BARDELLINO, Pietro
Italian painter. His art derives from that of his teacher in Naples, Francesco de Mura, but he developed a freer and more decorative manner, influenced by Corrado Giaquinto and by the broken flickering touch of Giacomo del Po.
His early period, when he collaborated with de Mura, is represented by the ceiling painting Macro Caring for a Wounded Warrior (1750; Naples, Ospedale degli Incurabili), the Last Supper (1764; Bitonto Cathedral), derived from a prototype of de Mura’s Holy Family (version, 1775; Gravina Cathedral), and the Virgin Appearing to Pius V and Don Giovanni of Austria (1778; Naples, San Giacomo degli Spagnoli). This last work, however, is already lighter and freer than the earlier paintings, and these qualities are further developed in the ceiling painting of the Apotheosis of Ferdinand IV of Naples and Maria Carolina of Austria (1781; Naples, Palazzo Regi Studi, Library). A bozzetto for this work (Cleveland, Museum of Art) was formerly attributed to Giaquinto, not surprisingly, in view of the two artists’ stylistic affinity. The translucent colour and painterly refinement of the bozzetto of Psyche Led to Olympus (1780s; Berlin, Staatliche Museen) explain its former attribution to Giacomo del Po, it may be compared with the art of the international Rococo painters, such as Franz Anton Maulbertsch.
Bardellino was Director of the Accademia Napoletana del Disegno from 1773, and from the 1780s he represented a decorative trend that opposed the new classicist style adopted in Naples by artists such as Heinrich Füger. Even in his late years Bardellino’s art was characterized by a light and evanescent touch, apparent in the portrait of Gaetano Barba (1790; Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca) and in the ceiling painting (1792) for the Biblioteca dei Girolamini in Naples, distinguished by its fluent surface and atmospheric colours.
