Paintings Drawings Sculptures 2016 - Jean Luc Baroni

Giovanni Baglione
Rome circa 1566 - 1643
25
The Holy Family with St.John the Baptist and the Christ Child playing with a Bird (recto);
Studies for a Figure of a Martyr Saint or St. Jerome (verso).
Pen and brown ink and wash over traces of red chalk (recto); pen and brown ink (verso).
156 x 125 mm (6 1 /4 x 5 in.)
Provenance: Private Collection, USA.
Giovanni Baglione is described as one of the
great success stories of the seventeenth century
by Maryvelma O’Neil in her study of the artist. 1
Widely known for his authorship of the biographical
collection Le Vite de’ pittori, scultori et architetti…’,
published in 1642 and still greatly revered for its
connoisseurship and thoroughness, Baglione is also
both notorious and unjustly reviled for the lawsuit he
pursued against Caravaggio, Gentileschi and others
following their circulation of libelous insults in a set
of scurrilous verses. O’Neil gives an alternative view
of the court case and a vivid description of Baglione’s
achievement: Swarms of artists could quickly turn
aggressive in the tempestuous political and social
climate which the ‘Lives’ records. Surviving, let alone
making it to the top and staying there, as Baglione did,
was a constant struggle that demanded tremendous
internal fortitude in the face of capricious patronage,
cut-throat rivals and insalubrious working conditions. 2
A Roman native, Baglione lived in the fashionable
area of the Via del Corso amongst many of the most
successful artists of his generation such as Turchi,
Tassi and Arpino; the latter was a mentor with whom
Baglione worked, early in his career, in the Certosa
di San Martino, in Naples. His very first master was
a Florentine painter, now rather forgotten, called
Francesco Morelli and Baglione quickly developed
a practice of drawing, from life and particularly from
Antique sculpture. A thoughtful and prolonged study
of Raphael 3 helped him to become a mature artist
and before the end of the century he had had his first
successes in Rome with the fresco cycle in Santa Maria
dell’Orto, altarpieces for Santa Cecilia in Trastevere and
a monumental fresco in the transept of San Giovanni in
Laterano of the Gift of Constantine. Baglione perfected
a powerful narrative style full of observational detail,
wide ranges of colour and strong light effects. In 1603
he completed the huge Resurrection in the Gesù which
caused Caravaggio’s revilement; the Jesuits may have
lighted on the criticism as a pretext not to keep their
payment contract. A subsequent commission to paint
another vast altarpiece for St Peter’s in 1604 shows,
however, that his career was not seriously undermined
by the scandal. He was knighted in 1606 and in 1619
made principe of the, by then, powerful Accademia di
San Luca. The three decades of the seventeenth century
in which he was active saw Baglione working for
Pope Paul V in the Cappella Paolina of the Basilica di
Santa Maria Maggiore, for Cardinal Scipione Borghese
in the Casino dell Aurora of the Palazzo Pallavicini-
Rospigliosi and in the villa of Cardinal Alessandro
Peretti-Montalto. He also worked in Mantua for
Duke Ferdinando Gonzaga who commissioned the
ensemble of paintings which in 1624 were delivered
to Marie de’ Medici for the new Luxembourg Palace.
In 1630 he was still receiving important commissions
such as that to fresco an entire chapel in San Luigi
dei Francesi, a project only interrupted by a sudden
deterioration in the artist’s eyesight. In 1638 Baglione
declined the honour of a second election to the office
of principe of the Academy in order to devote himself
to completing his descriptions of Rome and its artists.
In his lifetime, Baglione’s drawings were already
admired, commended by Karel van Mander and
sought after by collectors. All through the biographies
Giovanni Baglione, verso
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