Giovanni Lanfranco

Bio

Lanfranco was born in 1582 in Parma, where he received his first instruction from Agostino Carracci. After the latter’s death in 1602, he moved to Rome, with his fellow student Sisto Badalocchio where together they joined the workshop of Annibale Carracci in the Palazzo Farnese. There are no works from the first two or three years of his Roman stay. He participated in the execution of the wall frescoes of the Galleria Farnese (probably 1604-5) and early in 1605, after Annibale had fallen ill; he was also entrusted with his first independent work, the decoration of the Camerino degli Eremiti in the Palazzetto Farnese (Casino della Morte). He then worked for the Marchese Sannesi and Cardinal Alessandro Peretti Montalto, and, under Reni’s direction, for Cardinal Scipione Borghese and Pope Paul V in San Gregorio Magno and the Quirinal Palace. The graceful, tender style of his first decade in Rome shows the predominant influence of his teacher, Annibale Carracci, but at the same time also shows a remarkable freedom of handling, invention and composition which is greater than any of Annibale’s other assistants. One year after Annibale Carracci’s death in July 1609, Lanfranco moved to Piacenza, where he stayed for almost two years. He painted several altarpieces and decorated a chapel. He was influenced by Correggio’s works in Parma, as well as those of Ludovico Carracci and Bartolomeo Schedoni. He was back in Rome before the end of 1612, but had a hard time establishing himself against the competition of Domenichino and the domination of Guido Reni, who left Rome in 1614. The decoration of the Cappella Buongiovanni in Sant’Agostino (1616), his first public commission, was a breakthrough and established him as one of the most modern painters of the day, winning him the attention of the papal court and leading to his participation in the decoration of the Sala Regia in the Quirinal palace (1616-17). He also painted numerous altarpieces in Rome, Lazio and the Marches. He abandoned the more dramatic style of his Emilian phase and developed a delicate style of great elegance, using subtle controluce effects and a magical chiaroscuro atmosphere that parallels that of Borgianni and the ‘caravaggisti nobilitati’. Lanfranco’s most important papal commission in Rome, the decoration of the ceiling of the Benediction Loggia in Saint Peter’s of 1619 was cancelled because of the sudden death of Pope Gregory XV in 1621. Around 1620-21, he developed a new powerful and dynamic style which was truly baroque style and found its highpoint in the paintings for the Sacchetti Chapel in San Giovanni dei Fiorentini (1623-24). This style was further developed in the paintings of the Sacrament Chapel of San Paolo Fuori le Mura (1624-25) and the contemporary ceiling fresco for the Casino Borghese. Lanfranco reached his full maturity in his most celebrated work, the huge dome fresco for Sant’Andrea della Valle, Rome (1625-27) and the fresco for the Navicella altar in Saint Peter’s (1627-28). In the late 1620s and early 1630s, Lanfranco was influenced by the neo-Venetian tendencies, which pervaded Roman painting of the moment. Becoming more and more eclipsed by the ascending new artists of the Barberini court, Pietro da Cortona and Andrea Sacchi, he accepted an invitation from the Neapolitan Jesuits to decorate the dome of their church Gesu’ Nuova, and arrived in Naples, in the spring of 1634. He stayed there for twelve years, obtaining important commissions, mostly for extensive fresco decorations in San Martino, Santi Apostoli, and the Cappella del Tesoro in the cathedral. In 1646, a year before his death, Lanfranco returned to Rome, where he painted his last work, the apse fresco in San Carlo ai Catinari.