Andrea Sacchi
Andrea Sacchi | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | 21 June 1661 | (aged 61)
Nationality | Italian |
Known for | Painting |
Movement | Baroque |
Patron(s) | Francesco Maria del Monte[1] |
Andrea Sacchi (30 November 1599 – 21 June 1661) was an Italian
Early training
Sacchi was, for a long time, believed to have been born in
[...]hence Benedetto, his father, as soon as he saw that he was being outstripped by his son in his childhood, no longer having the courage to educate him, wisely thought to provide him with a better master and recommended him to Cavalier Giuseppe d’Arpino, who gladly took him into his school, perceiving him to be more attentive and bent on progress than any other youth.[3]: 375
Sacchi later entered Francesco Albani's workshop and spent most of his time in Rome where he eventually died. Much of his early career was helped by the regular patronage by Cardinal Antonio Barberini, who commissioned art for the Capuchin church in Rome and the Palazzo Barberini.
Mature style
A contemporary rival of Pietro da Cortona, Sacchi studied the paintings of Raphael and the influence of Raphael is apparent in a number of his works, particularly with reference to the use of few figures and their expressions.[4]: 621–623 He reputedly travelled to Venice and Parma and studied the works of Correggio.
Two of his major works on canvas are altarpieces now displayed in the
Controversy with Pietro da Cortona
As a young man, Sacchi had worked under Cortona at the Villa Sacchetti at Castelfusano (1627–1629). But in a set of public debates at the Accademia di San Luca, the guild for artists in Rome, he strongly criticized Cortona's exuberance. The debate is significant because it indicates how two of the leading proponents of the prevailing styles in painting, now called 'Classical' and 'Baroque', discussed the differences between their work.
In particular, Sacchi advocated that since a unique, individual expression, gesture and movement needed to be assigned to each figure in a composition, so a painting should only have a few figures.[4]: 263 In a crowded composition, the figures would be deprived of individuality, and thus cloud the particular meaning of the piece. In some ways this was a reaction against the zealous excess of crowds in paintings by artists such as Zuccari in the previous generation, and by Cortona among his contemporaries. Simplicity and unity were essential to Sacchi who, drawing an analogy to poetry, likened painting to tragedy. In his counter-argument, Cortona made the case that large paintings with many figures were like an epic which could develop multiple sub-themes. But for Sacchi, the encrustation of a painting with excess decorative details, including melees of crowds, would represent something akin to 'wall-paper' art rather than focused narrative. Among the partisans of Sacchi's argument for simplicity and focus were his friends, the sculptor Algardi and painter Poussin. The controversy was however less pitched and monolithic than some might suggest. In fact, Poussin's biographer Bellori recounts that the artist 'used to laugh at those who contract for a [history painting] with six or eight figures or some other fixed number.'[3]: 343 Sacchi and Albani, among others, shared dissatisfaction with the artistic depiction of low or genre subjects and themes, such as those preferred by the Bamboccianti and even the Caravaggisti. They felt that high art should focus on exalted themes—biblical, mythological, or from classical ancient history.
Sacchi, who worked almost always in Rome, left few pictures visible in private galleries. He had a flourishing school: Carlo Maratta was a younger collaborator or pupil. In Maratta's large studio, Sacchi's preference for a grand manner style would find pre-eminence among Roman circles for decades to follow. But many others worked under him or his influence including Francesco Fiorelli, Luigi Garzi, Francesco Lauri, Andrea Camassei, and Giacinto Gimignani. Sacchi's own illegitimate son Giuseppe, died young after high hopes for his future.[5]
Sacchi died at Nettuno in 1661.
Main works
Allegory of Divine Wisdom at the Palazzo Barberini
This
According to the American art historian Joseph Connors:
Urban VIII's personal emblem is the rising sun [and a] visitor to the palace would have seen the sun of Divine Wisdom and the constellation of the lion (as well as in the throne) in Sacchi's fresco... the eye [can] take in the fresco but also to penetrate beyond to the chapel next door. From the right point of view the sun of Divine Wisdom looks as though it is hovering over the dome of the chapel, "radiating downward its beneficent light". ... Scott's astrological interpretation of ... is convincing because it is also a political interpretation. Because of the favorable conjunction of the stars at two key moments, Urban VIII's birth and election, the Barberini were "born and elected to rule." Campanella could have told the pope that when he was elected the sun had entered into the Great Conjunction with Jupiter (whose eagle is shown by Sacchi in conjunction with the sun and the lion). Urban VIII's nephew Taddeo Barberini, the patron of this wing of the palace and the relative on whom the family pinned its hopes for offspring and immortality, had a natal chart similar to his uncle's, and by coincidence so did the child born to him during his residence in the palace. The little chapel adjacent to Sacchi's fresco was designed for the baptism of such children, and its frescoes carried all the usual talismans of fertility. The stars could be expected to look favorably on a family "born and elected to rule" down the generations.[7]
St Gregory and the Miracle of the Corporal
Also known as the Miracle of St Gregory the Great, this painting was executed in 1625-57. It is now in the
The canvas portrays the legend that the
Vision of St. Romuald
Completed in 1631, this painting in the
Other works
Other leading examples of Sacchi's work are The Death of St. Anne, in San Carlo ai Catinari, Rome; St. Andrew, in the Quirinal Palace; St. Joseph, at Caponile Case; and The Three Marys (1634), at Palazzo Barberini, Rome. The Birth of St. John the Baptist[9] and a Portrait of Francesco Albani among other interesting works at the Prado Museum, Madrid.[10] Other altarpieces by Sacchi are in Perugia, Foligno and Camerino.
Notes
- ^ This view emerged following many academic studies such as those by Ann Sutherland Harris. As far as Andrea Sacchi's birth in Rome and not in Nettuno is concerned, see Ann Sutherland Harris, "Andrea Sacchi", L'idea del bello: viaggio per Roma nel Seicento con Giovan Pietro Bellori, exh. cat. edited by E. Borea and C. Gasparri, Rome (Palazzo delle Esposizioni), Roma: De Luca, 2000, vol. II, 2 vols., p.442-444.[2] Sacchi's death in Rome is proven by his will, now at the State Archives in Rome. The will has been transcribed and may be found in Antonio D'avossa, Andrea Sacchi, Roma: Kappa, 1985.
References
Marcheteau de Quinçay, Christophe (2007). Didon abandonnée de Andrea Sacchi. Caen: Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen.
- S2CID 191619204.
- Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press.
- ^ a b Bellori, Giovanni Pietro (2010). Wohl, H. (ed.). The Lives of the Modern Painters, Sculptors and Architects. Translated by Sedgwick Wohl, Alice. Cambridge University Press.
- ^ a b c Rudolf Wittkower, Rudolf (1993). Pelican History of Art (ed.). Art and Architecture Italy, 1600-1750. 1980. Penguin Books. pp. 261–266.
- ^ public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Sacchi, Andrea". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 23 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 970. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ "Assumption of the Virgin fresco". Archived from the original on 2005-02-14. Retrieved 2006-03-18.
- ^ Connors, Joseph. "Reviews of books on Roman baroque palaces". The New York Review of Books (21). Archived from the original on 2006-02-25.
- ^ "Altar of St. Gregory the Great". St Peter's Basilica. n.d. Archived from the original on 2004-04-13. Retrieved 2022-08-21.
- ^ "The Birth of Saint John the Baptist - The Collection - Museo Nacional del Prado". www.museodelprado.es. Archived from the original on 2020-08-05. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
- ^ "Sacchi, Andrea" (in Spanish). Museo Nacional del Prado. Retrieved 8 March 2021.