Carlo Cesare Malvasia (1616–1693) was an Italian scholar and art historian from

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

, best known for his biographies of Baroque artists titled ''Felsina pittrice'', published in 1678.

Life and career

Malvasia is the Bolognese equivalent of

Giorgio Vasari Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work '' The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculp ...

, and saw his native city surpassing

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

in the artistic supremacy of his time. Born to an aristocratic family, he is also known as Count Carlo Malvasia. He received cursory training in painting under

Giacinto Campana Giacinto Campana (born c. 1600, Bologna) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period. He trained first with Francesco Brizio, then with Francesco Albani. He moved to Poland to paint for King Władysław IV Vasa, and died in Poland. Sources

...

and

Giacomo Cavedone Giacomo Cavedone (also called ''Giacomo Cavedoni'') (1577–1660) was an Italian Baroque painter of the Bolognese School. Life He belonged to the generation of Carracci-inspired or trained painters that included Giovanni Andrea Donducci (Maste ...

. He also was an amateur poet and participated in local literary circles. He traveled to Rome in 1639 where he met Cardinal Bernardino Spada and the sculptor

Alessandro Algardi Alessandro Algardi (July 31, 1598 – June 10, 1654) was an Italian high- Baroque sculptor active almost exclusively in Rome, where for the latter decades of his life, he was, along with Francesco Borromini and Pietro da Cortona, one of the maj ...

. Records indicate he spent some time as a volunteer

cavalier The term Cavalier () was first used by Roundheads as a term of abuse for the wealthier royalist supporters of King Charles I and his son Charles II of England during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration (1642 – ) ...

during the First War of Castro at the urging of his cousin Cornelio Malvasia; leader of the Papal Army cavalry. Thereafter he graduated as a lawyer, and lectured on the subject at the university in Bologna. He obtained a theology degree in 1653, and was appointed a canon in Bologna Cathedral in 1662. Malvasia was also a collector and acted as an agent for

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Ver ...

in acquisition of Bolognese artworks for the royal collections.

Works

''Felsina pittrice, vite de’ pittori bolognesi'' is a primary source of information about the Bolognese school of painters of the 14th - 17th centuries, and for some of the artists included, the only source of information. The text is divided into four historical sections, with the first on the trecento painters, the second focusing on Francesco Francia, the third devoted to the Carracci, and the fourth (and most valued today) providing detailed, firsthand accounts of the lives and careers of the artists who rose to pre-eminence during the 17th century in the wake of the Carracci reform, including Guido Reni,

Guercino Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (February 8, 1591 – December 22, 1666),Miller, 1964 better known as Guercino, or il Guercino , was an Italian Baroque painter and draftsman from Cento in the Emilia region, who was active in Rome and Bologna. The vi ...

Domenichino Domenico Zampieri (, ; October 21, 1581 – April 6, 1641), known by the diminutive Domenichino (, ) after his shortness, was an Italian Baroque painter of the Bolognese School of painters. Life Domenichino was born in Bologna, son of a sho ...

Lanfranco Lanfranco (active in Modena from c. 1099 to 1110) was an Italian architect. His only known work is the Modena Cathedral. Record of his work there is in the early 13th-century manuscript ''Relatio de innovatione ecclesie sancti Gemeniani'' in the ...

Lavinia Fontana Lavinia Fontana (August 24, 1552 – August 11, 1614) was a Bolognese Mannerist painter active in Bologna and Rome. She is best known for her successful portraiture, but also worked in the genres of mythology and religious painting. She was trai ...

and

Elisabetta Sirani Elisabetta Sirani (8 January 1638 – 28 August 1665) was an Italian Baroque painter and printmaker who died in unexplained circumstances at the age of 27. She was a pioneering female artist in early modern Bologna, who established an academy fo ...

. ''Felsina pittrice'' has been criticized for its inaccuracies and unfavorably compared to ''Le vite de' pittori, scultori et architetti moderni'' (1672) by Malvasia's contemporary, Giovanni Pietro Bellori, on the grounds of that Malvasia's text is a mere compilation of facts embellished with poetic language, lacking in critical assessments and governed by no theoretical framework other than a provincial attachment to his native city. Recent scholarship has taken Malvasia more seriously as an art historian and the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts is preparing the first scholarly, critical edition since 1841, accompanied by the first English translation, of the complete text of the ''Felsina pittrice'' (three of the planned sixteen volumes of which have been published by 2017).Elizabeth Cropper et al., ''Carlo Cesare Malvasia's Felsina pittrice: Lives of the Bolognese Painters.'' Volume 1, ''Early Bolognese Painting''; Volume 2 part 2: ''Life of Marcantonio Raimondi and Critical Catalogue of Prints by or after Bolognese Masters'' in two volumes; and Volume 13: ''Lives of Domenichino and Francesco Gessi'' (Washington, DC: Center for the Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, 2013-2017). Malvasia also published ''Le pitture di Bologna'' (1686), a companion gallery guide of works by the artists discussed in the ''Felsina pittrice'', and ''Marmorea felsine'', a guide to Bolognese antiquities (1690).

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * Pace, Claire (1982). "Review: ''Carlo Cesare Malvasia: The Life of Guido Reni'' by Catherine Enggass, Robert Enggass", ''

The Burlington Magazine ''The Burlington Magazine'' is a monthly publication that covers the fine and decorative arts of all periods. Established in 1903, it is the longest running art journal in the English language. It has been published by a charitable organisation s ...

'', vol. 124, no. 950 (May), pp. 306–308.

External links

* * ''Felsina pittrice'', 1678
catalog record
at HathiTrust of digitized versions of copies at the

Getty Research Institute The Getty Research Institute (GRI), located at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, is "dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the visual arts".

* Digitized edition of
Le pitture di Bologna
: che nella pretesa, e rimostrata sin'hora da altri maggiore antichita, & impareggiabile eccellenza nella pittura, con manifesta evidenza da fatto, rendono il passeggiere disingannato ed instrutto dell'Ascoso, accademico gelato''. Monti, Bologna 1706

at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Malvasia, Count Carlo Cesare 1616 births 1693 deaths Writers from Bologna Italian art historians University of Bologna alumni 17th-century Italian writers 17th-century Italian historians