Francesco Albani
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
-
- See Albani for other uses of that name.
Francesco Albani or Albano (March 17 or August 17, 1578–October 4, 1660) was an Italian Baroque painter.
Contents |
[edit] Early years in Bologna
Born at Bologna, his father was a silk merchant who intended to instruct his son in the same trade; but by age twelve, Albani became an apprentice under the competent mannerist painter Denis Calvaert, where he met Guido Reni. Soon he followed Reni to the so-called "Academy" run by the Carracci family: Annibale, Agostino, and Ludovico. This studio fostered the careers of many painters of the Bolognese school, including Domenichino, Massari, Viola, Lanfranco, Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi, Pietro Faccini, Remigio Cantagallina, and Reni.
[edit] Mature work in Rome
In the year 1600, Albani moved to Rome to work in the fresco decoration of the gallery of the Palazzo Farnese, being completed by the studio of Annibale Carracci. Rome, under Clement VIII Aldobrandini(1592-1605) was exhibiting some degree of administrative stability and renewed artistic patronage. While pope Clement was born from a Florentine family residing in Urbino, his family was allied by marriage to the Emilia-Romagna and the Farnese, since Ranuccio I Farnese, Duke of Parma had married Margherita Aldobrandini. Parma, like Bologna, are part of the Region of Emilia-Romagna. Thus it was not surprise that Cardinal Odoarde Farnese, Ranuccio's brother, chose the Carraccis from Bologna for patronage, thereby establishing Bolognese predominance of Roman fresco painting for nearly two decades.
Albani became one of Annibale's most prominent apprentices. Using Annibale's designs and assisted by Lanfranco and Sisto Badalocchio, Albani completed frescoes for the San Diego Chapel in San Giacomo degli Spagnoli between 1602-1607. In 1606-7, Albani completed the frescoes in the Palazzo Mattei di Giove in Rome. He later completed two other frescoes in the same palace, also on the theme of Life of Joseph.
In 1609, he completed the ceiling of a large hall with Fall of Phaeton and Council of the Gods for the Palazzo Giustianini (now Odescalchi) at Bassano (di Sutri) Romano. This work was commissioned by the Marchese Vicenzo Giustiniani, famous for also being patron to Caravaggio.
During 1612-14, Albani completed the Choir frescoes at the newly remodeled (by Pietro da Cortona) church of Santa Maria della Pace. In 1616 he painted ceiling frescoes of Apollo and the Seasons at Palazzo Verospi (Via del Corso 374, now Credito Italiano or Banca UniCredit) for the cardinal Fabrizio Verospi.
In later years, Albani developed a mutual, though respectful, rivalry with the more successful Guido Reni, who was also heavily patronized by the Aldobrandini, and under whom Albani had worked under at the chapel of the Palazzo del Quirinale.
Albani's best fresco masterpieces are those on mythological subjects. Among the best of his sacred subjects are a St Sebastian and an Assumption of the Virgin, both in the church of San Sebastiano fuori le Mura in Rome. He was among the Italian painters to devote himself to painting cabinet pictures. His mythological subjects include The Sleeping Venus, Diana in the Bath, Danaë Reclining, Galatea on the Sea, and Europa on the Bull. A rare etching, the Death of Dido, is attributed to him. Carlo Cignani, Andrea Sacchi, Francesco Mola, and Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi were some of his students. On the death of his wife he returned to Bologna, where he married a second time and resided till his death.
[edit] Legacy
Albani never acquired the monumentality or tenebrism that was quaking the contemporary world of painters, and in fact, is derided often for his lyric, cherubim-filled sweetness, which often has not yet shaken the mannerist elegance. While Albani's thematic would have appealed to Poussin, he lacked the Frenchman's muscular drama. His style sometimes appears to befit the decorative Rococo more than of his time.
[edit] Partial Anthology of Works
- Francesco Albani in the "History of Art"}
- Allegorical canvases of the seasons: Spring,Summer,Fall, and Winter.(1616-17, Galleria Borghese, Rome)
- The Annunciation, (Hermitage, St. Petersburg)[1]
- Frescoes in Hall of Aeneas (Palazzo Fava, Bologna)
- Frescoes in Oratory of San Colombano, Bologna)
- Frescoes in Hall of Aeneas (1601-2, Palazzo Doria Pamphilj, Rome)
- Frescoes (1602-7, Cappella Herrera, Chiesa di S.Giacomoi degli Spagnoli now in Prado and in Museum of Barcelona)
- Holy Family with Angels, (1608-10, MFA, Boston)
- Tasso's landscapes (Galleria Colonna)
- 'Frescoes (Chiesa di S.Maria di Galliera).
- Diana and Actaeon, (1625-30, Gemäldegalerie, Dresden)
- Venus Attended by Nymphs and Cupids, (1633, Prado, Madrid)[2]
- Annunciation (Chiesa di S.Bartolomeo, Bologna, 1633)
- Holy Family (1630-35, Palazzo Pitti, Florence)
- Four Elements (1628-30, Pinacoteca, Turin)
- Danza degli amorini (Milan, Brera)
- Tondo Borghese (Galleria Borghese, Rome)
[edit] Works at the Louvre, Paris
-
- Acteon Metamorphosis into Hind
- Adonis led by Cupids to Venus (1600)
- Diana and Acteon and Venus and Adone
- Apollo and Daphne
- The Bath of Venus
- Christ appears to Mary Magdalen
- Rest of Venus
- Holy Father and Archangel Gabriel
- Venus disarms Cupids (Louvre)
- Saint Francis of Assisi before crucifix
- Salmacis et Hermaphrodite
- Nativity
 Adonis Led by Cupids to Venus, detail of cupids, 1600, Musee du Louvre, Paris |
 The Holy Family(Sacra Famiglia),1630-35 oil on canvas, Galleria Pitti, Florence |
[edit] References
- Wittkower, Rudolf (1993). in Pelican History of Art: Art and Architecture Italy, 1600-1750, 1980, Penguin Books Ltd, p78-80, 82-83.
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. The article is available here.
