Giovanni Lanfranco

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For the Italian volleyball player, see Giovanni Lanfranco (volleyball).
Giovanni Lanfranco
Self-portrait, between 1628 and 1632
Born26 January 1582
Parma, Italy
Died30 November 1647(1647-11-30) (aged 65)
Rome, Italy
NationalityItalian
Known forPainting
MovementBaroque

Giovanni Lanfranco (26 January 1582 – 30 November 1647)[1] was an Italian painter of the Baroque period.

Biography

Giovanni Gaspare Lanfranco was born in Parma, the third son of Stefano and Cornelia Lanfranchi, and was placed as a page in the household of Count Orazio Scotti. His talent for drawing allowed him to begin an apprenticeship with the Bolognese artist Agostino Carracci, brother of Annibale Carracci, working alongside fellow Parmese Sisto Badalocchio in the local Farnese palaces. When Agostino died in 1602, both young artists moved to Annibale's large and prominent Roman workshop, which was then involved in working on the Galleria Farnese in the Palazzo Farnese gallery ceiling.[2] Lanfranco is considered to have contributed to the panel of Polyphemus and Galatea (replica in Doria Gallery) and some minor works in the room.

Afterwards, while still technically a member of the Carracci studio of Carracci, Lanfranco, along with

San Giacomo degli Spagnoli (1602–1607). He also participated in the fresco decoration of San Gregorio Magno and of the Cappella Paolina in Santa Maria Maggiore
.

Independent work

Giovanni Lanfranco, Resurrection, 1622
Annunciation, between 1610 and 1630 (Hermitage Museum)

By 1605, Lanfranco was obtaining some independent commissions; for example, he contributed paintings to the Camerino degli Eremiti in the

Cardinal Odoardo Farnese, next to his palace and gardens, and was destroyed in 1734 to allow for the construction of the aforementioned church. Of the canvases and frescoes by Domenichino, Girolamo Pulzone, Paul Bril, and Lanfranco, some are conserved in the new church. Among other works, Lanfranco contributed to this series, the eccentric Translation of the Magdalen.[3]

After the death of Annibale Carracci in 1609, and with the Emilian school of painting temporarily out of favor, Lanfranco returned to his native Parma for two years. There, he met

Ognissanti church.[4] Lanfranco also produced paintings and altarpieces in Orvieto, Vallerano, Leonessa and Fermo
.

Return to Rome

After his return to Rome by 1612, Lanfranco competed with other Carracci students and assistants—including Reni, Albani, and Domenichino—for Roman patronage. Reni, however, was soon to depart for Naples and then Bologna. During the following decades in Rome, through the 1620s, Lanfranco and Domenichino engaged in a rivalry for the main fresco commissions. A measure of the competition can be gauged from Lanfranco's public accusation, not wholly without merit, that Domenichino had plagiarized Agostino Carracci in his painting of the Confession of St. Jerome, now in the Vatican.

Unlike Domenichino, Lanfranco was fairly eclectic in terms of style but preferred a visionary, theatrical approach suitable for the ceiling paintings gaining currency in the early 17th century. His works suggest some influence from the late work of

Antonio Correggio, as in his Adoration of the Shepherds painted before 1608 for the Marchese Clemente Sannesi and his brother the Cardinal Jacopo.[citation needed
]

Lanfranco's studio became quite active, painting frescoes in the

Villa Borghese
, The Gods of Olympus or also called Council of the Gods.

Giovane nudo sul letto con un gatto (Nude young man with a cat), between 1620 and 1622, private collection

In the following year, Lanfranco together with

St Theresa in ecstasy. In 1623–1624, he decorated the Sacchetti Chapel in San Giovanni dei Fiorentini[6]
in Rome.

While Paul V's successor,

Duomo di Parma
.

Council of the Gods, ceiling in Palazzo Barberini
Frescoed Cupula of Sant'Andrea della Valle

Academy of Saint Luke, the artist's guild in Rome. There is also a fresco by Giovanni Lanfranco above the monument of Pope Clement VIII in Santa Maria Maggiore
in (Rome).

From 1634 to 1646, Lanfranco began decorating the dome and pendentives of the

Cathedral of Naples.[2] These works would invigorate the efforts of the grand manner Napolitan painters of the second half of the 17th century: Preti, Giordano and Solimena.[7] He died in Rome in 1647, where his last work was apse of San Carlo ai Catinari
.

Legacy and critical assessment

Lanfranco was a versatile and eclectic trainee of the Carracci, and continued their tradition with dramatic flair compared to the often restrained Domenichino, who mimicked mainly Annibale's grand manner. Lanfranco explored new styles, bridged traditions, painted in both mannerist and baroque styles, using a tenebrist and the colorist palette. Among his pupils was Giacinto Brandi.[8]

Selected works

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-19-102417-7
    .
  2. ^ a b c Williamson, George. "Giovanni Lanfranco." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 8. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 8 December 2022 Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  3. Capodimonte Museum
    in Naples; see Smith & O'Neil p. 484-6
  4. ^ Donati, Paolo. Nuova descrizione della città di Parma, Giuseppe Paganino, Parma (1824); p. 132.
  5. ^ Zirpolo, Lilian H., Historical Dictionary of Baroque Art and Architecture, 2nd Edition, (2018), p. 222.
  6. ^ Smith & O'Neil p490-92
  7. ^ Wittkower p 357
  8. ^ Orlandi, Pellegrino Antonio; Guarienti, Pietro (1719), Abecedario pittorico, Naples, p. 182
  9. ^ Fondazionemanodori.it Archived May 6, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  10. ^ "Coronation of the Virgin with St Augustine and St William of Aquitaine by LANFRANCO, Giovanni". Wga.hu. Retrieved 2014-03-05.
  11. ^ "Hagar in the Wilderness by LANFRANCO, Giovanni". Wga.hu. Retrieved 2014-03-05.
  12. ^ "Collection Item Details - Birmingham Museum of Art". Archived from the original on 2013-04-14. Retrieved 2011-05-16.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Giovanni Lanfranco". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

Sources

  • Cropper, Elizabeth. Domenichino Affair. Washington: Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art.
  • Wittkower, Rudolf (1993). Art and Architecture Italy, 1600–1750. 1980. Penguin Books. pp. 80–88.
  • Francis P. Smyth and John P. O'Neill, ed. (1986). The Age of Correggio and the Carracci: Emilian Painting of the 16th and 17th Centuries. Washington: National Gallery of Art. pp. 483–493.

External links

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