Enrico Albrici

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Enrico Albrici (born November 19, 1714 in Vilminore di Scalve , † 1773 in Bergamo ) was an Italian painter of the 18th century.

External facade of Santa Maria della Carità or Buon Pastore (Brescia). Monochrome: allegorical figure with fascis .
"Market scene and speech of the charlatan" 70 × 78.5 cm, private collection

Life

Enrico Albrici (but the painter's surname is often changed: Alberici, Albricci, Albrizzi; and also the first name in Arrigo, one thinks the correct version is clearly Enrico Albrici, a signature with which the painter signed his works, with the exception of the frescoes from Capo di Ponte in Latin), was born in Vilminore (Val di Scalve) to Maffeo and Margherita and was immediately baptized in the parish of the village.

Due to his pronounced disposition to drawing and painting, he was sent at a young age by Ferdinando Cairo, a painter from Casale Monferrato , for about three years (probably from 1730 to 1733) for training in a workshop, which became one of the most important years of his training later graduated as an autodidact.

At the age of 27, in 1741, he married a girl of his age, Magdalena, daughter of Cristoforo Albrici. With her he had four children: Giacomo Maria, born in the year of his wedding, Giovanni, born in 1743 (or 1744) who became a mathematician , physicist and abbot , Michele Angelo, born in 1750 and a little girl who died immediately.

The relationship with the family was quite split: the wife and children lived for a long time with the painter's parents and sister (probably moronic) in Vilminore, while the husband commuted between Brescia and the communities that needed his services as a painter.

The situation only improved when the whole family moved to Bergamo in 1763 , where their son Giovanni was to become the priest.

Here the painter certainly found a family security. He started the series of Bambocciade pictures which brought him great economic well-being, but also a great deal of stress at work, which occasionally led to moments of great euphoria in which he stopped his work to devote himself to fun.

Albricci became a painter valued by his contemporaries and numerous collectors, first thanks to his sacred thematic works in the province of Brescia , and later thanks to his Bambocciade in the city of Bergamo. His works were also sent to Milan and Turin . His partly self-taught style, however, reached the highest level of excellence in the Bambocciade (first by copying and then by creating his own style). With regard to Christian topics, he was hardly aware of any creative development, as his recent work in the parish of Zogno shows . There are many similarities to the first works.

He died at the age of 59 in Bergamo after severe pneumonia and was later buried in the church of Sant'Andrea .

Style and works

Giaele shows Sisara the death of Barac , 35 × 79 cm, Accademia Carrara, Bergamo
The fox and the dwarfs , oil on canvas, 73 × 84 cm, private collection
Saint Lawrence accompanies Pope Sixtus II to a martyr's death , fresco, parish church Zogno, approx. 1773

He received his first and only training in the workshop of the painter Ferdinando Cairo between 1730 and 1733.
After leaving the painter's workshop and returning to his parents' house in Vilminore, he created a few small works, but without his studies and one to continue a real artistic career, which he only fully resumed in 1740 with a view to his marriage to Magdalena.

After a few years the first important commissions came: in 1744 he painted two mock statues in the church Della Carità in Brescia and with the painter Scalvini he frescoed the interior of the church of Berzo in Valcamonica .

In 1745 he was commissioned to paint the fresco of the crucifixion of St. Peter in his hometown Vilminore.

He then returned to Brescia in 1747 to paint two more mock statues in the Santa Maria della Carità and two medals and six statues in the pilgrimage church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli in grisaille .

This technique became a specialty of his, which earned him the commission for many portraits of Cardinal Querini . Also in the same year he realized the frescoes of the cathedral, now destroyed, including a crucifixion, the frescoes of the chapel of San Liborio, which were then in the old cathedral, and three saints in the church of San Cosma e Damiano. The Second World War also destroyed some of the paintings from the cycle in the church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli, which were created between 1749 and 1754. Likewise, the fresco in the Church of San Cristoforo showing the saint and the painting of Saint Jerome Ämiliani , both from 1752, have been lost.

In the very productive year 1754 he returned to Vilminore to paint four large frescoes. Thanks to his friendship with the Count Abbot Giorgio Duranti, he received numerous commissions from the churches in the Bergamasque region and from aristocratic palaces in Brescia.

To this day, it is difficult to identify the paintings made for the nobles of Brescia. The proof of his stay in Bergamo is the painting of the Visitation of Mary in the parish of San Martino in Gorno , which is marked with “ Enrico Albricci pins. 1754 “is signed.

In 1757 he frescoed Caduta della manna on the facade of the parish church of Barzesto and in 1761 he frescoed one side of the altar of the church of Lizzola.

These are years full of jobs, Tassi himself describes this creative frenzy:

"He was so impressed by his art that he never stopped working and also painted or drew at night"

In the meantime he had his first contacts with Bambocciande . This pictorial genre flourished in Brescia thanks to the initiator of this genre, the painter Faustino Bocchi, and made Albricci famous and sought-after. It is easy to guess that his first contacts with this genre took place in the vicinity of Brescia, where these representations were very popular and sought after, but it was only after moving to Bergamo in 1763 that he began to realize this theme full-time.

Here painted four scenes of dwarfs inspired by those of Bocchi that Giacomo Carrara saw. That took him further in this new creative career. He started copying the works of Everardi and Bocchi and then developed a personal and high quality style. Tassi himself described these new creations, highlighting the originality of their inventions. The compositions created by Albricci are characterized by grotesque scenes inspired by Gulliver's travels , by a certain Northern European fondness for allegory, by the chamber satire of the comedies of Pietro Longhi , but also by the influence rooted in the bourgeois polemics of the Lombard Enlightenment. Scenes with groups of dwarves in bizarre situations that often involve pets but hide metaphors with a much deeper meaning. The novelty of this genre in the Bergamo area immediately became fashionable and the painter was overwhelmed by orders (also from Milan and Turin ), which brought him into work stress but at the same time of economic prosperity. It also brings him into contact with another bourgeois clientele, in which an elite discussed history, literature and art in the living rooms.

The Bambocciata are carried out in large numbers, but the painter also took time and energy for his sacred thematic assignments. In 1763 he carried out the Transfiguration for the parish of Vilminore and then the frescoes in Chiuduno and Albino (now both lost) and in 1767 the painting in Alzano Lombardo , difficult to make and almost immediately replaced.

We are in the final years of his artistic creation.

In 1768 he was in Vilminore to paint three paintings to decorate the parish choir, but in the end he only painted two of them: Saint Peter Healing the Cripple (1768) and The Fall of Simon Magus (1769). Later he was in Clusone to fresco eight medals and mock statues representing virtues in the parish church .

But it was not until 1770, with the cycle of frescoes in the parish of Capo di Ponte , that he achieved maximum creative expression. Here all the genres with which the painter was confronted in the course of his career alternate: the monochromes, the bright colors, the sacred themes and the scenes that are characterized by curious and sometimes bizarre details that refer to his bambocciate. He self-signed the frescoes (1770) with ENRICUS ALBERICI CIVIS BERGOMI.

In the last two years there has been a large production of bambocciate and frescoes for the choir of the parish church of Zogno and four side paintings depicting the martyrdom of St. Lawrence for the church of the same name, which were the last important commissions of the painter before his death in 1773 be considered.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Maria Adelaide Baroncelli: I pittori bergamaschi dal XII al XIX secolo, il Settecento . Bolis, Bergamo 1990 (Italian, scalve.it ).
  2. In the Vite del Tassi you can read “every two or three years for too many jobs, I would say he went almost insane, and at such a time he got wasteful and spent as much money as he could find by messing with Food and music amused, and talked to a charlatan. He had a head full of noble and grandiose ideas and said he wanted to make a comedy and opera theater in his house in Vilminore to amuse these rude peasants. But since he didn't have the money, he just dropped his usual melancholy, from which he recovered after a few days and returned to painting. ”Tassi, pp. 110–114
  3. ^ Enrico Albrici ( it ) Parroci di Zogno.
  4. Maria Adelaide Baroncelli: Enrico Albrici ( it ): "It says the three years of studying in Ferdinando Cairo's workshop were important for Albrici's painting training, which was later only self-taught and did not visit any other masters."
  5. Albrici .: "He worked for Cardinal Querini in his library, which he then donated to the city of Brescia, where many portraits were made"
  6. In the Vite of Tassi you can read: He was instructed to paint ceilings in frescoes in various churches in the Bergamo area and in various notable houses in Brescia. H. in the house of Ugeri, Martinengo, Colleoni, Avogadro and others, Tassi, pp. 110–114
  7. Albrici .: "The fresco is on the side of the altar, where an altarpiece created by him is attached."
  8. Enrico Albricci . Arcadja.com .: “From the catalog of the auction at Wannenes Art Auctions on November 29, 2011 - Genoa, lot 122 Enrico Albricci - Dwarfs catch a cancer“ ... it is just as important to remember the considerable spread of Gulliver's travels , a book written anonymously by Jonathan Swift in 1726 and in a final version in 1735 . The author undoubtedly inspired Albricci to imagine these grotesque scenes ""
  9. Enrico Albricci . Arcadja.com .: “From the catalog of the auction at Wannenes Art Auctions on November 29, 2011 - Genoa, Postem 120 Enrico Albricci -“ The fox and the dwarfs ”The scene is convulsive and, like the allegories of Nordic taste, we can observe the various punishments and harassment that the little protagonists are exposed to. "
  10. From the catalog of the auction of Porro & C. of November 23, 2006 - Milan Item 89 Enrico Albricci - "Washroom of the beautiful dwarfs" Quote: The caricature dimension concerns the chamber satire of Pietro Longhi's theaters porroartconsulting.com
  11. Albricci .: "From the catalog of the auction of Wannenes Art Auctions of November 29, 2011 - Genoa, lot 122 Enrico Albricci -" Dwarfs catch a cancer "Quote:" Real epic battles between dwarfs and beasts facing the bourgeois polemics of the Lombard Enlightenment is not alien "
  12. From the catalog of the auction of Wannenes Art Auctions of November 29, 2011 - Genoa, lot 120 Enrico Albricci - "The fox and the dwarfs" Quote: The metaphorical point is the exercise of arrogance towards those who cannot protect themselves, and in this case a terrible truth emerges: that a small human race, while going through such calamities, can indulge in flattery and the worst deeds .. ”
  13. "Various pieces" of this kind he even sent "to Turin and Milan for several nobles", Tassi, pp. 110–114
  14. After they had won the tender for the implementation, the client set up a series of specifications and rules for the execution, so that the painter ultimately created a painting that was qualitatively inferior to the sketch presented. Tassi himself defines it “in competition with Francesco Cappella, Gio. Raggi and Federico Ferrari he created one of four paintings in the Beata Vergine del Rosario chapel in the parish church of Alzano, depicting the deed of Jaël and Sisara , which is actually one of his least valuable works. "
  15. ^ Maria Adelaide Baroncelli

literature

  • Maria Adelaide Baroncelli: I pittori bergamaschi dal XII al XIX secolo . In: Il Settecento . III ,. Bolis, Bergamo 1990 (Italian).
  • Francesco Maria Tassi: Vite de 'pittori, scultori e architetti bergamaschi . Labor, 1969 (Italian).
  • Maria Adelaide Baroncelli: Faustino Bocchi ed Enrico Albrici pittori di bambociate . 1965 (Italian, google.at ).

Web links

Commons : Enrico Albrici  - collection of images, videos and audio files