Carlo Ridolfi (1594–1658) was an Italian art biographer and painter of the

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

period.

Biography

Ridolfi was born in

Lonigo Lonigo is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Vicenza, Veneto, northern Italy, its population counts around 16,400 inhabitants. In its ''frazione'' of Bagnolo is the Villa Pisani (Bagnolo), Villa Pisani, a Renaissance patrician villa designed ...

near

Vicenza Vicenza ( , ; or , archaically ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, where it straddles the Bacchiglione, River Bacchiglione. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and e ...

. He was a pupil of the painter

Antonio Vassilacchi Antonio Vassilacchi (; ; 1556–1629), also called L'Aliense, was a Greek painter, who was active mostly in Venice and the Veneto. Biography Antonio Vassilacchi was born of Greeks, Greek descent, on the island of Milos, Greece in 1556. He left ve ...

(Aliense). He painted a ''Visitation'' for the Ognissanti and an ''Adoration of the Magi'' for San Giovanni Elemosinario in Venice. He copied Tintoretto's ''Christ Washing the Disciples' Feet'' in San Marcuola, before it came to the collection of

King Charles I of England Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles was born into the House of Stuart as the second son of King James VI of Scotland, but after h ...

. Ridolfi's copy still remains in San Marcuola. He was certainly best known, in his own day and ever since, as an author on art. Carlo Ridolfi was also an important collector of drawings, such as

Giorgio Vasari Giorgio Vasari (30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance painter, architect, art historian, and biographer who is best known for his work ''Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects'', considered the ideol ...

. Many of these drawings are conserved in the ''Christ Church Library'' (

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

). Ridolfi wrote a biography of the Venetian painters in 1648 titled ''Le maraviglie dell'Arte ovvero, Le vite degli Illustri Pittori Veneti e dello Stato''. He also wrote ''La vita di Giacopo Robusti'' (a biography of

Tintoretto Jacopo Robusti (late September or early October 1518Bernari and de Vecchi 1970, p. 83.31 May 1594), best known as Tintoretto ( ; , ), was an Italian Renaissance painter of the Venetian school. His contemporaries both admired and criticized th ...

) in 1642. He was awarded the knighthood of the Golden Cross by Pope Innocent X and a chain of gold and a medal of St. Mark by the Republic of Venice, essentially for his books rather than his painting. Subsequent Venetian chroniclers who have quoted Ridolfi include Marco Boschini, Antonio Maria Zanetti, and Luigi Lanzi. As

Vasari Giorgio Vasari (30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance painter, architect, art historian, and biographer who is best known for his work '' Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects'', considered the ide ...

's ''

Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects ''The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects'' () is a series of artist biographies written by 16th-century Italian painter and architect Giorgio Vasari, which is considered "perhaps the most famous, and even today the ...

'' was weaker on Venetian painters than Florentine ones, Ridolfi remains an important source for Venetian painting between the beginning of the Renaissance and his own day, although his accuracy is often doubted, and many of his numerous attributions, especially to

Giorgione Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco (; 1470s – 17 September 1510), known as Giorgione, was an Italian painter of the Venetian school during the High Renaissance, who died in his thirties. He is known for the elusive poetic quality of his work, ...

, are no longer accepted: according to Michael Hirst, "... the enormous number of paintings attributed to Giorgione by Ridolfi gravely weakens his authority". One purpose of his work was to supply a corrective to Vasari, and just as Vasari ascribes all progress in art to Florentines, Ridolfi attempts something similar for the Venetian tradition, with its closer connection to Byzantine art. He was well educated in the classics, and his style is much given to rhetorical flourishes, classical comparisons and references to poetry, whilst rather lacking Vasari's talent for telling anecdote. He approached the larger lives in a scholarly fashion, and quoted many documents, often now vanished, that remain invaluable to

art historian Art history is the study of artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Traditionally, the ...

s. His work gives great insight into the way art was seen in his own day, as well as during the lives of his subjects.Jody Ribin Shifman, Introduction to ''The ''Life of Titian'' by Carlo Ridolfi'', trans Peter and Julia Conaway Bondanella, 1996, Penn State Press, - also Translators Note He died at

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

in 1658.

Works

''Le maraviglie dell'arte: ovvero Le vite degli illustri pittori Veneti e dello Stato ..., Volume 1''
By Carlo Ridolfi, Giuseppe Vedova, Second edition with corrections, Tipografia Cartellier, Padua, 1835
1648 Edition. ''Vita di Giacopo Robusti''
(

), 1642 (no preview).

References

Sources

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External links

*
portrait and notes from the Metropolitan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ridolfi, Carlo 1594 births 1658 deaths Painters from Vicenza 17th-century Italian painters Italian male painters Painters from Venice Italian art historians Italian Baroque painters Artist authors People from Lonigo