3. Filippo Napoletano Rome 1589 - 1629 Two figures in conversation Charcoal and white chalk on laid paper 209 x 156 mm. (8¼ x 6 ⅛ in.) Provenance R. Lamponi (L. 1760); C. Marcelli (not in Lugt); L. Grassi (L. 1171b). Exhibitions AA. VV., Ritorno al Barocco da Caravaggio a Vanvitelli, exhibition catalogue, Naples, 2009, n.3.12. Teodoro Filippo di Liagno, originally a Spanish name then Italianised in D’Angeli, but more commonly known as Filippo Napoletano, was born in Rome in 1589. He was the son <strong>of</strong> Ventura Liagno, painter and director <strong>of</strong> the Papal fabbriche and <strong>of</strong> Claudia Pallotta, the niece <strong>of</strong> Cardinal Evangelista Pallotta da Cardarola. It was this connection that prompted the family to move to Naples and where Napoletano started his artistic formation, probably in the studio <strong>of</strong> the Caravaggesque painter Carlo Sellitto. 1 In 1614 he returned to Rome to seek fortune in the realm <strong>of</strong> landscape painting then dominated by Adam Elsheimer and Paul Bril. This was also a period during which different artistic genres began to be defined. Napoletano was also fascinated by history painting and followed the traces <strong>of</strong> Giuseppe Cesari, the Cavalier d’Arpino. The presence <strong>of</strong> Agostino Tassi, who had also returned to Rome in 1612, must have further influenced Filippo in his studies <strong>of</strong> landscapes, in particular his detailed observations <strong>of</strong> nature. Within a few years Filippo Napoletano had become an acclaimed and renowned artist. This is evident from the protection given to him by Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte, patron <strong>of</strong> Caravaggio, who invited him to Palazzo Madama, then owned by the Medici family. Cardinal Carlo de’ Medici, who had most probably seen Napoletano’s paintings for Del Monte, invited him to the Florentine court in 1617. Here not only did he receive a regular income but also many commissions. For the Medici he mainly executed small paintings, <strong>of</strong>ten on copper, lapislazzuli, jasper and pietra paesina, also known as ‘Florentine marble’. His stay in Florence, which lasted until 1621, enabled the artist to encounter the works <strong>of</strong> the great Renaissance <strong>master</strong>s and also artists such as Cigoli, Poccetti, Santi di Tito, Passignano, Crist<strong>of</strong>ano Allori and Giovanni da San Giovanni.Napoletano established a close relationship with Jacques Callot, a French artist <strong>of</strong> his generation from the Duchy <strong>of</strong> Lorraine, who at the time was working under the Archduke Cosimo II. Life at court was lively and stimulating thanks to the scientific research initiated by Galileo, musical and theatrical events and the study <strong>of</strong> nature provided by the botanical gardens. Napoletano, skilled at depicting nature, il naturale, led him to gain many engravings commissions, such as The Skeletons. 2 The Florentine experience was also fundamental for his practice <strong>of</strong> drawing, intended as a fundamental structural element in the rendering <strong>of</strong> the human body. Our study <strong>of</strong> Two Figures in Conversation can in fact be dated to 1618 during his Florentine sojourn. Dr. Cristiana Romalli first endorsed the attribution to Napoletano in 2004 and Marco Chiarini subsequently published it in his monograph on Napoletano in 2007, relating it to a series <strong>of</strong> preparatory studies for the Fiera dell’Impruneta <strong>of</strong> 1618, now in the Galleria Palatina <strong>of</strong> Palazzo Pitti. 3 This painting is one <strong>of</strong> the greatest <strong>master</strong>pieces by Napoletano and according to Chiarini ‘the prototype <strong>of</strong> a series <strong>of</strong> analogous depictions by other artists starting from Jacques Callot, who dedicated his version to the Grand Duke <strong>of</strong> Tuscany, Cosimo II in 1620. The composition became popular throughout Europe. 4 Evidence <strong>of</strong> its popularity in the 17 th century lies in similar compositions executed by the Neapolitan artists Cerquozzi e Gargiulo. Only a small number <strong>of</strong> preparatory <strong>drawings</strong> for the Fiera dell’Impruneta survive and this charcoal study has been related by Chiarini to the group <strong>of</strong> <strong>drawings</strong> now conserved at the Museum <strong>of</strong> Lille. 5 These <strong>drawings</strong>, due to the similarity in style to Callot were erroneously attributed to him in the past 6 and are generally executed in red chalk (sanguine) while in our drawing, almost a rapid sketch from life, “the use <strong>of</strong> charcoal enables the hatching to be s<strong>of</strong>ter and the atmosphere <strong>of</strong> the sheet becomes more suffused”. 7 After the Grand Duke’s death in 1621, Filippo returned to Rome where he continued his production <strong>of</strong> small paintings and <strong>of</strong> fresco decorations for patrician homes. Fascinated by the Roman landscape with its ancient ruins, not only did he generate his landscapes in the manner <strong>of</strong> the Dutch artists, Poelenburgh and Breenbergh, but he laid the foundations for the greatest 17 th landscape painter, Claude Lorrain.
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