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Jan.2, 2005 - Jan.9, 2005 |
The Seduction of Portraits in the 1700s
Bergamo exhibition explains why Fra' Galgario was one of Italy's most famous artists
Originally Published: 2003-11-23
Admiring the 18th century Portrait of a Knight of the Constantinian Order, Giovanni Testori, one of Italy's best-known art critics, exclaimed, "This is the greatest portrait that 18th-century painting has given us." The portrait, currently belonging to the Poldi Pezzoli Museum, was painted by Lombard painter Fra' Galgario, a friar of the Society of St. Paul who lived from 1665 to 1743. His real name was Vittore Ghislandi and he was a great European artist straddling the 17th and 18th centuries.
This extraordinary artist was the living emblem of a pictorial tradition distinguished by style features having great technical importance. His name is little known nowadays because his portraits, highly sought after by the aristocracy and bourgeoisie of the period, remained jealously in private collections, largely inaccessible to the public. Now some 50 paintings can finally be seen, all together, in an exhibition at the Modern Art Gallery of Bergamo entitled "Fra' Galgario, le seduzioni del ritratto nel '700 europeo" ("Fra' Galgario, the Seduction of Portraits in Europe in the 1700s"), doing justice to his delicate genius. The exhibition also displays numerous works by other famous portrait painters of the time, especially from France.
Fra' Galgario led a wandering life. From his native Bergamo, where he became a friar and began honing his painting skills with his fellow friars and later with Giacomo Cotta and Bartolomeo Bianchini, he moved to Venice, apparently after many altercations with his father, where he would perfect his art and letters. There, in the throbbing heart of the Enlightenment, this artist was offered the extraordinary opportunity of working in Sebastiano Bombelli's workshop and studying the works of Titian and Paolo Veronese. His thirst for knowledge led him to Milan where he collaborated with German Salomon Adler, coming to terms with the latest currents of central European style.
The field where Fra' Galgario excelled was portrait painting. This is testified by the many canvasses he did on commissions by noble local families, e.g. the Secco Sguardos, the Albanis, the Bettanis, and the Camozzis. His work was also requested by foreign houses such as the Lowerstein princes and the Earls of Daun. His fame is particularly linked to his portraits of young men: one of the most famous paintings is his Portrait of a Young Painter, kept at Accademia Carrara.
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