| Little known or appreciated today, Sassoferrato had a successful career in Rome during the second half of the seventeenth century, producing copies of Mignard, Raphael, Perugino, and Reni, as well as repetitious but beautifully interpreted compositions of religious subjects based on Raphael. A good proportion of his output consisted of modestly sized devotionals generally featuring the Madonna and Child, a type that must have appealed to conservative religious patrons. These were sufficiently close to Raphael in the minds of nineteenth-century critics to place Sassoferrato in the orbit of Raphael. Modern historians, however, view Sassoferrato as a particularly sober representative of Roman classicism. The very consistency of his style and the perfection of his technique mark him as a peculiarly eccentric figure. First the pupil of his father, Tarquinio Salvi, in his native town, Sassoferrato arrived in Rome at an unspecified date; he probably studied with Domenichino and absorbed the works of Raphael and the Carracd. Except for a short trip to Venice around 1670, Sassoferrato spent most of his career in Rome, Umbria, and Urbino. The chronology of his oeuvre is difficult to establish owing to the uniformity of his working method and style. His work is best discussed by image type, of which his portraits (in particular his portrait drawings) are exceptional. Sassoferrato's instinctive sobriety and sense of generalized form stood him in good stead when confronting the demands of portraiture. His religious works are less successful in our eyes owing to their repetitive qualities. However, individual examples, when viewed firsthand, are not only technical but artistic marvels - their pure, simple colors, smooth surfaces, and beautiful handling of draperies outweigh the nearly mechanical and somewhat remote piety. Among the religious subject types he produced were the half-length Virgin holding the sleeping Christ Child (versions in Chambe'ry, Lyon, the Wallace Collection in London, and Modena), the Mater Amabilis, Mater Dolorosa, the Virgin Adoring the Child (versions in Lyon, Maisons-Lafitte), and The Virgin in Prayer (versions in Aix-en-Provence, Bordeaux, London, Milan). In addition, he produced occasional altar pictures (the Nativity in Naples is one of his major achievements), and in 1641 we know he painted a ceiling in the Sacristy of S. Francesco di Paolo in Rome. In his drawings (of which the largest number is preserved at Windsor Castle), Sassoferrato shows a more important personality. An assured and gifted draftsman, Sassoferrato has a significant place in the history of the medium. His portrait drawings in particular are notable for their marvelous blending of careful observation and a sense for form. His sober, cautious spirit and his purity of form anticipate the work of the pre-Raphaelites. |
