| Giovanni Battista Gaulli |
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| 1639 births | |
| 1709 deaths | |
| people from genoa city | |
| italian painters | |
| italian baroque painters | |
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Giovanni Battista Gaulli ( May 8 1639 - April 2 1709 ), also known as '''Baciccio''', '''Il Baciccio''', or '''Baciccia''' (all Genoese nicknames for ''Giovanni Battista'') was a Genoese painter of the High Baroque period of Italian art, verging onto that of the Rococo . His work was influenced by Peter Paul Rubens , Bernardo Strozzi , Pietro Da Cortona , and Anthony Van Dyck , worked closely with, the more famous Gianlorenzo Bernini . BIOGRAPHY Gaulli was born in Genoa , on May 8 , 1639. His entire family in Genoa died from the plague of 1657 . He travelled to Rome , where he was to be active for most of the rest of his life. Here he fell under the tutelage of Gianlorenzo Bernini , the prominent artist in Rome of the second half of the 17th Century , and was extensively involved in the decoration of the '' Gesu '', the mother-church of the Jesuit order. In 1662 , he was accepted into the Roman artists guild, the Accademia Di San Luca (Academy of Saint Luke), where he was to later hold several offices. The next year, he received his first public commission for an altarpiece, in the church of San Rocco, Rome. He received many private commissions for mythological and religious works. In 1669 , Gaulli visited Parma , where he was influenced by the work of Correggio . Gaulli died in Rome, shortly after 26 March 1709, probably April 2 . WORKS Gaulli's earliest influences came from his native Genoa in works by Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, Valerio Castello , Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione , and Bernardo Strozzi, whose warm palette Gaulli adopted. In the 1660s, he experimented with the cooler palette and linear style of Bolognese classicism. From 1669, however, after a visit to Parma where he saw Correggio's frescoed ceiling in the dome of Parma's cathedral, Gaulli's painting took on a more painterly (less linear) aspect. Correggio's composition, organized __di sotto in su`__ (from below looking up), made a deep impression. ''Worship of the Holy Name of Jesus'' in ''Il Gesu'' Gaulli was active in the post-Tridentine, baroque Counter-Reformation , an era when an unapologetic Roman Catholic Church aimed through art to ignite the faith of believers. (The post-Tridentine era? = the years after the Council of Trent which met from 1540 to 1563.) New currents of meditative mystical devotion appeared, ones that made a direct appeal to the senses--as in St. Ignatius of Loyola's __Spiritual Exercises__, published toward the end of the 1540s. Thus the sensory impact of Gaulli's masterpiece, ''Worship of the Holy Name of Jesus,'' in the nave ceiling of Il Gesu. Swirling groups of figures in the dark areas at the borders of the composition frame the opening at the center stepping ever upward toward open sky at the center in a celestial vision of infinite depth where the name of Jesus becomes the source of a blinding light. The expressiveness of Gaulli's work--its great theatrical effect inspired by, and developed under his tutor--prompted one critic to label him "a Bernini in paint." With Bernini's support, Gaulli was awarded the prestigious commission for the decoration of the Church Of The Gesu in Rome over his competitors, Carlo Maratta , Giacento Brandi , and Ciro Ferri . The Jesuit order is described by many as the papal army of the Counter-Reformation. From 1672 to 1685 , Gaulli worked with Bernini in the ''Gesu''. Gaulli's fresco was unveiled on Christmas Eve , 1679 . After this, he continued to work here until 1685, frescoing the nave, dome, pendentives, apse, and transept vaults. All consider the frescoes covering the nave ceiling of the Jesuit church of the Holy Name of Jesus (''Il Gesu'') Gaulli's masterpiece. Also known as the ''Worship'' or ''Adoration'' or ''Triumph of the Holy Name of Jesus'', Gaulli gives the illusion in this composition that the church's ceiling has opened up above the viewer ( Di Sotto In Su , similar to Antonio Da Correggio 's ''Assumption of the Virgin'' in the ceiling of the Parma Cathedral or to Cortona 's grand allegory at the Palazzo Barberini . Gaulli's ceiling in Il Gesu constitutes a tour-de-force of __quadratura__ (architectural illusionism) combining stuccoed and painted figures and architecture. Bernini's pupil Antonio Raggi provided the stucco figures, and from the nave floor viewers find it difficult to distinguish them from the painted ones. The figural composition spills over the frame's edges exuberantly which heightens the illusion of the faithful rising miraculously toward the light above . . . Later work and link to the Rococo A series of such ceilings were painted in the naves of Roman churches during the last three decades of the 17th century, including Andrea Pozzo 's massive allegory at the other Roman Jesuit church, S. Ignazio, as well as Domenico Maria Canuti 's and Enrico Haffner 's ''Apotheosis'' at San Domenico E Sisto . In the 18th century, Tiepolo and others continued __quadratura__ in the grand manner. But as the High Baroque movement evolved into the more playful Rococo , the popularity of this style dwindled. In his later works, Gaulli too moved in this direction. thus, in contrast to the grandeur of his composition at Il Gesu, we see Gaulli gradually adopting less intense colours, and more delicate compositions after 1685--all hallmarks of the Rococo. At his height, Gaulli was one of Rome's most appreciated, esteemed painters. Gaulli is not well known for any other medium but paint, though many drawings in many media have survived. All are studies for paintings. List of works
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