Crescenzio Onofri or Crescenzio d'Onofri (Rome, 23 May 1634 – Florence, 1712/1714) was an Italian landscape painter, draughtsman and engraver who worked in Rome and Florence. A presumed pupil of

Gaspard Dughet Gaspard Dughet (15 June 1615 – 25 May 1675), also known as Gaspard Poussin, was a French painter born in Rome. Life Dughet was born in Rome, the son of a French pastry-cook and his Italian wife. He has always generally been considered as a Fr ...

he collaborated with many specialist figure painters of his time.Crescenzio Onofri (Rome 1632(?)-after 1712 Florence), ''An extensive landscape with a villa, figures in trees in the foreground''
at Bonhams.

Life

Information about Onofri's early life is scarce. Crescenzio Onofri was born in Rome but the date of his birth is not entirely clear and dates vary from 1630 to 1650. Onofri is believed to have been one of the few pupils of

. Dughet was a painter of French descent who spent his whole life in Italy, where he became a pupil of

Nicolas Poussin Nicolas Poussin (, , ; June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was the leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. Most of his works were on religious and mythological subjects painted for a ...

and a prominent landscape painter of the

Roman Campagna The Roman Campagna () is a low-lying area surrounding Rome in the Lazio region of central Italy, with an area of approximately . It is bordered by the Tolfa and Sabatini mountains to the north, the Alban Hills to the southeast, and the Tyrrhe ...

. Onofri worked in Rome for at least 20 years. He was involved in many decorative projects in the residences of prominent Roman families such as

Pamphili The House of Pamphili (often with the final ''long i'' orthography, Pamphilj) was one of the papal families deeply entrenched in Catholic Church, Roman and Italian politics of the 16th and 17th centuries. Later, the Pamphili family line merged w ...

, Rospigliosi,

Pallavicini The House of Pallavicini, also known as Pallavicino and formerly known as Pelavicino, is an ancient Italian noble family founded by Oberto II ''Pelavicino'' of the Frankish Obertenghi family. The Pallavicini of Genoa The first recorded member o ...

and

Colonna The House of Colonna, also known as ''Sciarrillo'' or ''Sciarra'', is an Italian noble family, forming part of the papal nobility. It was powerful in medieval and Renaissance Rome, supplying one pope (Martin V) and many other church and politic ...

families. In 1675 he was listed as a member of 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 fir ...

, one of the most prestigious organisations of artists in Rome.Classical Landscape
at the National Inventory of Continental European Paintings Onofri moved to Florence but art historians are not unanimous about the date of this move. Some place his transfer to Florence as early as 1689 and others in 1696.Crescenzio Onofrij
at the

Netherlands Institute for Art History The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: RKD-Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center i ...

He worked until his death in circa 1712 in the service of the Grand Duke. In this period he is known to have collaborated with various artists who painted the figures in his landscapes, including Livio Mehus, Francesco Petrucci and

Alessandro Magnasco Alessandro Magnasco (February 4, 1667 – March 12, 1749), also known as il Lissandrino, was an Italian late- Baroque painter active mostly in Milan and Genoa. He is best known for stylized, fantastic, often phantasmagoric genre or landscape s ...

Work

Onofri was exclusively a landscape painter. He was one of the landscape artists whose style comes the closest to Dughet's Roman work. Typical of Onofrio's work are his carefully balanced compositions, which go back on the model of the classical landscape established in the early 17th century by

Annibale Carracci Annibale Carracci (; November 3, 1560 – July 15, 1609) was an Italian painter and instructor, active in Bologna and later in Rome. Along with his brother and cousin, Annibale was one of the progenitors, if not founders of a leading strand of th ...

and his pupils and in which the narrative element is reduced. Crescenzio Onofri - Landscape in Lazio with Hermit

The so-called 'ideal' landscape of the first half of the 17th century had in fact created compositional formulas that served as a model for numerous Italian and foreign artists. This style of classical landscape had an extraordinary development in the 17th and 18th centuries as is illustrated by the works of Dughet and

Jan Frans van Bloemen Jan Frans van Bloemen (baptized 12 May 1662 - buried 13 June 1749) was a Flemish landscape painter mainly active in Rome. Here he was able to establish himself as the leading painter of views (vedute) of the Roman countryside depicted in the aes ...

. The success and spread of this genre of painting was linked to the preferences of the market and the taste of private clients. Important masters practicing the genre included

Pietro da Cortona Pietro da Cortona (; 1 November 1596 or 159716 May 1669) was an Italian Baroque painter and architect. Along with his contemporaries and rivals Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini, he was one of the key figures in the emergence of Roman ...

Claude Lorrain Claude Lorrain (; born Claude Gellée , called ''le Lorrain'' in French; traditionally just Claude in English; c. 1600 – 23 November 1682) was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher of the Baroque era. He spent most of his life in It ...

and Gaspard Dughet, the master of Onofri.Crescenzio Onofri, ''Paesaggio con pastori e armenti''
at the Banca d’Italia The numerous drawings by his hand demonstrate that Onofri was familiar with the works of the Bolognese artist

Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi (1606 – 28 November 1680) was an Italian painter, draughtsman, printmaker and architect. He was an accomplished fresco painter of classical landscapes which were popular with leading Roman families. Life Grimaldi ...

particularly in his meticulous technique of representing the foliage of trees. In his later years the artist evolved towards a looser and more painterly style.Onofri, Crescenzio
at the Prado Museum site

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Onofri, Crescenzio 1630 births 1714 deaths Italian Baroque painters Painters from Tuscany 18th-century Italian painters 17th-century Italian painters Italian male painters Italian landscape painters 18th-century Italian male artists