CINQ SIÈCLES DE PEINTURE ITALIENNE: Paris,

21 November - 8 December 2023
CINQ SIÈCLES DE PEINTURE ITALIENNE, Paris,

Five Centuries of Italian Paintings presents a stylistically and historically heterogeneous group of works that aims to sum up, or at least give viewers a glimpse of, the great and varied history of Italian painting, through refined paintings that masterfully encapsulate some of the key periods in the history of Italian art.

 

The exhibition opens with an important group of three gold grounds from the second half of the 14th century by Simone dei Crocifissi (Bologna, 1330 - 1399), Jacopo di Cione (Florence, 1325 - 1390) and Barnaba da Modena (Modena, 1328 - 1386), which perfectly illustrate the regional styles of the centres of production from which they came. The tryptic of The Virgin and Child surrounded by Saints by Simone dei Crocifissi (fig.1) is typically Bolognese, not only for its graphic style, so characteristic of the artist, but also for its iconography, as the left side panel features the

figure of Saint Petronius holding up the city of Bologna. The Crucifixion from Jacopo di Cione's studio is an excellent example of the Florentine style of the period with its busy composition, colourful horses and expressive gestures that hark back to Giotto. Finally, Barnaba da Modena's Saint Catherine of Alexandria can be linked to the Sienese school through the figure of the saint, which evokes the strong influence of Simone Martini (1284 - 1344). By illustrating the regional styles of the three most important centres of production at the time, this ensemble sums up and presents visitors with the great stylistic variety to be found in Italy at the beginning of the Renaissance.

The exhibition then continues with two works that provide a succinct overview 

of the literary and humanist concerns in 16th-century Italy. The iconography of the Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist and an Angel during the Flight into Egypt by Camillo Filippi (Ferrara, 1500 - 1574) was particularly popular in 16th-century Italy, especially in Ferrara. Taken from the Vita di S. Giovambatista, published in Florence in 1731-1735 but dating from around 1500, the subject, in which the child St John the Baptist withdraws into the desert and is found by the Holy Family, is profoundly modern for its time, despite its roots in an ancient Christian tradition.  this   panel masterfully sums up the artistic scene of 16th-century Italy, and in particular its literary, scholarly, and humanist concerns.

The tour continues with a group of three 17th-century paintings, one of which has never before been published. We list two by the painter Angelo Caroselli (Rome, 1585 - 1652), the recently rediscovered Saint Magdalene Penitent and a Madonna and Child with Saint Elizabeth and

the child Saint John the Baptist, and one by Antonio Gherardi (Rieti, 1638 – 1702, Rome), the monumental Saint Charles Borromeo giving the Eucharist to the plague victims. We would particularly like to draw the visitor’s attention to the Saint Magdalene Penitent, recently returned to the Lucchese artist, which illustrates a unique facet of his extremely varied production about which too little is still known. This heterogeneity is highlighted by a comparison with the Virgin and Child by the same artist. The two works by Caroselli bring caravaggism face to face with classicism, while Gherardi’s monumental painting perfectly illustrates the heights of the baroque. Through these three paintings, the exhibition Five Centuries of Italian Painting brings into dialogue the three key movements in seventeenth-century Italy: caravaggism, classicism and counter-reformation baroque.

The exhibition closes with two works by Antonio Mancini (Rome, 1852 - 1930), featuring no fewer than five self-portraits; one in his Self-Portrait of Madness from 1882 and four in his Double Self-Portraits of Madness (Recto and Verso) dated 1881 (fig.4). The works date from the artist's “period of madness”, as it is sometimes known, notably his internment in a psychiatric asylum from October 1881 to February 1882. In these works, the artist portrayed himself in a vigorous, fluid manner, showing the viewer his unstable state of mind with an incredible economy of means.

 

Moretti Fine Art

1 Place du Louvre

75001 Paris

 

Opening hours

Monday to Friday

10am - 6pm

 Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th of November, 10am - 6pm

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