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Lot Essay
Gaulli was trained in Genoa but left for Rome when he was twenty; there he was to become one of the most celebrated artists of the Roman High Baroque. Although there is no known work from his Genoese period, the presence in that city of Rubens' and Van Dyck's pictures with their broad painterly manner and their dramatic lighting had a profound impact on Gaulli's work. Working in Rome for the Genoese art dealer Pellegrino Peri, he met Bernini, whose support guaranteed his early success, and who collaborated with him on several projects. In 1662 Gaulli became a member of the Accademia di San Luca, and in the 1670s he became, with Carlo Maratta one of the most important painters in Rome. In 1672 he received his greatest commission, from the Jesuit Order, to decorate the dome and the ceiling of the church of the Gesú in Rome. This enormous commission which was won in competition with Maratta, Ciro Ferri and Giacinto Brandi, was to take over ten years to complete.
Gaulli's Genoese origins are apparent in the use of light in this Saint Francis, which shows a dark background broken by rays of light, an effect the artist reaches by building up warm dark colours towards saturation, in broadly painted glazes over a reddish ground. Also typical of Baciccio is the flamboyant whirling drapery which is a very successful pictorial interpretation of Bernini's sculpture, seen for example the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa in the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome. This interest in sculpture, is also to be found in his Three Maries at the Tomb in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Two preparatory drawings in pen and brown ink over black chalk, squared for transfer (see figs. 1 and 2) show that Gaulli slightly raised the head of Saint Francis in the picture (see illustrations below; D. Graf, Die Handzeichnungen von Guglielmo Cortese und Giovanni Battista Gaulli. Kataloge des Kunstmuseums Dsseldorf, Dsseldorf, 1976, p. 150, nos. 478r, 479, illustrated). On a clean sheet he drew the angel in more detail, including the wings which did not fit in the first sketch. These sheets can be compared stylistically with a drawing for the standing angel in the Three Maries at the Tomb, in the drawings collection of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (H. MacAndrew and D. Graf, 'Baciccio's later drawings', Master Drawings, X, no. 3, Autumn 1972, p. 249, fig. 11, pl. 9b). These similarities in style support a tentative dating of the present picture close to the Three Maries, which is generally dated circa 1580-85 (on the basis of its pendant, now at Burghley House: see R. Enggass, The Painting of Baciccio, Giovanni Battista Gaulli 1639-1709, Pennsylvania, 1964, p. 122).
The loan of this picture has been requested for the exhibition Baciccio: Un protagonista del Barocco which will take place in October-December 1999 at the Palazzo Chigi, Ariccia.
Gaulli's Genoese origins are apparent in the use of light in this Saint Francis, which shows a dark background broken by rays of light, an effect the artist reaches by building up warm dark colours towards saturation, in broadly painted glazes over a reddish ground. Also typical of Baciccio is the flamboyant whirling drapery which is a very successful pictorial interpretation of Bernini's sculpture, seen for example the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa in the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome. This interest in sculpture, is also to be found in his Three Maries at the Tomb in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Two preparatory drawings in pen and brown ink over black chalk, squared for transfer (see figs. 1 and 2) show that Gaulli slightly raised the head of Saint Francis in the picture (see illustrations below; D. Graf, Die Handzeichnungen von Guglielmo Cortese und Giovanni Battista Gaulli. Kataloge des Kunstmuseums Dsseldorf, Dsseldorf, 1976, p. 150, nos. 478r, 479, illustrated). On a clean sheet he drew the angel in more detail, including the wings which did not fit in the first sketch. These sheets can be compared stylistically with a drawing for the standing angel in the Three Maries at the Tomb, in the drawings collection of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (H. MacAndrew and D. Graf, 'Baciccio's later drawings', Master Drawings, X, no. 3, Autumn 1972, p. 249, fig. 11, pl. 9b). These similarities in style support a tentative dating of the present picture close to the Three Maries, which is generally dated circa 1580-85 (on the basis of its pendant, now at Burghley House: see R. Enggass, The Painting of Baciccio, Giovanni Battista Gaulli 1639-1709, Pennsylvania, 1964, p. 122).
The loan of this picture has been requested for the exhibition Baciccio: Un protagonista del Barocco which will take place in October-December 1999 at the Palazzo Chigi, Ariccia.