Carlo Maratti and Portraiture: Popes and Princes of the Roman Baroque
06 December 2024 - 16 February 2025
In order to mark the 400-year anniversary of the birth of Carlo Maratti (Camerano 1625 – Rome 1713) and the release of a critical catalogue of his works, the exhibition “Carlo Maratti and Portraiture: Popes and Princes of the Roman Baroque” by Simonetta Prosperi, Valenti Rodinò and Yuri Primarosa, showcases a little-known feature of this Marche artist’s production: his portraiture of the Roman nobility.
Although today he is mainly known for his paintings of religious subjects and his decoration of Roman churches, Maratti was famous throughout Europe for his portraiture. His studio rose to prominence also thanks to his drawn and painted effigies, securing Maratti’s place as a trendsetter of taste on the Roman art scene for over half a century.
The lifelike quality of the figures, the attention to detail, the balance between demeanor and expressivity, the measured interaction between the subject’s introspective nature and their outward character as well as the quality of the painting itself put some of the pieces displayed on par with the leading portrait artists of the time. In Europe, Maratti’s reputation as a portrait artist was based not only on his skill in realistically portraying his subjects’ physiognomic features while exploring their character in-depth, but also on ensuring that they passed into posterity surrounded by carefully selected objects that revealed their rank, profession, taste, aspirations and most secret interests.
Maratti’s portraiture masterpieces include paintings for Pope Clement IX Rospigliosi and various members of the Barberini family, some of which are on display here for the first time. Maratti’s effigy of this pope from the Vatican Pinacoteca is shown here alongside an admirable portrait of the same pope by Giovan Battista Gaulli, marking the meeting of two seemingly irreconcilable categories of 17th-century art: classicism and baroque.
Maratti successfully injected new vigor into his expressions of a tried-and-true formula in Roman portraiture, which in the mid-17th century reached its peak in painting with Pietro da Cortona and Andrea Sacchi. The Marche maestro, Sacchi’s best student, generated a stratified, ideal gallery of faces. Maratti immortalized more than just popes, prelates and members of the aristocracy, his subjects even included Roman “beauties”, the first English gentlemen of the Grand Tour, professionals, relatives and friends, including the art expert Giovan Pietro Bellori, who was Maratti’s admirer, devoted protector and intellectual alter ego.
PRESS CONTACTS:
Lara Facco P&C | press@larafacco.com
Lara Facco | +39 349 2529989 | lara@larafacco.com
Camilla Capponi | +39 366 3947098 | camilla@larafacco.com
Marianita Santarossa | +39 333 422 4032 | marianita@larafacco.com
Alberto Fabbiano | +39 340 8797779 | alberto@larafacco.com
INFO:
www.barberinicorsini.org | gan-aar.comunicazione@cultura.gov.it
