Fabrizio Chiari (c.1615–1695) was an Italian painter and engraver who spent his entire life in Rome. Chiari's early

etching Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...

s from

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 ...

paintings are described by Michael Bryan as "executed in a scratchy but masterly style"; among them are: *''Mars and Venus, in a landscape'', signed "Fabritius Clarus" 1635. *''Venus and Mercury with Children'', signed "Chlarus" 1636 *''Venus and Adonis'', signed "Nicolaus Pussinus"; This etching has been erroneously attributed to Poussin. Chiari was enrolled in 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 ...

from 1635. In

San Martino ai Monti San Martino ai Monti, officially known as Santi Silvestro e Martino ai Monti ("Saints Sylvester & Martin in the Mountains"), is a minor basilica in Rome, Italy, in the Rione Monti neighbourhood. It is located near the edge of the Parco del Colle ...

in the 1640s he painted the

altarpiece An altarpiece is an artwork such as a painting, sculpture or relief representing a religious subject made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting o ...

, ''St Martin Dividing his Cloak with the Beggar'', and a

fresco Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...

, ''The Baptism of Christ'', which was overpainted in the 18th century by

Antonio Cavallucci Antonio Cavallucci (21 August 1752 – 18 November 1795) was an eighteenth-century Italian painter of religious scenes and portraits. Biography Cavallucci was born in Sermoneta in the Lazio. His artistic talents were recognized in an early stag ...

. To mark the 1658

canonization Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon catalogue of ...

Thomas of Villanova Thomas of Villanova (1488 – September 8, 1555), born Tomás García y Martínez, was a Spanish people, Spanish friar of the Order of Saint Augustine who was a noted preacher, asceticism, ascetic and religious writer of his day. He became an ar ...

, he painted ''St. Thomas of Villanova Distributing Alms'' for

Santa Maria del Popolo it, Basilica Parrocchiale Santa Maria del Popolo , image = 20140803 Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo Rome 0191.jpg , caption = The church from Piazza del Popolo , coordinates = , image_size ...

. His ''Assumption of the Virgin'' and ''Death of St Anne'', commissioned in 1654 for the chapel of Regina Coeli convent, were misplaced when it became a prison in 1880; the latter turned up in 2012 and in 2019 sold for $30,000 at

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, and ...

. Others of Chiari's works are no longer known, including church paintings mentioned by

Filippo Titi Abate Filippo Titi was an Italian Roman Catholic Protonotary apostolic, and an art historian, best known for his inventory of the artistic content of churches in Rome, titled ''Studio di Pittura scoltura et architettura nelle Chiese di Roma'', publi ...

and drawings listed by . In 1675 Chiari decorated the in the

Palazzo Altieri Palazzo Altieri is a palace in Rome, which was the home of the Altieri family in the city. The palace faces the square in front of the Church of the Gesù. The Altieri The Altieri were one of the prominent families in Rome claiming descendancy ...

, including a ceiling fresco, ''The Chariot of Apollo'', in which the cornices, unusually, depict the

four ages of man The Ages of Man are the historical stages of human existence according to Greek mythology and its subsequent Roman interpretation. Both Hesiod and Ovid offered accounts of the successive ages of humanity, which tend to progress from an origina ...

rather than the four seasons.

Footnotes

References

Further reading