Francesco Albani  

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-:''[[Renaissance erotica]], [[The Loves of the Gods]]'' 
-'''''The Loves of the Gods''''' (also called the '''Farnese Gallery''') is a massive [[fresco]] cycle completed by [[Annibale Carracci]] and his studio in the [[Palazzo Farnese]] (now the French Embassy) in [[Rome]], completed in 1608. The fresco series was greatly admired in its time, and was later felt to reflect a change in aesthetic in Rome from [[Mannerism]] to [[Baroque]].+'''Francesco Albani''' or '''Albano''' ([[March 17]] or [[August 17]], [[1578]]–[[October 4]], [[1660]]) was an [[Italian Baroque]] [[Baroque painting|painter]].
-==Production==+==Early years in Bologna==
-Cardinal [[Odoardo Farnese]], [[Pope Paul III]]'s nephew, commissioned Annibale and his crew to decorate the barrel-vaulted gallery in the piano nobile of the family palace. Work was started in 1597 and ended in 1608. The studio involved were led by Annibale, and later briefly his brother [[Agostino Carracci|Agostino]], included a number of significant artists, such as [[Francesco Albani]], [[Guido Reni]], [[Domenichino]], and [[Sisto Badalocchio]]. The [[Farnese Gallery]] [http://depts.washington.edu/findrome/images/imagefiles/fresco/farnese.html] consists of profusely decorated [[quadratura]] and framed mythologic scenes. +Born at 1572 [[Bologna]], his father was a silk merchant who intended to instruct his son in the same trade; but by age twelve, Albani became an apprentice under the competent [[mannerism|mannerist]] painter [[Denis Calvaert]], where he met [[Guido Reni]]. Soon he followed Reni to the so-called "Academy" run by the Carracci family: [[Annibale Carracci|Annibale]], [[Agostino Carracci|Agostino]], and [[Ludovico Carracci|Ludovico]]. This studio fostered the careers of many painters of the [[Bolognese School (painting)|Bolognese school]], including [[Domenichino]], [[Lucio Massari|Massari]], [[Giovanni Battista Viola|Viola]], [[Giovanni Lanfranco|Lanfranco]], [[Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi]], [[Pietro Faccini]], [[Remigio Cantagallina]], and [[Guido Reni|Reni]].
-==Scheme==+==Mature work in Rome==
-Annibale had first decorated a small room (the [[Camerino]]) in the Palazzo with scenes from the life of [[Hercules]], likely to enhance the viewing of the famed Roman statue of the [[Farnese Hercules]]. In 1597, he began to decorate the gallery with mythological themes set within frames painted on an illusionistic architectural framework ([[quadratura]])[http://www.usc.edu/schools/annenberg/asc/projects/comm544/library/images/080bg.jpg]. [[Sistine Chapel ceiling#The_Ignudi|Ignudi]], [[putti]], and herms (male [[caryatid]] figures) hold up the painted framework. Bellori, a noted art critic of the next generation called it "Human Love Governed by Celestial Love".+
-In the center panel, the [http://depts.washington.edu/findrome/images/imagefiles/fresco/bacchus.html Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne] depicts a both riotous and classically restrained procession which ferries [[Dionysus|Bacchus]] and [[Ariadne]] to their lovers' bed. Here, the underlying myth is that Bacchus, the god of wine, had gained the love of the abandoned princess, Ariadne. In the Republican and Imperial Roman era, [[Roman triumph|triumph]]s were parades by victorious leaders, wherein a laureled-crowned ''imperator'' was led by a white chariot led by two white horses. The two lovers are led by chariots drawn by tigers [http://trionfi.com/0/t/01/] and a parade of nymphs, bacchanti, and trumpeting satyrs. At the fore, Bacchus' tutor, the paunchy, ugly, and leering drunk [[Silenus]], rides an ass. The figures carefully cavort in order to hide most naked male genitals. The program may refer to Ovid's Metamorphosis (VIII; lines 160-182) or a trifling [[carnival song]]-poem written by [[Lorenzo de Medici]] in about 1475, that entreats: [http://trionfi.com/0/gg/103/t.html]+In the year 1600, Albani moved to Rome to work in the fresco decoration of the gallery of the [[Palazzo Farnese]], being completed by the studio of Annibale Carracci. Rome, under [[Pope Clement VIII|Clement VIII]] ''Aldobrandini'' (1592-1605) was exhibiting some degree of administrative stability and renewed artistic patronage. While pope Clement was born from a Florentine family residing in [[Urbino]], his family was allied by marriage to the [[Emilia-Romagna]] and the Farnese, since [[Ranuccio I Farnese, Duke of Parma]] had married [[Margherita Aldobrandini]]. Parma, like Bologna, are part of the Region of Emilia-Romagna. Thus it was not surprise that [[Odoardo Cardinal Farnese| Cardinal Odoarde Farnese]], Ranuccio's brother, chose the Carraccis from Bologna for patronage, thereby establishing Bolognese predominance of Roman [[fresco]] painting for nearly two decades.
-{|+Albani became one of Annibale's most prominent apprentices. Using Annibale's designs and assisted by Lanfranco and [[Sisto Badalocchio]], Albani completed frescoes for the San Diego Chapel in [[San Giacomo degli Spagnoli]] between 1602-1607. In 1606-7, Albani completed the frescoes in the [[Palazzo Mattei di Giove]] in Rome. He later completed two other frescoes in the same palace, also on the theme of ''Life of Joseph''.
-|-+
-|Quest’è Bacco ed Arïanna, ||''Here are Bacchus and Ariadne,'' +
-|-+
-|belli, e l’un de l’altro ardenti: ||''Handsome, and burning for each other:''+
-|-+
-|perché ’l tempo fugge e inganna, ||''Because time flees and fools,'' +
-|-+
-|sempre insieme stan contenti. ||''They stay together always content.''+
-|-+
-|Queste ninfe ed altre genti ||''These nymphs and other gents''+
-|-+
-|sono allegre tuttavia. ||''Are ever full of joy.''+
-|-+
-|Chi vuol esser lieto, sia: ||''Let those who wish to be happy, be:''+
-|-+
-|di doman non c’è certezza. ||''Of tomorrow, we have no certainty.''+
-|}+
-The painter's cousin [[Ludovico Carracci]] engraved uncensored versions in [[old master print|prints]] of the scenes. Also in contrast to the ceiling's intimation rather than outright depiction of mythological [[sexual intercourse|lovemaking]] are [[Agostino Carracci#Erotic work|erotic engravings]] by the painter's brother Agostino - the [[I Modi]].+In 1609, he completed the ceiling of a large hall with ''Fall of Phaeton and Council of the Gods'' for the Palazzo [[Giustiniani]] (now Palazzo Odescalchi) at [[Bassano (di Sutri) Romano]]. This work was commissioned by the [[Giustiniani|Marchese Vicenzo Giustiniani]], famous for also being patron to [[Caravaggio]].
-==Critical Assessment and Legacy==+During 1612-14, Albani completed the Choir frescoes at the newly remodeled (by [[Pietro da Cortona]]) church of [[Santa Maria della Pace]]. In 1616 he painted ceiling frescoes of ''Apollo and the Seasons'' at [[Palazzo Verospi]] in [[Via del Corso]] for the cardinal [[Fabrizio Verospi]].
-After completing the Farnese frescoes, Annibale reportedly entered a long depression, and none of his subsequent works were considered as noteworthy. His influence for the future aesthetic of the fresco would be powerful. The density of figures would fuel debates in the next generation of fresco painters, [[Andrea Sacchi|Sacchi]] and [[Pietro da Cortona|Cortona]]; clearly, as this fresco indicates, Carracci's effervescent manner influenced Cortona.+
-Carracci, in his day, was seen as one of the painters that revived the classical style. Rebellious artists such as [[Caravaggio]] and his followers would in few years abandon the sunny background, and the representation of mythology in their art. But it would be inappropriate to view Carracci as solely the continuation of an inherited tradition; in his day, his vigorous and dynamic style, and that of his trainees, changed the pre-eminent aesthetic of Rome. His work would have been seen as liberating for artists of his day, touching on pagan themes with an unconstrained joy. It could be said that while [[Mannerism]] had mastered the art of formal strained contraposto and contorsion; Carracci had depicted dance and joy.+In later years, Albani developed a mutual, though respectful, rivalry with the more successful Guido Reni, who was also heavily patronized by the Aldobrandini, and under whom Albani had worked under at the chapel of the [[Palazzo del Quirinale]].
-Neoclassic formalism and severity frowned on the excesses of Carracci; but in his day, he would have been seen as masterful, as the supreme approximation to classic beauty. Carracci painted in the tradition of [[Raphael]] and [[Giulio Romano]]'s secular [[Galatea (Raphael)|Galatea]] frescoes in the Loggia of the [[Villa Farnesina]]. Unlike Raphael though, they display a [[Michelangelo]]-esque muscularity, and depart from the often emotionless visages of High Renaissance painting. Finally, it has been said that Carracci and his school blended Venetian colorism with the Florentine-Umbrian attention to drawing and design; yet this is best seen in the oil canvases rather than frescoes in the Farnese, which required for Carracci and intensive degree of drawn preplaning and attention, much of which still exists.+Albani's best fresco masterpieces are those on mythological subjects. Among the best of his sacred subjects are a ''St Sebastian'' and an ''Assumption of the Virgin'', both in the church of [[San Sebastiano fuori le Mura]] in Rome. He was among the Italian painters to devote himself to painting cabinet pictures. His mythological subjects include ''The Sleeping Venus'', ''Diana in the Bath'', ''Danaë Reclining'', ''Galatea on the Sea'', and ''Europa on the Bull''. A rare etching, the ''Death of Dido'', is attributed to him. [[Carlo Cignani]], [[Andrea Sacchi]], [[Francesco Mola]], and [[Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi]] were some of his students. On the death of his wife he returned to Bologna, where he married a second time and resided till his death.
-[[Thomas Hoving]], later director of the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], wrote his PhD on the cycle, pointing out many correspondences between the frescoes and items in the famous Farnese collection of Roman sculpture, much of which was then housed in the gallery (it is now in [[Naples]], mostly in the [[Museo di Capodimonte]]). His suggestion that many details of the fresoes were designed to compliment the marbles below has been generally accepted.+==Legacy==
 +Albani never acquired the monumentality or tenebrism that was quaking the contemporary world of painters, and in fact, is derided often for his lyric, cherubim-filled sweetness, which often has not yet shaken the mannerist elegance. While Albani's thematic would have appealed to [[Poussin]], he lacked the Frenchman's muscular drama. His style sometimes appears to befit the decorative [[Rococo]] more than of his time.
-==Panels of Farnese Ceiling==+Among the pupils of Albani were his brother [[Giovanni Battista Albani]], and others including [[Giacinto Bellini]], [[Girolamo Bonini]], [[Giacinto Campagna]], [[Antonio Catalani]], [[Carlo Cignani]], [[Giovanni Maria Galli]], [[Filippo Menzani]], [[Andrea Sacchi]], [[Andrea Sghizzi]], [[Giovanni Battista Speranza]], [[Antonio Maria del Sole]], [[Emilio Taruffi]], and [[Francesco Vaccaro]]<ref>*Hobbes J.R. Page 3</ref>.
-*Central Ceiling Fresco+ 
-*: ''Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne''+==Major works==
-* Ceiling Scenes+*Frescoes in Hall of Aeneas -<small>[[Palazzo Fava]], Bologna </small>
-*: Bedding Scenes+*Frescoes in Oratory of San Colombano -<small> Bologna</small>
-*: ''Jove beds Juno''+*Frescoes in Hall of Aeneas (1601-1602) -<small> [[Palazzo Doria Pamphilj]], Rome </small>
-*: ''Venus, Cupid, and Anchise (father of Aeneas) (Genus Latinum)''+*Frescoes for [[San Giacomo degli Spagnoli]] (1602-1607) -<small> Museo del Prado and in Museum of Barcelona</small>
-*: ''Crescent-crowned Diane and Endymion''+*''Holy Family with Angels'' (1608-1610) -<small> MFA, Boston </small>
-*: ''Hercules with tambourine and Iole with Club''+*Allegorical canvases of the seasons [http://www.wga.hu/html/a/albani/1spring.html ''Spring''],[http://www.wga.hu/html/a/albani/2summer.html ''Summer''],[http://www.wga.hu/html/a/albani/3autumn.html ''Fall''] and [http://www.wga.hu/html/a/albani/4winter.html ''Winter''] (1616-1617) -<small> [[Galleria Borghese]], Rome</small>
-*: Other+*''Baptism of Christ'' (c. 1620) -<small> Oil on canvas, 428.5 x 224.5 cm, Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna</small>
-*: ''Europa and the Bull (Jupiter)''+*''Diana and Actaeon'' (1625-1630) -<small> Oil on wood transferred to canvas, 74,5 x 99,5 cm, Gemäldegalerie, Dresden</small>
-*: ''Aurora abducts Cephalus in her Chariot''+*''Four Elements ''(1628-1630) -<small> Pinacoteca, Turin </small>
-*: ''Peleus abducts the Nereid Tethys'' +*''Holy Family with Angels'' (1630-1635) -<small> Oil on canvas, 57 x 43 cm, Palazzo Pitti, Florence</small>
-*: ''The Cyclops Polyphemus and the Nereid Galatea''+*''Self-Portrait'' (c. 1630) -<small> Oil on canvas, 75 x 59.5 cm, Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna</small>
-*: ''The Cyclops Polyphemus Throws a Boulder at Fleeing Acis (and Galatea)''+*''Venus Attended by Nymphs and Cupids'' (1633) -<small>Oil on canvas, 114 x 171 cm, Prado, Madrid)[http://www.wga.hu/html/a/albani/venus.html] </small>
-*: ''Ganymede and the Eagle (Jupiter)''+*''Annunciation'' (1633) -<small> Chiesa di S.Bartolomeo, Bologna</small>
-*: ''Apollo abducts Hyacinth Skyward''+*''The Annunciation'' -<small> Oil on copper, 62 x 47 cm, Hermitage, St. Petersburg</small>[http://www.wga.hu/html/a/albani/annuncia.html]
-*: ''Pan and Diana''+*''Madonna with Child in Glory with Sts. Jerome and Francis'' (c. 1640) -<small> oil on copper, 43.5 x 31.8 cm, Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna</small>
-*: ''Mercury Brings golden Apple to Paris''+*''The Baptism of Christ'' (c. 1640) -<small> Oil on canvas, 268 x 195 cm, Hermitage, St. Petersburg</small>
-*Wall Scenes+*''The Rape of Europa'' (c. 1640-1645) -<small> Oil on canvas, 170 x 224 cm, Hermitage, St. Petersburg</small>
-*: ''Peseus rescues Andromeda from the Dragon''+*''Annunciation'' (c. 1640-1645) -<small> Oil on copper, 62 x 47 cm, Hermitage, St. Petersburg</small>
-*: ''Perseus turns Phineas and followers to stone using the head of Medusa''+*''The Holy Women at Christ's Tomb'' (1640s-1650s) -<small> Oil on canvas, 170 x 224 cm, Hermitage, St. Petersburg</small>
-*: ''The Virgin and the Unicorn''+*''Danza degli amorini '' -<small> [[Pinacoteca di Brera]], [[Milan]]</small>
-*: ''Icarus and Dedalus''+*''Tondo Borghese'' -<small> Galleria Borghese, Rome </small>
-*: ''Diane is shown the Jupiter-impregnated Callisto''+*''Tasso's landscapes'' -<small> Galleria Colonna, [[Rome]] </small>
-*: ''Metamorphosis of Callisto into a Bear''+*'Frescoes -<small> Chiesa di Santa Maria di Galliera </small>
-*: ''Mercury and Apollo''+ 
-*: ''Arion the Citharist is rescued by Dolphins''+==Works at the Louvre, Paris==
-*: ''Minerva and Prometheus''+**''Acteon Metamorphosis into Hind''
-*: ''Hercules slays the Dragon''+**''Adonis led by Cupids to Venus ''(1600)
-*: ''Hercules liberates Prometheus''+**''Diana and Acteon and Venus and Adone''
 +**''Apollo and Daphne''
 +**''The Bath of Venus''
 +**''Christ appears to Mary Magdalen''
 +**''Rest of Venus''
 +**''Holy Father and Archangel Gabriel''
 +**''Venus disarms Cupids''
 +**''Saint Francis of Assisi before Crucifix''
 +**''Salmacis and Hermaphrodite''
 +**''Nativity''
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Francesco Albani or Albano (March 17 or August 17, 1578October 4, 1660) was an Italian Baroque painter.

Contents

Early years in Bologna

Born at 1572 Bologna, his father was a silk merchant who intended to instruct his son in the same trade; but by age twelve, Albani became an apprentice under the competent mannerist painter Denis Calvaert, where he met Guido Reni. Soon he followed Reni to the so-called "Academy" run by the Carracci family: Annibale, Agostino, and Ludovico. This studio fostered the careers of many painters of the Bolognese school, including Domenichino, Massari, Viola, Lanfranco, Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi, Pietro Faccini, Remigio Cantagallina, and Reni.

Mature work in Rome

In the year 1600, Albani moved to Rome to work in the fresco decoration of the gallery of the Palazzo Farnese, being completed by the studio of Annibale Carracci. Rome, under Clement VIII Aldobrandini (1592-1605) was exhibiting some degree of administrative stability and renewed artistic patronage. While pope Clement was born from a Florentine family residing in Urbino, his family was allied by marriage to the Emilia-Romagna and the Farnese, since Ranuccio I Farnese, Duke of Parma had married Margherita Aldobrandini. Parma, like Bologna, are part of the Region of Emilia-Romagna. Thus it was not surprise that Cardinal Odoarde Farnese, Ranuccio's brother, chose the Carraccis from Bologna for patronage, thereby establishing Bolognese predominance of Roman fresco painting for nearly two decades.

Albani became one of Annibale's most prominent apprentices. Using Annibale's designs and assisted by Lanfranco and Sisto Badalocchio, Albani completed frescoes for the San Diego Chapel in San Giacomo degli Spagnoli between 1602-1607. In 1606-7, Albani completed the frescoes in the Palazzo Mattei di Giove in Rome. He later completed two other frescoes in the same palace, also on the theme of Life of Joseph.

In 1609, he completed the ceiling of a large hall with Fall of Phaeton and Council of the Gods for the Palazzo Giustiniani (now Palazzo Odescalchi) at Bassano (di Sutri) Romano. This work was commissioned by the Marchese Vicenzo Giustiniani, famous for also being patron to Caravaggio.

During 1612-14, Albani completed the Choir frescoes at the newly remodeled (by Pietro da Cortona) church of Santa Maria della Pace. In 1616 he painted ceiling frescoes of Apollo and the Seasons at Palazzo Verospi in Via del Corso for the cardinal Fabrizio Verospi.

In later years, Albani developed a mutual, though respectful, rivalry with the more successful Guido Reni, who was also heavily patronized by the Aldobrandini, and under whom Albani had worked under at the chapel of the Palazzo del Quirinale.

Albani's best fresco masterpieces are those on mythological subjects. Among the best of his sacred subjects are a St Sebastian and an Assumption of the Virgin, both in the church of San Sebastiano fuori le Mura in Rome. He was among the Italian painters to devote himself to painting cabinet pictures. His mythological subjects include The Sleeping Venus, Diana in the Bath, Danaë Reclining, Galatea on the Sea, and Europa on the Bull. A rare etching, the Death of Dido, is attributed to him. Carlo Cignani, Andrea Sacchi, Francesco Mola, and Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi were some of his students. On the death of his wife he returned to Bologna, where he married a second time and resided till his death.

Legacy

Albani never acquired the monumentality or tenebrism that was quaking the contemporary world of painters, and in fact, is derided often for his lyric, cherubim-filled sweetness, which often has not yet shaken the mannerist elegance. While Albani's thematic would have appealed to Poussin, he lacked the Frenchman's muscular drama. His style sometimes appears to befit the decorative Rococo more than of his time.

Among the pupils of Albani were his brother Giovanni Battista Albani, and others including Giacinto Bellini, Girolamo Bonini, Giacinto Campagna, Antonio Catalani, Carlo Cignani, Giovanni Maria Galli, Filippo Menzani, Andrea Sacchi, Andrea Sghizzi, Giovanni Battista Speranza, Antonio Maria del Sole, Emilio Taruffi, and Francesco Vaccaro<ref>*Hobbes J.R. Page 3</ref>.

Major works

  • Frescoes in Hall of Aeneas -Palazzo Fava, Bologna
  • Frescoes in Oratory of San Colombano - Bologna
  • Frescoes in Hall of Aeneas (1601-1602) - Palazzo Doria Pamphilj, Rome
  • Frescoes for San Giacomo degli Spagnoli (1602-1607) - Museo del Prado and in Museum of Barcelona
  • Holy Family with Angels (1608-1610) - MFA, Boston
  • Allegorical canvases of the seasons Spring,Summer,Fall and Winter (1616-1617) - Galleria Borghese, Rome
  • Baptism of Christ (c. 1620) - Oil on canvas, 428.5 x 224.5 cm, Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna
  • Diana and Actaeon (1625-1630) - Oil on wood transferred to canvas, 74,5 x 99,5 cm, Gemäldegalerie, Dresden
  • Four Elements (1628-1630) - Pinacoteca, Turin
  • Holy Family with Angels (1630-1635) - Oil on canvas, 57 x 43 cm, Palazzo Pitti, Florence
  • Self-Portrait (c. 1630) - Oil on canvas, 75 x 59.5 cm, Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna
  • Venus Attended by Nymphs and Cupids (1633) -Oil on canvas, 114 x 171 cm, Prado, Madrid)[1]
  • Annunciation (1633) - Chiesa di S.Bartolomeo, Bologna
  • The Annunciation - Oil on copper, 62 x 47 cm, Hermitage, St. Petersburg[2]
  • Madonna with Child in Glory with Sts. Jerome and Francis (c. 1640) - oil on copper, 43.5 x 31.8 cm, Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna
  • The Baptism of Christ (c. 1640) - Oil on canvas, 268 x 195 cm, Hermitage, St. Petersburg
  • The Rape of Europa (c. 1640-1645) - Oil on canvas, 170 x 224 cm, Hermitage, St. Petersburg
  • Annunciation (c. 1640-1645) - Oil on copper, 62 x 47 cm, Hermitage, St. Petersburg
  • The Holy Women at Christ's Tomb (1640s-1650s) - Oil on canvas, 170 x 224 cm, Hermitage, St. Petersburg
  • Danza degli amorini - Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan
  • Tondo Borghese - Galleria Borghese, Rome
  • Tasso's landscapes - Galleria Colonna, Rome
  • 'Frescoes - Chiesa di Santa Maria di Galliera

Works at the Louvre, Paris

    • Acteon Metamorphosis into Hind
    • Adonis led by Cupids to Venus (1600)
    • Diana and Acteon and Venus and Adone
    • Apollo and Daphne
    • The Bath of Venus
    • Christ appears to Mary Magdalen
    • Rest of Venus
    • Holy Father and Archangel Gabriel
    • Venus disarms Cupids
    • Saint Francis of Assisi before Crucifix
    • Salmacis and Hermaphrodite
    • Nativity




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Francesco Albani" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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