''The Lives of the Modern Painters, Sculptors, and Architects'' or ''Le vite de' pittori, scultori et architetti moderni'' is a series of artist biographies written by

Gian Pietro Bellori Giovanni Pietro Bellori (15 January 1613 – 19 February 1696), also known as Giovan Pietro Bellori or Gian Pietro Bellori, was an Italian painter and antiquarian, but, more famously, a prominent biographer of artists of the 17th century, equiva ...

(1613–96), whom

Julius von Schlosser Julius Alwin Franz Georg Andreas Ritter von Schlosser (23 September 1866, Vienna – 1 December 1938, Vienna) was an Austrian art historian and an important member of the Vienna School of Art History. According to Ernst Gombrich, he was "One of t ...

called "the most important historiographer of art not only of Rome, but all Italy, even of Europe, in the seventeenth century". It is one of the foundational texts of the history and criticism of European art. The first edition (1672) contained biographies of nine painters ( Annibale and Agostino Carracci,

Barocci Federico Barocci (also written ''Barozzi'')(c. 1535 in Urbino – 1612 in Urbino) was an Italian Renaissance painter and printmaker. His original name was Federico Fiori, and he was nicknamed Il Baroccio. His work was highly esteemed and i ...

, Caravaggio, Rubens,

Van Dyck Sir Anthony van Dyck (, many variant spellings; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Brabantian Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Southern Netherlands and Italy. The seventh ...

Domenichino Domenico Zampieri (, ; October 21, 1581 – April 6, 1641), known by the diminutive Domenichino (, ) after his shortness, was an Italian Baroque painter of the Bolognese School of painters. Life Domenichino was born in Bologna, son of a sho ...

, Lanfranco, and

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 ...

), two sculptors (

François Duquesnoy François Duquesnoy or Frans Duquesnoy (12 January 1597 – 18 July 1643) was a Flemish Baroque sculptor who was active in Rome for most of his career. His idealized representations are often contrasted with the more emotional character of Ber ...

and

Alessandro Algardi Alessandro Algardi (July 31, 1598 – June 10, 1654) was an Italian high- Baroque sculptor active almost exclusively in Rome, where for the latter decades of his life, he was, along with Francesco Borromini and Pietro da Cortona, one of the maj ...

), and one architect ( Domenico Fontana). The book was dedicated to Jean-Baptiste Colbert and published with French financial support.

Preface

The preface to the ''Lives'' is an essay Bellori delivered to 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 fi ...

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 1664. The essay, entitled ''The Idea of the Painter, the Sculptor and the Architect'' (''L'idea del pittore, dello scultore, e dell'architetto'') contributed to a classicist reading of the ''Lives'', as opposed the a book about near-contemporaries.

Editions and translations

Bellori's treatise had an enormous influence throughout Europe. It was summarized in the December 1676 issue of the '' Journal des sçavans'', and its key concepts were disseminated by

André Félibien André Félibien (May 161911 June 1695), ''sieur des Avaux et de Javercy'', was a French chronicler of the arts and official court historian to Louis XIV of France. Biography Félibien was born at Chartres. At the age of fourteen he went to Pa ...

in his major work, ''Entretiens sur les vies et les ouvrages des plus excellents peintres anciens et modernes'' (1666–88). Bellori's theories reached England through

John Dryden '' John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the per ...

's translation of ''The Idea of the Painter, the Sculptor and the Architect'' in his preface to the 1695 translation of Charles Alphonse du Fresnoy's Latin poem, ''De arte graphica'' (1667) and influenced both

Shaftesbury Shaftesbury () is a town and civil parish in Dorset, England. It is situated on the A30 road, west of Salisbury, near the border with Wiltshire. It is the only significant hilltop settlement in Dorset, being built about above sea level on a ...

and Reynolds.

William Aglionby William Aglionby (c. 1642–1705) was an English physician, known also as an art historian, translator and diplomat. Life It has been inferred that he was the son of George Aglionby, who was tutor to William Cavendish, 3rd Earl of Devonshire fro ...

's major work, ''Painting Illustrated in Three Diallogues'' (1685), borrows heavily from

Bellori Giovanni Pietro Bellori (15 January 1613 – 19 February 1696), also known as Giovan Pietro Bellori or Gian Pietro Bellori, was an Italian painter and antiquarian, but, more famously, a prominent biographer of artists of the 17th century, equiva ...

's ''Vite''. Winckelmann's theory of the "ideally beautiful" as he expounds it in ''Geschichte der Kunst des Altertums'', IV.2.33 ff., thoroughly agrees with the content of Bellori's ''Idea.'' Prior to 2005, only the ''Idea'' and the biographies of the Carracci, Barocci, Caravaggio and Van Dyck had been translated into English. The 2005 translation by Alice Sedgwick Wohl is based on the 1976 Italian edition by

Evelina Borea Evelina Borea (born 1931, Ferrara, Italy) is an Italian art historian, author and curator. Biography Evelina Borea obtained a degree in History of Art in 1958 at the University of Florence. Her tutor and mentor was art historian Roberto Longhi. ...

controlled against the editio princeps of 1672 and Michelangelo Piacentini's transcription of MS 2506 (one of two copies, ca. 1700) of the Bibliothèque Municipale de Rouen, of the biographies of Guido Reni,

Andrea Sacchi Andrea Sacchi (30 November 159921 June 1661) was an Italian painter of High Baroque Classicism, active in Rome. A generation of artists who shared his style of art include the painters Nicolas Poussin and Giovanni Battista Passeri, the sculpto ...

and

Carlo Maratta Carlo Maratta or Maratti (13 May 162515 December 1713) was an Italian painter, active mostly in Rome, and known principally for his classicizing paintings executed in a Late Baroque Classical manner. Although he is part of the classical tradition ...

. Bellori was unable to obtain funding for a second edition. The 12 biographies were republished in 1728 in Naples as a pirated edition, with the addition of a biography of

Luca Giordano Luca Giordano (18 October 1634 – 3 January 1705) was an Italian late-Baroque painter and printmaker in etching. Fluent and decorative, he worked successfully in Naples and Rome, Florence, and Venice, before spending a decade in Spain. Earl ...

(1632-1705) by an unknown author.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lives of the Artists Art history books 1672 books Sandrart Biographies about artists Italian books