Giovanni Battista Salvi da Sassoferrato
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Giovanni Battista Salvi da Sassoferrato (August 25, 1609 – August 8, 1685), also known as Giovanni Battista Salvi, was an Italian Baroque painter, known for his archaizing commitment to
Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual a ...
's style. He is often referred to only by the town of his birthplace (
Sassoferrato Sassoferrato is a town and ''comune'' of the province of Ancona in the Marche region of central-eastern Italy. History To the south of the town lie the ruins of the ancient Sentinum, on the Via Flaminia. The castle above the town is mentione ...
), as was customary in his time, and for example seen with
da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested on h ...
and Caravaggio.


Biography

The details of Giovanni Battista Salvi's biography are very sparse. He was born in the small town of Sassoferrato in the Marche region of central Italy, half-way between
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
and
Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...
, east of Apennines. Sassoferrato was apprenticed under his father, the painter Tarquinio Salvi; fragments of Tarquinio's work are still visible in the church of Saint Francis in Sassoferrato. The rest of Giovanni's training is undocumented but it is thought that he worked under the Bolognese
Domenichino Domenico Zampieri (, ; October 21, 1581 – April 6, 1641), known by the diminutive Domenichino (, ) after his shortness, was an Italian Baroque painter of the Bolognese School of painters. Life Domenichino was born in Bologna, son of a sho ...
, a main apprentice of Annibale Carracci (c. 1580). Two other Carracci trainees
Francesco Albani Francesco Albani or Albano (17 March or 17 August 1578 – 4 October 1660) was an Italian Baroque painter who was active in Bologna (1591–1600), Rome (1600–1609), Bologna (1609), Viterbo (1609–1610), Bologna (1610), Rome (1610–1617) ...
and Guido Reni also influenced Sassoferrato. In Francis Russell's view, Reni was as much Sassoferrato's mentor as Domenichino was his master. His paintings also show the influence of Albrecht Dürer,
Guercino Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (February 8, 1591 – December 22, 1666),Miller, 1964 better known as Guercino, or il Guercino , was an Italian Baroque painter and draftsman from Cento in the Emilia region, who was active in Rome and Bologna. The vi ...
, and above all
Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual a ...
. He appears to also have been influenced by
Pierre Mignard Pierre Mignard or Pierre Mignard I (17 November 1612 – 30 May 1695), called "Mignard le Romain" to distinguish him from his brother Nicolas Mignard, was a French painter known for his religious and mythological scenes and portraits. He was ...
, whom he may have met in Rome in the 1630s. Few public commissions by Sassoferrato exist, and, like Carlo Dolci he seems to have concentrated on producing multiple copies of various styles of devotional image for private patrons, a demand fuelled by the Counter-Reformation of the Catholic Church. Apart from his many smaller works, his paintings include some at the Benedictine convent of San Pietro in
Perugia Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and pa ...
(1630) and the imposing altarpiece in
Santa Sabina The Basilica of Saint Sabina ( la, Basilica Sanctae Sabinae, it, Basilica di Santa Sabina all'Aventino) is a historic church on the Aventine Hill in Rome, Italy. It is a titular minor basilica and mother church of the Roman Catholic Order of Pre ...
, Rome, portraying ''La Madonna del Rosario'' (1643). In 1683 Cardinal Chigi presented Sassoferrato's self-portrait to
Cosimo III de' Medici Cosimo III de' Medici (14 August 1642 – 31 October 1723) was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1670 until his death in 1723, the sixth and penultimate from the House of Medici. He reigned from 1670 to 1723, and was the elder son of Grand Duke Ferdinan ...
. Sassoferrato died in 1685. His will is dated June 29 of the same year.


Works

Sassoferrato's work was held in high regard through to the mid-19th century. His paintings were sometimes believed to be contemporary with the ''School of Raphael''. However, by the late 19th century, reaction against sweet devotional art work was reinforced in England by the critical commentary of
John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and pol ...
. The late 20th century saw a revival of interest in Italian Baroque archaizing painting with Guido Reni leading the way in generating a surge of auction interest also in Sassoferrato. There are over three hundred works by Sassoferrato in public collections in 2006 throughout the world including almost all of his extant drawings in the British Royal Collection at
Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original c ...
. Sassoferrato was also active as a copyist and reproduced paintings by other masters. His copying style was highly free and individualistic and he rather modified the original compositions or their dimensions than slavishly copy.Tiziana Mancini. "Sassoferrato." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 31 Oct. 2016 File:Giovan Battista Salvi called Il Sassoferrato - Saint Cecilia - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Saint Cecilia'',
Museo Poldi Pezzoli The Museo Poldi Pezzoli is an art museum in Milan, Italy. It is located near the Teatro alla Scala, on Via Manzoni 12. The museum was originated in the 19th century as a private collection of Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli (1822–1879) and his m ...
File:Giovanni Battista Salvi - Madonna met kind.jpg, ''Madonna with Child'', Rijksmuseum File:Sassoferrato Ottaviano Prati.jpg, ''Ottaviano Prati'',
Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica The Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica or National Gallery of Ancient Art is an art museum in Rome, Italy. It is the principal national collection of older paintings in Rome – mostly from before 1800; it does not hold any antiquities. It has two ...
File:Il Sassoferrato - The Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine - WGA20875.jpg, T''he Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine of Alexandria,''
The Wallace Collection The Wallace Collection is a museum in London occupying Hertford House in Manchester Square, the former townhouse of the Seymour family, Marquesses of Hertford. It is named after Sir Richard Wallace, who built the extensive collection, along w ...
File:Madonna with child and angels.jpg, ''Madonna with Child and Angels'',
Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica The Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica or National Gallery of Ancient Art is an art museum in Rome, Italy. It is the principal national collection of older paintings in Rome – mostly from before 1800; it does not hold any antiquities. It has two ...


Notes


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sassoferrato 1609 births People from the Province of Ancona 17th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 1685 deaths Catholic painters