Salvator Rosa (1615 –1673) is best known today as an Italian

Baroque painter Baroque painting is the painting associated with the Baroque cultural movement. The movement is often identified with Absolutism, the Counter Reformation and Catholic Revival,romanticized landscapes and history paintings, often set in dark and untamed nature, exerted considerable influence from the 17th century into the early 19th century. In his lifetime he was among the most famous painters,Jaffé, Hans L. C., editor. 1967. ''20,000 Years of World Painting.'' Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers. New York. 418 pp. age 228/ref> known for his flamboyant personality, and regarded as an accomplished poet, satirist, actor, musician, and printmaker, as well. He was active in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

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 ...

, and

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

, where on occasion he was compelled to move between cities, as his caustic satire earned him enemies in the artistic and intellectual circles of the day. As a

history painter History painting is a genre in painting defined by its subject matter rather than any artistic style or specific period. History paintings depict a moment in a narrative story, most often (but not exclusively) Greek and Roman mythology and Bible ...

, he often selected obscure and esoteric subjects from the Bible, mythology, and the lives of philosophers, that were seldom addressed by other artists. He rarely painted the common religious subjects, unless they allowed a treatment dominated by the landscape element. He also produced battle scenes,

allegories As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory th ...

, scenes of witchcraft, and many self portraits. However, he is most highly regarded for his very original landscapes, depicting "sublime" nature: often wild and hostile, at times rendering the people that populated them as marginal in the greater realm of nature. They were the very antithesis of the "picturesque" classical views of Claude Lorrain and prototypes of the romantic landscape. Some critics have noted that his technical skills and craftsmanship as a painter were not always equal to his truly innovative and original visions.Venturi, Lionello and Rosabianca Skira-Venturi. 1952. ''Italian Painting: From Caracaggio to Modigliani.'' Editions D'Art Albert Skira, Geneva, Switzerland. 174 pp. ages 67 & 85 /ref> This is in part due to a large number of canvases he hastily produced in his youth (1630s) in pursuit of financial gain, paintings that Rosa himself came to loathe and distance himself from in his later years, as well as posthumously misattributed paintings.Langelon, Helen, (with Xavier F. Salomon and Caterina Volpi). 2010. ''Salvator Rosa.'' Dulwich Picture Gallery and Kimbell Art Museum in association with Paul Holberton Publishing, London. 240 pp. Many of his peopled landscapes ended up abroad by the 18th century, and he was better known in England and France than most Italian Baroque painters. Rosa has been described as "unorthodox and extravagant", a "perpetual rebel",Wittkower, p. 325 "The Anti-Claude", and a proto- Romantic. He had a great influence on Romanticism, becoming a cult-like figure in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and myths and legends grew around his life, to the point that his real life was scarcely distinguished from the bandits and outsiders that roamed the wild and thundery landscapes he painted. By the mid 19th century however, with the rise of

realism Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to: In the arts *Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts Arts movements related to realism include: *Classical Realism *Literary realism, a move ...

and

Impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

, his work fell from favor and received very little attention. A renewed interest in his paintings emerged in the late 20th century, and although he is not ranked among the very greatest of the Baroque painters by art historians today, he is considered an innovative and significant landscape painter and a progenitor of the romantic movement.Pignatti, Terisio. 1985. ''Five Centuries of Italian Painting 1300-1800: from the collection of the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation.'' Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation. Houston, Texas. 231 pp. ages 153-155

Biography

Early life

Rosa was born in

Arenella Arenella is a quarter of Naples, southern Italy. It is on the Vomero hill above the city and was, 300 meters in elevation. Many years ago was considered a place to go to "get away from it all". It is near to the main hospital section of the city, ...

, at that time in the outskirts of

, on either June 20 or July 21, 1615. His mother was Giulia Greca Rosa, a member of one of the Greek families of Sicily. His father, Vito Antonio de Rosa, a land surveyor, urged his son to become a lawyer or a priest, and entered him into the convent of the

Somaschi Fathers , image = SomascosEscut.jpg , image_size = 200px , caption = Coat of arms of the Somascan Fathers , abbreviation = CRS , nickname = Somascans , formation = , founder ...

. Yet Salvator showed a preference for the arts and secretly worked with his maternal uncle Paolo Greco to learn about painting. He soon transferred himself to the tutelage of his brother-in-law

Francesco Fracanzano Francesco Fracanzano (1612–1656) was an Italian painter who participated in the Masaniello rebellion. Francanzano was the brother of Cesare Fracanzano, a pupil of Spagnoletto Jusepe de Ribera (1591 – 1652) was a painter and printma ...

, a pupil of Ribera, and afterward to either

Aniello Falcone Aniello Falcone (15 November 16001656) was an Italian Baroque painter, active in Naples and noted for his painted depictions of battle scenes. Some sources refer to him as ''Ancillo Falcone''. Biography Born in Naples the son of a tradesman, ...

, a contemporary of

Domenico Gargiulo Domenico Gargiulo called Micco Spadaro ( – ) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, mainly active in Naples and known for his landscapes, genre scenes, and history paintings. Life Domenico Gargiulo was the son of a sword maker. T ...

, or to Ribera. Some sources claim he spent time living with roving bandits. At the age of seventeen, his father died; his mother was destitute with at least five children and Salvator found himself without financial support and the head of a household looking to him for support. He continued apprenticeship with Falcone, helping him complete his battlepiece canvases. In that studio, it is said that Giovanni Lanfranco took notice of his work, and advised him to relocate to Rome, where he stayed from 1634 until 1636. Returning to Naples, he began painting haunting landscapes, overgrown with vegetation, or jagged beaches, mountains, and caves. Rosa was among the first to paint "romantic" landscapes, with a special turn for scenes of

picturesque Picturesque is an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin in ''Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year ...

, often turbulent and rugged scenes peopled with shepherds, brigands, seamen, soldiers. These early landscapes were sold cheaply through private dealers. He returned to Rome in 1638–39, where he was housed by Cardinal

Francesco Maria Brancaccio Francesco Maria Brancaccio (15 April 1592, in Canneto, near Bari – 9 January 1675) was an Italian Catholic cardinal.bishop of Viterbo The Diocese of Viterbo ( la, Dioecesis Viterbiensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in central Italy. From the 12th century, the official name of the diocese was the Diocese of Viterbo e Tuscania. In 1 ...

. For the Chiesa Santa Maria della Morte in Viterbo, Rosa painted his first and one of his few altarpieces, the ''Incredulity of Thomas''.

Wife and family

Salvator Rosa - Portrait of the Artist's Wife Lucrezia - WGA20054

In 1640, Rosa met Lucrezia Paolini (ca. 1620–1696) in Florence. Lucrezia was a married woman, whose husband had left the city and abandoned her soon after their marriage, never to return. She served as a model for Rosa on occasions, and was likely the model for the allegory of ''Music'' (ca. 1641). Rosa and Lucrezia soon became dedicated and lifelong companions. Their first son Rosalvo was born in August 1641, probably in

Volterra Volterra (; Latin: ''Volaterrae'') is a walled mountaintop town in the Tuscany region of Italy. Its history dates from before the 8th century BC and it has substantial structures from the Etruscan, Roman, and Medieval periods. History Volt ...

, and another son Augusto was born in 1657. Records show at least four more children were born and placed with foundling hospitals between 1641 and 1657, giving some indication of their struggling financial conditions in those years. The custom of unmarried couples living together was not too uncommon in the early years of the 17th century, but as the decades passed the church grew less and less tolerant of the practice. At times Rosa's prominent reputation and relationships to powerful patrons helped to shield him from the

Inquisition The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, conducting trials of suspected heretics. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances, ...

. At other times, the situation left him vulnerable to the many rivals and enemies he made through his satires and ostentatious character. In 1656, feeling pressure in Rome from the poet Agostino Favoriti and his close ally Fabio Chigi, recently elected Pope Alexander VII, Rosa sent Lucrezia and their son Rosalvo to stay in

with his family. Soon after she arrived, a severe outbreak of the

plague Plague or The Plague may refer to: Agriculture, fauna, and medicine *Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis'' * An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural) * A pandemic caused by such a disease * A swarm of pe ...

hit Naples, and Rosalvo, Salvator's brother, sister, brother-in-law and their children all died in the epidemic. Lucrezia survived however and returned to Rome alone. The following year their son Augusto was born. Near the end of his life, declining in health and anticipating death, Rosa married Lucrezia on March 4, 1673. On March 17 he died. An inventory of Rosa's house taken in 1673 shortly after his death, indicated the ''Portrait of Lucrezia Paolini'' was hanging in a prominent location in the home, and one of the few paintings in his possession when he died.

Career

While Rosa had a facile genius at painting, he pursued a wide variety of arts: music, poetry, writing,

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 ...

, and acting. In Rome, he befriended

Pietro Testa Pietro Testa (1611–1650) was an Italian High Baroque artist active in Rome. He is best known as a printmaker and draftsman. Biography He was born in Lucca, and thus is sometimes called ''il Lucchesino''. He moved to Rome early in life. O ...

and Claude Lorrain. During a Roman carnival play he wrote and acted in a masque, in which his character bustled about Rome distributing satirical prescriptions for diseases of the body and more particularly, of the mind. In costume, he inveighed against the farcical comedies acted in the Trastevere under the direction of Bernini. While his plays were successful, this activity also gained him powerful enemies among patrons and artists, including Bernini himself, in Rome. Around 1640, he accepted an invitation from Giovanni Carlo de' Medici to relocate to Florence, where he stayed until 1649. Once there, Rosa sponsored a combination of studio and salon of poets, playwrights, and painters—the so-called ''Accademia dei Percossi'' (Academy of the Stricken). To the rigid art milieu of Florence, he introduced his canvases of wild landscapes; while influential, he gathered few true pupils. Another painter poet,

Lorenzo Lippi Lorenzo Lippi (3 May 1606 – 15 April 1665) was an Italian painter and poet. Biography Born in Florence, he studied painting under Matteo Rosselli. Both Baldassare Franceschini and Francesco Furini were also apprenticed with Rosselli, the ...

, shared with Rosa the hospitality of the cardinal and the same circle of friends. Lippi encouraged him to proceed with the poem ''Il Malmantile Racquistato''. He was well acquainted also with Ugo and Giulio Maffei, and was housed with them in

, where he wrote four satires ''Music'', ''Poetry'', ''Painting'', and ''War''. About the same time he painted ''Philosophy'', now in 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 ...

, London. A passage in one of his satires suggests that he sympathized with the 1647 insurrection led by Masaniello—whose portrait he painted, though probably not from life. Rosa's tempestuous art and reputation as a rebel gave rise to a popular legend—recounted in a biography of Rosa published in 1824 by

Sydney, Lady Morgan Sydney, Lady Morgan (''née'' Owenson; 25 December 1781? – 14 April 1859), was an Irish novelist, best known for '' The Wild Irish Girl'' (1806)'','' a romantic, and some critics suggest, "proto-feminist", novel with political and patriotic o ...

—that Rosa lived with a gang of bandits and participated in the uprising in Naples against Spanish rule.Langdon, Helen (2003). Rosa, Salvator. ''Grove Art Online''. Although these activities cannot be conveniently dovetailed into known dates of his career, in 1846 a famous

romantic ballet The Romantic ballet is defined primarily by an era in ballet in which the ideas of Romanticism in art and literature influenced the creation of ballets. The era occurred during the early to mid 19th century primarily at the Théâtre de l'Académ ...

about this story titled '' Catarina'' was produced in London by the choreographer

Jules Perrot Jules-Joseph Perrot (18 August 1810 – 29 August 1892) was a dancer and choreographer who later became Ballet Master of the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia. He created some of the most famous ballets of the 19th century including ...

and composer

Cesare Pugni Cesare Pugni (; russian: Цезарь Пуни, Cezar' Puni; 31 May 1802 in Genoa – ) was an Italian composer of ballet music, a pianist and a violinist. In his early career he composed operas, symphonies, and various other forms of orches ...

. He returned to stay in Rome in 1649. Here he increasingly focused on large-scale paintings, tackling themes and stories unusual for seventeenth-century painters. These included ''Democritus amid the Tombs'', ''The Death of Socrates'', ''The Death of Regulus'' (these two are now in England), ''Justice Quitting the Earth'' and the ''Allegory of Fortune''. This last work raised a storm of controversy among religious and civil authorities who perceived in it a satire directed at them. Rosa, endeavouring at conciliation, published a text in which he provided anodyne explanations for the painting's imagery; nonetheless he was nearly arrested. It was about this time that Rosa wrote his satire named ''Babylon''. Self-portrait by Salvator Rosa

His criticisms of Roman art culture won him several enemies. An allegation arose that his published satires were not his own, but Rosa vehemently denied the charges. It may be possible that literary friends in Florence and

coached him about the topic of his satires, while the compositions of which remained nonetheless his own. To confute his detractors he wrote the last of the series, entitled ''Envy''. Among the pictures of his last years were the ''Saul and the Witch of Endor'' and ''Battlepiece'' now in the

Musée du Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

, the latter painted in 40 days, full of longdrawn carnage, with ships burning in the offing; ''Polycrates and the Fishermen''; and the ''Oath of Catiline'' (

Palazzo Pitti The Palazzo Pitti (), in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present ...

). While occupied with a series of satirical portraits, to be closed by one of himself, Rosa was assailed by

dropsy Edema, also spelled oedema, and also known as fluid retention, dropsy, hydropsy and swelling, is the build-up of fluid in the body's tissue. Most commonly, the legs or arms are affected. Symptoms may include skin which feels tight, the area ma ...

. He died a half year later. In his last moments he married Lucrezia, who had borne him two sons, one of them surviving him. His tomb is in

Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri The Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels and of the Martyrs ( la, Beatissimae Virginis et omnium Angelorum et Martyrum, it, Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri) is a basilica and titular church in Rome, Italy, built inside the ruined ''frigida ...

, where a portrait of him has been set up. Salvator Rosa, after struggles of his early youth, had successfully earned a handsome fortune. He was a significant

etcher 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 ...

, with a highly popular and influential series of small prints of soldiers, and a number of larger and very ambitious subjects. Among his pupils were Evangelista Martinotti of Monferrato and his brother Francesco. Another pupil was

Ascanio della Penna ''Ascanio'' is a grand opera in five acts and seven Tableau vivant, tableaux by composer Camille Saint-Saëns. The opera's French libretto, by Louis Gallet, is based on the 1852 play ''Benvenuto Cellini'' by French playwright Paul Meurice which wa ...

of Perugia.

Legacy

During Rosa's lifetime his work inspired followers such as

Giovanni Ghisolfi Giovanni Ghisolfi (1623 – 7 June 1683) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period. Biography Born in Milan, he initially trained with his uncle, Antonio Volpino. At the age of 17, he traveled to Rome with his friend Antonio Busca where ...

, but his most lasting influence was on the later development of romantic and sublime landscape traditions within painting. Eighteenth-century artists influenced by Rosa include

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 ...

Andrea Locatelli Andrea Locatelli (19 December 1695 – 19 February 1741)Michel, Olivier (2003). "Locatelli, Andrea". Grove Art Online. was an Italian painter of landscapes (vedute). Locatelli (he spelled it Lucatelli) was born in Rome in 1695, as stat ...

Giovanni Paolo Panini Giovanni Paolo Panini or Pannini (17 June 1691 – 21 October 1765) was an Italian painter and architect who worked in Rome and is primarily known as one of the ''vedutisti'' ("view painters"). As a painter, Panini is best known for his vistas of ...

and

Marco Ricci Marco Ricci (6 June 1676 – 21 January 1730) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period. Early years He was born at Belluno and received his first instruction in art from his uncle, Sebastiano Ricci, likely in Milan in 1694–6.Giacometti, Mar ...

. As Wittkower states, it is in his landscapes, not his grand historical or religious dramas, that Rosa truly expresses his innovative abilities most graphically. Rosa himself dismissed his early landscapes as frivolous ''capricci'' in comparison to his history paintings and later work, but the academically conventional history canvases often restrained his rebellious streak. He generally avoided the idyllic and pastoral calm country-sides of Claude Lorrain and

Paul Bril Paul Bril (1554 – 7 October 1626) was a Flemish painter and printmaker principally known for his landscapes.Nicola Courtright. "Paul Bril." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 26 September 2016 He spent most of ...

in his landscapes, and created brooding, melancholic fantasies, awash in ruins and brigands. By the eighteenth century, the contrasts between Rosa and the "sublime" landscape, and artists such as Claude and the "picturesque" landscape, were much remarked upon. A 1748 poem by James Thompson, "The Castle of Indolence", illustrated this: "Whate'er Lorraine light touched with softening hue/ Or savage Rosa dashed, or learned

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 ...

drew". In a time when artists were often highly constrained by patrons, Rosa had a plucky streak of independence, which celebrated the special role of the artist. "Our wealth must consist in things of the spirit, and in contenting ourselves with sipping, while others gorge themselves in prosperity". He refused to paint on commission or to agree on a price beforehand, and he chose his own subjects. In his own words, he painted "...purely for my own satisfaction. I need to be transported by enthusiasm and I can only employ my brushes when I am in ecstasy."Johnson, Paul. ''Art: A New History'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003, p. 339.

Salvator Rosa and romanticism

Salvator Rosa Sketching Banditti by Thomas Cole

Rosa's influence on

romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

in the late 18th and early 19th centuries was profound. Art historians have described him as a "cult figure", who "inaugurated the romantic landscape", an initiator of the "cult" of the sublime landscape. One of the earliest manifestations of the romantic movement to emerge in the early 18th century was the

English landscape garden The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (french: Jardin à l'anglaise, it, Giardino all'inglese, german: Englischer Landschaftsgarten, pt, Jardim inglês, es, Jardín inglés), is a sty ...

, and the paintings of Rosa, as well as Claude Lorrain and Nicolas Poussin were key inspirations and models.Tomam, Rolf, editor. 2000. ''Neoclassicism and Romanticism: Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, Drawings, 1750-1848.'' Könemann, Verlagsgesellschaft. Cologne. 520 pp. age 18

William Kent William Kent (c. 1685 – 12 April 1748) was an English architect, landscape architect, painter and furniture designer of the early 18th century. He began his career as a painter, and became Principal Painter in Ordinary or court painter, bu ...

, who originated the naturalized garden was known to be a great admirer of Rosa and went so far as to plant dead trees in his gardens to achieve Salvator Rosa effects.Bris, Michel Le. 1981. ''Romantics and Romanticism.'' Skira/Rizzoli International Publications, Inc. New York 1981. 215 pp. One historian noted "An extraordinary amount of Rosa's fame and influence in England seems to have rested on verbal and literary transmission, and had an impact that extended far beyond the borderline of purely pictorial concerns."Wallace, Richard. 1979. ''Salvator Rosa in America.'' The Wellesley College Museum. Wellesley, Massachusetts. 124 pp. Library of Congress Catalogue Number 79-84183 In ''

A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful ''A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful'' is a 1757 treatise on aesthetics written by Edmund Burke. It was the first complete philosophical exposition for separating the beautiful and the sublime into th ...

'' (1757),

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designated Salvator Rosa as the "painter of the Sublime". Horace Walpole,

Sir Joshua Reynolds Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter, specialising in portraits. John Russell said he was one of the major European painters of the 18th century. He promoted the "Grand Style" in painting which depen ...

, and

Percy Bysshe Shelly Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 17928 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achi ...

wrote highly of his paintings. "His name came to be a kind of code word for the qualities most appreciated by the romantics.....savage sublimity, terror, grandeur, astonishment, and pleasing horror" A number of accounts of Rosa's life were published purporting to be biographies, often including fictionalized anecdotes.Bernardo de' Dominici. 1742. ''Vita di Rosa.'' Naples.E. T. A. Hoffmann. 1821. ''Signor Formica'' (aka ''Salvator Rosa''), in vol. 4 of Die Serapionsbrüder.Morgan, Lady Sydney. 1824. ''The Life And Times of Salvator Rosa.'' Henry Colburn. London. Salvator Rosa was the subject of an opera by

Antônio Carlos Gomes Antônio Carlos Gomes (; July 11, 1836 in Campinas – September 16, 1896 in Belém) was the first New World composer whose work was accepted by Europe. He was the only non-European who was successful as an opera composer in Italy, during the "go ...

, a ballet ''

Catarina or La Fille du Bandit ''Catarina ou la Fille du bandit'' is a ballet in three acts and four scenes, with libretto and choreography by Jules Perrot and music by Cesare Pugni. The libretto is based on an incident in the life of the Italian painter Salvator Rosa. The wo ...

'', and Franz Liszt included an arrangement of a song by

Giovanni Bononcini Giovanni Bononcini (or Buononcini) (18 July 1670 – 9 July 1747) (sometimes cited also as Giovanni Battista Bononcini) was an Italian Baroque composer, cellist, singer and teacher, one of a family of string players and composers. Biography E ...

, in his suite Annees de pelerinage, ''Deuxieme annee: Italie'', (S.161) No. 3, '' Canzonetta del Salvator Rosa''. Thomas Moran - Salvator Rosa Sketching the Banditti

Thomas Moran - Salvator Rosa Sketching the Banditti

Rosa and his tempestuous spirit became the darling of British Romantics such as

Henry Fuseli Henry Fuseli ( ; German: Johann Heinrich Füssli ; 7 February 1741 – 17 April 1825) was a Swiss painter, draughtsman and writer on art who spent much of his life in Britain. Many of his works, such as '' The Nightmare'', deal with supernatu ...

John Hamilton Mortimer John Hamilton Mortimer (17 September 1740 – 4 February 1779) was a British figure and landscape painter and printmaker, known for romantic paintings set in Italy, works depicting conversations, and works drawn in the 1770s portraying war ...

, and

Alexander Runciman Alexander Runciman (15 August 1736 – 4 October 1785) was a Scottish people, Scottish painter of historical and mythological subjects. He was the elder brother of John Runciman, also a painter. Life He was born in Edinburgh, and studied at ...

. His influence can be seen in the work of artist such as John Martin, who studied Rosa's work in his formative years,Morden, Barbara C. 2010. ''John Martin: Apocalypse Now!.'' Northumbria Press. Newcastle Upon Tyne, U. K. 123 pp. age 5 A recent exhibit of William Turner's work, at the Prado museum in Madrid, notes the influence Rosa had on Turner's landscapes. Rosa's influence can also be seen in American art of the period.

Thomas Cole Thomas Cole was an English-born American artist and the founder of the Hudson River School art movement. Cole is widely regarded as the first significant American landscape painter. He was known for his romantic landscape and history painti ...

counted Rosa among his heroes,Powell, Earl A. 1990. ''Thomas Cole.'' Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers. New York, NY. 144 pp. age 53 and his impact has been identified in the work of artist such as

Washington Allston Washington Allston (November 5, 1779 – July 9, 1843) was an American painter and poet, born in Waccamaw Parish, South Carolina. Allston pioneered America's Romantic movement of landscape painting. He was well known during his lifetime for ...

George Caleb Bingham George Caleb Bingham (March 20, 1811 – July 7, 1879) was an American artist, soldier and politician known in his lifetime as "the Missouri Artist". Initially a Whig, he was elected as a delegate to the Missouri legislature before the American C ...

Thomas Moran Thomas Moran (February 12, 1837 – August 25, 1926) was an American painter and printmaker of the Hudson River School in New York whose work often featured the Rocky Mountains. Moran and his family, wife Mary Nimmo Moran and daughter Ruth too ...

William Sidney Mount William Sidney Mount (November 26, 1807 – November 19, 1868) was a 19th-century American genre painter. Born in Setauket in 1807, Mount spent much of his life in his hometown and the adjacent village of Stony Brook, where he painted portraits, ...

, John Trumbull,

Benjamin West Benjamin West, (October 10, 1738 – March 11, 1820) was a British-American artist who painted famous historical scenes such as '' The Death of Nelson'', ''The Death of General Wolfe'', the '' Treaty of Paris'', and '' Benjamin Franklin Drawin ...

and other American artist. Rosa's reputation and influence waned in the nineteenth century; when his ''Monks Fishing'' was displayed in Dulwich in 1843 it was criticized by

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and pol ...

as telling "unmitigated falsehoods" and containing "laws of nature set at open defiance". Since the 1970s, Rosa's work has received renewed attention from scholars. including museum exhibitions,Kitson, Michael, Helen Langdon, Richard Wallace, John Sunderland. 1973. ''Salvator Rosa: Hayward Gallery.'' London Arts Council. London. 88 pp. ISBN 0728700026 a

catalog raisonné Catalog or catalogue may refer to: *Cataloging **'emmy on the 'og **in science and technology *** Library catalog, a catalog of books and other media ****Union catalog, a combined library catalog describing the collections of a number of librarie ...

,Salerno, Luigi.1975. ''L'opera completa di Salvator Rosa (Classici dell'arte series).'' Rizzoli Editore. Milano. 108 pp. catalogs of his drawings,Mahoney, Michael. 1977. ''Drawings Of Salvator Rosa, Vol. I & II.'' Garland. New York. 869 pp. the publication of his letters,Hoare, Alexandra. 2019. ''The Letters of Salvator Rosa (1615-1673): An Italian Transcription, English Translation and Critical Edition (Studies in Baroque Art).'' Brepols Publishers. 1104 pp. biographical works,Scott, I. Jonathan. 1996. ''Salvator Rosa: His Life and Times.'' Yale University Press. New Haven. 272 pp. and other volumes ranging from paperback picture booksYotova, Raya. 2020. ''Salvator Rosa: Drawings & Paintings (Annotated).'' Independently published. 66 pp. to scholarly monographs.Hoare, Alexandra. 2018. ''Salvator Rosa, Friendship and the Free Artist in Seventeenth-century Italy (Studies in Baroque Art).'' Harvey Miller Publishers. 521 pp.

Satires

Cesareo (1892) and Cartelli (1899) wrote books taking account of Rosa's satires. The satires, though considerably spread abroad during his lifetime, were not published until 1719. They are all in

terza rima ''Terza rima'' (, also , ; ) is a rhyming verse form, in which the poem, or each poem-section, consists of tercets (three line stanzas) with an interlocking three-line rhyme scheme: The last word of the second line in one tercet provides the rh ...

, written without much literary correctness, but spirited. Rosa here appears as a very severe castigator of all ranks and conditions of men, not sparing the highest, and as a champion of the poor and down-trodden, and of moral virtue and Catholic faith. Rosa - Poetry, 1641

The satire on ''Music'' exposes the insolence and profligacy of musicians, and the shame of courts and churches in encouraging them. ''Poetry'' dwells on the pedantry, imitativeness, adulation, affectation and indecency of poets—also their poverty, and the neglect with which they were treated; and there is a very vigorous sortie against oppressive governors and aristocrats.

Tasso TASSO (Two Arm Spectrometer SOlenoid) was a particle detector at the PETRA particle accelerator at the German national laboratory DESY. The TASSO collaboration is best known for having discovered the gluon, the mediator of the strong interaction an ...

's glory is upheld;

Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian people, Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', origin ...

is spoken of as obsolete, and

Ariosto Ludovico Ariosto (; 8 September 1474 – 6 July 1533) was an Italian poet. He is best known as the author of the romance epic ''Orlando Furioso'' (1516). The poem, a continuation of Matteo Maria Boiardo's ''Orlando Innamorato'', describes the ...

as corrupting. ''Painting'' inveighs against the pictorial treatment of squalid subjects, such as beggars, against the ignorance and lewdness of painters, and their tricks of trade, and the gross indecorum of painting sprawling half-naked saints of both sexes. ''War'' (which contains a eulogy of Masaniello) derides the folly of mercenary soldiers, who fight and perish while kings stay at home; the vile morals of kings and lords, their heresy and unbelief. In ''Babylon ofrece'', Rosa represents himself as a fisherman, Tirreno, constantly unlucky in his net-hauls on the Euphrates; he converses with a native of the country, Ergasto. Babylon (Rome) is very severely treated, and Naples much the same. ''Envy'' (the last of the satires, and generally accounted the best) represents Rosa dreaming that, as he is about to inscribe in all modesty his name upon the threshold of the temple of glory, the goddess or fiend of Envy obstructs him, and a long interchange of reciprocal objurgations ensues. Here occurs the highly charged portrait of the chief Roman detractor of Salvator (we are not aware that he has ever been identified by name); and the painter protests that he would never condescend to do any of the lascivious work in painting so shamefully in vogue.

Galleries

Paintings

> File:Salvator Rosa - Portrait of a Man - WGA20041.jpg, ''Portrait of a Man'' (1640s), oil on canvas, 78 x 65 cm.,

Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is the largest ...

) File:Salvator Rosa - The Witches' Sabbath - BF.1982.7 - Museum of Fine Arts.jpg, ''Witches' Sabbath'' (ca. 1655), oil on canvas, 87 x 73 cm., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston File:Salvator Rosa - Heroic Battle - WGA20050.jpg, ''Heroic Battle'' (ca. 1652–1664), oil on canvas, 214 x 351 cm.

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

File:Salvator Rosa - Human Fragility - WGA20047.jpg, '' Human Fragility'' (ca. 1656), oil on canvas, 199 x 134 cm.,

Fitzwilliam Museum The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities museum of the University of Cambridge. It is located on Trumpington Street opposite Fitzwilliam Street in central Cambridge. It was founded in 1816 under the will of Richard FitzWilliam, 7th Vis ...

File:Salvator Rosa (Italian) - Allegory of Fortune - Google Art ProjectFXD.jpg, '' Allegory of Fortune'' (1658), oil on canvas, 198 x 133 cm.,

J. Paul Getty Museum The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. The Getty Center is located in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles and fea ...

File:Salvator Rosa - Diogenes Casting away his Cup - WGA20045.jpg, ''

Diogenes Diogenes ( ; grc, Διογένης, Diogénēs ), also known as Diogenes the Cynic (, ) or Diogenes of Sinope, was a Greek philosopher and one of the founders of Cynicism (philosophy). He was born in Sinope, an Ionian colony on the Black Sea ...

Casting Away his Cup'' (1650s), oil on canvas, 219 x 148 cm., private collection File:Rosa Crucifixion of Polyclitus.jpg, ''Crucifixion of Polyclitus'' (1650s), oil on canvs, 108 x 139 cm.,

National Museum, Warsaw The National Museum in Warsaw ( pl, Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie), popularly abbreviated as MNW, is a national museum in Warsaw, one of the largest museums in Poland and the largest in the capital. It comprises a rich collection of ancient art ( Eg ...

File:Demokrit, hensunken i betragtninger.jpg, ''

Democritus Democritus (; el, Δημόκριτος, ''Dēmókritos'', meaning "chosen of the people"; – ) was an Ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher from Abdera, primarily remembered today for his formulation of an atomic theory of the universe. No ...

in Meditation'' (1650–51), oil on canvas, 344 x 214 cm.,

National Gallery of Denmark The National Gallery of Denmark ( da, Statens Museum for Kunst, also known as "SMK", literally State Museum for Art) is the Danish national gallery, located in the centre of Copenhagen. The museum collects, registers, maintains, researches and han ...

File:Rosa - The Death of Regulus, ca. 1650-1652.jpg, ''The Death of Regulus'' (ca. 1650–1652), oil on canvas, 152.4 × 219.71 cm.,

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, or VMFA, is an art museum in Richmond, Virginia, United States, which opened in 1936. The museum is owned and operated by the Commonwealth of Virginia. Private donations, endowments, and funds are used for the s ...

File:Rosa - The Baptism of the Eunuch, ca. 1660.jpg, ''The Baptism of the Eunuch'' (ca. 1660), oil on canvas, 200 x 122 cm., Chrysler Museum of Art File:Salvator Rosa - Pythagoras Emerging from the Underworld - Google Art Project.jpg, ''

Pythagoras Pythagoras of Samos ( grc, Πυθαγόρας ὁ Σάμιος, Pythagóras ho Sámios, Pythagoras the Samian, or simply ; in Ionian Greek; ) was an ancient Ionian Greek philosopher and the eponymous founder of Pythagoreanism. His politi ...

Emerging from the Underworld'' (1662), oil on canvas, 131 x 189 cm.,

Kimbell Art Museum The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, hosts an art collection as well as traveling art exhibitions, educational programs and an extensive research library. Its initial artwork came from the private collection of Kay and Velma Kimbell, w ...

File:Salvator Rosa - The Shade of Samuel Appears to Saul - WGA20058.jpg, ''

Saul Saul (; he, , ; , ; ) was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the first monarch of the United Kingdom of Israel. His reign, traditionally placed in the late 11th century BCE, supposedly marked the transition of Israel and Judah from a scattered t ...

and the

Witch of Endor The Witch of Endor ( he, ''baʿălaṯ-ʾōḇ bəʿĒyn Dōr'', "she who owns the ''ʾōḇ'' of Endor") is a woman who, according to the Hebrew Bible, was consulted by Saul to summon the spirit of the prophet Samuel. Saul wished to receive ad ...

'' (1668), oil on canvas, 275 x 191 cm.,

Landscapes

File:Rosa - Il ponte, Palazzo Pitti.jpg, ''Landscape with a Bridge'' (1645–49), oil on canvas, 106 x 127 cm.,

Galleria Palatina The Palazzo Pitti (), in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the presen ...

File:Harbour Scene - Nationalmuseum - 17200.tif, ''Harbour Scene'' (undated), oil on canvas, 72 x 94 cm., Nationalmuseum File:Rosa, Saint John the Baptist Baptizing Christ in the Jordan.jpg, ''Saint John the Baptist Baptizing Christ in the Jordan'' (ca. 1655) oil on canvas, 173 x 258.7 cm.,

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum is a museum and art gallery in Glasgow, Scotland. It reopened in 2006 after a three-year refurbishment and since then has been one of Scotland's most popular visitor attractions. The museum has 22 galleries, h ...

File:Rosa, Saint John the Baptist Revealing Christ to the Disciples.jpg, ''Saint John the Baptist Revealing Christ to the Disciples'' (ca. 1655) oil on canvas, 173.4 x 260.7 cm.,

File:Bandits on a Rocky Coast MET DP323412.jpg, ''Bandits on a Rocky Coast'' (ca. 1655), oil on canvas, 74.9 x 100 cm.,

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

File:Salvator Rosa - River Landscape with Apollo and the Cumean Sibyl - WGA20057.jpg, ''Apollo and the Cumean Sibyl'' (1657–58), oil on canvas, 173.7 x 259.5 cm.,

Wallace Collection The Wallace Collection is a museum in London occupying Hertford House in Manchester Square, the former townhouse of the Seymour family, Marquesses of Hertford. It is named after Sir Richard Wallace, who built the extensive collection, along ...

File:Salvator rosa, paesaggio con mercurio e il boscaiolo disonesto, 1663 ca (cropped).jpg, ''Mercury and the Dishonest Woodsman'' (ca. 1663), oil on canvas, 125.7 x 202.1 cm.,

File:Salvator Rosa, Jacob’s Dream, c. 1665, oil on canvas.jpg, ''Jacob's Dream'' (c. 1665), oil on canvas, 137 x 200 cm., Derbyshire, Chatsworth, Devonshire collection File:Salvator Rosa - The Finding of Moses - 47.92 - Detroit Institute of Arts.jpg, '' The Finding of Moses'' (1660–65), oil on canvas, 123.2 × 202.6 cm.,

Detroit Institute of Arts The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, has one of the largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it covers with a major renovation and expansion project comple ...

File:Rosa - Landscape with Saint Anthony Abbot and Saint Paul the Hermit, About 1660 - 1665 (cropped).jpg, ''St. Anthony Abbot and St. Paul the Hermit'' (ca. 1660–65), oil on canvas, 67.3 x 49.9 cm.,

National Gallery of Scotland The Scottish National Gallery (formerly the National Gallery of Scotland) is the national art gallery of Scotland. It is located on The Mound in central Edinburgh, close to Princes Street. The building was designed in a neoclassical style by W ...

File:The Death of Empedocles by Salvator Rosa.jpg, ''The Death of

Empedocles Empedocles (; grc-gre, Ἐμπεδοκλῆς; , 444–443 BC) was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and a native citizen of Akragas, a Greek city in Sicily. Empedocles' philosophy is best known for originating the cosmogonic theory of the ...

'' (ca.1665–70), oil on canvas, 135 x 99 cm., private collection File:Landscape with Tobit and the angel mg 0161.jpg, '' Tobias and the Angel'' (ca. 1670), oil on canvas, 121 x 195 cm.,

Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg (Museum of Fine Arts of Strasbourg) is the old masters paintings collection of the city of Strasbourg, located in the Alsace region of France. The museum is housed in the first and second floors of the ...

File:Salvator Rosa - Rocky Landscape with a Huntsman and Warriors - WGA20063.jpg, ''Rocky Landscape with a Huntsman and Warriors'' (ca. 1670), oil on canvas, 142 x 192 cm.,

Drawings

All drawings are undated: pen, ink, and wash; or pen, ink, wash, and chalk on paper File:Turbaned Warrior Holding a Mace MET 1970.101.12.jpg, ''Turbaned Warrior Holding a Mace'' (13.2 x 8.2 cm.),

File:Martyrdom of St. Andrew MET DP811520 (cropped).jpg, ''Martyrdom of St. Andrew'' (19.8 x 13.7 cm.),

File:ROSA Salvator - Femme debout drapée, portant quelque chose, se dirigeant vers la gauche, INV 9747, Recto (cropped).jpg, ''Woman standing draped'' (25.4 x 14.7 cm.),

File:The Abandoned Oidipus (Salvator Rosa) - Nationalmuseum - 23888.tif, ''Oedipus Abandoned'' (65 x 45 cm.), Nationalmuseum File:Witches' Sabbath (recto); Figures Gathered around a tree (verso) MET DP812350 (cropped).jpg, ''Witches' Sabbath'' (21.8 x 31.7 cm.),

File:'Forest Scene' attributed to Salvator Rosa, Honolulu Museum of Art.JPG, ''Forest Scene'',

Honolulu Museum of Art The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. The museum has one of the largest single co ...

Prints

All prints are

s, or etchings with

drypoint Drypoint is a printmaking technique of the intaglio family, in which an image is incised into a plate (or "matrix") with a hard-pointed "needle" of sharp metal or diamond point. In principle, the method is practically identical to engraving. The ...

> File:Battling Tritons LACMA M.88.233.5 (cropped).jpg, ''Battling Tritons'' (1660–61), 11.11 x 16.51 cm. File:Glaucus and Scylla LACMA 56.15.23.jpg, ''Glaucus and Scylla'' (1661), 35.24 x 23.5 cm. File:Three human skulls, study for "Democritus in Meditation" MET DP836195.jpg, ''Three Human Skulls'' (1662), 14.2 × 9.2 cm. File:Salvator rosa, la crocifissione di policrate, 1662 ca.jpg, ''The Crucifixion of Polycrates the Tyrant after his Capture by the Persians'' (1662), 47.3 x 72.2 cm. File:The infant Oedipus is tied to a tree by the shepherd to whom Wellcome L0032548 (cropped).jpg, ''Rescue of the Infant Oedipus'' (1663), 72.4 x 47.2 cm. File:Jason and the Dragon LACMA 56.15.11.jpg, ''Jason and the Dragon'' (1663–64), 33.6 x 21.5 cm.

Works about Rosa

A number of biographies and fictionalizations of the life of Rosa exist: *Domenico Passeri speaks of him in ''Vite de Pittori'' *Salvini, ''Satire e Vita di Salvator Rosa'' *

Bernardo de' Dominici Bernardo de' Dominici or Bernardo De Dominici (13 December 1683 – c. 1759) was an Italian art historian and painter of the late- Baroque period, active mainly in Naples. As a painter he was known for his landscapes, marine vedute and genre scen ...

, ''Vita di Rosa'' (1742, Naples) *In England,

Lady Morgan Sydney, Lady Morgan (''née'' Owenson; 25 December 1781? – 14 April 1859), was an Irish novelist, best known for '' The Wild Irish Girl'' (1806)'','' a romantic, and some critics suggest, "proto-feminist", novel with political and patriotic o ...

i
''The Life and Times of Salvator Rosa''
and Albert Cotton in ''A Company of Death'' romanticized his life. *Rosa is the fictional hero of the novella ''Signor Formica'', 1819, also known simply as ''Salvator Rosa'', by E. T. A. Hoffmann. *'' Salvator Rosa'' is a 19th-century Italian opera by

, with libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, after the novel ''Masaniello'' by Eugène de Mirecourt. *The 1846 ballet '' Catarina'' by the choreographer

and the composer

was produced in London at

Her Majesty's Theatre Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre situated on Haymarket in the City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established t ...

, and was inspired by the alleged story of Rosa's dealings with Brigands of the Abruzzi. *One of the pieces included in the piano collection ''

Années de pèlerinage ''Années de pèlerinage'' (French for ''Years of Pilgrimage'') ( S.160, S.161, S.162, S.163) is a set of three suites for solo piano by Franz Liszt. Much of it derives from his earlier work, ''Album d'un voyageur'', his first major published pian ...

'' by Franz Liszt is entitled "Canzonetta del Salvator Rosa". That song (''Vado ben spesso cangiando loco'') was, however, composed by

References

* *

External links

*
Notes on etchings titled ''The genius of Salvator Rosa''.Exhibition 2011

, Fort Worth, Texas * *
Jusepe de Ribera, 1591-1652
', a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which includes material on Salvator Rosa (see index) {{DEFAULTSORT:Rosa, Salvator 1615 births 1673 deaths 17th-century Neapolitan people 17th-century Italian painters Italian male painters Italian Baroque painters Painters from Naples Italian poets Italian male poets Italian printmakers