LAURI, Filippo - b. 1623 Roma, d. 1694 Roma - WGA

LAURI, Filippo

(b. 1623 Roma, d. 1694 Roma)

Italian painter and draughtsman. He studied first with his father, Balthasar Lauwers (1578-1645), a Flemish landscape painter whose name was Italianized as Lauri, and then with his elder brother, Francesco Lauri (1612-37), and with his brother-in-law, Angelo Caroselli. At least until the death of Caroselli (1652) he worked as a copyist. Francesco had been a pupil of Andrea Sacchi, and Filippo, who was thus trained in a classical tradition, developed an elegant style, indebted to 17th-century Bolognese painters, particularly Domenichino and Francesco Albani. In 1654 Lauri became a member of the Accademia di S Luca, Rome, of which he later became Principe (1684-85). He painted some fresco decorations, but specialised mainly in cabinet pictures of religious or mythological subjects.

Bacchanal

Lauri treated the subject of Pan and the Bacchanalia on various occasions. This signed and dated painting depicts a Bacchanal, a group of figures merrily dancing and drinking while others make a devotion of flowers to Pan, the Greek god of nature, shepherds, hunting and music. In the centre, a maenad and a satyr dance and to the right other satyrs drink and putti play music. Most striking among the revellers is the urinating child; Lauri may have been inspired by the presence of a similar putti in Titian’s early masterpiece, the Bacchanal of the Andrians.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 7 minutes):

Camille Saint-Saëns: Samson et Delila, Act III, Scene 2, Bacchanal

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Endymion and Selene

Lauri’s speciality was the ideal landscape with mythological subjects into which he introduced stylistic elements from Francesco Albani, Pier Francesco Mola and Gaspard Dughet. He painted small-scale Arcadian idylls executed with open brushwork in a light colour scheme. The present painting, belonging to a series of six copper panels, is a characteristic example.

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Faun and Cupid in a Landscape

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King Midas Judging the Musical Contest between Apollo and Pan

Apollo challenged Pan to a musical contest. The contest was judged by the mountain god Tmolus and Apollo was declared victor. King Midas who happened to be present, disagreed with the verdict and was rewarded with ass’s ears by Apollo.

There is another, signed version of this subject by the artist, also in a private collection.

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Rape of Oreithyia

In Greek mythology, Oreithyia was the daughter of King Erechtheus of Athens and his wife, Praxithea. Boreas, the north wind, fell in love with her. At first he attempted to woo her, but after failing at that he decided to take her by force. While she was playing by the Ilissos River, she was carried off to Sarpedon’s Rock, near the Erginos River in Thrace. There she was wrapped in a cloud and raped.

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Venus and Adonis

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