Pietro Bardellino

Bio

Pietro Bardellino is one of the most interesting painters active in Naples in the second half of the eighteenth century and by far the most talented disciple of Francesco De Mura (Naples 1696-1782). He remained dependent upon De Mura until his maturity when his palette became lighter and his style more decorative. One of the best examples of his early production may be seen in his first public commission, Macrone Curing a Wounded warrior, painted for the ceiling of the Farmacia degli Incurabili, Naples, in 1750. Works executed between 1750 also show some similarities with the late style of Bonito as well as some affinities with Starace and Diano. Bardellino’s output appears to have declined rapidly between 1765 and l788, possibly owing to the impact of the new Neo-classical ideals of Mengs and Batoni which provoked a crisis among the more conservative painters of the Neapolitan school.

At the beginning of the ‘80s, Bardellino probably reacted to his temporary isolation and renewed his style, influenced by Giacomo del Po’s decorative cycles of 1705-1712 and by the luminous, rich colour of Corrado Giaquinto, although he never quite abandoned the Baroque grounding of his early work. The most elaborate examples of the artist’s maturity are the bozzetti for the dome of the Palazzo degli Studi, representing The Apotheosis of the Bourbons (Cleveland, Museum of Fine Art) and Mercury Taking Psyche to Olympus (Berlin, Staatliche Museen). His last compositions, such as the ceiling painting of 1792 for the library of the Girolamini, Naples become ‘coloured shadows in the all-enveloping, vaporous pink atmosphere …. the composition …characterised by richly coloured, luminous environments in …. Cones….. that fade into delicate solutions of light pink and sea green’ .