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Baroque and Rococo
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Baroque and Rococo
Art Map |
Giacomo Serpotta
Francesco Maria Schiaffino
Andrea Brustolon
Ercole Lelli
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Ecclesiastical Sculpture
The new aesthetic criteria produced particularly interesting results
when applied to ecclesiastical sculpture. The workshop of Milan
Cathedral was active in its production of marble statues,
commissioned to complete the sequence of figures that adorned the
exterior walls, and the roof between the pinnacles. In this lavish
display of works, the statues of the Viggiu school are particularly
significant, especially those by Elia Buzzi. The stucco decorations
of the great Sicilian sculptor Giacomo Serpotta (1652-1732) differ
in style from the typically Rococo archetypes. The fluid linearity
of the simple, yet highly imaginative, reliefs, as seen in the
Oratorio del Santissimo Rosario in Palermo, echo the sublimity of
the classical style. The use of stucco in large-scale statuary was
typical of certain artistic groups, as well as a speciality of
specific schools. Diego Carlone (1674—1750), an outstanding sculptor
of stucco figures, belonged to a dynasty of Lombard painters and
sculptors, and produced work for various European courts until the
middle of the 18th century. The predominance of family workshops
among Italian sculptors and artisans, especially in northern Italy,
was traditional practice, dating from medieval times. Among those
active during this period were Bernardo and Francesco
Maria Schiaffino from Genoa and Jacopo and Andrea Brustolon from Venice.
The most industrious and versatile family team was led by Andrea Fantoni (1659-1734.) from Bergamo, whose skills in wood carving can
be seen in the altar of the Sottocasa chapel, Clusone Cathedral. In
central Europe, Austrian and German sculptors proved to be the most
expressive interpreters of the spirit of High Baroque.
Johann
Michael Fischer (1691-1766) and his lavish decoration for the
Benedictine Abbey of Ottobeuren attests to this. The Bohemian school
played an important role, as many artists converged on Prague in a
surge of activity. Among them was Mattia Bernardo Braun (1684-1738)
who had learnt his craft in the Austrian Tyrol and specialized in
religions figures. Braun adopted the High Baroque style that was in
vogue, and brought to it his own expressive liveliness. A collection
of his work in the National Gallery in Prague is proof that the
Rococo flamboyant style could, when appropriate, take on a moving,
highly dramatic tone. A more restrained style was evident in some of
the work of Ferdinand Maximilian Brokof (1688-1731). but for the
most part, his wood carvings remained extremely elaborate. In
certain respects, Brokof's expressive work, such as the sculptures
decorating the church of St Gall in Prague, go beyond Baroque
rhetoric and illustrate the influence of 18th-centurv taste.
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Giacomo Serpotta
Charity
Stucco, height 165 cm
Oratorio di San Lorenzo, Palermo
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Giacomo
Serpotta
(b Palermo, 10 March 1656; d Palermo, 27
Feb 1732).
Son of Gaspare Serpotta. He was the leading Sicilian sculptor of the late
17th century to the early 18th. Though occupying a central
role in the intellectual and artistic life of his day, his
real significance derives from the stuccos he produced for
the oratories of Palermo, for which he was celebrated in his
lifetime. A stay in Rome has been suggested, but this seems
unlikely as the Roman elements in even his most mature work,
such as the St Monica (c. 1720; Palermo, S
Agostino), are derived from prints. His first commission, in
1677, was for the decoration of the small church of the
Madonna dell’Istria in Monreale, in collaboration with
Procopio de Ferari. The level of execution gives few hints
of Giacomo’s outstanding future, but two years later he
received a much more important commission for work at the
oratory of the Compagna della Carità di S Bartolomeo degli
Incurabili in Palermo (destr. 1780). From 1679 to 1680
Giacomo worked on the model for an equestrian statue of
Charles II, King of Spain and Sicily; the statue was
then cast in bronze by Andrea Romano and Gaspare Romano.
This was destroyed in 1848, but a small bronze version
survives (Trapani, Mus. Reg.).
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Giacomo Serpotta
Interior decoration
1710-17
Stucco
Oratorio del Rosario di San Domenico, Palermo
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Giacomo Serpotta
Fortitude
1710-17
White stucco and gilding, height 200 cm
Oratorio del Rosario di San Domenico, Palermo
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Giacomo Serpotta
Oratorio del Rosario di San Domenico
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Francesco Maria Schiaffino
Immaculate Conception
1762
Marble
Palazzo Doria Lamba, Genoa
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Francesco
Maria Schiaffino
(b Genoa, 17 July 1688; d Genoa, 2 Jan
1763).
Brother of Bernardo Schiaffino. He was the pupil and then assistant of
Bernardo, who in 1721 sent him to complete his training
in Rome, where he entered the workshop of Camillo
Rusconi. He remained there until 1724, enriching his
technique and cultural education by studying the works
of Bernini, Rusconi and other sculptors. Back in Genoa,
he executed such works as St Dominic (Genoa,
Teatro Carlo Felice), in which Rusconi’s influence is
evident. The marble group of Pluto and Proserpine,
sculpted for the Durazzo family and still in its
original location (Genoa, Pal. Reale), is based on a
bozzetto by Rusconi. In 1731 Schiaffino executed the
grandiose Crucifix with Angels for King John V of
Portugal (Mafra, Convent) and in 1738 began the
theatrical funeral monument to Caterina Fieschi
Adorno (Genoa, SS Annunziata di Portoria). The wax
models of the Eight Apostles and Four Doctors
of the Church that he modelled in 1739 (all
untraced) were clearly inspired by the large Apostles
by Rusconi and other sculptors in S Giovanni in Laterano,
Rome. They were made for the stuccoist Diego Francesco
Carlone so that he could, under Schiaffino’s directions,
execute 12 monumental statues in stucco (Genoa, S Maria
Assunta in Carignano). In these latter works the
classicizing authority of Rusconi’s figures was
transformed into a freer and more restless arrangement,
the compact forms dissolving in the light, animated
draperies. The statues reveal how Schiaffino had
combined his knowledge of Roman sculpture with his study
of Pierre Puget’s Genoese works and with the style of
the Piola workshop. He emulated the free rhythms of the
Rococo found in the painting of Gregorio de’ Ferrari,
developing a decorative approach that is even more
marked in the Assumption of the Virgin (1740;
Varazze, S Ambrogio) and in the Rococo chapel of S
Francesco da Paola (1755; Genoa, S Francesco da Paola),
which he covered in polychrome marbles. His last works
include the Virgin of Loreto (1762; Sestri
Levante, Parish Church).
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Francesco Maria Schiaffino
Le Duc de Richelieu
1748
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Andrea Brustolon
Verzuckung der hl. Therese von Avila
1700
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Andrea
Brustolon(b Belluno, 20 July 1662;
d Belluno, 25 Oct 1732).
Italian sculptor and draughtsman. He worked almost exclusively in wood.
His first teacher was his father, Jacopo Brustolon (d
1709), also a sculptor, and he then trained with the painter
Agostino Ridolfi (1646–1727). In 1677 Andrea was sent to
Venice to the workshop of Filippo Parodi, to whose elegance,
dynamism and technical virtuosity he was always indebted,
although he soon established his own style. Brustolon came
from an alpine area that had a long tradition of
craftsmanship in wood. His achievement was to transpose
techniques that had been associated with everyday
craftsmanship on to the highest artistic level.
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Andrea Brustolon
Jacob's Fight with the
Angel
1700-10
Boxwood, height 46,5 cm
Liebieghaus, Frankfurt
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Andrea Brustolon
Vase-stand with Hercules
and Moors
c. 1700
Boxwood and ebony, height 200 cm
Museo del Settecento Veneziano, Ca' Rezzonico, Venice
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Johann Baptist Straub (1704-84)
Church of the Augustinian Canons
1763
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Andrea Fantoni
altarpiece, Church of Santa Maria Maggiore
c.1705
Bergamo,
Italy
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Ercole Lelli
(b Bologna, 14 Sept 1702; d
Bologna, 7 March 1766).
Italian painter,
draughtsman, sculptor, architect and coin-maker. His
reputation is shadowed by the doubts that his
contemporaries Luigi Crespi and Marcello Oretti
cast on the authorship of many works to which he
laid claim, and his many-sided career is difficult
to reconstruct. He studied engraving with Giovanni
Gioseffo dal Sole and then architecture with
Ferdinando Galli-Bibiena. In 1727, favoured by his
friend Giovan Pietro Zanotti, who was one of the
judges, he won the Marsili prize offered by the
Accademia Clementina of Bologna with his modest
drawing of Judith and Holofernes (Bologna,
Liceo A. & Accad. Clementina). This success enabled
him to begin a career as a painter and sculptor. His
paintings, few of which can be traced, include a
Self-portrait (U. Bologna); a portrait of
Eustachio Manfredi (U. Bologna, Ist. Scienze) is
an example of his work as a sculptor.
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Ercole Lelli
Anatomical wax statues
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Adam and Eve
1742-51
Museum of the
Department of Human Anatomy, Bologna University.
These two anatomicai wax statues were created specifically for teaching
purposes.
They were typical of the age of the Encyclopedie,
published in 1751-76.
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see also:
Anatomy Art
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Rembrandt van Rijn
The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp
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Rembrandt van Rijn
The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Deyman
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Jan van Neck
The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Frederick Ruysch
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Adrien Backer
The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Frederick Ruysch |
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Pieter van Mierevelt (1596-1623).
The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Willem van der Meer
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Cornelis Troost
The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Willem Roel
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Thomas de Keyser
The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Seb. Egbertsz
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