Nicola Malinconico

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The Good Samaritan , ca.1727, Palazzo Pretorio, Prato

Nicola Malinconico , or Nicolò Malinconico (born August 3, 1663 in Naples ; † 1727 ibid) was an Italian painter and fresco artist of the late Baroque from the Neapolitan school . He is the best known member of a family of painters.

Life

Nicolas's parents were the painter Andrea Malinconico and Antonia De Popoli, a sister of the painter Giacinto De Popoli. Generally (and after De Dominici ) it is believed that Nicola received his first education in his father's workshop, as did his older brother Oronzo (baptized July 4, 1661 - June 29, 1709).

He also received training as a painter of flower and fruit still lifes from the specialist Andrea Belvedere . However, it is not known what space the still life production occupied in his work, because there is only one signed work, a lavish high baroque still life with a peacock in the picture gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Other stylistically similar paintings, such as a pair of still lifes with flowers and fruits in the Walters Art Gallery (Baltimore), are only ascribed to Malinconico; they show influences or similarities with works by Giovan Battista Ruoppolo, Abraham Brueghel or the Roman Michelangelo Pace.

As a result, he became one of Luca Giordano's best students and switched to history painting. After Nicola Malinconico had already carried out some independent commissions for the Church of San Giovanni in Porta and the Church of Policastro in 1692 , he took over some extensive and prestigious ones to replace Luca Giordano, who was going to Spain at the time (and had probably recommended him) Orders in Bergamo . He arrived there on June 10, 1693 with his father and a brother (probably Oronzo) and by 1694 created a large cycle of paintings for the church of Santa Maria Maggiore : 10 ceiling paintings and 4 other paintings (including Abraham and the angels ), all in oil on screen. For this commission he received 4000 ducats (1000 less than Giordano had offered). He also painted the Martyrdom of St. Alexander for the main altar in Bergamo Cathedral , which shows him not only by Giordano but also by Francesco Solimena . In May 1694 Malinconico returned to Naples.

Nicola Malinconico: Martyrdom of St. Alexander , 1693–94, Bergamo Cathedral

In his hometown he received a number of large and important commissions, especially for churches such as the Chiesa della Croce di Lucca (1696–97) and for Santa Maria Donnalbina , where he painted a large part of the church until October 1702 (ceiling, Entrance facade, frescoes between windows). At the same time he also worked on altarpieces and frescoes in Santa Maria la Nova (until 1703). In the latter works, Malinconico shows himself on the one hand more classical inspired ( Guido Reni , Domenichino , Lanfranco ), on the other hand there is also an increasing influence from his Neapolitan contemporary Solimena (who worked at about the same time in Santa Maria Donnalbina), but also from Pietro da Cortona , Carlo Maratta and Paolo De Matteis .

In 1700 Nicola Malinconico married the twenty-year-old Rosa Teresa De Magistris, with whom he had numerous children, including Benedetto, Domenico and Carlo (born April 23, 1705). In the years that followed, Nicola Malinconico received various honors: in 1703 he was raised to cavalier ( knight ) and in 1706 to count ( conte ). He was so proud of the latter title that he signed his pictures accordingly - an important terminus post quem when dating his works.

After 1706 numerous other works for churches in Naples and southern Italy were created. Among the most important are paintings for San Pietro a Maiella (1713), the Madonna of the Rosary in San Gregorio Armeno (around 1715) and the Wedding of Canaa in the refectory of the Certosa di San Martino (1724). For the Neapolitan church SS Apostoli he created a Nicholas cycle for a side chapel around 1715 and one of his last works from 1725-26 was the frescoing of the sacristy with an Assumption of Mary on the ceiling and Old Testament scenes on the walls, for which he was rewarded with 1500 ducats .

Malinconico's last works include an unusually large commission in Gallipoli Cathedral , which he received from Bishop Oronzo Filomarini. His son Carlo also took part in the 59 scenes with a cycle about St. Agatha , who also completed the commission after Nicola's death, but later only created a few of his own works.

According to De Dominici, Nicola Malinconico died in 1721, but experts now assume it was 1727. On June 17, 1727, his sons received an outstanding payment from the University of Sant'Antimo for a picture of their father in the parish church ( Parrocchiale ) of the city.

Works

Adoration of the Shepherds (1699), San Giacomo, Gaeta

Nicola Malinconico, along with Francesco Solimena and Paolo De Matteis, is one of the most important and successful painters of the late baroque in Naples. He created almost exclusively religious images for churches. His work is influenced on the one hand by his teacher Luca Giordano and on the other hand it also takes up other current tendencies, for example from his two contemporaries mentioned first. His style is decorative, lavishly moved and exuberant and shows the typical quasi "impressionistic" painterly tendencies of the late baroque and rococo right from the start . As mentioned above, his work as a painter of flower and fruit still lifes is only documented by a signed work in Vienna; other attributions are purely hypothetical, even if in some cases convincing. The following list is based on the biographical article by Bortolotti.

  • Still life with a peacock , Academy of Fine Arts , Vienna
  • Madonna and Child between St. Felice di Nola and Severo Bishop of Naples , Cappella Carmignani in San Giovanni in Porta, Naples (1692)
  • San Gregorio Magno , Chiesa di Policastro (1692)
  • Martyrdom of St. Alexander , main altarpiece in Bergamo Cathedral (1693–94)
  • St. Francis receives the stigmata , Chiesa dei SS Bernardino e Margherita, Naples (1694)
  • Ceiling fresco of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary , main altar painting of Maria Immaculate and 2 other images ( Wedding of the Virgin and St. Bernard converts William of Aquitaine ), Chiesa della Croce di Lucca, Naples, (1696–97)
  • Large cycle of paintings or frescoes with images of saints (between the windows) and Christ entering Jerusalem (entrance wall), as well as 3 ceiling paintings ( Assumption of Mary , St. Aniello drives out the Saracens , and martyrdom of St. Agatha ), in Santa Maria Donnalbina , Naples (finished in October 1702)
  • Frescoes with virtues on the arcades of the side chapels (1701) and 2 altar paintings in the transept Adoration of the Shepherds and Adoration of the Magi (1703), in Santa Maria la Nova , Naples
  • 2 pictures (including the Adoration of the Magi ), Certosa di San Giacomo, Capri (1706)
  • The Virgin Mary with her parents Joachim and Anna , San Giuseppe a Chiaia , Naples
  • various paintings in the Abbey of Montecassino (originally for the Benedictine church of San Lorenzo in Aversa (partly 1708))
  • Assumption of Mary with St. Thomas of Canterbury , apse of Mottola Cathedral
  • Ceiling painting of the Coronation of the Virgin , Chiesa dello Spirito Santo, Sant'Antimo
  • Cycle of Mary , apse of the Chiesa dell'Annunziata, Marcianise (signed and dated 1710)
  • Various paintings for San Pietro a Maiella , Naples (1713)
  • Rosary Madonna , San Gregorio Armeno , Naples (c. 1715)
  • Life of St. Nicholas , first chapel on the right in SS. Apostoli , Naples (c. 1715)
  • St. Michael , in San Michele, Anacapri (1718)
  • Holy Trinity for the Casa professa dei Gesuiti, Naples (1723)
  • Wedding of Canaa , Refectory of the Certosa di San Martino (1724)
  • Frescoes with the Assumption of Mary on the ceiling and Old Testament scenes on the walls in the sacristy of SS Apostoli , Naples (1725–1726)
  • Martyrdom of St. Antimus , Parrocchiale of Sant'Antimo (c. 1727)
  • The good Samaritan , gallery comunali of Prato (ca.1727)
  • Large decoration (59 scenes in total) with the life of St. Agatha , Gallipoli Cathedral (together with the son Carlo Malinconico)

Oronzo Malinconico

Not much is known about Nicolas' older brother Oronzo. He was baptized on July 4, 1661 in the parish of San Giuseppe Maggiore of Naples. His painterly work took place in the shadow of his brother, with whom he also worked; few independent works by Oronzo are documented and preserved. On September 5, 1681, the Princess of Montesarchio Anna Guevara ordered pictures from him for the parish church of Montesarchio near Benevento (where they are still located). Oronzo also painted eight pictures for the Neapolitan church of Santa Maria della Pazienza Cesarea, for which he received a total of 320 ducats until 1691. According to some sources from the 18th century, he worked with Nicola 1693–1694 in the Bergamo Cathedral in the martyrdom of St. Alexander ; Most likely he was also involved in the large cycle of paintings for Santa Maria Maggiore that was created at the same time.
In 1695 in Naples he received 85 ducats for a picture in the chapel of Palazzo Ruffo di Bagnara and a further 30 ducats for a picture on the ceiling of Santo Stefano ai Mannesi. In 1701 he painted some paintings for the Cappella Carmignano in Santa Maria Donnaregina . Oronzo's last documented works include three paintings for San Giovanni Battista delle Monache, for which he was paid in December 1705. Together with Nicola, he painted depictions of four martyrs from Sorrento and four bishops and patrons for the ceiling in the cathedral of Sorrento . Oronzo died in Naples on June 29, 1709.

literature

  • Bernardo De Dominici: Vite de'pittori, scultori ed architetti napoletani , III, Naples 1742–43, pp. 295–297
  • Luca Bortolotti: "MALINCONICO, Nicola" , in: Dizionario biografico degli italiani , Volume 68, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome, 2007 (seen on April 10, 2019; Italian)
  • A. Cassiano: "L'attività napoletana di Nicola Malinconico", in: Itinerari. Contributi alla storia dell'arte in memoria di Maria Luisa Ferrari , I, Florence 1979, pp. 139-149
  • L. Galante: "Alcune osservazioni sull'opera di Nicola Malinconico in Puglia", in: Itinerari. Contributi alla storia dell'arte in memoria di Maria Luisa Ferrari , I, Florence 1979, pp. 151-156
  • L. Ravelli: "Un pittore napoletano a Bergamo: Nicola Malinconico e le sue" Historiae sacrae "per S. Maria Maggiore", in: Atti dell'Ateneo di scienze, lettere ed arti di Bergamo , XLVIII (1987-88), p 105-267
  • R. Pinto: Storia della pittura napoletana , Naples, 1997, p. 149 f.
  • MA Pavone: Pittori napoletani del primo Settecento. Fonti e documenti , Naples, 1997, pp. 112-122 & 390-413
  • E. Persico Rolando: “Un nuovo contributo su Nicola Malinconico decoratore in S. Maria la Nova a Napoli”, in: Campania sacra , 1999, n. 30, pp. 253-273
  • Ulisse Prota-Giurleo: Pittori napoletani del Seicento , Naples, 1953, p. 38 f.

Web links

Commons : Nicola Malinconico  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Luca Bortolotti: “MALINCONICO, Nicola” , in: Dizionario biografico degli italiani , Volume 68, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome, 2007 (as seen April 10, 2019; Italian)
  2. ↑ "Nicola Malinconico" on "getty.edu" (seen on April 10, 2019)
personal data
SURNAME Malinconico, Nicola
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Malinconico, Nicolò
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian painter and fresco artist of the late baroque (Neapolitan school)
DATE OF BIRTH August 3, 1663
PLACE OF BIRTH Naples
DATE OF DEATH 1727
Place of death Naples