Italian painter (1639?1709)
Giovanni Battista gaulli
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Self-portrait
, c. 1667
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Born
| Giovanni Battista Gaulli
(
1639-05-08
)
8 May 1639
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Died
| 2 April 1709
(1709-04-02)
(aged 69)
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Nationality
| Italian
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Known for
| Painting
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Movement
| Baroque
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Giovanni Battista Gaulli
(8 May 1639 ? 2 April 1709), also known as
Baciccio
or
Baciccia
(Genoese nicknames for
Giovanni Battista
), was an Italian artist working in the
High Baroque
and early
Rococo
periods. He is best known for his grand illusionistic vault frescos in the
Church of the Gesu
in
Rome
, Italy. His work was influenced by
Gian Lorenzo Bernini
.
Biography
[
edit
]
Gaulli was born in
Genoa
, where his parents died from the plague of 1654. He initially apprenticed with
Luciano Borzone
.
[1]
In the mid-17th century, Gaulli's Genoa was a cosmopolitan Italian artistic center open to both commercial and artistic enterprises from north European countries, including countries with non-Catholic populations such as England and the Dutch provinces. Painters such as
Peter Paul Rubens
and
Anthony van Dyck
stayed in Genoa for a few years. Gaulli's earliest influences would have come from an eclectic mix of these foreign painters and other local artists including
Valerio Castello
,
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione
, and
Bernardo Strozzi
, whose warm palette Gaulli adopted. In the 1660s, he experimented with the cooler palette and linear style of
Bolognese
classicism.
He was first noticed by the Genoese merchant of artworks, Pellegrino Peri, who was living in Rome. Peri introduced him to
Gianlorenzo Bernini
, who promoted him. He found patrons among the Genoese
Giovanni Paolo Oliva
, a prominent Jesuit.
[2]
In 1662, he was accepted into the Roman artists' guild, the
Accademia di San Luca
(Academy of Saint Luke), where he was to later hold several offices. The next year, he received his first public commission for an altarpiece, in the church of
San Rocco
, Rome. He received many private commissions for mythological and religious works.
From 1669, however, after a visit to Parma,
Correggio
's frescoed dome-ceiling in
the cathedral of Parma
, Gaulli's painting took on a more painterly (less linear) aspect, and the composition, organized
di sotto in su
("from below looking up"), would influence his later masterpiece. At his height, Gaulli was one of Rome's most esteemed portrait painters. Gaulli is not well known for any other medium but paint, though many drawings in many media have survived. All are studies for paintings. Gaulli died in Rome, shortly after 26 March 1709, probably 2 April.
Church of the Gesu frescoes
[
edit
]
In the first half of the 17th century, two counter-reformation "mother" churches (
Sant'Andrea
of the
Theatines
and the
Chiesa Nuova
of the
Oratorians
) had been extensively decorated. This was not true for the two large Jesuit churches in Rome, which, while rich in marble and stone, remained artistically barren by the mid-17th century. This void would have been particularly evident for
Il Gesu
with its cavernous blank plaster nave ceiling.
In 1661, the election of a new General of the Jesuit order,
Gian Paolo Oliva
, advanced the decoration. A new inductee into the order, the French
Jacques Courtois
(also known as Giacomo Borgognone) had become a respected painter and was the main candidate for its decoration. Oliva and the leader of the main patron family, the Duke of Parma,
Ranuccio II Farnese
whose uncle
Cardinal Alessandro Farnese
had endowed the construction of the church, began negotiating whether Borgognone should decorate the vault. Oliva wanted his fellow Jesuit for the commission, yet other prominent names such as
Maratta
,
Ferri
, and
Giacinto Brandi
were suggested. Ultimately, with
Bernini
's persuasive support and likely strong guidance thereafter, Oliva awarded the prestigious commission to the mere 22-year-old Gaulli. This choice may have been somewhat controversial, since Gaulli's naked figures recently frescoed in the pendentives for
Sant'Agnese in Agone
had offended some eyes, and, as had happened to Michelangelo's Sistine chapel altar frescoes, had required repainting to impose painted clothes.
[3]
Gaulli decorated the entire dome including lantern and pendentives, central vault, window recesses, and transepts' ceilings. The original contract stipulated the dome was to be completed in two years, and the remainder by the end of ten years. If it met the approval of a panel, Gaulli was to be paid 14,000
scudi
plus expenses. Gaulli's main vault fresco was unveiled on
Christmas Eve
, 1679. After this, he continued frescoing of the vaults of the tribune and other areas in the church until 1685.
[4]
Gaulli's program for the nave was likely heavily overseen by Oliva and Bernini; though it is not clear how much all three contributed and whether they all shared the same philosophy. During this time, Bernini supposedly espoused some
quietist
teachings of the Spanish priest
Miguel de Molinos
, who was later condemned as heretical in no small part due to Jesuit efforts. Molinos proposed that God was accessible internally through an individual experience, while the Jesuits saw the church and clergy as an essential intermediary for access to Christ's salvation. Thus Oliva would have likely asked Gaulli to memorialize the role of frequently-martyred Jesuits as the apostolic
shock troops
in heretical and pagan societies, leading the charge of the papal
Counter-Reformation
. Ultimately, just as Bernini approved of the intermixing fresco and plaster in this new plastic conception, Gaulli blends these ideas in a fashion ultimately acceptable to his patron.
Gaulli's nave masterpiece, the
Triumph of the Name of Jesus
(also known as the
Worship
,
Adoration
, or
Triumph of the Holy Name of Jesus
), is an allegory of the work of the Jesuits that envelops worshippers (or observers) below into the whirlwind of devotion. Swirling figures in the dark distal (entry) border of the composition frame base the open sky, ever rising upward toward a celestial vision of infinite depth.
[5]
The light from Jesus' name - IHS - and symbol of the Jesuit order is gathered by patrons and saints above the clouds; while in the darkness below, a fusillade of brilliance scatters heretics, as if smitten by blasts of the
Last Judgment
.
[6]
The great theatrical effect here inspired and developed under his mentor, prompted critics to label Gaulli a "Bernini in paint" or a "mouthpiece of Bernini's ideas".
[7]
Gaulli's frescoes were a tour-de-force in illusionary painting, depicting the church's roof opens up above the viewer (and that the panorama is viewed in true perspective
di sotto in su
, similar to
Correggio
's frescoed dome ceiling depicting the
Assumption of the Virgin
or to
Cortona
's grand allegory at the
Palazzo Barberini
. Gaulli's ceiling is a masterpiece of
quadratura
(architectural illusionism) combining stuccoed and painted figures and architecture. Bernini's pupil
Antonio Raggi
provided the stucco figures, and from the nave floor, it is difficult to distinguish painted from stucco angels. The figural composition spill over the frame's edges which only heightens the illusion of the faithful rising miraculously toward the light above.
Later work and legacy
[
edit
]
A series of such ceilings were painted in the naves of Roman churches during the last three decades of the 17th century, including
Andrea Pozzo
's massive allegory at the other Roman Jesuit church,
Sant'Ignazio
, as well as
Domenico Maria Canuti
's and
Enrico Haffner
's
Apotheosis
at
Santi Domenico e Sisto
. In the 18th century,
Tiepolo
and others continued quadratura in the grand manner. But as the High Baroque movement evolved into the more playful
Rococo
, the popularity of this style dwindled. In his later works, Gaulli too moved in this direction. Thus, in contrast to the grandeur of his composition at Il Gesu, we see Gaulli gradually adopting less intense colours, and more delicate compositions after 1685?all hallmarks of the Rococo.
Gaulli accumulated a large number of pupils, among them
Ludovico Mazzanti
,
Giovanni Odazzi
,
[8]
and
Giovanni Battista Brughi
(died 1730 in Rome).
[9]
He was described as
easy to mount a rage; but ready to recover, where reason was satisfied... generous, liberal of mind, and charitable, specially towards the poor
.
[10]
Works
[
edit
]
- Worship of the Holy Name of Jesus
(1674?1679), Church of the Gesu, Rome
- Adoration of the Name of Jesus
(1674?1679), Church of the Gesu, Rome
- Triumph in the Name of Jesus
(1674?1679), Church of the Gesu, Rome
- Four Cardinal Virtues
, Sant' Agnese, Rome
- Self-portrait
, Uffizi, Florence
- Portraits of seven consecutive popes:
Gallery
[
edit
]
-
Portrait of Gian Lorenzo Bernini
, 1665
-
Cardinal Leopoldo de' Medici
, Uffizi, Florence, c. 1667
-
Pieta
, 1667
-
Blessed Ludovica Albertoni Distributing Alms
, 1670
-
Bacchus and Ariadne
, c. 1675
-
Portrait of Gian Lorenzo Bernini
, c. 1675
-
Apotheosis of Saint Ignatius
, Church of the Gesu, 1685
-
The Ascension of Our Lady
-
Clement IX
-
Nave of Church of the Gesu (1678-1679)
-
Worship of the Holy Name of Jesus
with Bernini, Church of the Gesu
-
Triumph of Franciscan Order
, Santi Apostoli, Rome
References
[
edit
]
- Citations
- Bibliography
External links
[
edit
]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Baciccio
.
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