What do you think?
Rate this book
La Galleria nazionale d'arte antica: Palazzo Barberini (Itinerari d'arte e di cultura. Palazzo Barberini)
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 21, 2024
The Palazzo Barberini in Rome is the home of the Italian National Gallery of Ancient Art. It is full of mainly, but not exclusively, Renaissance art of a high order. No doubt it is a magnificent collection housed in a wonderful building.
The subject matter of the artists is overwhelmingly religious portraiture alongside mythological scenes, featuring some pretty big names like Titian, Caravaggio, Furini, Raphael, Bernini and Pietro Da Cortona plus scores of Italians I haven’t actually heard of, plus a smattering of quite well known ‘foreigners’, including Hans Holbein whose portrait of the hefty Henry VIII of England (p45), looks very familiar, El Greco and Nicholas Poussin.
Now this is not to my taste, my interest in visual art starts about the time of JWM Turner, say 1800, which is way after all those pious people stopped looking skyward.
However I was stuck by the Caravaggio action pic of Judith beheading Holofernes (pp88-89). No doubt Judith was annoyed with Holofernes, but also mad at the total absence of women painters in the collection (I do understand the historical reasons why this is so).
I was also taken by two tremendously atypical paintings by Bartolomeo Pazzarotti (1529-1592), a new artist to me who created sometime between 1578 and 1590 two smiling meatworkers among the carcasses with a boar’s head also prominent in (The Butcher’s Shop) (p61), and a senior couple with baskets of seafood along with spectacular crustaceans laid out on their table (The Fishmonger’s Shop) (p62). The lady seems to be telling the gentleman to stop handling the fish so much but that’s only speculation.
This is a wonderful catalogue for enthusiasts of religious art from Italy.
The subject matter of the artists is overwhelmingly religious portraiture alongside mythological scenes, featuring some pretty big names like Titian, Caravaggio, Furini, Raphael, Bernini and Pietro Da Cortona plus scores of Italians I haven’t actually heard of, plus a smattering of quite well known ‘foreigners’, including Hans Holbein whose portrait of the hefty Henry VIII of England (p45), looks very familiar, El Greco and Nicholas Poussin.
Now this is not to my taste, my interest in visual art starts about the time of JWM Turner, say 1800, which is way after all those pious people stopped looking skyward.
However I was stuck by the Caravaggio action pic of Judith beheading Holofernes (pp88-89). No doubt Judith was annoyed with Holofernes, but also mad at the total absence of women painters in the collection (I do understand the historical reasons why this is so).
I was also taken by two tremendously atypical paintings by Bartolomeo Pazzarotti (1529-1592), a new artist to me who created sometime between 1578 and 1590 two smiling meatworkers among the carcasses with a boar’s head also prominent in (The Butcher’s Shop) (p61), and a senior couple with baskets of seafood along with spectacular crustaceans laid out on their table (The Fishmonger’s Shop) (p62). The lady seems to be telling the gentleman to stop handling the fish so much but that’s only speculation.
This is a wonderful catalogue for enthusiasts of religious art from Italy.
March 6, 2018
Una delle guide più inutili che mi sia mai capitato di acquistare.
Considerando che col bendidio che c'è alla Galleria Barberini ci si può scrivere una storia dell'arte, la scelta scellerata di questa guida è, per la parte di dipinti "descritta", dare minuzioso conto delle attribuzioni e controattribuzioni con dettagli degni dello studio notarile Abbondio&Co.
Disperatamente irritante.
Considerando che col bendidio che c'è alla Galleria Barberini ci si può scrivere una storia dell'arte, la scelta scellerata di questa guida è, per la parte di dipinti "descritta", dare minuzioso conto delle attribuzioni e controattribuzioni con dettagli degni dello studio notarile Abbondio&Co.
Disperatamente irritante.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews