Donato Creti (24 February 1671 – 31 January 1749) was an Italian painter of the

Rococo Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...

period, active mostly in

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= 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 150 different nat ...

. Born in

Cremona Cremona (, also ; ; lmo, label= Cremunés, Cremùna; egl, Carmona) is a city and ''comune'' in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po river in the middle of the ''Pianura Padana'' ( Po Valley). It is the capital of th ...

, he moved to Bologna, where he was a pupil of

Lorenzo Pasinelli Lorenzo Pasinelli (September 4, 1629 – March 4, 1700) was an Italian painter active mainly in Bologna during the late Baroque period. He was born in Bologna, and initially trained in the studio of Simone Cantarini. He then pursued studies in R ...

. He is described by Wittkower as the "Bolognese

Marco Benefial Marco Benefial (25 April 1684 – 9 April 1764) "Marco Benefial (Getty Museum)" (history), The Getty Museum, 2006, webpage: GM-Benefial. was an Italian, proto- Neoclassical painter, mainly active in Rome. Benefial is best known for h ...

", in that his style was less decorative and edged into a more formal neoclassical style. It is an academicized grand style, that crystallizes into a manneristic neoclassicism, with crisp and frigid modeling of the figures. Among his followers were

Aureliano Milani Aureliano Milani (1675–1749) was an Italian painter of the late-Baroque period, active in Bologna and Rome. He was a pupil of Cesare Gennari and Lorenzo Pasinelli in Bologna, although he also adhered to a style derived from the Carracci. He to ...

, Francesco Monti, and Ercole Graziani the Younger. Two other pupils were

Domenico Maria Fratta Domenico Maria Fratta (1696–1763) was an Italian painter and engraver, active in his native Bologna. He studied under Giovanni Maria Viani, Carlo Rambaldi, and Donato Creti. He abandoned the art of painting, and devoted himself entirely to e ...

and

Giuseppe Peroni Giuseppe Peroni (6 May 1700 – 22 September 1776) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period. ''Extasis of Phillip Neri'' (1764), Santa Maria presso San Satiro, Milan Biography He was born and died in Parma, where he is said to have studied ...

Astronomical canvases

One memorable conceit in Creti's output is a series of small canvases depicting celestial bodies, disproportionately sized and illuminated, above nocturnal landscapes. The paintings, commissioned in 1711 by the Bolognese count

Luigi Marsili is a fictional character featured in video games and related media released by Nintendo. Created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, Luigi is portrayed as the younger fraternal twin brother and sidekick of Mario, Nintendo's masc ...

and intended as a gift to

Pope Clement XI Pope Clement XI ( la, Clemens XI; it, Clemente XI; 23 July 1649 – 19 March 1721), born Giovanni Francesco Albani, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 23 November 1700 to his death in March 1721. Clement XI w ...

, were meant to accentuate the need for the Papal States to sponsor an

astronomical observatory An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysical, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. His ...

. With the support of Clement XI, the first public astronomical observatory in Italy was opened in Bologna a short time later. The eight small canvases display the sun, moon, a comet, and the then-known five planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. His Jupiter depicts the

Great Red Spot The Great Red Spot is a persistent high-pressure region in the atmosphere of Jupiter, producing an anticyclonic storm that is the largest in the Solar System. Located 22 degrees south of Jupiter's equator, it produces wind-speeds up to 432 ...

(first reported in 1665) and at least two moon

Other works

''Cleopatra''
at

Blanton Museum The Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art (often referred to as the Blanton or the BMA) at the University of Texas at Austin is one of the largest university art museums in the U.S. with 189,340 square feet devoted to temporary exhibitions, permanent coll ...

, Austin, Texas
''Alexander Threatened by his Father''
at the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...

, Washington, D.C.
''Artemisia Drinking the Ashes of Mausolus''
at the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...

, London
''Achilles Handed over to Chiron''
at

Palazzo d'Accursio 260px, Palazzo d'Accursio. Palazzo d'Accursio (or Palazzo Comunale) is a palace once formulated to house major administrative offices of the city of Bologna, region of Emilia-Romagna, Italy. It is located on the Piazza Maggiore, and is the city's T ...

, Bologna * Creti, The Education of Achilles by Chiron.jpg ''Education of Achilles'' at Palazzo d'Accursio, Bologna
''Mercury and Paris''
at Palazzo d'Accursio, Bologna

at Palazzo d'Accursio, Bologna
''Allegorical Tomb of Boyle, Locke, and Sydenham''
at

Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna The National Art Gallery of Bologna (''Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna'') is a museum in Bologna, Italy. It is located in the former Saint Ignatius Jesuit novitiate of the city's University district, and inside the same building that houses the ...

''Allegorical Tomb of the Duke of Marlborough''
at Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna
''Landscape with Female Figures''
at Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna
''Visitation of the Virgin to Saint Elizabeth''
at Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna
''Achilles Dipped in the Styx''
at Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna

Gallery

File:Donato Creti - The Charity - WGA05777.jpg, Charity File:Donato Creti - Túmulo Alegórico de Joseph Addison.jpg, Allegorical Tomb of Josepha Addison File:Donato Creti Sibila de Cumas 1730 MFA Boston.jpg, Cumaen Sybil File:Donato Creti - Achilles Handing over to Chiron - WGA05776.jpg, Achilles and Chiron File:Donato Creti, The Education of Achilles by Chiron.jpg, "The Education of Achilles by Chiron"1714

References

*
Catholic Encyclopedia article

External links

including images of the astronomical canvases {{DEFAULTSORT:Creti, Donato 1671 births 1749 deaths Painters from Cremona 17th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 18th-century Italian painters Painters from Bologna Italian Baroque painters 18th-century Italian male artists

Astronomical canvases

Other works

Gallery

See also

References

External links