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- author : carlo cesare malvasia elizabeth cropper ed lorenzo pericolo ed
2 books for « carlo cesare malvasia ... »Edit
Carlo Cesare Malvasia, Elizabeth Cropper (ed), Lorenzo Pericolo (ed)
Reference : 64933
Felsina pittrice: The Lives of Francesco Francia and Lorenzo Costa
, Brepols - Harvey Miller, 2022 Hardback, xxxiv + 410 pages, Size:220 x 280 mm, Illustrations:14 b/w, 163 col., Language(s):English, Italian. ISBN 9781912554799.
Summary In Bologna, Giorgio Vasari's maniera moderna is inaugurated through the art of the goldsmith-painter Francesco Francia (c.1447-1517). Malvasia assimilates the beginning of this new era with the end of night and the crack of dawn, when never before seen colors are revealed to the eyes with extraordinary intensity. In his life of Francia, Vasari had acknowledged the role of precursor played by this Bolognese master in the history of Italian painting. By the same token, he had tarnished Francia's reputation by alleging that he had died soon after unpacking Raphael's Ecstasy of Saint Cecilia upon its arrival in Bologna. His death, Vasari insisted, was a moment of reckoning: it was then that Francia recognized his artistic inferiority and damnation with regard not only to Raphael, but also to the highest achievements of the maniera moderna. Aware of the historical validity of Vasari's account, Malvasia ?lifted? it wholesale into his Felsina pittrice, but not without bringing its author to trial by examining his biased testimony in light of the rich documentary evidence he had gathered against his narrative. Equipped with the most refined tools of forensic eloquence, seething with outrage, Malvasia is at his best in challenging Vasari's historical distortions and prejudices not only in connection with Francia, but also his disciples, Timoteo Viti (1469-1523), Lorenzo Costa (1460-1535), and Giovanni Maria Chiodarolo (1480-1530). Denouncing Vasari's silence about the works and importance of Francia's progeny--in particular Giacomo (1484-1557) and Giovan Battista Francia--Malvasia explains how the activity of these masters promoted the education and social status of painters in Bologna before the foundation of the Carracci Academy in 1582. Illustrated with numerous color images (many of them taken expressly for this publication), this volume provides a critical edition and annotated translation of Malvasia's lives of Francia and his disciples, among them prominently Costa. The integral transcription (for the first time) in this volume of Malvasia's preparatory notes (Scritti originali) to the lives of Francia, Costa, and Chiodarolo presents important material that could foster the study of Bolognese painting in the age of humanism under the rulership of the Bentivoglio.
Carlo Cesare Malvasia, Elizabeth Cropper (ed), Lorenzo Pericolo (ed)
Reference : 65997
Felsina Pittrice: Volume IX: Life of Guido Reni
, Brepols - Harvey Miller, 2019 Hardback, 2 vols, 1152 pages, Size:220 x 280 mm, Illustrations:9 b/w, 367 col., Languages: English, Italian. ISBN 9781909400696.
Summary Celebrated by Malvasia as the creator and promoter of the new maniera moderna, Guido Reni (1575-1642) introduces the fourth age of painting: a period marked by an original and sometimes bold elaboration of the notion of artistic perfection developed by the Carracci and embodied more specifically by Ludovico's "synthesis of styles." Art in Italy could have declined once again after the deaths of the Carracci, but thanks to Guido and Domenichino, Francesco Albani and Guercino, painting is restored to its full blossoming, and, as a result, the Carracci lesson spreads and triumphs throughout Italy. In assessing Guido's role in promoting this artistic vanguard, Malvasia finds himself in a theoretical impasse. On the one hand, he cannot resist his infatuation with Guido's work. Endowed with spellbinding powers, Guido's paintings constitute the greatest luxury of modernity insofar as they reflect an endless search for aesthetic refinement and transcendental beauty both in the representation of the human body and in the orchestration of light, color, and impasto. On the other hand, Malvasia balks at embracing Guido's "last manner." In Malvasia's eyes, Guido's final production is both exceedingly sophisticated and tainted by its very sophistication: delicacy verges on feebleness, transcendence coalesces into purposeless abstraction, divine vision engenders incompleteness, and sprezzatura turns into apparent negligence. Furthermore, for Malvasia Guido is both a paragon of virtue and the self-indulgent victim of the gambling demon. With acuity, Malvasia praises Guido the money maker, the self-confident artist able to overhaul the mechanisms of the art market by exponentially increasing the value of painting. And yet, Malvasia cannot help but condemn Guido the money squanderer, the indebted painter who gambles away his reputation and jeopardizes the quality of his sublime output. Illustrated with numerous color images, these two volumes provide a critical edition and annotated translation of Malvasia's life of Guido. Based on a radical reassessment of the historical documentation and a profound investigation of Malvasia's art criticism, these volumes offer the most thorough treatment to date of the artist's work.
