Carlo Saraceni (1579 – 16 June 1620) was an Italian early- Baroque painter, whose reputation as a "first-class painter of the second rank" was improved with the publication of a modern monograph in 1968.

Life

Though he was born and died in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

, his paintings are distinctly Roman in style; he moved to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

in 1598, joining the

Accademia di San Luca The Accademia di San Luca (the "Academy of Saint Luke") is an Italian academy of artists in Rome. The establishment of the Accademia de i Pittori e Scultori di Roma was approved by papal brief in 1577, and in 1593 Federico Zuccari became its f ...

in 1607. He never visited

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

, though he spoke fluent French and had French followers and a French wardrobe. His painting, however, was influenced at first by the densely forested, luxuriantly enveloping landscape settings for human figures of Adam Elsheimer, a German painter resident in Rome; "there are few landscapes by Saraceni which have not been attributed to Elsheimer," Malcolm Waddingham observed, and Anna Ottani Cavina has suggested the influences may have travelled both ways. and Elsheimer's small

cabinet painting A cabinet painting (or "cabinet picture") is a small painting, typically no larger than two feet (0.6 meters) in either dimension, but often much smaller. The term is especially used for paintings that show full-length figures or landscapes at a s ...

s on copper offered a format that Saraceni employed in six landscape panels illustrating ''The Flight of

Icarus In Greek mythology, Icarus (; grc, Ἴκαρος, Íkaros, ) was the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, the architect of the labyrinth of Crete. After Theseus, king of Athens and enemy of Minos, escaped from the labyrinth, King Minos sus ...

''; in ''Moses and the Daughters of Jethro,'' and ''Mars and Venus''. When Caravaggio's notorious ''Death of the Virgin'' was rejected in 1606 as an altarpiece suitable for a chapel of Santa Maria della Scala, it was Saraceni who provided the acceptable substitute, which remains ''in situ'', the only securely dated painting of his first decade in Rome. He was influenced by

Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi (Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi) da Caravaggio, known as simply Caravaggio (, , ; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the final four years of hi ...

's dramatic lighting, monumental figures, naturalistic detail, and momentary action, so that he is numbered among the first of the " tenebrists" or " Caravaggisti". Examples of this style can be seen in the candlelit '' Judith with the Head of Holofernes''. Saraceni's style matured rapidly between 1606 and 1610, and the next decade gave way to his fully mature works, synthesizing Caravaggio and the Venetians. In 1616–17 he collaborated on the frescoes for the ''Sala Regia'' of the Palazzo del Quirinale. In 1618 he received payment for two paintings in the church of Santa Maria dell'Anima. The compositional details of his fresco of ''The Birth of the Virgin'' in the Chapel of the Annunciation of the church of Santa Maria in Aquiro are repeated in a panel on copper at the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

. In 1620 he returned to Venice, where he died in the same year.

Works

Carlo Saraceni - Saint Cecilia and the Angel - WGA20829

* ''Mars and Venus'' (1605–1610),

oil on copper Oil on copper painting is the process of creating artworks by using oil paints with copper as the substrate. This is sometimes referred to as “copper as canvas” because canvas is the most well known surface material used for oil paintings. H ...

(

São Paulo Museum of Art The São Paulo Museum of Art ( pt, Museu de Arte de São Paulo, or ') is an art museum located on Paulista Avenue in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. It is well known for its headquarters, a 1968 concrete and glass structure designed by Lina Bo ...

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

) * ''Rest on the Flight into Egypt'', 1606 (Eremo dei Camaldoli,

Frascati Frascati () is a city and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital in the Lazio region of central Italy. It is located south-east of Rome, on the Alban Hills close to the ancient city of Tusculum. Frascati is closely associated wit ...

) * ''The Fall of Icarus'' (Museums and Art Galleries Naples, Museo e Gallerie Nazionale di Capodimonte,

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

) * ''Madonna and Child with Saint Anne'', painted for the Church of San Simeone Profeta, 1610 (

Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica The Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica or National Gallery of Ancient Art is an art museum in Rome, Italy. It is the principal national collection of older paintings in Rome – mostly from before 1800; it does not hold any antiquities. It has two ...

, Rome) * ''Papal Authority'', chalk preparatory sketch for an allegorical fresco (

J. Paul Getty Museum The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. The Getty Center is located in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles and fea ...

) * ''Vision of Saint Francis'' (1615),

Alte Pinakothek The Alte Pinakothek (, ''Old Pinakothek'') is an art museum located in the Kunstareal area in Munich, Germany. It is one of the oldest galleries in the world and houses a significant collection of Old Master paintings. The name Alte (Old) Pinak ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

* ''Saint Cecilia and the Angel'', c. 1610 (Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome), attributed to Saraceni * ''The Martyrdom of Saint Cecilia'' ( LACMA) * ''The Madonna and Child with Saint Anne and an Angel'' oil on copper (c. 1608–1610),

Honolulu Museum of Art The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. The museum has one of the largest single co ...

. * ''Nativity'' ( Residenzgalerie, Salzburg) * ''Carlo Borromeo Tending to Those Afflicted with Plague'' ( Church of the Servi in

Cesena Cesena (; rgn, Cisêna) is a city and '' comune'' in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, served by Autostrada A14, and located near the Apennine Mountains, about from the Adriatic Sea. The total population is 97,137. History Cesena was ...

) Work by Saraceni can also be seen in the Roman church of

San Lorenzo in Lucina The Minor Basilica of St. Lawrence in Lucina ( it, Basilica Minore di San Lorenzo in Lucina or simply it, San Lorenzo in Lucina; la, S. Laurentii in Lucina) is a Roman Catholic parish, titular church, and minor basilica in central Rome, Italy. ...

Gallery

File:Saraceni, Carlo - The Madonna and Child with Saint Anne and an Angle, oil on copper, c. 1608-1610.jpg, ''The Madonna and Child with Saint Anne and an Angel'', oil on copper, c. 1608–1610,

File:Saraceni - Vision of St Francis.jpg, ''The Vision of St Francis'' (circa 1615) File:Saraceni - martevenus02(large).jpg, ''Mars and Venus, with a Circle of Cupids and a Landscape'', oil on copper, 1605–1610,

File:Carlo Saraceni 001.jpg, ''Judith and the head of Holofernes'',

Kunsthistorisches Museum The Kunsthistorisches Museum ( "Museum of Art History", often referred to as the "Museum of Fine Arts") is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on the Vienna Ring Road, it is crowned with an octagonal d ...

, Vienna File:SaraceniSebastian.jpg, ''Saint Sebastian'', c. 1610–1616, Picture Gallery of the

Prague Castle Prague Castle ( cs, Pražský hrad; ) is a castle complex in Prague 1 Municipality within Prague, Czech Republic, built in the 9th century. It is the official office of the President of the Czech Republic. The castle was a seat of power for ki ...

File:Gregorythegreat.jpg, ''Gregory the Great'', attributed to the studio of Saraceni, c. 1610, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome

References

*Charles Dempsey, Keith Christiansen, Richard E. Spear, and Erich Scheier. 1985. ''The Age of Caravaggio''. (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

External links

Web Gallery of Art: Carlo Saraceni
*
Jusepe de Ribera, 1591-1652
', a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which includes material on Carlo Saraceni (see index) {{DEFAULTSORT:Saraceni, Carlo 1579 births 1620 deaths Painters from Venice 16th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 17th-century Italian painters Italian Baroque painters Caravaggisti Catholic painters