|
The Lute Player (Caravaggio)
''The Lute Player'' is a composition by the Italian Baroque master Caravaggio. It used to exist in two versions, one in the Wildenstein Collection and another in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. However, a third from Badminton House, Gloucestershire, came to light in 2007. Background Caravaggio's early biographer Giovanni Baglione gives the following description of a piece done by the artist for his patron Cardinal Francesco Del Monte: E dipinse er il Cardinale Del Monte€¦ anche un giovane, che sonava il Lauto, che vivo, e vero il tutto parea con una caraffa di fiori piena d’acqua, che dentro il reflesso d’ua fenestra eccelentemente si scorgeva con altri ripercotimenti di quella camera dentro l’acqua, e sopra quei fiori eravi una viva rugiada con ogni esquisita diligenza finta. E questo (disse) che fu il piu bel pezzo, che facesse mai. ("He also painted or Cardinal Del Montea young man, playing the Lute, who seemed altogether alive and real with a carafe of flo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Valentin De Boulogne
Valentin de Boulogne (before 3 January 1591 – 19 August 1632), sometimes referred to as Le Valentin, was a French painter in the tenebrist style. Origins Valentin was born in Coulommiers, France, where he was baptised in the parish of Saint-Denys on 3 January 1591, making 1590 his likely year of birth. The family name, also spelled Boullogne and Boulongne, appears to originate from Boulogne-sur-Mer, a city in northern France in the colony of Pas-de-Calais, though the family had dwelt at Coulommiers since at least 1489. His father, also named Valentin, and his uncle Jean were both painters. In Italy It can be presumed that Valentin would have first started painting in his father's studio prior to moving to Paris or Fontainebleau, and before leaving for Italy. Valentin is recorded in Italy in the ''stati d'anime'' for 1620, when he was living in the parish of Santa Maria del Popolo. While studying in Italy under Simon Vouet, Valentin came under the influence of Michelang ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jacquet De Berchem
Jacquet de Berchem (also known as Giachet(to) Berchem or Jakob van Berchem; c. 1505 – before 2 March 1567) was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance, active in Italy. He was famous in mid-16th-century Italy for his madrigals, approximately 200 of which were printed in Venice, some in multiple printings due to their considerable popularity. As evidence of his widespread fame, he is listed by Rabelais in '' Gargantua and Pantagruel'' as one of the most famous musicians of the time, and the printed music for one of his madrigals appears in a painting by Caravaggio ( ''The Lute Player''). Life Berchem was born around 1505 in Berchem (now part of Antwerp), in the southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium).Nugent, Grove online No archival records have yet been found covering his early life; the first mention of him dates from 1539, by which time he had come to Venice, as did so many of his musical compatriots from the Low Countries. By 1538 or 1539 his madrigals were be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giovanni Battista Manso
Giovanni Battista Manso (1570- 28 December 1645) was an Italian aristocrat, scholar, and patron of the arts and artists. Biography Giambattista Manso was a wealthy nobleman and a prominent patron of the arts and letters in Naples during the late sixteenth century and the first half of the seventeenth century. In his youth he fought in the service of both the House of Savoy and the Spanish viceroyalty, but he eventually withdrew from military life to lead a patrician's existence in his villa overlooking the Gulf of Naples. By the beginning of the Seicento, Manso was probably the single most influential and powerful figure in his native city after the resident Spanish viceroy himself. He founded the Accademia degli Oziosi in Naples in 1611, and he actively promoted the establishment of the Collegio de' Nobili for the education — under the direction of the Jesuits — of young Neapolitan aristocrats. He was the author of a book of poems (''Poesie Nomiche'', 1635), two collecti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giovanni Battista Della Porta
Giambattista della Porta (; 1535 – 4 February 1615), also known as Giovanni Battista Della Porta, was an Italian scholar, polymath and playwright who lived in Naples at the time of the Renaissance, Scientific Revolution and Reformation. Giambattista della Porta spent the majority of his life on scientific endeavors. He benefited from an informal education of tutors and visits from renowned scholars. His most famous work, first published in 1558, is entitled ''Magia Naturalis (Natural Magic).'' In this book he covered a variety of the subjects he had investigated, including occult philosophy, astrology, alchemy, mathematics, meteorology, and natural philosophy. He was also referred to as "professor of secrets". Childhood Giambattista della Porta was born at Vico Equense, near Naples, to the nobleman Nardo Antonio della Porta. He was the third of four sons and the second to survive childhood, having an older brother Gian Vincenzo and a younger brother Gian Ferrante.Giambattist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cinquecento
The cultural and artistic events of Italy during the period 1500 to 1599 are collectively referred to as the Cinquecento (, ), from the Italian for the number 500, in turn from , which is Italian for the year 1500. Cinquecento encompasses the styles and events of the High Italian Renaissance, Mannerism and some early exponents of the Baroque-style. Art Especially in Northern Italy, artists began to use new techniques in the manipulation of light and darkness, such as the tone contrast evident in many of Titian's portraits and the development of sfumato and chiaroscuro by Leonardo da Vinci and Giorgione. The period also saw the first secular (non-religious) themes. Debate has ensued as to the secularism of the Renaissance emphasized by early 20th-century writers like Jacob Burkhardt due to the presence of these – actually few – mythological paintings. Botticelli was one of the main painters whose secular work comes down to us today, though he was deeply religious (a follow ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Calling Of Saint Matthew (Caravaggio)
''The Calling of Saint Matthew'' is a painting by Caravaggio, depicting the moment at which Jesus Christ inspires Matthew to follow him. It was completed in 1599–1600 for the Contarelli Chapel in the church of the French congregation, San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome, where it remains. It hangs alongside two other paintings of Matthew by Caravaggio, ''The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew'' (painted around the same time as the ''Calling'') and ''The Inspiration of Saint Matthew'' (1602). Commission Over a decade before, Cardinal Matthieu Cointerel (in Italian, Matteo Contarelli) had left in his will funds and specific instructions for the decoration of a chapel based on themes related to his namesake, Saint Matthew. The dome of the chapel was decorated with frescoes by the late Mannerist artist Giuseppe Cesari, Caravaggio's former employer and one of the most popular painters in Rome at the time. But as Cesari became busy with royal and papal patronage, Cardinal Francesco Del Monte, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Contarelli Chapel
The Contarelli Chapel or Cappella Contarelli is located within the church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome. It is famous for housing three paintings on the theme of Saint Matthew the Evangelist by the Baroque master Caravaggio. The paintings were Caravaggio's first major public commission and one that cemented his reputation as a master artist. The chapel commemorates the French cardinal Matthieu Cointerel. History The chapel owes its existence to an endowment left by the French cardinal, Matthieu Cointerel (Contarelli in Italian), who died in 1585. He left instructions for the decoration of the chapel, the first one to the left of the apse, which he had purchased within San Luigi dei Francesi ("Saint Louis of the French"), the church of the French community in Rome in 1565. The cardinal was rich and he had already paid for part of the construction of the church facade. He put a large sum towards the high altar and specified that his chapel be decorated with scenes from the lif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giulio Mancini
Giulio Mancini (21 February 1559 – 22 August 1630) was a seicento physician, art collector, art dealer and writer on a range of subjects. His writings on contemporary artists like Caravaggio and Annibale Carracci remain one of our earliest sources of biographical information; his ''Considerazioni'' being an important source on art in early 17th-century Rome. Biography Mancini was born in Siena and attended the University of Padua, where he studied medicine, astrology and philosophy. He went to Rome in 1592, where he practised medicine; from 1595 at the Hospital of Santo Spirito. He became personal physician to pope Urban VIII in 1623. The pope was a notable patron of the arts, and their relationship was such that, in 1628, Mancini was made an apostolic protonotary and a canon of St. Peter's. Mancini's writings went unpublished until the 20th century; his ''Considerazioni sulla pittura'' (thoughts on painting), written between 1617 and 1621, remaining so until 1956. His advic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Fortune Teller (Caravaggio)
''The Fortune Teller'' is a painting by Italian Baroque artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. It exists in two versions, both by Caravaggio, the first from c. 1594 (now in the Musei Capitolini in Rome), the second from c. 1595 (which is in the Louvre museum, Paris). The dates in both cases are disputed. Subject matter The painting shows a foppishly-dressed boy (in the second version the model is believed to be Caravaggio's companion, the Sicilian painter Mario Minniti), having his palm read by a Romani girl. The boy looks pleased as he gazes into her face, and she returns his gaze. Close inspection of the painting reveals what the young man has failed to notice: the girl is removing his ring as she gently strokes his hand. Fortune teller's deceit used as metaphor for Caravaggio's seductive illusionism Caravaggio's painting, of which two versions exist, shows a well-groomed, vain young man having his palm read by a Romani woman. The wily Romani woman is guilty of deceit, ho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Cardsharps (Caravaggio)
''The Cardsharps'' (painted around 1594) is a painting by the Italian Baroque artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. The original is generally agreed to be the work acquired by the Kimbell Art Museum in 1987, although Caravaggio may have painted more than one version. History The work represents an important milestone for Caravaggio. He painted it when he was attempting an independent career after leaving the workshop of the Cavaliere Giuseppe Cesari d'Arpino, for whom he had been painting "flowers and fruit", finishing the details for the Cavaliere's mass-produced (and massive) output. Caravaggio left Arpino's workshop in January 1594 and began selling works through the dealer Costantino, with the assistance of Prospero Orsi, an established painter of Mannerist grotesques (masks, monsters, etc.). Orsi introduced Caravaggio to his extensive network of contacts in the world of collectors and patrons. Composition The painting shows an expensively-dressed but unworldly b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mario Minniti
Mario Minniti (8 December 1577 – 22 November 1640) was an Italian artist active in Sicily after 1606. Born in Syracuse, Sicily, he arrived in Rome in 1593, where he became the friend, collaborator, and model of the key Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610). His main fame today is his identification, or proposed identification, as a model in many of Caravaggio's early works, including '' Boy with a Basket of Fruit'', '' The Fortune Teller'', '' The Musicians'', ''Boy Bitten by a Lizard'' (probable), ''Bacchus In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; grc, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre. The Romans ...'', '' The Lute Player'', '' The Calling of Saint Matthew'', and '' The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew''. He ceases to appear as a model after about 1600, when he is believed to have married, but he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Robb (author)
Peter Robb (born 1946 in Toorak, Melbourne) is an Australian author. Robb spent his formative years in Australia and New Zealand. As a young man he was involved in a small Trotskyist organisation named the Communist League, which was sympathetic to the Fourth International. Robb helped produced its newspaper, ''Militant'', and was also key in the departure of a section of the Communist League's leadership, through absorption by the Socialist Workers Party in 1976 (see Fusion Statement of SWP and ex-CL Group in "Direct Action", 25 November 1976). Robb left Australia 1978, and lived much of the time in Naples and southern Italy, interspersed with sojourns to Brazil. At the end of 1992 he returned to Sydney. He experiences in Southern Italy were recounted in his first book, ''Midnight in Sicily'', which was published in Australia in October 1996. In 1997 it won the non-fiction prize of the Victorian Premier's Literary Award, the Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-fiction,. His second ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.JPG "Click for more on -> The Fortune Teller (Caravaggio)")