Giovanni Lanfranco
(1582 - 1647) |
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Altarpieces, Secular Narratives, Art Work
| Name: |
Giovanni Lanfranco |
| Gender: |
Male |
| Place of Birth: |
Parma |
| Nationality: |
Italian |
| Birth: |
1582 |
| Death: |
1647 |
| Website: |
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| Past Auctions: |
Click Here |
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Quick Facts
| Known For: |
Altarpieces, Secular Narratives, |
| Medium: |
Fresco |
| Method: |
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| Style: |
Baroque |
| Fine Art Profession(s): |
Painting
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Biography
| The chief rival both philosophically and artistically of his fellow Carracci pupil Domenichino, Giovanni Lanfranco elaborated on the training he received from Agostino Carracci to achieve quite different ends. Although he too believed in ideal beauty and decorum, he ignored Domenichino's sources (Raphael and the antique) and looked instead to Correggio, Ludovico Carracci/ Federigo Barrocci, Schedoni, and Caravaggio to create a more dynamic energetic result. Trained in Parma by Agostino Carracci, who was working for Ranuccio Farnese in 1597, Lanfranco left for Rome after his master's death in 1602 and joined Domenichino and Sisto Badalocchio in assisting Annibale Carracci on the Palazzo Farnese project, whence his rivalry with Domenichino began. Annibale helped arrange Lanfranco's first independent commission of around 1605, involving the frescoes and canvases to decorate the Camerino degli Eremiti adjacent to the Palazzo Farnese, which are now damaged. The surviving paintings are scattered between the Church of S. Maria della Morte (Rome) and the Capodimonte (Naples). One of the finest of these is Mary Magdalene Carried to Heaven by Angels (Naples, Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte), which shows an oddly real, nude woman floating over a vast view of the Roman campagna. Bright lights and deep shadows give convincing dimensions to her less-than-idealized form, while the landscape itself is one of the most striking essays on this subject by an Italian. Annibale also most likely recommended Lanfranco to the March esc Sannesi around 1606 to 1607, while Cardinal Alessandro Peretti-Montalto commissioned work from Lanfranco around 1607 to 1608. Guido Reni reportedly directed his work for Cardinal Scipione Borghese in the Oratorio di Sant' Andrea (Rome, 1608-9) and then at San Sebastiano Fuori le Mura (Rome, 1610). About a year after Annibale's death in 1609 Lanfranco returned to Parma, producing altarpieces for the churches in Piacenza and his native city. His major paintings include Redemption of a Soul (Naples, Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte); The Madonna, SS. Charles Borromeo and Bartholomew (Naples, Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte); and 5"/. Luke (Piacenza, Collegio Notarile). These trace his maturation into a style of lush paint, broad movement, and compositional dynamism that offered a vital alternative to Domenichino's. Back in Rome around 1611/12, Lanfranco was left alone in his competition after Reni departed in 1614. Joining the Accademia di San Luca in 1613, which thereafter records his activities, Lanfranco developed in what has been aptly termed a romantic direction. His work consistently used a decisive contrast between lighted and shadowed forms, between naturalistic observations absorbed into what still remained idealized figure types, to conflate the realms of the real and the supernatural. A notable example is his Madonna with SS. Anthony and James (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum). By 1614 Lanfranco's success was growing. His first great public commission involved the frescoes for the Buongiovanni Chapel in Sant' Agostino, and by 1616 he was one of the principal painters of the Quirinal Palace (Sala Reggia). By that time he had completed his still famous Annunciation for S. Carlo ai Catinari, in which his gifts shone exceptionally brightly. In 1619 Paul V awarded Lanfranco the most important commission of the day: the decoration of the Benediction Loggia of St. Peter's, a project that was cancelled with Paul's death in 1621. Refined, delicate, and elegant, with subtle chiaroscuros and unifying space through atmospheric effects, his style affected the work of Vouet and Caracciolo and made him the most advanced painter at that time. Equally at home with single figures or small groupings, Lanfranco's great ability to compose large groups of figures in moving, effective arrangements won him increasing popularity and continued commissions, the grandest being the cupola fresco of 1625-27 for S. Andrea della Valle (depicting the Assumption of the Virgin), which he won over Domenichino. With its ingenious use of the natural light, its movemented composition, and its flickering patterns of light and color, Lanfranco's cupola fresco influenced the direction of later baroque ceiling painting, serving as model for Pietro da Cortona and Baccicio. Anticipating the dynamism of Bernini, Lanfranco's paintings have much in common with the aims of Rubens's* great decorations. Though probably too much has been made of the "classical" versus "baroque" battle that ostensibly raged between Lanfranco and Domenichino, there were philosophical, stylistic, and methodical differences between the two. Working rapidly and directly with a lively brush, Lanfranco chided Domenichino for his slow, painstaking, plodding manner with its concomitant lack of spontaneity; Domenichino found fault with Lanfranco's lack of system. Nonetheless, it was Lanfranco who soon entered the front rank of official artists. Commissioned for the altar fresco of the Navicella of St. Peter's in 1627-28, Lanfranco was also awarded the frescoes of the Capella del Crocefisso in St. Peter's between 1629 and 1632 by Urban VIII. Celebrating the exuberant spirit of the church triumphant, Lanfranco's paintings combined the accessibility of message with the delight of spectacle. Having achieved great prominence by the 1630s, and appointed principe of the Accademia di San Luca in 1631, Lanfranco found his primacy challenged once more-this time by Pietro da Cortona and Andrea Sacchi, who were becoming the favored painters in the Barberini circles. This turn of events, coupled with Lanfranco's reputation as a leading muralist, no doubt induced him to accept the Neapolitan Jesuits' invitation to paint the cupola of the Gesu Nuovo in Naples from 1634 to 1636. Today only the Evangelists remain of his efforts there. Ironically, Lanfranco followed Domenichino, who had arrived there in 1634. Lan franco became the most successful and active fresco painter in Naples during the fifteen years he worked there. His projects included the nave, vault, and lunettes of the interior facade of the presbytery of S. Martino (1637-39); frescoes scattered in the interior of SS. Apostoli (Martyr and Apostles were done for the tribune and dome, dated 1638-44); the cupola fresco (Glory of the Blessed) of the Capella del Tesoro in the Duomo (which Domenichino had not executed). These frescoes are considered the most advanced of their time, affecting not only his contemporaries but the generation of painters who grew up after the plague of 1656: Giordano,* Preti,* and Solimena. A number of easel pictures and altar paintings were also produced during this period. In 1646 Lanfranco returned to Rome to execute a fresco for the tribune of the church of S. Carlo at Catinari, site of his Annunciation (one of his masterpieces), done thirty years before. He died that year before the work was completed. |
Samples of Work
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