Giovanni Antonio Burrini

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Burrini's self-portrait

Giovanni Antonio Burrini (born April 25, 1656 in Bologna , † January 5, 1727 there ) was an Italian painter. He worked in the high baroque and rococo styles , mostly in his hometown, but also in - a few - other places. He is considered an important representative of the late Bolognese school with a Neo-Venetian influence. His main creative period was from around 1680 to 1695, after which the quality of his work declined significantly. Art history judges him differently.

Origin and teaching

Burrini was born into a poor family on April 25, 1656. His father earned a living for the family by selling offal.

He received his first artistic training from Domenico Maria Canuti and a short time later from Giulio Cesare Venenti . Part of his training was copying pictures by Bolognese painters, including works by the Carracci family. Canuti left Bologna for Rome in April 1672, and Burrini received further training from Lorenzo Pasinelli . Already through Pasinelli he came into contact with the principles of Venetian painting, in Bologna numerous works of Venetian art were available at this time. Therefore, although not strictly necessary, Burrini made a trip to Venice. Here he came into contact with the art of Paolo Veronese as well as Jacopo Tintoretto and his descendants. He must have carefully studied an Adoration of the Kings by Veronese, which is now in the National Gallery in London , and a preliminary drawing on the same subject, which is only slightly different in structure, has been preserved. Although he was still studying under Pasinelli, he received his first assignments after his return from Venice.

1680 to 1695

Among the important commissions of his early work is an Adoration of the Magi , which he created for the Ratti patrician family. The picture got to Rome, where Carlo Maratta expressly praised it. He also created an apparition of the Lord for this family . On the orders of Duke Francesco Pico von Mirandola around 1681, he entered into direct competition with his classmate and colleague Giovan Gioseffo Dal Sole , and the Duke ordered a large-format picture from both of them. His work, A Martyrdom of St. Victoria , was completed around 1683 and, probably also out of gratitude for the rescue of Vienna during the Second Turkish Siege of Vienna , it was brought to the corresponding chapel of the saints in Mirandola Cathedral together with the relics of the saints . Another important work from the early period is a depiction of the martyrdom of St. Eufemia , made for the Church of Sant'Eufemia in Ravenna . Overall, during this time, Burrini painted largely in the Venetian style. In 1683, after Carlo Cignani left for Forlì , he was able to take over his workshop.

In addition to the panel paintings, he acquired a very good reputation as a fresco artist . Together with other artists, including Giuseppe Maria Crespi , Marcantonio Chiarini , Cesare Pronti , Ercole Gaetano Bertuzzi , Tommasso Aldovrandini and Enrico Haffner , he created a series of frescoes for Bolognese patrician houses , but also churches. The frescoes of the houses of the Ratti families (now destroyed) and Marchesini as well as those for the Celestine Church in Bologna deserve special mention . Burrini got more and more orders outside of Bologna. Around 1683 he painted the Villa Albergati in Zola Predosa . He left Bologna for a long time, worked in Novellara from 1685 on the frescoes of the Palazzo del Conte , these frescoes have been lost, and from 1688 in Turin for the Church of Santa Teresa , these works were destroyed in the Second World War.

After his return to Bologna, he continued to fresco patrician houses, those of the Bugami and Alamandini families. His main creative period is seen between 1680 and 1695.

Late work from 1695

Burrini married late and after a few years had a family with numerous descendants to look after, which had considerable - negative - consequences for the quality of his work from 1695 onwards. He was forced to take on more jobs than he could have done at a careful pace. As a result, he began to work carelessly, which resulted in fewer and fewer orders on the part of his customers. He created numerous oil paintings during this time, of which a large number still exist, but with one exception no longer reached the quality of his main creative period by far. Of his late work, only the martyrdom of St. Catherine in the church of Santa Caterina di Saragozza in Bologna shows his earlier skills.

Burrini participated in 1709 as a founding member of the Accademia Clementina in Bologna, he led it as the seventh director ( Principe ) 1723/24.

In addition to numerous sons, Burrini had a daughter, Barbara, who was born on December 3, 1700, and whom he apparently preferred. He began to train her in painting. She left the family in a hurry, however, because he was apparently teasing her too much, a few notes in letters provide information about this. Nevertheless, she became a painter, working mainly portraits, copying other artists and creating a series about the 14 stations of Christ's passion for a Bolognese church.

Art history assessments

While his first biographer (Gianpietro Zanotti, Storia dell'Accademia Clementina , Bologna 1739) still referred to Burrini as the Pietro da Cortona or Luca Giordano Bologna , the assessment of his work later changed. His virtuoso brush technique and his Venetian coloring are emphasized, as well as his pithy style, his talent, imagination and originality in the treatment of subjects, so the main point of criticism is always that he ultimately failed to find his own painterly style. He was too influenced by the Carracci, Veronese or Tintoretto to really leave his own mark on his works. Corrado Ricci simply judges him to be clever, at Thieme-Becker he comes off as a "rather happy imitator".

Traditional works and drawings

A considerable number of his oil paintings can still be found in Bologna, other museums in Emilia-Romagna , but also in the major European art museums. In addition to the paintings and frescoes, Burrini also distinguished himself as a draftsman. Zanotti describes his ability to draw into the painting style of other artists. The graphic collection of the Hessisches Landesmuseum in Darmstadt has three drawings, two of which have been verified by Burrini, one of which can be attributed very reliably. It is about an Adoration of the Shepherds , an offering in the temple and the aforementioned Adoration of the Magi based on Veronese's painting in London. The three sheets belong to a series of preliminary drawings for twelve paintings about the life of Jesus Christ , they were executed in oil on copper. These actual paintings are now lost. In addition to the three sheets in Darmstadt, this group of drawings includes a Descent from the Cross in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York , a Birth of Mary in the Louvre in Paris , and two ascribed sheets in the Louvre - Adoration of the Magi and Stoning of St. Stephen . The Kupferstichkabinett of the Staatliche Museen in Berlin still has a performance in the temple from the same series, and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has a sheet of The Capture of Christ .

literature

Web links

Commons : Giovanni Antonio Burrini  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Dwight C. Miller:  Burrini, Giovanni Antonio. In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 15:  Buffoli-Caccianemici. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1972.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Lisetta Motta Ciaccio: Burrini, Gian Antonio . In: Ulrich Thieme (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists from Antiquity to the Present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 5 : Brewer-Carlingen . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1911, p. 272 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  3. ^ A b Simone Twiehaus in: Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt (ed.): Drawings of Bologna and Emilia - 16th to 18th century. P. 87.
  4. ^ A b c Luigi Lanzi, Thomas Roscoe: The History of Painting in Italy: The schools of Bologna, Ferrara, Genoa ... p. 147.
  5. ^ A b c Simone Twiehaus in: Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt (ed.): Drawings of Bologna and Emilia - 16th to 18th century. P. 84.
  6. ^ Corrado Ricci: History of Art in Northern Italy , p. 401.
personal data
SURNAME Burrini, Giovanni Antonio
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Burrini, Gian'Antonio
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian baroque and rococo painter
DATE OF BIRTH April 25, 1656
PLACE OF BIRTH Bologna
DATE OF DEATH January 5, 1727
Place of death Bologna