Giovanni Francesco Romanelli

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Adoration of the Three Magi - Sant'Eligio degli Orefici, Rome

Giovanni Francesco Romanelli , also known as Raffaellino or il Viterbese (* 1610 in Viterbo ; † November 9, 1662 in Viterbo) was an Italian Baroque painter. Like Pietro da Cortona and Gian Lorenzo Bernini , Romanelli was a versatile artist and was active both as a painter, architect and in the craft arts. He mainly worked in Rome, Viterbo and Paris.

Life

Venus and Aeneas - Louvre
Discovery of the Moses Museum of Art, Indianapolis
Rape of the Sabine Woman - Louvre

Romanelli was born in Viterbo as the son of Laura de Angelis and Bartolomeo Romanelli. At the age of about 14 he went to Rome for his first painting training. Back in Viterbo, he studied literature with the Jesuits, but continued his career as an artist, possibly in Domenichino's workshop . In the years 1631 and 1632 he worked with Pietro da Cortona - the most important representative of Baroque painting in Rome at the time - on the frescoes of the chapel of Palazzo Barberini and in the church of San Lorenzo in Damaso . Soon he enjoyed great prestige and was supported and encouraged by Cardinal Francesco Barberini . He continued to work in Rome on important commissions, mostly under the direction of Gian Lorenzo Bernini : the frescoes in the Sala della Contessa Matilda in the Vatican (1637–1642); the fresco depicting Mary in the temple in the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli (1638–1642); the frescoes in the Roman palazzi Lante, Altemps and Costaguti. From this time he began to change his baroque design language. He increasingly oriented himself towards Raphael and was inspired by a simpler, more functional, almost “neo-Renaissance” style, something which his collaboration with Bernini did not prevent him from doing.

With the support of Bernini, he became a member of the Accademia di San Luca and in 1639 elected its president. With the death of Pope Urban VIII (Maffeo Barbarini) and the election of Innocent X from the Pamphilj family to the papal throne in 1644, the Barberini family fell out of favor and Romanelli lost his influential patron. Called by Cardinal Jules Mazarin , Prime Minister of the French King and a political ally of Cardinal Francesco Barberini, he went to Paris in 1646. He furnished the gallery of the Palais Mazarin (today Bibliothèque nationale de France ) with a cycle of frescoes from Ovid's Metamorphoses . These works had a significant influence on the further development of French art. After returning to Rome, he received numerous, lucrative commissions in various churches and from well-known private collectors.

During his second stay in Paris from 1655 to 1657, he worked on the painting of the summer apartment in the Palais du Louvre on behalf of Anna of Austria , the mother of King Louis XIV . In France he also worked in the Castle of Le Raincy and in the Episcopal Palace of Carpentras . For his works in France he was made a Knight of the Order of St. Michael by King Louis XIV .

In the last years of his life he returned to Viterbo and performed his last works in the cathedral from 1658 . His son and student Urban (Viterbo 1650 / 52–1682) worked with him in Viterbo.

Works (selection)

Rome

  • Palazzo Barberini : The Disciples of Emmaus , Adoration of the Magi , The Resurrection , Rest on the Flight into Egypt , Birth of Christ , The Last Supper (currently at the Italian Embassy in Madrid / 2018), cardboard boxes for tapestries.
  • Apostolic Palace : cardboard boxes for 7 tapestries with putti "in the style of Raphael", 1637–1641.
  • Capitoline Museums , Pinakothek: The Rape of Helena , 1630/1632; David , 1635/1640; The Innocence , 1650.
  • Santi Domenico e Sisto : Rosary Madonna .
  • Santa Maria degli Angeli: Presentation of Mary in the temple (choir), 1638–1642.
  • Santa Maria dell'Anima : Assumption of Mary (sacristy), 1638.
  • Sant'Eligio degli Orefici : Adoration of the Magi (side altar) and Sibyls (in the spandrels), 1639.
  • Biblioteca Vallicelliana : The divine wisdom (ceiling picture).

Paris

Viterbo

  • Cathedral : Saint Laurentius (altarpiece), Madonna with Saints Joseph and Bernardine (1st aisle, 2nd chapel).
  • Museo del Colle del Duomo: Annunciation .

Other collections

literature

  • Romanelli, Giovanni Francesco . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 18 : Hubatsch – Ingouf . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1925, p. 544-546 .
  • Romanelli, Giovanni Francesco . In: Lexikon der Kunst , Volume 10, Karl Müller Verlag, Erlangen 1994, ISBN 3-86070-452-4 , p.
  • Italo Faldi: Pittori viterbesi di cinque secoli Bozzi, Rome 1970, p.?.
  • Elisabeth Oy-Marra: On the frescoes of Parnassus and the Paris Judgment by Giovanni Francesco Romanelli in the Mazarin Gallery in Paris , in: Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 57, 1994, 2, pp. 170-200.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Dizionario-Biografico - Treccani
  2. ^ Romanelli, Giovanni Francesco . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 18 : Hubatsch – Ingouf . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1925, p. 545 .

Web links

Commons : Giovanni Francesco Romanelli  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Romanelli, Giovanni Francesco
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Raffaellino, il; Viterbese, il
BRIEF DESCRIPTION painter
DATE OF BIRTH 1610
PLACE OF BIRTH Viterbo
DATE OF DEATH November 9, 1662
Place of death Viterbo