Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Bologna and Rome: Francesco Albani’s Correspondence and his Reflections on Art (1637–59)
- 3 Collezionismo in Early Modern Bologna: The Fantuzzi’s Acquisition and Display of Drawings and Paintings by Local Masters
- 4 Collecting Women’s Art in Early Modern Bologna: Myth and Reality
- 5 Bolognese Artists and Paintings in Mantua during the Gonzaga Nevers Period
- 6 Bolognese Painters in the Private Collections of Romagna: The Albicini Marchis Collection in Forlì
- 7 Bolognese Paintings in Seventeenth-Century Medici Collections Reconsidered (1600–75)
- Bibliography
- Index
7 - Bolognese Paintings in Seventeenth-Century Medici Collections Reconsidered (1600–75)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2020
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Bologna and Rome: Francesco Albani’s Correspondence and his Reflections on Art (1637–59)
- 3 Collezionismo in Early Modern Bologna: The Fantuzzi’s Acquisition and Display of Drawings and Paintings by Local Masters
- 4 Collecting Women’s Art in Early Modern Bologna: Myth and Reality
- 5 Bolognese Artists and Paintings in Mantua during the Gonzaga Nevers Period
- 6 Bolognese Painters in the Private Collections of Romagna: The Albicini Marchis Collection in Forlì
- 7 Bolognese Paintings in Seventeenth-Century Medici Collections Reconsidered (1600–75)
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Abstract
Elena Fumagalli's chapter utilizes new documentary discoveries to examine the substantial presence of Bolognese paintings in the Medici collections, also considering the long-standing relationships between various Bolognese artists and this eminent family of collectors throughout the seventeenth century. Focusing on the Medici's ongoing struggles to acquire paintings by the Carracci, Lanfranco, Reni, Albani, and Guercino, Fumagalli provides a vivid picture of both the Medici's taste for Bolognese paintings and the competition for such works during the seventeenth century.
Keywords: Florence, Carracci, Medici, Reni, Albani, Guercino
In seventeenth-century Florence, there was considerable interest in contemporary easel paintings and mural decorations specifically from Bologna and generally from the entire Emilian region. The interest of the Medici in Bolognese painting surpassed their attention to works from Naples, Genoa, or Lombardy and contributed to creating the nucleus of their significant collection of Bolognese pictures.
As recent studies have shown, the quadratura painters Angelo Michele Colonna and Agostino Mitelli had a continuing relationship with the court of the Medici grand duke and his entourage, a relation that, in the case of Colonna, lasted for thirty years. The two painters made their Florentine debut in 1634, together with Francesco Albani, decorating a room in the Medicean Villa di Mezzomonte owned by Prince Giovancarlo de’ Medici (Plate 9), competing against a team of Florentine artists composed of Bartolomeo Neri, Baccio del Bianco, and Giovanni da San Giovanni. The Bolognese proved superior in the execution of the architectural frame and were also assigned the task of decorating the three main rooms in the summer apartment of the Grand Duke Ferdinando II in Palazzo Pitti (1637–41). The first of these rooms had already begun to be decorated by Giovanni da San Giovanni, but work had stopped following his death in December 1636. With these initial successes, Bolognese quadratura began to make a name for itself in Florence, giving rise to a lively local school. Colonna and Mitelli collaborated on many residences in the city and in the surrounding area, not only for various members of the Medici family (Ferdinando II and his brothers Giovancarlo and Mattias), but also for that of the Niccolini, who were closely connected to the Medici grand ducal dynasty.
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- Reframing Seventeenth-Century Bolognese ArtArchival Discoveries, pp. 139 - 160Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2019