Giovanni Battista Gaulli – artist

Baroque painter decorated leading Jesuit church in Rome

Baroque painter Giovanni Battista Gaulli,
a self-portrait  painted in about 1667

Painter Giovanni Battista Gaulli, whose nickname was Baciccio, was born on this day in 1639 in Genoa.

He became a leading baroque painter whose work was influenced by the sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini. He is most remembered for his beautiful frescoes in the Church of Gesù in Rome, which are considered a masterpiece of quadratura, or architectural illusionism.

Gaulli was born in Genoa and his parents died when he was just a teenager in an outbreak of plague in the city.

He was apprenticed with the painter Luciano Borzone but would also have been influenced by some of the foreign artists who were working in Genoa in the mid 17th century.

Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck were in Genoa at the time but it is also said that Gaulli adopted the warm palette of Genoese artist Bernardo Strozzi.

Gaulli was introduced to Bernini, who recognised his talent and helped to promote him. In 1662 he was accepted into the Roman artists’ guild, the Accademia di San Luca.

The following year Gaulli received his first public commission, for an altarpiece in the Church of San Rocco in Rome.

Gaulli's masterpiece, the Triumph of the
Name of Jesus, in the Church of the Gesù

At the height of his popularity, Gaulli was also one of Rome’s most prestigious portrait painters.

But a visit to Parma in 1669, where he saw Correggio’s frescoed dome ceiling in the cathedral of Parma, had a profound influence on his style.

With the support of Bernini, the 22-year-old Gaulli was awarded the prestigious commission of decorating the interior of the large Jesuit church in Rome, the Church of the Gesù.

Gaulli decorated the entire dome, central vault, window recesses, and the ceilings of the transepts. He unveiled the main vault fresco on Christmas Eve 1679 and after this he continued the frescoing of the vaults of the tribune and other areas of the church. The work took him nearly 14 years.

Gaulli’s nave masterpiece, the Triumph of the Name of Jesus, is an allegory of the work of the Jesuits that envelops worshippers below into the whirlwind of devotion. It is one of the grandest baroque ceilings in Rome and the theatrical effect prompted art experts to label Gaulli as ‘a Bernini in paint’.

A series of ceilings like this were painted in the naves of other Roman churches until the beginning of the 18th century. But as the high baroque movement evolved into the rococo, the popularity of this style dwindled.

Gaulli also moved in the new direction, adopting less intense colours and more delicate compositions.

He had many pupils during his long career, who spoke of him as ‘generous, liberal of mind and charitable’.

Gaulli died in 1709 in Rome, at the age of 70.

The facade of the Palazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace) in Genoa.
one of the maritime city's architectural highlights

Travel tip:

Genoa, where Gaulli was born, is the capital city of Liguria and the sixth largest city in Italy. It has earned the nickname of La Superba because of its proud history as a major port. Part of the old town was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2006 because of the wealth of beautiful 16th century palaces there.   Genoa has a rich history as a powerful trading centre with considerable wealth built on its shipyards and steelworks, but also boasts many fine buildings, many of which have been restored to their original splendour.  The Doge's Palace, the 16th century Royal Palace and the Romanesque-Renaissance style San Lorenzo Cathedral are just three examples. 

The baroque facade of the Church of the Gesù,
which Michelangelo offered to design for free

Travel tip:

The Church of the Gesù, which was built between 1568 and 1584 was the first Jesuit church in Rome and its design has been much imitated throughout the Catholic world.  Located in the Piazza del Gesù, it has the first truly baroque façade, which introduced the style into architecture. Gaulli’s ceiling fresco is considered the most striking feature of the interior decoration.  Although Michelangelo offered, out of devotion, to design the church for free, the endeavor was funded by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, grandson of Pope Paul III, and the main architects involved in the construction were Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, architect of the Farnese family, and Giacomo della Porta.

Also on this day:

1587: The birth of Victor Amadeus I of Savoy

1898: Genoa become the first football champions of Italy

1960: The birth of AC Milan and Italy icon Franco Baresi


Home

Stefano Landi – composer

Musician whose works influenced development of opera

Stefano Landi had an early influence
on the evolution of opera

Stefano Landi, an influential early composer of opera, died on this day in 1639 in Rome.

He wrote his most famous opera, Sant’Alessio, in 1632, which was the earliest to be about a historical subject, describing the life of the fourth-century monastic, Saint Alexis.

It was also notable for Landi interspersing comic scenes drawn from the contemporary life of Rome in the 17th century.

Born in Rome, Landi had joined the Collegio Germanico as a boy soprano in 1595.

He took minor orders in 1599 and began studying at the Seminario Romano in 1602. He is mentioned in the Seminary’s records as being an organist and singer in 1611.

By 1618 he had moved to northern Italy and he published a book of five-voice madrigals in Venice. He wrote his first opera while in Padua, La morte d’Orfeo, which was probably for part of the festivities for a wedding.

An illustration depicting a scene from Sant'Alessio

In 1620 he returned to Rome, where his patrons included the Borghese family, Cardinal Maurizio of Savoy, and the Barberini family, who were to be his major employers throughout the late 1620s and 1630s.

It was for the Barberini family that he wrote the work for which he is most famous, Sant’Alessio. It was used to open the Teatro delle Quattro Fontane in 1632.

After a period of ill health, Landi died in Rome in 1639 and was buried at the church of Santa Maria in Vallicella.

The Palazzo Barberini was completed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Travel tip:

The Barbarini family’s most famous Roman residence was the Palazzo Barberini, a 17th-century palace which faces the Piazza Barberini in the Trevi district.  The site was purchased in 1625 by Maffeo Barberini - later Pope Urban VIII - from Cardinal Alessandro Sforza.  Three great architects worked to create the Palazzo, starting with Carlo Maderno, who gave the building its air of princely power and created a garden front that had the nature of a suburban villa. When Maderno died in 1629, it was expected the project would be passed to his nephew, Francesco Borromini, who had been assisting his uncle. Instead, the the commission was awarded to Gian Lorenzo Bernini, a young prodigy then better known as a sculptor, with Borromini at first working alongside him.

The Teatro delle Quattro Fontane is now a cinema complex

Travel tip:

The Teatro delle Quattro Fontane - Theatre of the Four Fountains - was also designed, in part, by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and built in 1632 by the Barberini family. It was located in Via delle Quattro Fontane, near the Piazza Barberini and the Quattro Fontane or Four Fountains.  The theatre closedin 1642 at the height of the Barberini Wars of Castro against with the Farnese Dukes of Parma and remained so for more than 10 years then passed before it was reopened and performances recommenced. In 1632, the theatre was rebuilt and remained active until after the Second World War. It was converted into a modern cinema in the 1960s and now houses a multiplex called Multisala Barberini.

Home

Alessandro Stradella – violinist and composer

Talented musician lived for romance and adventure

Stradella was a prolific composer but
also an insatiable adventurer

Baroque composer Alessandro Stradella, who led a colourful life courting danger while producing more than 300 highly regarded musical works, was born on this day in 1639 at Nepi in the province of Viterbo, north of Rome in the Lazio region.

After an affair with the mistress of a Venetian nobleman he was attacked in the street and left for dead by two hired assassins, but he lived on for another few years to compose more music.

Five years later he was stabbed to death in Genoa, but the identity of his killers was never confirmed.

Stradella was born into an aristocratic family and by the age of 20 was making a name for himself as a composer.

He moved to Rome where he composed sacred music for Queen Christina of Sweden, who had abdicated her throne to go and live there.

It is believed he tried to embezzle money from the Roman Catholic Church and his numerous reckless affairs with women also made him enemies among powerful people in the city.

In 1637 he moved to Venice where he was hired by a nobleman, Alvise Contarini, as a music tutor to his mistress.

Stradella began an affair with her and they attempted to elope together to Turin in 1677.

Arcangelo Corelli is said to have borrowed
the concerto grosso form from Stradella

They were followed by Contarini who insisted they either marry or his mistress had to take the veil. She took the veil, but Stradella later married her. Shortly afterwards, he was attacked and left for dead in the street.

He fled to Genoa where he composed music for the local nobility and the theatre, but he was stabbed to death in a square in Genoa in 1682, aged just 42. He was buried in the Church of Santa Maria delle Vigne in Genoa.

Stradella was an influential composer whose works were adapted by other composers, including Handel, later. He originated the concerto grosso, a form that Arcangelo Corelli went on to use. He wrote at least six Baroque operas, 170 cantatas, six oratorios and 27 instrumental pieces.

Stradella, an opera based on his life and violent death by Louis Niedermeyer, was produced in Paris in 1837, followed by another opera, called Alessandro Stradella, composed by Friedrich von Flotow, in 1844.

The American writer Francis Marion Crawford wrote a novel, Stradella, about the composer’s affair and flight from Venice.

The Castello dei Borgia in Nepi

Travel tip:

Nepi, where Alessandro Stradella was born, is about 30 km south east of Viterbo. It is well known for its mineral springs and its bottled water, Acqua di Nepi. One of the main sights is the 16th century Castello dei Borgia, a medieval castle that was refurbished for Lucrezia Borgia. In 1819 the castle was drawn by the artist J M W Turner and the resulting sketch is now in the Tate Britain’s collection.

The Basilica di Santa Maria delle Vigne

Travel tip:

The Basilica di Santa Maria delle Vigne, where Alessandro Stradella was buried, is in Vico del Campanile delle Vigne in Genoa. The church dates back to the 10th century, but the main altar was not completed until 1730 and it is decorated with 17th and 18th century works of art.

More reading:

Why Arcangelo Corelli was a major influence on the development of music

The student of Corelli who gave Antonio Vivaldi work as a violin tutor

How novelist Francis Marion Crawford found inspiration in Sorrento

Also on this day:

1881: The birth of Alcide de Gasperi, the future prime minister jailed by Mussolini

1899: The birth of supercentenarian Maria Angela Radaelli

Home