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Baciccio Giovan Battista Gaulli (1639 – 1709)

by Francesco Petrucci

This monograph explores in the round the creative activity of the painter Giovan Battista Gaulli, called ‘Il Baciccio’(Genoa 1639-Rome 1709): a Genoese by birth, Roman by adoption. It will revise the only previously exiting monograph on the artist by Robert Engass, published in 1964, in the light of the many recovered paintings and documentary discoveries made in recent decades. The author has curated numerous studies on the roman baroque and on Gaulli, including the monographic exhibitions held at the Palazzo Chigi, Ariccia in 1999 and 2001. The publication of the present volume, planned for December 2009, will celebrate the great artist’s tri-centenary. Il Baciccio arrived in Rome in 1657, where he soon found protection under the auspices of Bernini who immediately appreciated his extraordinary talent as a painter and favoured his career: this culminated in the triumphant apogee of baroque painting that is his decoration of the church of Il Ges_. In 1662 he was admitted to the Academy of Sain Luke and elevated to be its Principe in 1673, confirming his position, alongside Maratta the leading exponent of the roman school, as a master of illusionist painting whose influence would continue long into the eighteenth century. An accomplished painter of sacred and profane subjects, he executed altarpieces and was a prolific decorator, he particularly distinguished himself as a draughtsman and excelled as a portraitist. Ellis Waterhouse believed him ‘probably the best of the Italian portrait-painters who lived in Rome in the Seicento.’ Gaulli achieved a unique fusion of genoese grand tradition painting, rich in Flemish references due to Rubens and van Dyck’s extended presences at Genoa, with the influence of Bernini he absorbed in Rome: this highly personalised pictorial language anticipates many aspects of eighteenth century art. The volume will include an extensive introductory essay rich in comparisons with works by the artist’s contemporaries and a complete catalogue of his works arranged by subject: portraits, decorative cycles, altarpieces, gallery pictures and easel paintings. A section dedicated to rejected works and lists of lost or documented works will follow.

ISBN: 88-7003-046-6