was the decoration of the dome of Sant’Andrea della Valle, which established the popular format for ceiling frescoes across Europe well into the eighteenth century. Despite his success as a fresco painter, Lanfranco left the competitive art scene of the capital for Naples, where he worked from 1634 to 1646, only to return to Rome briefly before he died. His depiction of this glorified saint emphasizes the splendor of the Catholic faith and the supremacy of the church. Cecilia, the patron saint of music, plays a cembalo, a precursor to the harpsichord, with a violin visible at the top. Gazing up to the heavens rather than to the putti who hold the sheet of music, Cecilia conveys her divine inspiration while she plays. The impact of Caravaggio can be seen in the framing of the scene (half-length figures close to the picture plane) and how the group emerges from the dark back- ground. Caravaggio also painted musical themes but with allegorical (or metaphorical) connotations rather than religious ones.
Michelangelo Merisi Caravaggio, The Musicians , 1597. Oil on canvas, 36 ₁ ⁄4 x 46 ₅ ⁄8 inches. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Rogers Fund, 1952.
GIOVANNI LANFRANCO (b. Parma, 1581; d. Rome, 1647) Saint Cecilia , ca. 1620–21 Oil on canvas 29 x 41 ₁ ⁄8 inches Museum and Gallery at Bob Jones University, Greenville, SC
ORAZIO GENTILESCHI (OR STUDIO) (b. Pisa, 1563; d. London, 1639) The Martyrs Saint Valeriano, Saint Tiburzio, and Saint Cecilia , ca. 1620–21 Oil on canvas 89 ₁ ⁄2 x 68 inches Museum and Gallery at Bob Jones University, Greenville, SC
Artemisia Gentileschi, (b. Rome, 1593; d. Naples, 1654 or later), Judith and Holofernes , ca. 1612–13. Oil on canvas, 62 ₁ ⁄2 x 49 ₁ ⁄2 inches. Museo di Capodimonte, Naples.
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