Bartolommeo Manfredi
(1580 - 1620) |
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Allegories, Secular Narratives, Genre Subjects Art Work
| Name: |
Bartolommeo Manfredi |
| Gender: |
Male |
| Place of Birth: |
Ostiano |
| Nationality: |
Italian |
| Birth: |
1580 |
| Death: |
1620 |
| Website: |
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| Past Auctions: |
Click Here |
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Quick Facts
| Known For: |
Allegories, Secular Narratives, Genre Subjects |
| Medium: |
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| Method: |
Italian Baroque |
| Style: |
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| Fine Art Profession(s): |
Painting
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Biography
| Considered the closest of Caravaggio's many followers, Manfredi was also one of the most influential. His Caravaggesque genre-like scenes were adopted by scores of young foreigners arriving in Rome and spread throughout Europe. Lack of documents, signatures, dates, and known public commissions keeps Manfredi somewhat obscure. Ostiano is generally accepted as his native city, but his date of birth is uncertain. Some scholars suggest he was born as late as 1587. Likely first trained in Cremona, Brescia, and Milan, Manfredi probably traveled to Rome around 1600, where Baglione states he studied with Roncalli. Perhaps a servant/assistant to Caravaggio, we know Manfredi must have become independent by 1606 when both Caravaggio and Roncalli left Rome. Manfredi must have sustained himself exclusively through private patrons, among them Marchese Giustiniani, Ferdinando de Medici, and Cavaliere Agostino Chigi of Siena, whose private collections all contained examples of Manfredi's paintings. Principally horizontal easel pictures, his paintings depicted three-quarter length figures engaged in concerts, playing cards, or telling fortunes. There are an equal number of religious subjects with a strong genre flavoring. His earthbound approach was so consistent that Joachim von Sandrart (the noted Dutch artist and biographer) labeled the artists who worked in a like style as having the Manfredi manier. Caravaggio was clearly the source for Manfredi's style, technique, and subjects. The three-quarter-length figures have their antecedents with Caravaggio's early works; the lighting with such masterpieces as Caravaggio's Calling of St. Matthew. A number of significant painters including Valentin, Regnier, and Tournier responded to Manfredi's approach, spreading the Manfredi manier throughout Tuscany and Northern Europe. Among Manfredi's most important and best-known paintings is a large, full-scale painting (unusual in his work) depicting Mars Punishing Cupid (Art Institute of Chicago; formerly in the Chigi collection). Inspired by Caravaggio's Sacred and Profane Love, the painting presents the mythology in an ordinary human context, but here reality is even more direct and mundane than in Caravaggio's work. The painting demonstrates Manfredi's drier, less subtle handling of form and paint, as well as his less imaginative handling of composition and chiaroscuro. Nevertheless, this is an impressive picture - the erotic content is still powerful, and its succinct yet detailed handling of light and forms is an interesting antecedent to modern realist painting (Jack Beal, Alfred Leslie, and Philip Pearlstein). Manfredi's pictures often survive in more than one version. Opinion remains divided on the authenticity of specific images. Benedict Nicholson remains the best source of information on Manfredi's oeuvre. |
Samples of Work
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