Bellori's Art: The Taste and Distaste of a Seventeenth-Century Art Critic in Rome Author(s): Hans Raben Reviewed work(s):

Source: Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art, Vol. 32, No. 2/3 (2006), pp. 126-146 Published by: Stichting voor Nederlandse Kunsthistorische Publicaties Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20355327 . Accessed: 26/04/2012 10:10
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I2?

Bellori's

art: the taste and distaste of a seventeenth-century art critic inRome*

Hans Raben

introduction
modern art is not

Fulminating
an invention

against the products

of nineteenth-century

of

Frenchman

and

only

one

Roman.

He

received

great

critics shocked by the audacity of works they did not un

derstand. some stead of of The the man who age expressed in such that words not his abhorrence as "specters children of in art of his

shapes,"

"works

are

natural

but bastards of nature," and who felt that their makers

"satisfy themselves with ugliness and errors," was the

praise for his biographies but was unable to muster fi nancial support for a second, enlarged edition.3 In his biography of Agostino Carracci, he criticizes the artist for rubbing shoulders with members of the upper class, while at the same time admiring Rubens and Van Dyck for their ability to move freely in the circles of princes and noblemen. And, perhaps most striking of all, his de scription of works of art is often so extremely literary
and formal as to make one wonder which qualities he re

learned gentleman Giovanni Pietro Bellori (1613-96), the highly esteemed Roman antiquarian and officer of the Accademia di San Luca addressing an audience of
academicians and members of Roman society in 1664.1

He obviously considered this text sufficiently important to have it printed eight years later as an introduction to
his most biographies canonical of artists. status Since of then the it has earliest acquired declarations al as one

ally admired, but then all of a sudden he inserts a phrase that betrays a genuine sensitivity to pictorial details. When we add to this his reputation as a theoretician of
art and the wide range of his papal poet, activities commissioner and custodian as an art critic, collector, antiquities, Christina antiquarian, occasional of Sweden's the for Roman of Queen urges him sense in his what itself ap his

of the principles of Classicism.

In the last few decades, Italian numerous sought students to clarify of seven teenth-century art have Bellori's

upon proach

us what

medals, ideas were day,

the question that moved in a wider

to the art of his

and

ideas against
Rome.2 dictions. This To

the background
has name resulted but a few: he

of the culture of papal

of aman the of contra stand rates artistic

position
This

in the culture of his day was.

study focuses on what seems to be the uneasy re

in a picture

lationship between Bellori

saw around him in Rome.

the art-lover and the art he

It sets out to find an answer to

ing of his native Rome higher than that of any other city, but in support of this claim he writes the biographies of
ten artists from northern Italy, three Flemings, one

two questions:
strongly,

precisely what
arguments,

art did he condemn

theoretical or otherwise,

so

and what

* The author is greatly indebted to Professor Anton Boschloo andMrs Nelke Bartelings for their helpful critical remarks. i Giovanni Pietro Bellori, Le Vite de'pittoriscultori et architetti mo derni, ed. E. Borea, Turin 1976 (ed. princ. Rome 1672), with LTdea del pittore, de Ho scultore e delV architetto S celta dalle bellezze naturali superi ore alia Natura, on pp. 13-25. Here esp. pp. 21, 22: "...larve in vece di figure... opera non figliuole, ma bastarde della natura,... si assuefanno alia brutezza ed a gli errori." For Bellori's biography see K. Donahue, "Bellori," inA.M. Ghisalberti (ed.), Dizionario biogr?fico degli Italiani, in progress, Rome i960-, vol. 7, pp. 781-89. 2 Two recent publications of a general nature which reflect the

scope of Bellori research are E. Borea et ai, exhib. cat. L viaggio per Roma nel Seicent o con Giovan Pietro Bellori, 2000; J. Bell and T. Willette (Palazzo delle Esposizioni) tory in the age of Bellori: scholarship and cultural politics century Rome, Cambridge 2002.

'Idea del bello: 2 vols., Rome (eds.), Art his in seventeenth

3 Prior to the twentieth-century reprints, the 12 biographies were in 1728 in a pirated edition inNaples, with an added only republished a painter whose art must (1632-1705), biography of Luca Giordano to Bellori; see T. Willette, have been thoroughly uncongenial "The second edition of Bellori's Lives: placing Luca Giordano in the canon of moderns," in Bell andWillette, op. cit. (note 2), pp. 278-91.

127

did he advance to justify his judgments? In order to an swer those questions we shall focus primarily on the few texts inwhich he expressed himself on the art and artists of Rome: his Nota on the libraries and collections of Rome (1664), his discourse of the same year before the Accademia di San Luca, and his Vite.4 Finally, we shall take a short look at some of his final writings on art dat ing from the 1690s. Before undertaking
portant to recognize

ment on the art of Rome,

into more Few closely. collections seem

theNota
to have

deserves to be looked
his attention.

escaped

He mentions

62 (including his own) in alphabetical or der, of which he discusses 23 in detail and 19with refer ence to their most prominent works. He identifies 53

painters, almost evenly divided between the Seicento and before. However the frequency with which they are
mentioned varies considerably.10 To a certain extent

an analysis of his writings

that Bellori's interest

it is im
ex

in the arts

isted from an early date, but that he published little on aesthetic subjects during the first 50 years of his life.5 His early interest is evident from the fact that he was working on a number of artists' biographies from the late 1640s on, and that he filled the post of secretary of the Accademia di San Luca in 1652 and again in later years.6 During that time his activities in the field of anti
quarian publications, studies were especially more marked, witness his various on numismatics.7 It is as an anti

this may have depended on the number of works pre sent in the collections. An analysis of the frequency with which particular artists appear in combination with the qualifications, if any, which Bellori uses in referring to them or their work, should shed more light on the ques tion of whether his personal preference also played a role. It is also useful to examine the relationship be tween Bellori's account of the composition of the collec tions and their actual composition as evidenced by con
temporary inventories.

quarian that he is constantly mentioned his life, in Italy and abroad. visiting
tion of

until the end of

In the light of Bellori's

vocate sults of what later came along of an analysis

reputation as the staunch ad

to be called these lines the re Classicism, are not without sur

bellori ROMEwith In 1664, while he was still working on his artists' biographies, his first publica
some importance on art appeared: the Nota on

prises. It was to be expected that artists like Annibale Carracci and Guido Reni would receive full honors.
They do. But on the other hand, several artists who

the libraries and collections of Rome. This was a purely

informative and not a scholarly work, undertaken at the

request of the publishers as an appendix to a guide to the

administration. papal on Roman libraries Nota he It contains as on private added as much art collections. an essay information To this an

would not at first sight seem to belong to Bellori's fa vorites are quite frequently mentioned, and what is more striking is that in some cases they receive laudato
ry comments. One example is Caravaggio, who else

where
to which

is repeatedly held up as an example of the dangers

modern art was exposed, but whose Supper at

characteristically

on Roman

tiquities.9 Yet,

as his first comprehensive

public com

Emmaus

is singled out as being "very beautiful"

(fig.

4 Giovanni Pietro Bellori, Nota delli musei, librerie, galerie et orna ' ' menti di statue e pitture ne palazzi, neue case e ne giardini di Roma, Rome 1664, inV. Romani, Biblioteche romane del Sei eSettecento, Rome 1996. See also the edition by E. Zocca (ed.), Rome 1976; P. Barocchi et al. (eds.), "Corpus Inform?tico Belloriano," http://biblio.cribecu. Pisa 2000/01. See note 1 for his discourse sns.it/bellori/index.html, and Le Vite.

Vite e il loro scopo," Studi di Storia delVArte 13 (2002), pp. 177-248. 7 For his antiquarian and literary activities see Barocchi et al., op. cit. (note 4). In a letter of 1657 Bellori himself wrote about his "innate" talent, which led him to the "memories of antiquity" ("...io mi lascio condurre dal mi? innato talento verso le antiche memorie"); quoted in in Bellori, op. cit. (note 1), pp. xvii-lx, G. Previtali, "Introduction," in Borea et al., op. cit. esp. p. xx (reprinted with updated bibliography (note 2), pp. 165-82, esp. p. 165). 8 Girolamo Lunadoro, Relatione d?lia Corte di Roma, Rome 1664. ' 9 Delli vestigi delle pitture antiche dal buon sec?lo de Romani, Baroc chi et al., op. cit. (note 4), pp. 56-66. Although Bellori's name does not appear in theNota, his authorship was confirmed by the English travel er, Sir Philip Skippon, who visited Bellori in 1665; see Donahue, op. cit. (note 1), p. 783. 10 See Appendix.

5 Apart from the explanatory legends for Carlo Cesi's engravings after the Carracci frescoes in the gallery of the Farnese palace, Argu mento della Galleria Farnese dipinta da Annibale Carracci disegnata e in tagliata da Carlo Cesio, Rome 1657, his early publications relating to art were restricted to a few occasional poems; see P. Barocchi, "Gli stru menti di Bellori," in Borea et al., op. cit. (note 2), vol. 1, pp. 55-71. 6 For a very complete overview of the gestation of Bellori's Vite see D.L. Sparti, "La formazione di Giovan Pietro Bellori: la nascita delle

128

HANS

RABEN

i Michelangelo Merisi da Cara vaggio, The supper at Emmaus, 1606. Milan, Brera (with the authorization of theMinistero per iB?ni e leAttivit? Culturali)

i)." Moreover,

the

artist

and

his works

are

repeatedly

As

a corollary

of his

preference

for Classicist

art, Bel

mentioned
Carracci,

in the same breath as painters like Annibale

Guido Reni and Domenichino, who repre

lori also acquired the reputation of being an enemy of

Mannerism. This makes his generous treatment of the

sented the highest art for Bellori. Even more remarkable is the frequent appearance of Giuseppe Cesari, the Ca
vali?re d'Arpino, who would later receive very unfavor

able treatment
He, the too, star performers, among

in the biography of Annibale Carracci.

several and in one times case works... sign in the his company are of in paintings by other

in the salotto of the frescoes by two noted Mannerists Palazzo Farnese, Francesco Salviati (1510-63) and Tad deo Zuccari (1529-66), all the more remarkable. Their work is specifically included under the heading of the
of the palace, which he de decorations" "magnificent as "one of the wonders scribes of the world."14 In the de

is mentioned

cluded

"very

beautiful

famous least a se

scription of another collection, Taddeo's

is even mentioned among the "most

Fall of St Paul
exquisite pic

painters."12

Another

unmistakable

of at

lective appreciation of the Cavali?re is to be found in an other document, in which his Taking of Christ is called "his best work" (fig. 2).13
il Bellori, op. cit. (note 4), p. 44: "belissima." 12 Ibid., p. 43: "...bellissimi quadri ad olio di Guido Reni, Guercino da Cento, Giuseppino, Mich?le da Caravaggio, & di altri celebri pit tori." 13 Giovanni Baglione, Le Vite de 'pittori, ' scultori et architetti dal pon tifica to di Gregorio XIII. del 1572. Infino a tempi di Papa Urbano Otta vo nel 1642, ed. V. Mariani, Rome 1935 (ed. princ. Rome 1642), p. 370, transcribed on p. 11. See also the edition by J. Hess and H. R?ttgen, 3 vols., Rome 1995. These words of praise are to be found in the notes

tures."15 Even if theNota

what unexpected one praise is to make for these of his

is not a critical essay, Bellori's

artists later raises the question of severe pronouncements.

that Bellori scribbled in the margin of his copy of the Baglione. They are all the more remarkable in that those notes also contain harsh criti cism of the painter. del 14 Bellori, op. cit. (note 1), p. 24: "L'una delle meraviglie... mondo per magnificenza di... pitture." 15 Bellori, op. cit. (note 4), p. 36: "...adobbate le camere delle piu es quisite pitture; tra queste... caduta di San Pavolo storia grande di Tad deo Zuccheri."

Bellori's

art:

the

taste

and

distaste

of a seventeenth-century

art critic

in Rome

129

A last example of the light which Bellori's Nota

to throw tona. This on his critical views concerns as often Pietro as Andrea artist is mentioned

seems
da Cor Sacchi

(who was definitely

case among "painters

one of Bellori's
of repute" with

favorites),
special

in one

reference

to his Rape of the Sabine women (fig. 3).16 Later, in the life of Carlo Maratti, dating from the 1680s, he is even
characterized painter."17 Baroque, as "no Perhaps of which may less Bellori's Pietro have excellent attitude da Cortona been an architect towards was a the than early a

prominent than is gen

representative, erally supposed.

less negative

If the inclusion of these artists among those who de serve praise is curious, equally remarkable is the lack of
praise of Claude lectors, in other cases. Thus another His the distinctly great luminous favorite cool treatment col har Lorrain, is surprising. of Roman and

landscapes

bor views, often peopled with classical deities, heroes and heroines, cannot be called heretical (fig. 4). He is hardly better treated than a far less distinguished
i6 Ibid., p. 49: "Opere di pittore di fama; tra le quali... Titiano,... Alberto Duro, il ratto d?lie Sabine di Pietro da Cortona [em non meno che pit

Guido,...

phasis added]." 17 Bellori, op. cit. (note 1), p. 585: "...architetto tore eccellente." 2 Giuseppe Cesari, ilCavalier d'Arpino, The taking of Christ, 1596/97. Rome, Galleria Borghese (Archivio fotogr?fico Soprintendenza Sp?ciale per il Polo Museale Romano)

The ofthe women, ^HHfii^^^^^^^P*^^^^^^H^^^^^H8?iflSAi?ltP!^^^^^^^^^^^^E^^^^^^ rape Sabine

130

HANS

RABEN

4 Claude Gell?e leLorrain, Coastal view with Apollo and the Cumaean Sibyl, 1645/1649. St Petersburg, Hermitage

5 Giovanni

Battista Viola,

Landscape with a hunting party, after 1603. London, National Gallery

Bellori's

art:

the

taste

and

distaste

of a seventeenth-century

art critic

in Rome

131

painter like Giovanni Battista Viola (fig. 5). This aloof ness cannot be explained by objections to landscape
painting as such, because, as we shall see, Bellori did ap

preciate
Domenichino.

landscapes painted by Annibale Carracci and

It has been suggested that some of the unexpected praise for particular artists might be the result of the
wishes of the owners of the works in question.18 Al

though Bellori may at times not have been above some diplomatic flexibility, I believe that it would be going
too far to ascribe to him an almost venal quality. He may

not have felt free to air serious criticisms, but where he really might have had insurmountable objections to a particular artist he would probably have chosen to ig nore him. This is indeed one of the questions to which
his Nota gives rise. 6 Pieter Bodding van Laer, called IIBamboccio, The cake-vendor, 1630. Rome, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica in Palazzo Barberini (Archivio fotogr?fico Soprintendenza Sp?ciale per il Polo Museale Romano)

who

is missing?
of

choice in theNota
in a sample six prominent

A comparison between Bellori's and the names of the artists featuring

inventories reveals or that surveys at least of 70 collections

contemporary Roman

painters did not pass the test (if there was one). It is highly unlikely that their absence can be explained by
their owners' wishes. This seems to confirm our suspi sec

7 Mattia Preti, Theflight ofAeneas from Troy, c. 1630. Rome, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica in Palazzo Barberini (Archivio fotogr?fico Soprintendenza Sp?ciale per il Polo Museale Romano)

cion that Bellori's

after all.

personal preferences
group: most

did play a role

of the

It is a colorful

painters

ond half of the sixteenth century are neglected (with the exception of the two just mentioned and of the Vene
tians fate Titian, is, of Veronese, course, Tintoretto shared by Pieter and Bassano). van Laer, This better

known as Bamboccio, and his like-minded northern and Italian colleagues, who depicted people, as Bellori phrased it on the authority of Aristotle in his discourse,
as "worse than ordinary," which in practice meant all

those who specialized in scenes of daily life (fig. 6).19 The followers of Pietro da Cortona are not saved by the
modest appreciation for their tutor. Nor are the expo

nents of the newer tendencies of the later Seicento, like Mattia Preti, or of the high Baroque to be found (fig. 7).
Another striking example is the absence of Herman van

Swanevelt, who during his long stay inRome

(1627-39)

18 G. Perini, "Una certa idea di Raffaello nel Seicento," in Borea et al., op. cit. (note 2), vol. 1, pp. 153-61, esp. p. 158. 19 Bellori, op. cit. (note 1), p. 16: "...dipinse I peggiori." It did not help that Pieter van Laer was amember of the Accademia di San Luca and an acquaintance of Nicolas Poussin.

132

HANS

RABEN

8 Herman

van Swanevelt,

Landscape with a scenefrom the Old Testament, 1630. The Hague, Museum Bredius

acquired considerable popularity with Roman collectors (fig. 8).20 But of course he was closely associated with
Claude Lorrain. of these cases the absence of a name may have In some

a theory

of

sorts

In

the

autumn

of

that

same

year

1664 Bellori the theorist came out in the open. He vol unteered to deliver a discourse before the Accademia di San Luca as part of the efforts undertaken in 1663 by tne
then principe, the painter Pier Francesco Mola, to estab

been indicative of Bellori's distaste for some of the art in Rome. It thus provides at least the beginning of an an
swer art to my first question In the individual in the city. of absence his appreciation concerning for of a clear criterion the answer to the of the

literary educational schedule in the acade my, something that Bellori must have supported whole heartedly.21 One senses his feeling that his discourse with the resounding
of the from tain painter, natural the beauty,

lish a more

exclusion

artists,

second

title that he later gave it, "The Idea

sculptor superior and the architect, selected should con the ex to Nature," It seems later, that

question
must

about

the arguments
wait. His silence

behind
may have

his
been

judgment
a defen

obviously

sive tactic to avoid problems with the owners, but the

fact that he would the soon search. take the offensive encourages us to continue

a substantial which good

argument, ceptionally

message.22 he uses painters,

to foreshadow there are so few

because

it pretends

to estab

20 Van Swanevelt's work is to be found in the Doria Pamphilj and Barberini collections, among others (22 and 35 paintings respectively). 21 In 1663 the painters Carlo Cesi and Giovanni Battista Passeri had been appointed to speak. Passeri had this and other speeches printed; see N. Turner, "Four academy discourses Battista by Giovanni Passeri," Storia delTArte 19 (1973), pp. 231-47.

22 Bellori's sense of self-esteem must have been well developed, for he refused to abide by the rule that speeches to be delivered before the Accademia had to be reviewed in advance by two members. Bellori did not give in, the session was postponed for a week and the speech was read by somebody else; see A. Cipriani, "Bellori ovvero VAccademia," in Borea et al., op. cit. (note 2), vol. 2, p. 481.

Bellori's

art:

the

taste

and

distaste

of a seventeenth-century

art critic

in Rome

133

lish a theoretical foundation for the selection of superior

art. Bellori's reputation as a great theorist starts here.

As is well known since Panofsky's

cept ture of Idea in art theory, Bellori's and traditional text of Neo-Platonist

study of the con

is a curious Renaissance mix no

ber of the audience at that session of the Accademia di San Luca where Bellori had his speech read out in 1664) will be forgiven if he or she is slightly puzzled by this concept of an Idea which is first supposed to be formed in the mind
and has uses its origin

of the artist who imitates the "first maker"

nature, but which We are at the same time in "nature." to under

tions enriched with numerous quotations from classical authors.23 He also leans heavily on the ideas contained in
the well-known manuscript of a treatise on art theory

it to correct

expected

stand that there is an ideal nature next to imperfect na

ture. artist, However, since half even the latter later is of our importance to the a page author recommends

written at the beginning of the century by Monsignor Giovanni Battista Agucchi (1570-1632), a friend of his patron Angeloni, who was the first to recognize the in vigorating role of the Carracci inRoman art.24 Let us follow Bellori's line of thought in some de tail.25He begins by stating that the "highest and eternal intellect constituted... the first forms called Ideas." But while "celestial bodies" remain beautiful forever, "sub lunar bodies," and especially human beauty, suffer from "deformities and disproportions." That is why "noble painters and sculptors, imitating that first maker, also
form in their minds an example of superior beauty."

that the artist select the Idea of the highest beauty from different bodies, because nature cannot show perfection in one single body.28 The conclusion must be that the author's Idea is a hybrid notion originating from the in
teraction between different sources, the exact impor

tance of the respective factors being left open.29 Perhaps it is not entirely appropriate to apply strict
Cartesian standards to Bellori's reasoning. Looking

Keeping
faultless

this example inmind

color or line." This,

they emend nature "with

writes Bellori, is "Idea,...

closely at his text it becomes clear that the speech was above all a piece of good old-fashioned rhetoric de to impress upon the audience what he obviously signed believed to be a cardinal question for art and the artist: the need to follow the ideal middle way between unbri dled fantasy and the slavish copying of nature.30
There is a strong suspicion that the passages on theo

the goddess of painting and sculpture." According to him it is "born from nature" but "it overcomes its origin and becomes the model of art."26 To clinch the argu ment he adds that "the Idea of the painter and the sculp tor is that perfect and excellent example of the mind," (emphasis added) and that "Idea constitutes the perfec
tion of natural beauty."27 The attentive reader (or mem

ry were dictated less by philosophical considerations than by the orator's desire to keep his options open in
both respects: the the role artistic of the mind artist's and sensory might experience. open the Stressing mind

23 E. Panofsky, Idea: a concept in art theory, New York 1968 (ed. princ. 1924), pp. 105-11. 1, pp. 1947, Appendix 24 D. Mahon, Studies inSeicento art, London text (with modifica 241-58. Bellori quotes a small part of Agucchi's as did his Bolognese counter tions) in his biography of Domenichino, part Malvasia. 25 I have the translation given in Panofsky's generally followed Idea, cit. (note 23), pp. 154-75, with the exception of what I consider to be a few inaccuracies there. 26 Bellori, op. cit. (note 1), pp. 13,14: "Quel sommo ed eterno intel letto... costitui le prime forme chiamate idee.... Ma li celesti corpi... restarono sempre belli.... Al contrario avviene de'corpi sublunari e particolarmente l'umana bellezza si con soggetti... alla brutezza... fonde... li nobili pittori e scultori quel primo fabbro imitando, si for mano anch'essi nella mente un esempio di bellezza superiore, ed in esso Questa riguardando, emendano la natura senza colpa di colore e di lineamento. idea, overo dea della pittura... originata dalla natura supera l'o rigine e fassi originale delfarte." The translation cannot render the pun in the Italian text of "Idea" being the "dea della pittura." Bellori, like the good rhetorician he must have been, continues his word play in the

next paragraph. 27 Bellori, op. cit. (note 1), p. 14: "Idea del pittore e dello scultore ? quel perfetto ed eccellente esempio della mente.... Cosi l'idea costitu isce il perfetto della bellezza naturale." 28 This is, of course, the famous topos of Zeuxis who, when he want ed to paint the portrait of the beautiful Helena, had to select separate of Crot?n. See details of perfect beauty from five different maidens Bellori, op. cit. (note 1), p. 15, and Panofsky, op. cit. (note 23), p. 157. 29 The judgment of E. Cropper, "L'Idea di Bellori," in Borea et al., op. cit. (note 2), vol. 1, p. 82, that "one of Bellori's conspicuous contri butions to the debate on esthetics is the fact that he derives the Idea nei ther from nature, nor from God, but from the mind of the artist," seems to be based on the first part of Bellori's analysis only. As such it is of course not incorrect, but inmy view it does not reflect the exact na ture of Bellori's thinking. As for the originality of his theory, see the next paragraph. among others 30 Bellori's rhetorical qualities have been highlighted, D?sseldorf notebook, by E. Cropper, The ideal of painting: Pietro Testa 's Princeton 1984, pp. 169,170.

134

HANS

RABEN

door

to the

artificial

inventions

of

those

who,

as he

said,

those notions with a long history

sions, others as Panofsky to a number Giovanni has demonstrated, of sixteenth-century Battista

in theoretical discus
referring authors, and even among such earli as

do not know truth, and by resorting

technical routine create "specters

entirely
of

to their
It

instead

shapes."

is generally assumed that here he is referring to the fol

lowers of Mannerism. On the other hand, overempha

the painter

Armenini,

sizing the importance of observing nature could lead to

an anti-intellectual who, with approach according ugliness and to art to as practiced the speaker, So by the "Naturalists," themselves "satisfy in the

er the sculptor Vincenzo Danti.34 They develop the same traditional notions, like the intended perfection of nature and the imperfections of matter, the role of the artist's mind
selection of

in improving upon visual reality, and the

the best parts.35

errors."31

process of this balancing act, the lack of clarity of the ar gument was obviously deemed less important as long as
the orator's if correctly main point was made clear, namely that and art, that conceived, is superior to nature,

THE ART OF DESCRIBING ART Bellori's

which hardly contains any names of artists,

discourse,
provides

this kind of art was under constant threat from both too
much and too little respect for nature.32 The fact that he

could or would not define the borderline more precisely allowed him considerable freedom to accept or reject paintings whose qualities might place them on either side, as he did in theNota. This
tic practice does not make our

only scant information on how he viewed the art of Rome. Apart from the indications that we found in his Nota, his judgment of actual works of artmust be found elsewhere, primarily in his Vite published in 1672.36 Only nine painters were admitted in his selection, with
the argument that there are too few excellent artists.

somewhat opportunis
search for the arguments

behind his judgment any easier. Bellori's rhetorical qualities have long been recog nized. Curiously, they have hardly been considered in connection with his theoretical discourse. The theoreti cal principles which he needed for his rhetorical perfor
mance have a strong sense of d?j? vu. His wrestling with

That argument, in combination with the subsequent in sertion of his academy discourse in the Vite, seems to suggest that here at last we might find the result of a se lection on the basis of theoretical criteria. As the publi cation contains almost 200 descriptions
constitutes to check an Bellori's extremely critical valuable source standards.37

of paintings
of information examining

it

When

them for indications of his views it is important to keep

in mind ographies that he began time composing in the 1640s. a series It is only of artist's to be expect bi of some

the dichotomy
and the imitation beauty around supreme had been

between
reflects since

the mind picture of the painter

as the a problem combined for art When sources theory that

of nature

ed that his
process We shall,

ideas will have evolved

first, examine the notions

during
he uses

this long
to indi

the Renaissance.

Previtali

of preparation.

wrote that Bellori "dusted off

was probably very near

the old theory of Idea, he

The Idea was one of

the mark.33

cate the qualities of the paintings he describes and, next,

31 Bellori, op. cit. (note i), pp. 21, 22: "Quelli che si gloriano del nome di naturalisa;" see also Panofsky, op. cit. (note 23), p. 168. Bellori invokes the authority of Aristotle and Pliny for his condemnation of the his interpretation of his sources differs con "Naturalists." However, siderably from what they really say; cf. E. Borea in Bellori, p. 16, note the Dionysius mentioned 3. Neither one (probably not the same) found by Aristotle (Po?tica II, 2) nor the in Pliny (Naturalis historia XXXV, 113, 148), are in any way criticized by their authors for being naturalis historia xxxv, tic. The same applies to Piraeicus; see Pliny, Naturalis 112: "celebre... in penicillo" ("famous for [his] brush"). 32 As Panofsky, op. cit., (note 23), p. 84, has written: "During the

Armenini,

De' veri precetti della pittura, ed. Marina Gorreri, Turin 1586); Vincenzo Danti, IIprimo libro del trat 1988 (ed. princ. Mantua tato delle perfette proporziuni di tutte le cose che imitare, e ritrarre si pos sano con Farte deldisegno, in P. Barocchi (ed.), Trattati d'arte del Cinque cento, 3 vols., Bari 1960-62 (ed. princ. Florence 1567), vol. 1, pp. 215-67. Bellori owned both books; see G. Perini, "La biblioteca di Bel lori," in Borea et al., op. cit. (note 2), vol. 2, p. 675.

the Idea concept had helped to conceal the gap between Renaissance mind and nature." 33 Previtali, op. cit. (note 7), p. xxxvm: "Bellori... rispolver? la teo see also Borea et ria dell'Idea nella sua formulazione rinascimentale"; al., op. cit. (note 2), p. 169. 34 Panofsky, op. cit. (note 23), p. 228, note 31; Giovanni Battista

op. cit. (note 34), p. 156, and Danti, 35 See, for instance, Armenini, op. cit. (note 34), pp. 240, 264, 265. 36 For practical reasons we shall limit ourselves to the biographies of the painters in his selection. is lim 37 In the present context my analysis of Bellori's descriptions ited to the search for his aesthetic response. His descriptive technique, its sources, and the comparison with other authors has been dealt with inG. Perini, "L'arte di descrivere: la t?cnica dell' ecfrasi in extensively e Bellori," / Tatti studies: essays in the Renaissance 3 (1989), Malvasia pp. 175-206. See also Cropper, op. cit. (note 30), p. 170.

Bellori's

art:

the

taste

and

distaste

of a seventeenth-century

art critic

in Rome

135

analyze some of the biographies which contain the most

outspoken In view comments. of the fact that some authors recognize a

strong theoretical
must ask what that

foundation
foundation

in the biographies
is.38 As we have

one
seen,

fell back mainly on those time-honored notions that form part of the doctrine of Ut pictura poesis: invention (invenzione), conceit (concetto), expression (espressione), emotions (affetti), decorum (decoro) and variety (vari et?).43 These notions belong of course to the standard
armory even of Cinquecento their more frequent and use Seicento does not writers on art, but mean necessarily

Bellori's pivotal theoretical concept of Idea can hardly be considered a well-defined philosophical notion. Its vagueness might of course be an advantage in that it lends itself to greatly varying applications. Neverthe less, the analysis of Bellori's texts shows that he uses it rather sparingly.39 And when he refers to it, the original
meaning as the supreme mental image in the artist's

that they constitute Bellori's critical standards. Their use is just as unevenly spread among the painters in the his Vite.44 All this means that his criticisms?including on a wide selection of the 12 protagonists?depended variety of criteria other than those found in his academy
discourse.

mind which he needs to correct the defaults of nature subtly changes into a variable quality. It can be not only
"beautiful" or "noble," but also "routine," "poor" and

even "ugly."40 It may be obtained

"idea of Correggio" or Raphael, or

secondhand
the "idea of

as the
an an

tique marble."41 Also the dividing

mental image and its practical

line between the ideal

conceit (con

A third category of terms, without reference to theo retical notions, suggest a more subjective appreciation like of paintings. It comprises all those expressions and its near-synonyms loveliness beauty (bellezza) (venusta) and charm (vaghezza), which?as opposed to
Idea?appear more than frequently. general praise serve to indicate They rarely for an artist or his oeuvre; still,

counterpart,

cetto), that is to say the translation of an idea into the de sign of a painting, tends to become blurred.42 In this re spect Bellori does not distinguish himself from earlier authors. There is little trace in his writings of a strong theoretical basis such as he expounded
speech.

in his academy

in four types of passage these words refer to a specific quality of paintings: the "beauty" or "charm" of variety, the "beauty" and sometimes also the "elegance" and the "pure style" of the folds in a garment, the "loveliness" of the expression
dress.45

of heads, and the "charm" of exotic seem to confirm the impression that,

Insofar as he felt that he needed theoretical concepts to indicate the quality of the paintings he describes, he

These

findings

38 See especially the contributions of Elizabeth Cropper and Clau dio Strinati in Borea et al., op. cit. (note 2). 39 Only in the later biography of Guido Reni does it appear more frequently (ten times), less often in those of Annibale Carracci (seven) and once in and Carlo Maratti (six), and only twice inDomenichino's Poussin's biography. Even his boundless admiration for Raphael does not seem to depend primarily on Idea. The word occurs only three times in the 63 pages of his description of the Vatican Stanze, De scrizzione delle imagini dipinte da Rafaelle d'Urbino nelle camere del Palazzo Apost?lico Vaticano, Rome 1695. See Barocchi et al, op. cit. (note 4). 40 Dionysius Calvaert, Reni's first teacher, was a painter "with a routine idea" ("idea pratica"), see Bellori, op. cit. (note 1), p. 488. Raphael's detractors accuse him of having "the poor idea of a potter" ("umile idea d'un vasaio," p. 633); Reni recognizes the existence of an "idea of ugliness" ("idea della brutezza," p. 530). ancora l'idea del Correggio," 41 Ibid., p. 385: "...seguitando p. 496: "...ne' quali dipinti Guido seguit? l'istessa idea di Rafaelle nel quadro di Bologna," and p. 68: "In questa imagine raramente condotta Anni bale seguit? l'idea 42 The notion read in Poussin's (concetto) of such to confusion either, as we biography that the painter "prevailed in the conceit a noble and novel design (invenzione)," ibid., p. 463. d'un marmo antico." of concetto is not immune

This

two paintings ordered by Cardinal Giulio passage concerns Time and truth and Et inArcadia ego. Rospigliosi, 43 As against some 30 references to Idea, one-third of which are found in the Vita of Guido Reni, the other notions occur about 200 times (with thanks to Barocchi et al., op. cit. (note 4).

than half of the total number of references to invention is 44 More and Carlo found in the three Vite of Annibale Carracci, Domenichino Maratti. The proportion for the emotions and expression ismore than two-thirds Poussin. 45 Cf. the following examples, Bellori, op. cit. (note 1), p. 58: "...ve dendosi il tutto con istupenda variet? disposto talmente che nella simil e sempre si cangiono alia bellezza" itudine le cose sono dissimili, ("...when one sees the whole arranged with stupendous variety [i.e. of in such a way that the ornaments in the frieze of the Galleria Farnese], in their similarity they are dissimilar and transform themselves into la vaghezza nella variet? del atto" ("...the beauty"), p. 62: "S'accresce charm of the variety of attitude"), pp. 267 and 556: "...venusta dell' aria d?lie teste" ("...the loveliness of the expression of heads"), and p. 274: con la vaghezza de gli abiti peregrine la bellezza de' ri "...accrescendo the beauty of the portraits by the charm of exotic tratti" ("...increasing dress"). in the same Vite, with the addition of that of Nicolas

136

HANS RABEN

for Bellori, his art theory carried little weight as a critical instrument. We will test this conclusion with a careful reading of two of the best thought-out biographies, those of Annibale Carracci and Caravaggio.
annibale racci's and biography, the the FARNESE sonorous puzzle opening Annibale movement Car of

Bellori's composition, provides us with interesting but also contradictory indications of his approach to artists and their works. We are immediately confronted with one of his fundamental themes, the role of Annibale as the savior of the art of painting, which since Raphael had sunk into a deplorable state of decline.46 Caravaggio and the Cavali?re d'Arpino are introduced as dangerous elements whose pernicious
to overcome, other names but nowhere of painters,

influence Bellori's hero had

does our critic mention any who or otherwise,

Mannerist

were guilty of causing the decline of painting.47

In Bellori's view, Annibale's oeuvre has no weak

spots, but, being presented as the personification

man supremacy in the arts, the artist had

of Ro
to

to come

Rome to produce his best works with the examples of Raphael and antiquity before his eyes. The climax of his activity is to be found in the frescoes of the Palazzo Far nese, to which the bulk of Bellori's description is devot
ed. As he wrote of in his Nota, the world." these But frescoes when we were read "one his of de 9 Annibale Carracci, Jupiter (Ambassade de France) andJuno, c. 1600. Rome, Palazzo Farnese the wonders

scription we are expected to believe that this miracle consists purely in a moralistic Neo-Platonist allegory rather than in its pictorial qualities.48 Even where colors
are referred to, their signification ismostly allegorical.49

painting was 46 The idea of the degeneration of sixteenth-century of course far from new. It is already to be found, with fewer rhetorical flourishes in, among others, Armenini, op. cit. (note 34), pp. 21-22, and Agucchi, Mahon, op. cit. (note 24), p. 247. in Borea et al., op. cit. (note 2), 47 L. Spezzaferro, "Caravaggio," vol. 2, pp. 271-82, esp. p. 272, has labeled as a rhetorical artifice Bel lori's use of Caravaggio and the Cavali?re d'Arpi?o in the role of oppo sites of the saving genius. As for the absence of names of painters of the Mannerist period, it is also remarkable that no critical observations are found in Bellori's spontaneous and often critical marginal notes in his copy of Baglione's book of biographies, Baglione, op. cit. (note 13). In "Gli onori della pittura, e scoltura," his speech at the prize-giving cere mony di San Luca in 1678 he called that other post Raphaelite, Pellegrino Tibaldi a "most excellent artist;" see Barocchi et him together with all al., op. cit. (note 4), p. ni. There he mentions and like Raphael, Titian, Michelangelo other illustrious examples Rubens. Even 48 See, for instance, Bellori, op. cit. (note 1), pp. 60-61,76-77. in the Accademia

then, Bellori's moralistic interpretation is in some respects probably in "Et nos correct. On the interpretation of the frescoes see C. Dempsey, cedamus amori," The Art Bulletin 50 (1968), pp. 363-74. See also the et la Galerie comments "La Galeria di Marino of M. Fumaroli, Farn?se," in idem, L'Ecole du silence: le sentiment des images au XVIle si?cle, Paris 1998, pp. 49-69, esp. p. 68, who in the context of a detailed sees in the paintings a ten environment analysis of the socio-cultural dency to devalue pagan mythology without accepting, however, an al legorical system that could be deciphered in amoral and mystical sense. 49 In the description of Hercules at the crossroads in the Camerino Farnese, the red mantle of virtue and the blue tunic are "signs of divine valor" ("...sono contrasegni di valor divino"), and the yellow robe of "reminds us that its delights the woman representing voluptuousness dry up like grass and dwindle like straw" ("...ci ammonisce ch'I suoi diletti si seccano in herba, e che svaniscono come la paglia"); see Bel is the so lori, op. cit. (note 1), pp. 48-49. One of the rare exceptions called Galatea fresco by Agostino Carracci, which he calls "delicately colored" ("...colorita delicamente"), p. 67.

Bellori's

art:

the

taste

and

distaste

of a seventeenth-century

art critic

in Rome

137

As several authors have noted, Bellori almost complete ly disregards themost obvious qualities of the paintings, their full-blooded naturalism and sensual accents, their subtle humor and slightly disrespectful look at mytho that Bellori was al logical figures (fig. 9). Recognizing ways
paintings

tions (affetti) of the figures depicted, as he does else where, for instance in the case of Annibale's impressive late Piet?. There he praises the painter because he "de a little angel who picted with great expressiveness one of the thorns of the crown with his finger touches
and suffers pain from the prick."54

preoccupied
and that

with
allegorical

the literary interpretation

elements formed an essen

of

tial part of almost any pictorial representation in his day, we must still wonder what his reasons may have been for this formalistic approach to one of the high points of modern Roman painting.50 What looks like a justifica tion, in the introduction to the paintings of the Galleria, that their beauty "requires an attentive and intelligent spectator whose judgment does not depend on what he sees but on his intellect" is not much more than a stock phrase of a Seicento intellectual; it should not necessari ly exclude a real appreciation of the intrinsic qualities of
the paintings.51

Bellori the critic does not easily give himself away. If we look for amotive for his extremely reductive inter pretation of this "wonder of the world" we might sup pose that he simply thought that Cardinal Odoardo, by exposing such lusty scenes in amanifestly public space like the Galleria, did not sufficiently observe the rules of
decorum.55 But perhaps the explanation ismore compli

cated, even political. By the time he completed his life of Annibale he was already involved in his campaign for
the recognition of Rome's supremacy in the arts, espe

cially vis-?-vis his French friends. He needed the fres coes of the Galleria Farnese as the convincing proof of
the unique virtues and of the Carracci as saviors as the successors painting. to Raphael, indeed of modern

Only here and there do we find a sign in the text that he really admired the paintings in the Palazzo Farnese for more than their allegorical quality. When he winds up his discussion of the Galleria Farnese he revels, al beit only in general terms, in the expression of the senti ments in numerous figures, the draping and the lifelike nudes with which Annibale (supreme praise!) equaled the beauties of Greek art. There are even (very modest) indications of a more personal reaction to the pictorial values of the paintings. The figure of Bacchus in the central ceiling fresco of the Galleria is called "delicate and soft" and it has a "very beautiful nude body."52 A really "painterly" quality is ascribed to the mock stucco figures, which "show a relief transfused with air and a
very soft light."53 He "sentimental" detail, however, refuses, as an even expression to notice of the any emo

Taking into account that the French official view was far more prudish than his own, and certainly than the Car racci's, this meant that he could not afford to weaken his proud statements by the risk of possible criticisms as to the propriety of the frescoes. He may also have had re gard to the fact that the palace housed the French em bassy (as it does today). His solution was as deft as itwas intellectually
most rhetorician help us

satisfactory:

to propose a learned and al

The use, questions but skills they about of the hardly his own

irrefutable were to find

interpretation. to excellent put an answer to our

taste and distaste. At least one thing is certain: he did not claim their superiority on the basis of theoretical
considerations. Our search for his criteria must continue.

texts to Carlo Cesi's series of engravings after 50 His accompanying the same Farnese paintings presented an interpretation that was just as literary. The same is true of the Latin captions that he wrote in 1677 for Pietro Aquila's series of engravings of the gallery, Galeriae Farnesianae icones... a Petro Aquila delineatae e incisae, Rome 1677. Both texts in Barocchi et al., op. cit. (note 4). 51 Bellori, op. cit. (note 1), p. 56: "...la loro forma richiede spetta tore atiento, ed ingegnoso, il cui giudicio non risiede nella vista, ma neU'intelletto." 52 Ibid., p. 61: "...egli ? si delicato, e molle," and "...non toglie alla vista parte alcuna del bellissimo corpo ignudo." con un rilievo trasfuso d'aria, e di lume 53 Ibid., 56: "...s'avanzano dolcissimo." che 54 Ibid., p. 100: "Fecevi con molta espressione, un Angioletto

tocca col dito una spina della corona, e duolsi della puntura." to R. Zapperi, "L'ignudo e il vestito," inBriganti et al. 55 According 1987, pp. 43-68, Cardinal Odoardo (eds.), Gli amori degli dei, Rome the oppressive defied supposedly policy of the bigoted vm by sponsoring the paintings of the Galleria. The word decoro, which has awide range of connotations, does not appear once in the artist's lack Annibale's biography, not even when Bellori mentions of care for his outward appearance or, in the case of Agostino Carracci, Farnese Clement Clement his series of erotic prints (for which the artist was severely rebuked by vm). Those prints, known as the Lascivie, are euphemistically listed in the Vite under Agostino's "prints of his own invention"

as "a booklet with playful scenes of nude ("stampe d'inventione") 16 in number" ("Un libretto di scherzo di Donne women, ignude nu mero 16"); see Bellori, op. cit. (note 1), p. 129.

13?

HANS

RABEN

io Annibale

(Photo RMN/?

Carracci (with Innocenzo Tacconi), Ren?-Gabriel Oj?da)

Sleeping Venus with cupids, 1600/01. Chantilly, Mus?e

Cond?

a test

case

Bellori

may

have

considered

his

exceed

fies his sudden abandonment

handed the declarations. of this It leads work an us he character to go

of his preceding
to expect allows his

heavy
of re It con

ingly dry interpretation of Annibale's masterwork the only approach open to him, given its location and his own objectives. That he was able to judge Annibale in a quite different manner is shown by his extensive de scription of a painting to which he devotes a separate chapter?Annibale's Sleeping Venus, also painted for Odoardo Farnese (fig. 10).56 He gives the key to this dif
ference, calling the work "memorable because of the

that because aesthetic

sponse

beyond

iconographie

analysis.

firms that he considered this kind of response out of place when he discussed the paintings in the gallery. His text is especially interesting because it can be compared to the well-known description of the same painting that Monsignor Giovanni Battista Agucchi had written 60
years earlier.58 Bellori's text is much shorter and al

(scherzo) of its subject."57 Bellori's lightheartedness taste for scherzi will be discussed later. Here that little
phrase deserves our particular attention because it justi

though, unlike Agucchi, he ismore reticent about the physical details of Venus's beauties, he does venture

56 Bellori, op. cit. (note i), pp. 101-03. It is generally recognized that Annibale's is at least responsible for disciple Innocenzo Tacconi large parts of the painting in theMus?e Cond?, assuming that it is not a copy after the lost original; see S. Ginzburg Carignani, Annibale Car racci a Roma: gli affreschi di Palazzo Farnese, Rome 2000, pp. 156-59. 57 Bellori, op. cit. (note 1), p. 101: "...per ? degna di memoria." lo scherzo dell'inventione

see Carlo Cesare Malvasia, Felsina 58 For Agucchi's description Pittrice, ed. G. Zanotti, Bologna 1678), pp. 1841 (ed. princ. Bologna 360-67. It is not clear whether Bellori knew the text, although he was several well aware of other writings by Agucchi, whom he mentions times in the Vite. For the background of Agucchi's nique see Perini, op. cit. (note 37), p. 184. descriptive tech

Bellori's

art:

the

taste

and

distaste

of a seventeenth-century

art critic

in Rome

139

several remarks on the different charms of her body.59 Always the literary man, he does not of course let him self get carried away by these sensations. He takes shel
ter, ses, as it were, that behind one is more of his worthy constant of rhetorical admiration the than painting

his

public.62

For

the

same

reason,

though,

we

should

give particular weight to the absence of any interpreta tive remarks in many places where he deals with scherzante details. These show that in those cases Bellori must have been primarily amused by the simple literary
aspect of the narrative content of such scenes. Thus his

poetry, and ends his description on a philosophical note, quoting the last line of a sonnet by Petrarch "what de lights the world is a brief dream."60 One wonders whether he also thought of the other lines of the poem in which the poet, who has become a different man, laments his youthful errors. The difference between Bellori's
has often been elements commented are more upon. common

description
Dresden,

of Annibale's

St Roch giving alms (1595;

contains an appreciative re

Gem?ldegalerie)

and Agucchi's
For our purpose, does Bellori

texts
the not

interesting.

follow the learned Agucchi, who seems wholeheartedly to have looked upon the painting as a feast for the sens es, but he does recognize some of the qualities he stu diously ignored in the frescoes of the Galleria Farnese. Obviously he needed to define this painting as a scherzo first in order to justify his freedom to enjoy details other than iconographical ones and the virtual absence of moralizing. It is impossible to establish to what extent it was a dogmatic distinction between different kinds of painting or indeed, as I surmised, political judgment. In any case it lifts a corner of the veil with which he cov ered his personal appreciation of the art of the Carracci in the Galleria.
THE Sleeping LIMITS Venus OF LIGHTHEARTEDNESS a term he He employs Called not the infre

mark on "the charming detail [scherzo] of a father... who keeps an eye on his little son who puts one hand on his leg and with the other shows him a gold coin in his open fist," and also on "a little boy who in his childish way lifts his little shirt and catches the alms with it."63He also takes pleasure in the inclusion of three little boys frescoes of the Four car eating apples inDomenichino's dinal virtues in San Carlo ai Catinari. Likewise he en joyed the several 'low-life' elements in St Cecilia giving alms by the same artist in San Luigi dei Francesi: fight ing boys, amother boxing the ears of her little son, and even the secondhand clothes dealer signaling the price
of the erence saint's to a gifts.64 Here, at least, criterion the only may hint of a ref comment non-pictorial be his

that it was painted "with proper sentiments." Another even more characteristic example is his description in the biography of Domenichino, of various almost hilari ous incidents in the frescoes depicting themiracles of St Nilo: a horse that has lost its balance, two peasants hit amule on the head and pulling its tail, another mule ting
that has collapsed under its load, and an ox-driver beat

a scherzo,

quently in various biographies to denote playful details or even a complete painting with a lighthearted sub
ject.61 The an was literary origin of the scherzo must have ap

ing his animals.65 Bellori calls these figures a "jest" (scherzo) with which the painter animated his scenes. He
seems to have liked them, as did Roman patrons.

If we believe that it needs a story to amuse a literary

man, self it is wise in warm to remember terms on the that he landscapes also and expressed vistas him of Anni

pealed to Bellori, especially because of the possibility

attribute Bellori allegorical not a man significance an to miss opportunity to such conceits. to instruct

to

bale Carracci, Domenichino,

Van Dyck

and Poussin,

to a de 59 Agucchi devotes a quarter of his rapturous description tailed analysis of Venus's beauties in a way that seems even to have shocked amodern commentator like Denis Mahon, who found "some Studies in Seicento passages bordering on the risqu?,'" see D. Mahon, art, London 1947, p. 149. 60 Petrarch, IIcanzoniere, sonnet 1: "...che quanto piace almondo ? breve sogno." 61 Bellori employs the term some 30 times, especially in the biogra phies of Annibale, Barocci and Domenichino. 62 Thus A. Colantuono, "Scherzo: hidden meaning, genre and generic criticism in Bellori's Lives, "in Bell and Willette, op. cit. (note

2), PP. 239-56. 63 Bellori, op. cit. (note 1), p. 41: "...un padre, che... con vago scher zo attende ad un figliuolino, che li pone una mana su la gamba, e lieto con l'altra gli mostra uno scudo d'oro col pugno aperto," "un bambino, che puerilmente alza la camiciuola, e vi raccoglie dentro l'elemosina," con propriet? d'affetti." Bellori knew this paint "scherzo Domenico ing, which was in Reggio Emilia, from the etching by Guido Reni to which he himself refers. 64 Ibid., p. 326. 65 Ibid., pp. 313-15. The inGrottaferrata. Fondatori frescoes are in the Cappella dei Santi

140

HANS

RABEN

several ria.66 We more

of which are

contain forced to

nothing conclude

that

resembles his tastes

an

isto were

natural

color."69

In

this

case,

however,

the moralist

that

catholic

than we may

sometimes

have

expected.

caravaggio
our examination

Caravaggio's
for several

Vita is an essential object of

reasons. His shadow looms

large at the beginning of Annibale's Vita. As we have seen, Bellori needed him there in one of his rhetorical episodes to demonstrate how "painting approached its end" and was saved by Annibale, just as he used the artist in his academy discourse. He had already praised Caravaggio's Supper at Emmaus in his Nota on Roman
collections. When he now deals with Caravaggio's oeu

added one of his critical asides; they are deficient in terms of decorum, "asMich?le often lapses into lowly the list of praise of in and vulgar forms." Nevertheless dividual paintings could easily be doubled. Although outspoken criticism of individual works is not entirely lacking, it concerns only eight paintings out of the more than fifty that Bellori discusses: lack of decorum,
and

including

the representation
"out of season," and

of grapes, figs
the cap of the

pomegranates

innkeeper in the Supper at Emmaus,

two cursory remarks on composition

lack of action, and

and lack of ac

tion.70Otherwise
mostly artist's disregard couched naturalism for

his critical remarks (some 11 in all) are

in general and his statues terms. dependence and Raphael, They concern on models, and above the his all

vre in his biography we find that he expresses not a little

appreciation early out tering paintings those for a considerable number "delicate, used of works. pure His are considered that with he and with adds is even a flat a word

antique

shadows

later."6"7 He There

comparison

Giorgione.

of praise for the still lifes with carafes, flowers and fruit that he is supposed to have painted when he was em ployed in the workshop of the Cavali?re d'Arpino. In
several cases of paintings outside Rome, he mentions

his use of heavy shadows in his later paintings.71 Only at the end of the Vita does Bellori abruptly burst out with one of his familiar philippics: "he had neither inspira
tion, nor decorum, or design or knowledge whatsoever

of the principles of painting" and he started the repre sentation of lowly subjects.72 It needed Annibale Car
racci, he writes, to illuminate people's minds. Then, at

their favorable reception. He appreciates the Penitent (1594/95; Rome, Galleria Doria Pamphilj) Magdalen
for its "pure, of "simplicity uncomplicated the whole and figure," true color" she and the although is also

the very end there is again this dispassionate

ever are highly that Caravaggio's pictures there is regard for painting. appreciated

statement
wher

used to illustrate Caravaggio's

models from the street.68 The

habit of picking up his

angel in the Rest on the

This
a problem and his

apparent contradiction
in sorting criticism of out the his artist.

suggests that Bellori had

for his Caravaggio's appreciation Vita was in

reasons

flight to Egypt (1595/96; Rome, Galleria Doria Pam the Entombment of philj) is called "very beautiful,"
Christ not two an (1602-04, early Vatican, Pinacoteca Vaticana), works," (c. though and the painting, is "among his best

versions

of the Supper

at Emmaus

1601; London,

National

Gallery, and 1606; Milan, Brera), although different in coloring, merit praise for their "rendering of

all probability first drafted at a very early stage.73 It is ev ident that Bellori admired the painter's works in those years. The famous poem Alia pittura that he contributed to Giovanni Baglione's Le vite del pittori of 1642 (and that he later repudiated in the marginal notes in his copy of Baglione's book) contains more lines of profuse praise

66 In some 15 passages Bellori calls landscapes by various painters "very beautiful." For his landscapes Annibale Carracci is called "un ("...h? superato ogn'altro, eccettuando surpassed, except by Titian" and Poussin deserves "great praise for the excellence of his Titiano"), de'paesi"); see landscapes" ("Si deve gran lode ?Nicol? nelPeccellenza ibid., pp. 98 and 471 respectively. 67 Ibid., p. 213: "...dolci, schiette, e senza quelle ombre, che egli uso dalla pen lode nelle

e vulgari." 70 Ibid., p. 231: "...vi assiste l'Hoste con la cuffia in capo, e nella mensa vi ? un piatto d'uve, fichi, melagrane, fuori di Stagione." use of light and color 71 Even then, his remarks on Caravaggio's to different interpretations, cf. Spezzaferro, lend themselves op. cit. forme humili, (note 47), pp. 271-74. 72 Bellori, op. cit. (note 1), p. 230: "...non erano in lui, ne inven tione, ne decoro, ne disegno, ne scienza alcuna della pittura." 73 See Borea's report of the recent discovery of a letter of 1645 in E. Borea, "Bellori 1645: una lettera a Francesco Albani e la biograf?a di Caravaggio," Prospettiva: Rivista di Storia delVArte Antica eModerna 100 (2000), pp. 57-69.

poi." 68 Ibid., p. 215: "...una tinta pura, facile, e vera, accompagnata semplicit? di tutta la figura." 69 Ibid., pp. 221: "...ben tra lemegliori opere, che uscissero dal nello di Mich?le," 223: "...alia 215: "...e PAngelo ? bellissimo," del colore naturale... degenerando delPimitatione spesso Mich?le

Bellori's

art:

the

taste

and

distaste

of a seventeenth-century

art critic

in Rome

141

for this painter than are devoted to the Carracci.74 He deals with the pictorial qualities of Caravaggio's works to a far greater extent than he does in the biography of Annibale Carracci. Problems of light and color feature repeatedly in remarks that do not necessarily reflect a negative attitude; they might well reflect at least a hesi
tant interest in the artist's experimental technique.75

In

its present

form,

important

parts

of Caravaggio's

Vita still show us a Bellori who had not yet lost all of his
spontaneous though his for appreciation own conservatism that had complicated over grown artist, al the years,

and political and opportunistic considerations were to influence his stand.78 Just as he may have starting thought it expedient to propose a stilted interpretation of the Farnese frescoes, he would have felt that his orig inal appreciation for works by Caravaggio had to be wrapped up in ideological reservations. Insofar as theo rywas involved, itwas limited to the requirement of his tory painting and decorum. That is a far cry from the se vere judgments in his academy discourse. color
gave rise

Most of Bellori's initial appreciation survived in the 1672 version of the biography, but since the days when Bellori wrote his ode to painting, both he and the condi tions under which he operated had changed.76 It is im portant to bear inmind that as the years went by his crit ical views were dominated more and more by his the supremacy of Italian, that objective of maintaining Roman art. To reconcile this with his increasing is, propensity to ally himself with the French he must have recognized that it was imperative to adapt his original text.Maybe he did not find this too difficult, because his
own views about the painter may well have become less

and
to

light
questions

Just as Annibale
about the role

Carracci's
and

Vita
other

o? scherzo

favorable over the years, although he maintained

words of praise for specific paintings. In any case,

his

narrative elements in Bellori's appreciation of painting, his interest in Caravaggio's use of light and color leads to an examination of the importance of these qualities for his aesthetic views. In this biography he betrays an dominant awareness of pictorial qualities that goes beyond his pre literary interest. In other biographies howev hundreds of passages in which he er, notwithstanding refers to light and color, they only very rarely serve to il
lustrate ticular a painting's pictorial characteristics.79 qualities The or an artist's few par stylistic exceptions,

Cara

vaggio was amuch less likely champion to reinforce the cause of Rome in view of the predominant Classicism in the French Academy and of the fact that Caravaggio's art had consistently been deprecated in France over sev
eral decades.77 Annibale, whose reputation he consis

tently molded provided

artistic maximum man

into that of Raphael's modern equivalent, by far the best chances to demonstrate the
of Rome. to the in the entrance Caravaggio of Annibale served on to give the Ro effect

however, Poussin's Triumph ofDavid and The Eucharist, Andrea Sacchi's Vision of St Romuald, and Federico
Barocci's demonstrated rative values.80 Last Supper, sensibility Whatever a real, betray to other than theoretical if only graphic notions sparingly and nar he may

supremacy

art scene

1590s.

74 For Alla pittura see Barocchi et al., op. cit. (note 4). Even if the occasional nature of this poem would not justify a too literal interpreta tion of its intentions, I see no other reason than genuine admiration as to why Bellori should extol the virtues of Caravaggio more than those of Carracci, certainly not as a kindness to Baglione, who was far from being a friend of the painter. op. cit. 75 For a more far-reaching interpretation see Spezzaferro, (note 47), p. 272. 76 Previtali, op. cit. (note 7), p. xxn, sought the cause of his change of mind in his contact with Poussin, who is reported to have disliked see also Borea et al, op. cit. (note 2), p. art profoundly; Caravaggio's 165. Spezzaferro, op. cit. (note 47), p. 272, on the other hand, considers that Bellori's appraisal of the artist is a curious mixture of admiration, half-hidden theoretical considerations, "petit-bourgeois" prejudice and political objectives. "Forms and formulas: attitudes towards Cara 77 See C. Goldstein, France," Art Quarterly 34 (1971), pp. vaggio in seventeenth-century 345-54

78 Borea, op. cit. (note 73), p. 65, does not mince her words in stat inhibited by ing that when he adapted his text Bellori was "emotionally amixture of moral, theoretical, political and opportunistic prejudices" frenato per forza di pregiudizi morali, teorici, (" ...emotivamente politici, opportunistici"). 79 It is obvious that I cannot share Cropper's view, who feels that Bellori paid asmuch attention to the analysis of color and light as to the action portrayed; see E. Cropper, "La pi? bella antichit?: history and style in Bellori's Lives", in P. Ganz et al. (eds.), Kunst und Kunsttheorie 1400-1900, Wiesbaden 1991, pp. 145-73, esP- P- IQ8.The references to color are very unevenly spread among the biographies; approximately two-thirds of them are to be found in the Vite of Annibale Carracci, It also seems significant that three Domenichino and Carlo Maratti. quarters of the passages where a specific color ismentioned cern coloring as part of the stylistic qualities of the painting but are about the draperies of the figures. 80 Bellori, op. cit. (note 1), pp. 468,432, do not con in question,

549 and 197 respectively.

142

HANS

RABEN

have adhered to, they do not enter into this particular

aspect of his art criticism.

French

an

uneasy

crusader

Bellori's

major

antiquarian

disregard for Italian art.83 His last texts on painting seem to indicate that he was up in arms to de fend his ideal. One was his pamphlet devoted toMarat ti's Daphne transformed into a laurel tree, the other his description of the Raphael Stanze.84 Carlo Maratti's painting had an unhappy fate that re veals the change in French appreciation. Bellori dis cusses the picture in his late biography of the artist. In
1681 it was commissioned on behalf of Louis xiv, an un

works appeared in the last 20 years of his life.Writings on painting were limited to several texts devoted to Raphael. That burst of writing on Raphael in the 1690s
has a frantic quality. He appears to have been exasperat

ed by the way a younger generation failed to respect that artist, whom he not only regarded as the icon of Roman
art but man who was also in a cornerstone the arts. Moreover, of his his thesis of Ro of supremacy strategy

usual event which Bellori describes as "one of the most prized commissions in the service of theMost Christian
Majesty."85 wards. To He begin does not mention there was what a happened problem after about its with,

a close partnership with France based on maintaining that Rome remained the original the understanding source of high art did not seem to bear the fruit he must have expected. France and its "machine ? gloire" of Louis xiv operated by Colbert and his successors were
not ready to recognize of France with Roman Rome, relations in art.81 The leadership in politics, in art as well

high price but, worse, French authorities.86

Dauphin's pot palace and of the Louvre.87 Notwithstanding

the painting did not please the It was first relegated to the
then ended up in the storage de

Bellori's

silence

on

these

events?

or perhaps precisely because of that?it

speculate that the 16-page, separate analysis

is tempting
that Bellori

to

were riddled with more or less period.82 He may at one time good old days of Fran?ois 1had suggest in an unexpected aside cannot have been

serious incidents in this have imagined that the returned, as he seems to

devoted

in Poussin's Vita, but he insensitive to increasing signs of

to the Daphne painting, which is addressed to a "foreign cavali?re," might have been written in defense of the painting.88 Apart from the analytical quality of the description, it seems above all to be an apologia because

isMarc Fumaroli's, 8i The expression quoted by T. Montanari, "Bellori e la politica artistica di Luigi xiv," in O. Bonfait (ed.), L'Id?al classique: les ?changes artistiques entre Rome et Paris au temps de Bellori Paris 2002, pp. 117-38, esp. p. 117. On p. 124Montanari (1640-1700), also quotes F?libien, not a stranger in Rome, as having written that painting "n'est pas un art que les Italiens ayent invent?." 82 In 1669, Bellori's good friend Errard, then director of the French collection of academy in Rome, had tried to buy the unique Ludovisi classical statues. The later Cardinal Camillo Massimi made every effort to prevent the deal; see Montanari, was only appointed Commissioner op. cit., (note 81), p. 122. Bellori in 1670, but of Roman Antiquities he must undoubtedly have been involved in the Ludovisi affair because of his association with Camillo Massimi. Later, in 1685, Errard's suc to lay his hands on nine paintings by cessor, La Teuli?re, managed In 1686 there was another clash between the pope and France "La politica cult? regarding the export of statues; see T. Montanari, rale di Giovan Pietro Bellori," in Borea et al, op. cit. (note 2), pp. 46

de Rapha?l, de Michel les mani?res s'y est donn? d'abandonner... Ange, du Carrache"), quoted in O. Bonfait, "F?libien lecteur de Bel lori," in idem, op. cit. (note 81), pp. 86-104, esp. p. 87. In the light of Bellori's public declarations, he may well have agreed with that judg ment, while deeply deploring it. 84 Barocchi et al., op. cit. (note 4), ibid, for Dafne trasformato in lau ro, pittura delsignor Cario Maratti. 85 Bellori, op. cit. (note 1), p. 609: "...uno de' maggiori pregii del suo pennello ma." the price, 1,250 scudi, and politely 86 Ibid., p. 609, Bellori mentions qualifies it as a sign of "the generosity of this great king" which "in di si gran re ac creased the excellence of the work" ("...la magnificenza crebe il pregio all'opera col premio di mille dugento cinquanta scudi"). 87 Cf. A. Schnapper, "La cour de France au XVIIe si?cle et la pein in J.-C. Boyer (ed.), Seicento: la pein contemporaine," ture italienne auXVIIe si?cle et la France, Paris 1990, pp. 422-37, esp. p. 431. Matters certainly did not improve when Antoine Coypel, director in the crucial years 1672-76, was of the French academy in Rome in 1688. Ten for the palace in Versailles awarded the same commission years laterMaratti was reported to be still seriously annoyed. His ruf ture italienne fled feathers would not have been smoothed when, in 1697, his Madon na and Child, presented to Louis xiv by Cardinal Janson, suffered the same fate. 88 See Barocchi et al., op. cit. (note 4). fu l'essere impiegato in servigio della Maest? Cristianissi

Poussin.

47 83 Bellori, op. cit. (note 1), p. 447, wrote: "King Fran?ois the First to whose memory our arts and all scientific disciplines and noble facul ties, which were restored by this generous prince, will always be oblig ed" ("...re Francesco primo, alla cui memoria saranno sempre tenute le then the di nostre arti e tutte le scienze e facolt? nobili"). La Teuli?re, rector of the French academy in Rome, wrote in 1692 that "they [the the the liberty of abandoning have permitted themselves Romans] and Carracci" ("...la libert? que l'on styles of Raphael, Michelangelo

Bellori's

art:

the

taste

and

distaste

of a seventeenth-century

art critic

in Rome

143

of the emphasis he puts on the ingeniousness ofMarat ti's "anachronism," defending the manner in which the artist had maintained the sacrosanct unity of action, even though he included several consecutive actions in the painting. He may have been thinking of French crit icisms of offenses against that principle. His text was obviously
doxy.89

developments
dangerous,

in modern
than

art that the speaker

judged

rather

as a contribution

to art-theoreti

cal thinking. Thus he needed Caravaggio momentarily to illustrate one of his theses, but he could praise em phatically several of his paintings in a different context. His more generous qualifications of the works of this and other artists in his Nota on Roman collections is also a sign that in practice his approach to art was probably less dogmatic. I feel that the decisive point for the interpretation of
his views on art is the inherent and growing contradic

intended

to demonstrate

Maratti's

ortho

His 63-page description of the Raphael's frescoes in the Vatican Stanze is an impressive text in its own right,
containing even certain innovations in comparison with

the descriptions in the Vite. In some respects it is also a response to some of F?libien's criticisms of the fresco.90 The latter were directed at such details as the depiction of the apostles Peter and Paul, who only appeared inAt
tila's dream, and the contemporary dress of the cardi

tion between his genuine appreciation of different kinds of painting on the one hand and his increasingly urgent
sense of mission to prove that Rome remained the capi

nals. His
nameless liver...

lengthy justification of these "anachronisms" ismarked by one of his familiar diatribes, counting his
opponent a bad judgment Bellori's among on those things who that could "are ready to de their in as a are above be

tal of art on the other. The first factor enabled him to ap in preciate and even to enjoy a variety of manifestations painting. Of course he looked at art with the eyes of a
seventeenth-century letter ato, that is to say with a strong

tendency to use literary parallels and Aristotelian cate gories, but that did not prevent him from enjoying land
scapes and expressing praise for narrative elements and

telligence."91

reaction

interpreted

sign of his increasing hypersensitivity

the eternal cy values of Roman art and in the arts.

to the neglect of
suprema

of Roman

some types of genre. Occasionally he showed his sensi bility to purely pictorial values of color and light, and
even some Mannerists escaped his anathema.

The conclusion The analysis of Bellori's academy dis course in combination with his judgments of specific
works doubt of art has whether shown his that there are strong reasons of Classicist to reputation as a theorist clear. him His

limitations
deep-rooted excessive

of this open-mindedness
antiquarian attention to outlook non-pictorial often

are also
caused aspects

to pay

of a painting as soon as he took up his pen. This may

have his acquired need for a particular secure values, as over the years significance of an such as the remnants he became more in the and arts. an art

art is correct. My
conclusion vague provide that to serve criteria

reading of that discourse

the central notion critical This of Idea

leads to the
was far and was con too to

as an effective for selection.

instrument conclusion

increased when tiquity possessed, more worried the supremacy about As a consequence eye he was at new even less

of Rome able

to look with in Roman

firmed by the analysis of Bellori's own practice in his painters' biographies. I find that the concept of Idea played only a subordinate role, and that itwas subject to
variable interpretations. The academy discourse, I sug

un jaundiced

developments

gest, should be regarded as a rhetorical outburst against

such as the popular paintings depicting low-life scenes, which did not sufficiently pay their due to the sublime values of antiquity, and which lacked respect for that venerable requirement of a history theme. The differ

89 It is interesting to see that Bellori here uses the arguments with which Lebrun rejected criticism of Poussin's Gathering of the manna in the Acad?mie royale; see A. M?rot (ed.), Les Conf?rences de l'Acad?mie See si?cle, Paris 1996, p.m. royale de peinture et de sculpture au XVIIe also F.H. Dowley, "Thoughts on Poussin, time and narrative: The Is raelites gathering manna in the desert," Simiolus 25 (1997), pp. 329-48.

He had already conducted an extensive defense of Annibale's anachro nisms in various frescoes of the Camerino Farnese; see Bellori, op. cit. (note i), p. 55. 90 Bonfait, op. cit. (note 81), pp. 98-99. 91 Bellori, op. cit. (note 39), p. 36: "...alcuni sono pronti giudizio, emal giudicare le cose superiori alia loro intelligenza."

a dar

144

HANS

RABEN

ence

with

the works

of numerous

French

painters

who

flocked
taste.92

to Rome

can only have accentuated

his dis

the evolution of French policy. I set out to find names and reasons behind Bellori's strong but generalized statements. What I found was a
man than capable his of enjoying the art of rather more As artists to his re pronouncements would suggest.

It is important to recognize that his views must grad ually have changed during his long life under the influ ence of his increasingly political objectives. His admira tion for French policy in fostering the arts may have been founded on the belief that it was an example of laudable emulazione based on the recognition of Rome's
superior qualities in the arts. To him, France must have

jection of some kinds of painting, with very few excep tions Bellori did not expose himself by identifying the objects of his distaste. We can only infer his judgments
from his silence on many art. I also names found in sixteenth that Bellori's and seven teenth-century apprecia

the best ally in his crusade for Rome.93 This commitment to French ideas confronted him with a se rious problem when French policy in the arts appeared seemed to deny the primacy of Roman art. This seems to have intensified his crusade, directed in the end at France as
much His as at his increasing compatriots. preference for a very restricted group

tion of art was only to a limited extent based on explicit theoretical criteria. When he felt that he needed them he seems inmany cases to have been satisfied with referring to those well-tried traditional notions like the require ment of history painting
variety and

and action, the expression

(rarely) decorum.

of

sentiments,

of painters may have been shared by his French friends, but it had its price. His later disregard for contemporary
art must the Roman ceived with have isolated him where In to a considerable new developments this may extent were have from re rein art scene, open

The Bellori who emerges from this study is a man torn between conflicting ideas. He loved art but he loved
Rome more, and his single-minded sense of mission ul

timately led to a failure to understand world of the final years of the Seicento.

the changing

arms.

its turn

forced his inclination to regard France as amainstay of orthodoxy, increasing at the same time his perplexity at

THE HAGUE

92 Cf. J.-C. Boyer, "Bellori e i suoi amici francesi," in Borea et al., op. cit. (note 2), pp. 50-54, esp. pp. 52-53. It should also be noted that many French artists inRome, unlike most of their northern colleagues, were regular members of the Accademia di San Luca; seeM. Lanfran coni, "Da Vouet ? Poussin: la communit? francese nelP Accademia di San Luca," in Bonfait, op. cit. (note 81), pp. 211-22. This fact was un doubtedly of great importance to Bellori.

inter 93 After this article was completed I came across Montanari's esting introduction to a recent English translation of Bellori's Vite: T. in Giovan Pietro Bellori, The lives of the "Introduction," Montanari, modern painters, sculptors and architects, ed. H. Wohl, New York 2005. He comes to a similar conclusion the importance of the concerning French connection.

Bellori's

art:

the

taste

and

distaste

of a seventeenth-century

art critic

in Rome

145

Appendix The number of times painters arementioned Mentions Seicento 25 artists 19 Annibale Carracci Guido Reni Titian Raphael
Caravaggio

in theNota Quattrocento, 28 artists Cinquecento

15 13 10

Giulio Romano

Francesco Albani
Guercino

Domenichino Giovanni Lanfranco Cavali?re d'Arpino Poussin Polidoro da Caravaggio

Veronese

Nicolas

Andrea Sacchi Pietro da Cortona

("il vecchio") Correggio Albrecht D?rer Leonardo da Vinci Parmigianino Taddeo Zuccari Giovanni
Bronzino

Bassano

Antonio

Carracci

Claude Lorrain Sisto Badalocchio Agostino Carracci Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione Giovan Domenico Cerrini Anthony Van Dyck Orazio Gentileschi Francesco Giovan Grimaldi Carlo Maratti Pier Francesco Mola
Salvatore Rosa

Bellini

Bruegel Giorgione Holbein Lorenzo Lotto Michelangelo

Andrea Mantegna

Perino del Vaga

Baldassare Peruzzi

146

Mentions
25 artists

Seicento
28

Quattrocento,
artists

Cinquecento

Lo Spagnoletto Giovanni Battista Viola

Sebastiano Pirro

del Piombo Ligorio

Pordenone Francesco Salviati

Andrea del Sarto

Tintoretto

Federico Zuccari

In ten cases Bellori singles out specific works by an artist for individual praise. Francesco Albani, Thefour elements
Annibale Carracci, Resurrection and Landscape with women crossing a stream

Titian, Bacchanal
Caravaggio, Supper

and Portrait of a man in black

at Emmaus

Truth revealed by Time and Rachel Domenichino, Holbein, Portrait of Thomas More Nicolas Poussin, The Seven Sacraments Raphael, Loggia ofPsyche Polidoro, scherzi Guido Reni, St Jerome and Birth of the Virgin