GUGLIELMI, Gregorio

(b. 1714 Roma, d. 1773 St. Petersburg)

Italian painter, active also in Germany and Central Europe. He trained either with Francesco Trevisani or with Sebastiano Conca. He was a protégé of Cardinal Alessandro Albani, and his early activity was centred in Rome, where he executed three canvases for St Catherine, Prague (one, St Augustine, in situ; two untraced), and the main altarpiece for S Apollonia, Rome (untraced). His Canonization of St Camillo de Lellis (Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome) dates from 1746. His frescoes included those in the hospital of the Santo Spirito in Sassia (1742; destroyed); History Commands Time to Reveal the Truth (1746; Palazzo Corsini, Rome), commissioned by Cardinal Neri Corsini to decorate the history section of the Biblioteca Corsiniana in the Palazzo Corsini, Rome; the vault fresco, St Giovanni de Matha in Glory (1744-8), in Santa Trinità degli Spagnoli, Rome, and frescoes in the refectory of San Agostino, Rome, 1750-51; in situ). In these first documented works the use of warm, luminous colours and strongly modelled figures within a naturalistic composition demonstrates the artist’s desire to unite the late Baroque of Conca with the developing classicism of Pierre Subleyras and Marco Benefial.

In 1753 he was in Dresden, the following year in Vienna, where he painted the Allegory of the Four Faculties at the University (1755). After returning to Rome and stay in Turin, he worked again in Vienna (1760-1762), painting one of his major works, the frescoed ceiling of the small and the great gallery of Schönbrunn Palace. This illustrates the Austrian Provinces bringing their tribute to the Empire, Military Life and Benefits of Peace. Three sketches, light and colourful, for this set, is in the Louvre.

The artist then returned to Rome, then left for Berlin (1763-64), where he decorated the university. He then worked in Turin (1765-1766), the royal palace, where he painted the Four Parts of the World, and the Palazzo del Duca di Genova (Palazzo Chiablese), then in Bergamo (2 paintings in the Colleoni Chapel). Called again in Germany , he lived in Augsburg (1766-1767), painting the ceiling of the hall of the Schaezler palace (now museum).

He was commissioned by Stanislas Augustus, King of Poland to paint the Four Parts of the World (National Museum, Warsaw) and three sketches for the Apollo Gallery at the Palace Ujazdow, now in the Museum of Nancy. But instead of traveling to Poland, he entered the service of Catherine the Great (1769) and spent, with the exception of a short trip to Paris, the last years of his life in St. Petersburg.

In his best works he demonstrated an exceptional brilliance as a decorator.

Apotheosis of the Reign of Catherine II

This canvas is a study for the ceiling painting in one of the halls of the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo. It was executed in Augsburg and dispatched by the artist to St. Petersburg. The ceiling painting was never executed because Guglielmi died soon after coming to Russia.

In the centre of the composition is Catherine II surrounded by the gods of Olympus, Christian saints, and allegorical figures of the virtues, the liberal arts, and vanquished people. Two eagles - emblems of the Russian Empire - are depicted at the bottom right.

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The Four Parts of the World

During his fifty-year reign (1680-1730) Vittorio Amadeo II transformed Turin, the second royal residence on Italian soil after Naples, into one of the most splendid Baroque cities in Europe. In 1584 he started the enlargement of the palace known as the Palazzo Reale. The additions to the palace were patterned after the models of French court architecture, but for the wall decorations he looked for Italian painters. The decoration continued under the reign of Carlo Emanuele III (1730-1773).

In a small room in the western part of the new apartment, known as the Appartamento d’Estate, the Roman painter Gregorio Guglielmi painted The Four Parts of the World. He executed this ceiling painting as a cheerful and airy capriccio. The four regions, represented by charming female personifications, are backed by a colourful backdrop of clouds, which are largely responsible for the pictorial effect of the composition. Inn the centre a minimal grouping of gods, consisting of Jupiter, Juno, and Mercury, are bestowing their favours on Europa, who is given the attributes of a tiara and the gold imperial orb.

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