Giuseppe Bartolomeo Chiari

Not to be confused with Giuseppe Chiari (artist-composer-philosopher).
Giuseppe Bartolomeo Chiari
Christ and the Samaritan Woman, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Born(1654-03-16)16 March 1654
Rome, Papal States
Died8 September 1727(1727-09-08) (aged 73)
Rome, Papal States
EducationCarlo Maratta
Known forPainting
Notable workTullia driving her Chariot over her Father (1687)
MovementBaroque
PatronsPope Clement XI

Giuseppe Bartolomeo Chiari (10 March 1654 – 8 September 1727), also known as simply Giuseppe Chiari, was an Italian painter of the late-Baroque period, active mostly in Rome.

Biography

Early career

Born in Rome, he was one of the main assistants, along with Giuseppe Passeri and Andrea Procaccini, in the studio of an elder Carlo Maratta.[1] His father had opposed the career, but his mother, on the recommendation of a painter named Carlo Antonio Gagliani.[2] By the age of 22, he had frescoed the lateral lunettes (Birth of Virgin and Adoration of Magi) of the Marcaccioni chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Suffragio. He also painted the ceiling of a chapel in Santa Maria in Cosmedin.[2] In 1686 Chiari decorated the vault of the chapel of the Montioni in Santa Maria in Montesanto, Rome, with an Assumption and at about the same time, also for Jacopo Montioni (d. 1687), painted two canvases showing scenes from Roman history: Coriolanus before the Walls of Rome and Tullia driving her Chariot over her Father (Burghley House, Cambridgeshire).

Career

In 1693 he frescoed rooms in the Palazzo Barberini to allegorical sketches of Bellori of Aurora leading Apollo and chariot with time and seasons with extensive interweaving of heraldic symbols, including bees (symbol of Barberini); two-headed eagle alighting on globe with blue and white stripes (symbol of the family of Vittorio Ottoboni;[3] crossed keys under baldachin (symbol of Pope Alexander VIII); a golden fleece (symbol of award given to Taddeo Barberini; a column (symbol of the Colonna family);[4] sun and laurels (symbols of Urban VIII), and post (symbols of the Pignatelli family).[5]

From 1695 to 1696 he worked in the chapel of the Teddalini–Bentivoglio in San Silvestro in Capite, Rome, where his altarpiece, side pictures and vault fresco achieve an impressive unity. Chiari’s largest fresco was painted c. 1700 in the Palazzo Colonna: Hercules Introducing Marcantonio Colonna to Olympus. In 1708 he painted four scenes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Rome, Galleria Spada) for Cardinal Fabrizio Spada, which are among his finest cabinet pictures of mythological themes, and which transform Maratta’s severity into elegance. He additionally frescoed the Villa Torri outside of Porta San Pancrazio in collaboration with landscape artist Jan van Bloemen. Christ and the Woman of Samaria (Bückeburg, Schloss Bückeburg) was acquired c. 1712 by Graf Christian Schaumburg-Lippe, who had bought works by Chiari since 1685.

Also from c. 1712 date the Ecstasy of St. Lucy of Narni (Sant'Ignazio, Rome) and the ceiling fresco Angels Making Music (Rome, Sant'Andrea al Quirinale). There followed, in 1714, the Adoration of the Magi (Dresden, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister), for Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, and, shortly afterwards, an elegant version of the same subject (Gemäldegalerie, Berlin).

Under Pope Clement XI

In the early years of the 18th century Pope Clement XI became Chiari’s most important patron. Papal commissions included the vast ceiling picture, painted on canvas, in the nave of San Clemente al Laterano depicting the Glory of St. Clement (c. 1715) and one of the 12 oval paintings of Old Testament Prophets (commissioned 1718) for the nave of Saint John Lateran. The Pope also commissioned the Allegory on the Papacy (Frascati, Episcopio; second version, Rome, Galleria dell'Accademia Nazionale di San Luca), intended as a gift for the Old Pretender, James Francis Edward Stuart. Chiari was Principe of the Accademia di San Luca, Rome, from 1722 to 1725.[6]

Late work

Chiari’s late works include St. Peter of Alcántara and St. Paschal Baylon (c. 1725) in San Francesco a Ripa, the two side paintings and the vault fresco with scenes from the Life of St. Francis of Paola (c. 1726) in San Francesco di Paola ai Monti (modelli for the side pictures, Rome, Galleria Colonna and Galleria Pallavicini) and the large altarpiece of the Ecstasy of St. Francis (c. 1726) in Santi Apostoli, Rome. Chiari’s brother Tommaso Chiari (1665–1733) collaborated with him on the two late altarpieces St. Peter Receiving the Keys (Zagarolo, San Pietro) and the Ecstasy of St Mary Magdalene (Zagarolo, San Lorenzo), commissioned by the Rospigliosi family. Pascoli stated that the Holy Family with St. John the Baptist in Santa Maria delle Grazie alle Fornaci fuori Porta Cavalleggeri, Rome, was Chiari’s last work. Chiari died in Rome on 8 September 1727. William Kent, Paolo Anesi, and Giovanni Andrea Lazzarini were amonghis pupils. His studio is described as highly frequented by French artists.

Partial anthology of works in Rome

References

  1. ^ Westin, Jean K. (1973). "Documentation for a Little-Known Work by Carlo Maratti". The Burlington Magazine. 115 (848): 738–40. JSTOR 877532.
  2. ^ a b Missirini 1823, p. 203.
  3. ^ Ottoboni became Gonfalonier of the Church for the pope.
  4. ^ The Barberini had acquired Palestrina from the Colonna.
  5. ^ Pope Innocent XII was a member of the Pignatelli family.
  6. ^ Missirini 1823, p. 204.

Sources

See also

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