Lucia Casalini Torelli (1677–1762) was an Italian painter, active 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 ...

. The wife of painter

Felice Torelli Felice Torelli (9 September 1667 – 11 June 1748) was an Italian painter of the Baroque style, active mainly in Bologna. Biography He was born to a family of artists in Verona, including his brother, Giuseppe Torelli, a noted violinist and ...

(and, through him, sister-in-law of violinist and composer

Giuseppe Torelli Giuseppe Torelli (22 April 1658 – 8 February 1709) was an Italian violist, violinist, teacher, and composer of the middle Baroque era. Torelli is most remembered for contributing to the development of the instrumental concerto., especially con ...

), she was the mother of painter

Stefano Torelli Stefano Torelli (1712–1784) was an Italian painter. He was born in Bologna. He studied first under his father, Felice Torelli, and then under Francesco Solimena. The future King of Poland, Augustus III, brought him to Dresden in 1740, where he p ...

. She was born in

, where she trained under

Giovanni Gioseffo dal Sole Giovanni Gioseffo dal Sole (10 December 1654 – 22 July 1719) was an Italian painter and engraver from Bologna, active in the late-Baroque period. Upon the death of Carlo Cignani, Gioseffo dal Sole became among the most prominent painters in Bolo ...

Life and works

Daughter of Antonio Casalini and Antonia Bandiera, she began studying painting with her cousin, Carlo Casalini. However at the age of thirteen she entered the atelier of the prominent Bolognese painter,

Giovanni Gioseffo Dal Sole Giovanni Gioseffo dal Sole (10 December 1654 – 22 July 1719) was an Italian painter and engraver from Bologna, active in the late-Baroque period. Upon the death of Carlo Cignani, Gioseffo dal Sole became among the most prominent painters in Bolo ...

. Here she met her future husband, also a successful painter

, who was regularly sent by the master to the young girl's home to bring her drawings to copy. The two married in 1701, and soon opened their own studio with students. They had seven children, two of whom, Anna and Stefano, became artists. In 1706, Felice Torelli was one of the founders of the Accademia Clementina; Lucia was elected an honorary member in 1726, a few years after

Rosalba Carriera Rosalba Carriera (12 January 1673 – 15 April 1757) was a Venetian Rococo painter. In her younger years, she specialized in portrait miniatures. Carriera would later become known for her pastel portraits, helping popularize the medium in eighte ...

became a member of the Academy. The active participation of Lucia and Felice in the Academy contributed to their artistic and social success in Bologna. Casalini Torelli's works were mostly of sacred subjects, but she also specialized as a portrait painter, creating portraits of the prominent Bolognese families of the era. Among others, she painted various ecclesiastical portraits such as Cardinals

Ruffo Ruffo is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: Noble house of Ruffo di Calabria *Fabrizio Ruffo (1744–1827), Italian cardinal *Fulco Ruffo di Calabria (1884–1946), Italian World War I flying ace * Giordano Ruffo (1200-1256), ...

, , , Gozzadini. In ''Vite de' Pittori Bolognesi, non descritte nella Felsina Pittrice'' (1769), the author,

Luigi Crespi Luigi Crespi (January 23, 1708 – July 2, 1779) was an Italian painter, and art merchant and historian. He was the son of the prominent Bolognese painter, Giuseppe Maria Crespi. Biography He trained with his father and completed a few altarpi ...

makes note that: The Emilian artist was widowed in 1748 and died in Bologna May 18, 1762, at the age of 85. Many of her works are lost. The church of San Domenico, in

Imola Imola (; rgn, Jômla or ) is a city and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Bologna, located on the river Santerno, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. The city is traditionally considered the western entrance to the historical re ...

, conserves an altarpiece painted by her which depicts Saint

Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known wi ...

Note

Bibliography

* Bice Viallet, ''Gli autoritratti femminili delle RR. Gallerie degli Uffizi'', Roma 1911. * Timon Henricus Fokker, ''Catalogo della Galleria Doria Pamphili in Roma'', Roma 1954. * Lisa Laffi, ''Cento passi di donne'', Bacchilega editore, Imola 2017. * * Jane Fortune - Linda Falcone(Advancing Women Artists Foundation), ''Invisibile women. Forgotten artist of Florence'', Florence: The Florentine, 2010, p. 216. * Jane Fortune - Linda Falcone (Advancing Women Artists Foundation), ''Art by Women in Florence. A guide through 500 years'', Florence: The Florentine, 2012, p. .

External links

Lucia Casalini Torelli
at CLARA {{DEFAULTSORT:Torelli, Lucia Casalini 1677 births 1762 deaths Painters from Bologna Portrait miniaturists Italian portrait painters 18th-century Italian painters 18th-century Italian women artists Italian women painters