Luca Ferrari
(February 17, 1605 - February 8, 1654) |
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mythological, secular narratives Art Work
| Name: |
Luca Ferrari |
| Gender: |
Male |
| Place of Birth: |
Reggio, Italy |
| Nationality: |
Italian |
| Birth: |
February 17, 1605 |
| Death: |
February 8, 1654 |
| Website: |
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| Past Auctions: |
Click Here |
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Quick Facts
| Known For: |
mythological, secular narratives |
| Medium: |
fresco |
| Method: |
fresco |
| Style: |
Baroque |
| Fine Art Profession(s): |
Painter
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Biography
Luca Ferrari was one of Guido Reni's most successful students. Luca spread Reni's influence north to Reggio Emilia, Modena, Carpi, Venice, and Padua. In the service of churches and private patrons, Luca painted a respectable number of religious subjects and mythologies which are notable for their crisp definition of form and their assured handling of compositions.
Made a member of the Fraglia in Padua in 1639, Luca generally signed and dated his paintings, making it possible to trace his career from roughly 1618 to 1651. Luca's earliest surviving paintings include his Madonna Appearing to the Founders of the Servite Order (Padua, S. Tommaso) and Dominic Interceding for the People of Padua over the Plague of 1631 (signed, Padua, Cassa di Risparmio) for the church of S. Agostino. Both are signed and dated 1635. Here his study of Reni, the Carracci, Domenichino, and Florentine baroque painting is evident.
A fairly steady stream of pictures follows. An ambitious fresco cycle was executed in 1644 for the church of Madonna della Ghiara in Reggio in which he portrayed old testament scenes Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Miriam, and Jael. In 1646 he painted Christ and Peter for the Duomo of Carpi. Two of his undoubted masterpieces are Baptism of Christ and The Marriage at Cana Reggio Emilia, church of S. Pietro. In the Baptism, Reni's emphasis on grazia is given a more rigid and crisp articulation, which together with the more dramatic lighting learned from Northern Caravaggisti such as Tanzio da Varallo, lends a sense of animation and energy to the paintings. His Marriage at Cana, with its tieredspatial arrangement, its crowded, sumptuous effect, and its sweeping composition no doubt had an influence on G. B. Tiepolo. Ferrari's last known work was a Beheading of St. Dorothy, for the cathedral of Bamberg, which was commissioned in 1652 through the intercession of Sandrart.
Ferrari adopted the sensuous and erotic feel of mannerist painting and updated it to the seventeenth century. His realism is tempered with a stylization of form that only rarely displeases for the repetition of type. Lacking the emotional depth found in seventeenth century painters of the first rank, Ferrari was nonetheless an important figure. The artificial and decorative elegance exhibited in all of his paintings, expressed through the abundant drapery, the bright color harmonies, and the dense spatial arrangements, contributed to the development of eighteenth century painting, particularly in France. His single figures, such as St. John the Baptist, form an important link between the paintings of Caravaggio and Boucher. |
Samples of Work
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