Raffaele Soprani (8 January 16122 January 1672) was an Italian nobleman and scholar, mainly known for his volume of biographies of Genoese artists and foreign artists working in Genoa, which remains an important source for historians of Genoese art.

Biography

Soprani belonged to a prominent aristocratic family and served twice as a senator of the

Republic of Genoa The Republic of Genoa ( ; ; ) was a medieval and early modern Maritime republics, maritime republic from the years 1099 to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italy, Italian coast. During the Late Middle Ages, it was a major commercial power in ...

. He received a broad

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education that included painting and drawing. He was taught perspective and

landscape painting Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction in painting of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, rivers, trees, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a cohe ...

in the workshop of

Giulio Benso Giulio Benso (30 October 1592 – 1668) was a Genovese painter of the early Baroque. He is known as one of the followers of the style of Luca Cambiasi. Benso was born in Pieve di Teco. Initially under the patronage of Giovanni Carl Doria, he m ...

and was later influenced by the German landscape painter

Gottfried Wals Gottfried Wals, or Goffredo Wals (c. 1595 – 1638) was a German painter who spent most of his career in Italy. He was sometimes referred to as Goffredo Tedesco (Goffredo the German). Biography Little is known about his early life, except t ...

. He founded a painting workshop and had a close artistic association with Pellegrino Piola, although he was fundamentally an amateur. In 1640 he married the daughter of the

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Leonardo Della Torre Leonardo Della Torre (Genoa, 1570Genoa, 16 August 1651) was the 100th Doge of the Republic of Genoa. Biography On 30 June 1631 his person, who was still the supreme union and senator, was chosen by the Grand Council to lead the highest office ...

. His friendship with Benso, and the popularity of

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 biographies, led Soprani to collect informations about Ligurian painters, sculptors, and architects. His first synthesis was complete by about 1657, but he continued to revise the manuscript. The manuscript was interrupted in 1665 for two years while the Florentine publisher Giovanni Battista Brocchi was considering publishing it. In the event it was not published until 1674, two years after the author’s death, enlarged and revised by Giovanni Nicolò Cavanna and illustrated with

engravings Engraving is the practice of incising a design on a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an inta ...

Domenico Piola Domenico Piola (1627 – 8 April 1703) was a Genoese painter of the Baroque period. He was the leading artist in Genoa in the second half of the 17th century, working on ceiling frescoes for many Genoese churches and palaces and canvas paintin ...

. The book was later revised and republished in two volumes (1768–9) by

Carlo Giuseppe Ratti Carlo Giuseppe Ratti (1737–1795) was an Italian art biographer and painter of the late-Baroque period. He was a pupil of the painter Giovanni Agostino Ratti. Born in Savona, he moved to Rome where he befriended Anton Raphael Mengs and Pompeo ...

, who added lives of contemporary artists, up to the mid-18th century. Soprani also published books on the writers of Liguria and select biographies.

Works

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Notes

Bibliography

* * * 1612 births 1674 deaths Nobility from Genoa 17th-century Italian writers Writers from Genoa Italian art historians {{Italy-art-historian-stub