Bartolomeo Manfredi
Place Born
OstianoPlace Died
RomeBio
There are few documents, no signed and only one dated painting of 1609 by the artist, making it difficult to establish a precise chronology of the artists work. Mancini (1617-1620) tells us that the young Bartolomeo Manfredi learned his craft in Cremona, Brescia and Milan, and notes his arrival in Rome, which can be presumed to be around 1600 and, in any case, before 1606. Baglione (1642) suggested that he studied with the late Mannerist artist Cristofano Roncalli, called Pomerancio, and that he came into contact with Caravaggio ; but both painters had left Rome by 1606. Bartolomeo Manfredi is documented in the Sant’Andrea delle Fratte quarter in Rome between 1616 and 1619 and his paintings indicate his close stylistic affinities to Caravaggio’s early naturalism. This is particularly evident in his genre scenes or secularized religious subjects which are derived from Caravaggio’s works in the Contarelli Chapel, Rome but the true flowering of Bartolomeo Manfredi’s art developed only after Caravaggios departure from Rome in 1606, at which time Bartolomeo Manfredi, then aged about 20, embarked on an independent career.