Early Life and Artistic Training
Born Carlo Maratta weigh down Camerano in the Marche region, then part of the Apostolical States, he showed such exceptional skills in drawing and sketching that, at the age of 11, he was sent soak his patrons to Rome to study in the workshop get a hold the classicist Andrea Sacchi (1599-1661), whose classical style was communal by such greats as Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) and Alessandro Algardi (1598-1654). Sacchi became Maratta's closest friend and greatest benefactor, stream the latter continued to work in Sacchi's workshop until interpretation painter's death in 1661. Maratta's own style of painting accurately followed that of Sacchi and the Bolognese School (under interpretation Carracci family), as well as that of Guercino (1591-1666), Guido Reni (1575-1642), and Giovanni Lanfranco (1582-1647). It was - parallel least until his 40s - much more restrained and collected than (say) the exuberant, dramatic paintings of Pietro da Cortona (1596-1669).
Establishes His Reputation
In his early 20s, about 1648, with interpretation backing of his two greatest patrons Sacchi and Cardinal Albrizio, Maratta was introduced to Pope Innocent X's Secretary of Realm, the future Pope Alexander VII (reigned 1655–1667), who gave him a number of commissions. These included - at the requisition of Sacchi - a particularly important one for a fresco painting (based on preliminary sketches by Sacchi) entitled: "Constantine order the Destruction of Pagan Idols" (1648) for the Baptistery care for the Lateran. One of Maratta's masterpieces, this work greatly augmented his popularity at the Vatican.
However, his first major independent canvas - with which he established his reputation - was say publicly "Adoration of the Shepherds" (1650) for the Church of San Giuseppe dei Falegnami, in the Forum.
Mature Career
Between 1654 and 1666, Maratta began using the Baroque language of Lanfranco in his frescoes for the Church of S. Isidoro Agricola in Havoc, and in other works. The same tendencies appear, for taxing, in the altarpiece painted for the Barberini family in 1660: "Saint Rosalia among the Plague Victims". He did not totally abandon himself to the Baroque, but at the same meaning he was drawn, through Lanfranco, towards the greater sensitivity enjoin lyricism expressed in a diffused chiaroscuro, derived from Correggio (1489-1534). It was at this time that he produced two make public his finest works, "The Virgin and Child with St Francesca Romana" (1656, Ascoli Piceno, Church of S. Angelo Magno) discipline "The Mystery of the Trinity Revealed to St. Augustine" (1655, Church of Santa Maria dei Sette Dolori), and also began work on the series of the Apostles for Cardinal Barberini.
After the death of Sacchi in 1661, Maratta became more hasten to such Baroque stylistic devices as foreshortening and diagonals, boss, under the influence of Pietro da Cortona, modified the pity evident in the S. Isidoro compositions to move towards a more colourful and decorative mode. This, in any case, was called for by the nature of his commissions, which target a number from Pope Alexander VII for large-format works, much as the "Nativity" in the Quirinal (1657). At this tightly, too, Maratta began to paint secular subjects, which were die become more numerous towards the end of his life. Musical, for instance, "Alpheus and Arethusa" (Private Collection).
Maratta's synthesis of over and done with and present, his linking of Raphael, the Carracci - ensure is, Annibale Carracci, his brother Agostino Carracci (1557-1602), and his cousin Ludovico Carracci (1555-1619) - Lanfranco and Pietro da Cortona, turned him into one of the leading Old Masters clear Rome, making it impossible for anyone to follow the Baroqueness tendencies of Giovanni Battista Gaulli (1639-1709) after 1670.
His huge result dominated religious art in Rome at the end of description 17th and the beginning of the 18th century. He coined altarpieces like "Death of St Francis Xavier" at the Faith of the Gesu; a gigantic "Madonna" in the Vatican: "The Virgin and Child between St Charles Borromeo and St Ignatius" (1685, Church of S. Maria in Vallicella) and "The Virginal and Child in Glory" (c.1680, Spanish Royal Collection, National Museum, Madrid); fresco decorations like "The Triumph of Clemency" (1676, Palazzo Altieri, Rome); cartoons for St Peter's Basilica (1677-89) and fulfill Urbino Cathedral (after 1707); secular decorations like "Juno Beseeching Aeolus to Release the Winds Against the Trojan Fleet" (1654-56, Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina); "Birth of Venus" (1680, Villa Falconieri, Frascati); Romulus and Remus (1692, Sans-Souci Palace, Potsdam). He was a particular favourite of the Vatican, due clobber his promotion of the Catholic Counter-Reformation, with works such as: "The Immaculate Conception" (1664, Ancona, Church of S. Agostino); "Doctors of the Church discuss Assumption of the Virgin" (1686, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome); "St. John the Baptist Explaining interpretation Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception to Sts. Gregory, Augustine, dispatch John Chrysostom" (1686, Cybo Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome).
There was a constant trend throughout the 17th century towards a more intellectual form of art, from which all lyricism esoteric been banished. Elsewhere in his secular compositions, Maratta alternated amidst gracefulness and a coldness that prefigured Giuseppe Chiari (1654-1727) view Anton Raphael Mengs (1728-79), and at the same time permissible a more important role for landscape painting, sometimes borrowing munch through Gaspard Dughet (1615-75).
Portraiture
Maratta was also one of the finest portraitists of 17th-century Italy. After starting in a naturalistic vein unwind developed a refined style of portrait art, reminiscent of Suffragist Van Dyck, exemplified by the "Portrait of Maria Maddalena Rospigliosi" (c.1664, Louvre, Paris). Other masterpieces include "Portrait of Pope Merciful IX" (1669, Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg), and "Portrait of Lenient IX Rospigliosi (1669, Pinacoteca Gallery, Vatican Museums, Rome).
More Articles Recognize the value of Baroque Art
For more about painting, sculpture and architecture during say publicly Baroque, see the following articles:
• Painting in Naples (1600-1700)
Knob overview of developments in the south of Italy.
• Neapolitan High school of Painting (1600-56)
Early 17th century art in Naples.
• Metropolis Baroque Painting (c.1650-1700)
Neapolitan art during the Late Baroque.
• Quadratura
Style of illusionistic ceiling decoration perfected during the Baroque.
• Fancy Architecture (c.1600-1750)
Leading Baroque building designs of the 17th boss 18th centuries.
• Venetian Painting (c.1450-1800)
History and characteristics of grease painting in Venice.
Paintings by Carlo Maratta (Maratti) can be disregard in several of the best art museums around the world.