The Italian Language

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Painting

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (1452-1519), the typical Renaissance man, besides being a painter, was a sculptor, architect, anatomist, engineer, inventor, mathematician and musician. He was in Milan in 1515, when Francis I retook the town and was invited by the king the following year to work for him in France. His most famous painting, the Mona Lisa, is housed at the Musée du Louvre in Paris. Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), the Flemish painter, spent some time in Italy. Some of the children and grandchildren of Catterino Cavos (see Music, Cinema and Architecture) were well-known artists on the Russian scene. His daughter Camilla married Nicholas Benois and was the mother of the painter Alexandre Benois (1870-1960), better-known for his collaboration with Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, among the Stravinsky's Petrushka, and of the water-colourist Albert Benois (1852-1936). Their great-grandchildren include Eugene Lanceray (1875-1946) and his sister Zinaida Serebryakova (1884-1967).
		Leonardo's La Belle Ferronière (Ca. 1490), Musée du Louvre, Paris

Some minor Italian painters also emigrated, among them Stefano Torelli (1712-1784) and Bernardo Bellotto (1720-1780). The latter was active in Germany and died in Warsaw.

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770), one of the last great painters of the Venetian school, died in Madrid.

Though he was never abroad, Antonio Canal (1697-1768), better-known as Canaletto, deserves to be mentioned as his work is more famous outside Italy than even in his native Venice. He was most popular in England, and there is a large collection of his views of Venice in English museums. Many of his pictures also hang in the Hermitage, in St. Petersburg and in the Louvre, in Paris

Maybe one of the first foreign painters to come into touch with the ideals of the Renaissance was Jean Fouquet (1420-1477 or 1481), who was in Rome in 1447, returning to Paris with a new vision of what painting should be. His portrait of the King, Charles VII is noted for its realism.

Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665), a Frenchman ,except for a short period from 1640 to 1643, when he was court painter to Luis XII, spent most of his working life in Rome. He died and is buried in there.

Claude Gelée (1600-1682), better-known as Claude Lorrain, even though born in Lorraine, spent most of his life in Rome, where he died. He is best remembered for his seaport scenes, where he depicts the early-morning atmosphere to great effect.

Claude Lorrain, Seaport in the Early Morning, Alte Pinakothek, Munich

Many other Frenchmen, besides Nicolas Poussin, lived or spent time in Italy, studying the landscape and the old masters, such as Pierre de Valenciennes (1750-1819), Joseph Vernet (1714-1789), François Marius Granet (1775-1849), Joseph Bidauld (1758-1846) and Achille-Etna Michallon (1790-1822), all of whom painted Italian landscapes.

Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (1599-1660), spent two periods in Italy. His career is usually divided by these two visits.

Domenicos Theotocopoulos, known by his nickname El Greco (1541-1614) was born in Crete at a time when this island belonged to Venice. In 1567 he went to Venice, then to Rome in 1570. He left to Spain in 1577.

Benjamin West (1738-1820), the American painter and second president of the Royal Academy, lived in Italy from 1759 to 1763, before settling in England. The Italians seemed to regard him as a type of American Indian and waited anxiously for his views on the masterpieces of Roman and Italian art. When he compared the Apollo Belvedere to a Mohawk warrior they were delighted. Sir Anthony van Dyke (1599-1641), the Flemish Painter, lived for six years in Italy, mostly in Genoa, where he perfected his technique, before settling in England. Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) traveled extensively and left us several magnificent views of Venice. Claude Monet (1840-1926), the French Impressionist painter, traveled to Venice in his 70s, fascinated by the light he encountered there, leaving several views of the city. Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot (1798-1875), the landscape painter, visited Italy three times. There is a view of Florence that he painted hanging at the Louvre.

Benjamin West, Self-Portrait /1763), National Gallery of Art, Washington

Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792), one of the founders and first president of the Royal Academy, lived in Italy from 1749 to 1752, where he absorbed the grand manner of painting and also partially lost his hearing.

Many Russians went to Italy to study the Old Masters, some of them settling in Rome, among whom I can cite:

Semyon Fyodorovich Shchedrin (1745-1804); Fyodor Matyevyeyevich Matvyeyev (1758-1826), who lived and died there; Silvester Fedosiyevich Shchedrin (1791-1830), who, before moving to Naples in 1825(where he died), spent some time in Rome; Aleksandr Andryeyevich Ivanov (1806-1858), who lived there between 1830 and 1858 and Lev Feliksovich Lagorio (1820-1905), the son of a Neapolitan.

Moving the other way, some Italian artists went to Russia, among them I can cite Giuseppe Valeriani (Ca. 1690-1761), who died in St. Petersburg and who has left us many views of his adoptive city. At a later date Luigi Premazzi (1814-1891) was active for a time in Russia, painting many views of the palace at Tsarkoye Selo (see Architecture).
		Giuseppe Valeriani, View of the Fontanka River in St. Petersburg, Ca. 1750, Archangel Museum

John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), the famous American painter, was born and studied for a time in Florence, before moving to Paris and, eventually, London.

John Singer Sargent: Lady Agnew of Lochnaw (1892)

Joseph Wright of Derby (1734-1797), the English artist, painted an impressive view of the Castel Sant'Angelo, in Rome, lit, it seems, by fire, while the German Oswald Achenbach (1827-1905) painted some views of Naples.

The German Neoclassical painter Johann Zoffany (Zauffelij) (1733- 1810), who later settled in England, was for a time active in Florence, painting some of the Englishmen participant in the Grand Tour and who were inspecting some of works of art at the tribuna at the Galleria degli Uffizi (see Tourists).

the Swiss portrait painter, Angelika Kaufmann (1741-1807), travelled several times to Italy. She She later moved to Rome, where she eventually died and is buried in the Roman church of Sant' Andrea delle Fratte (see Tourists).

A group of Northern painters, called disdainfully by the Italians, the Bambocci, because they liked to work outdoors, painting everyday subjects, was active in Italy during the period of the 30 Years' War. The best-known of these, nicknamed himself il Bamboccio, was the Dutch Pieter van Laer (1592/5-1642).

During past centuries a large number of upper-class Englishmen and Englishwomen came to Italy as part of their education, the so-called Grand Tour. At first only the High Renaissance was at all considered and the artists who were famous were the three great: Michelangelo, Raphael and Leonardo, as well as the masters of Venetian painting, such as Titian and Veronese. The main centres of this Grand Tour were then Rome and Venice. Florence was only incidentally included, as having some (though not the best) of Michelangelo’s output and as well as housing an important collection of non-Florentine paintings in the Medici collections. It was only at the end of the XIX century, influence among others by John Ruskin (1819-1900) that the artists of the Early Renaissance were appreciated. It is hard to imagine, if you consider the crowds who now flock to see the Primavera or the Birth of Venus, that Botticelli was once considered a poor artist. The rediscovery of the latter, together with the discovery of artists like Filippo Lippi and Andrea Mantegna led to the foundation in England of an artistic movement called the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Their principle was that art had been debased by Raphael and his followers and it was essential to return to the spirit and techniques of the artists who came before. This change meant that Florence, from a minor destination, now became a major destination, a situation that continues to this day, augmented by a large number of language schools and American University campuses. The founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Movement, Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (1828-1882), better known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti or Dante Gabriele Rossetti (see Writers) was the son of a Neapolitan political exile and a half-Italian mother and grew up fluent in both English and Italian. His sister, Christina Gerogina Rossetti (1830-1894) (see Writers), was also an influential poet.
		Dante Gabriel Rossetti: Persephone (1873-77)

Most of great Italian art dates from the period between 1300 and 1600, with such masters as Giotto, Botticelli, Raphael and Michelangelo. Almost the only famous Italian painters after that period were two XX century ones. Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920) moved to Paris in 1906, who died and was buried there and Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978), who was born in Athens.