Carlo Saraceni

Carlo Saraceni (Venice 1579-Venice, 16 June 1620) was an Italian early-Baroque painter, whose reputation as a "first-class painter of the second rank" was improved with the publication of a modern monograph in 1968. ["un ottimo comprimario" in Francesco Arcangeli's words, quoted by R. Ward Bissell in reviewing Anna Ottani Cavina, "Carlo Saraceni" (Milan) 1968, in "The Art Bulletin" 53.2 (June 1971:248-250) p 248.]

Though he was born in Venice, his paintings are distinctly Roman in style; he moved to Rome in 1598, joining the Accademia di San Luca in 1607. He never visited France, though he spoke fluent French and had French followers and a French wardrobe. His painting, however, was influenced at first by the densely forested, luxuriantly enveloping landscape settings for human figures of Adam Elsheimer, a German painter resident in Rome; "there are few landscapes by Saraceni which have not been attributed to Elsheimer," Malcolm Waddingham observed, [Malcolm Waddingham, "A Landscape Masterpiece by Saraceni" "The Burlington Magazine" 114 No. 828 (March 1972:157, 159)] and Anna Ottani Cavina has suggested the influences may have travelled both ways. [Anna Ottani Cavina carefully distinguished Saraceni's landscape manner from Elsheimer's in "Carlo Saraceni" (Milan) 1968.] and Elsheimer's small cabinet paintings on copper offered a format that Saraceni employed in six landscape panels illustrating "The Flight of Icarus"; ["Icarus" is found in Museo di Capodimonte.] in "Moses and the Daughters of Jethro" ["Moses and the Daughters of Jethro" is found in the National Gallery, London [http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=NG6446] .] and "Mars and Venus". ["Mars and Venus" is found in Museo de Arte Saõ Paulo) [http://cgfa.sunsite.dk/s/p-saracen2.htm] .]

When Caravaggio's notorious "Death of the Virgin" [ Caravaggio's "Death of Virgin" now at the Louvre)] was rejected in 1606 as an altarpiece suitable for a chapel of Santa Maria della Scala, it was Saraceni who provided the acceptable substitute, which remains "in situ", the only securely dated painting of his first decade in Rome. He was influenced by Caravaggio's dramatic lighting, monumental figures, naturalistic detail, and momentary action ("illustration, right"), so that he is numbered among the first of the "tenebrists" or "Caravaggisti". Examples of this style can be seen in the candlelit "Judith and the Head of Holofernes". ["Judith & Holofernes" at Dayton Art Institute [http://tours.daytonartinstitute.org/accessart/object.cfm?TT=gt&TN=pps3&ID=88&COM=ac] .]

Saraceni's matured rapidly between 1606 and 1610, and the next decade gave way to his fully mature works, synthesizing Caravaggio and the Venetians. In 1616–17 he collaborated on the frescoes for the "Sala Regia" of the Palazzo del Quirinale. [Guilio Briganti, "Il Palazzo del Quirinale" (Rome 1962:37; among his collaborators there was the Venetian Marcantonio Bassetti, whose preparatory drawings are frequently confused with Sartaceni's (Stephen Polcari, "A Newly-Found Drawing by Saraceni" "The Burlington Magazine" 121 No. 914 (May 1979:307, 312).] In 1618 he received payment for two paintings in the church of Santa Maria dell'Anima. The compositional details of his fresco of "The Birth of the Virgin" in the Chapel of the Annunciation of the church of Santa Maria in Aquiro are repeated in a panel on copper at the Louvre [http://www.culture.gouv.fr/public/mistral/joconde_fr?ACTION=RETROUVER&FIELD_1=AUTR&VALUE_1=SARACENI%20Carlo&NUMBER=1&GRP=0&REQ=%28%28SARACENI%20Carlo%29%20%3aAUTR%20%29%20ET%20%28%27%24FILLED%24%27%20%3aVIDEO%29&USRNAME=nobody&USRPWD=4%24%2534P&SPEC=1&SYN=1&IMLY=CHECKED&MAX1=1&MAX2=250&MAX3=250&DOM=All]

In 1620 he returned to Venice, where he died in the same year. He was so influential on the style of an anonymous still life painter working in Rome, that the man is known as "Pensionante del Saraceni" [ [http://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/gg33/gg33-303.0.html (National Gallery of Art) "Still life", attributed to the "Pensionante del Saraceni"] .]

Works

*"Mars and Venus" oil on copper (1605-1610), (São Paulo Museum of Art, São Paulo)
*"Rest on the Flight into Egypt", 1606 (Eremo dei Camaldoli, Frascati)
*"The fall of Icarus", (Museums and Art Galleries Naples, Museo e Gallerie Nazionale di Capodimonte [http://www.art-prints-on-demand.com/a/saraceni-carlo/the-fall-of-icarus-3.html] .
*"Madonna and Child with Saint Anne" painted for the Church of San Simeone Profeta, 1610 (Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome)
*"Papal Authority" (J. Paul Getty Museum) Chalk preparatory sketch for an allegorical fresco [http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=32] .
*"Vision of Saint Francis" [http://www.pinakothek.de/alte-pinakothek/sammlung/kuenstler/kuenstler_inc_en.php?inc=kuenstler&which=3159| Alte Pinakothek, Munich]
*"Angel and Saint Cecilia" (Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome) Attributed to Saraceni [http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/s/saraceni/index.html]
*"The Martyrdom of Saint Cecilia" (LACMA)
*"The Madonna and Child with Saint Anne and an Angle" oil on copper, (ca. 1608-1610) Honolulu Academy of Arts . [ New Acquisition, "Calendar News Honolulu Academy of Arts", Nov./Dec. 2004, 7.]
*"Nativity" (Residenzgalerie, Salzburg)

Work by Saraceni can also be seen in the Roman church of San Lorenzo in Lucina.

References

* [http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/s/saraceni/index.html Web Gallery of Art: Carlo Saraceni]
*Charles Dempsey, Keith Christiansen, Richard E. Spear, and Erich Scheier. 1985. "The Age of Caravaggio". (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art)